Megan Bowen

To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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🤯 “Ramping up SDRs, AEs and CS people  takes us no less than 6 months.” 💣 🙈 This is what I heard on a recent demo from  a CRO of a rapidly scaling tech business. 📈 Time to efficiency is a struggle Heads of Sales Enablement and Customer Success are going through across their commercially-driven teams… 📖 At the moment, they expect internal  sales and CS decks, call recordings,  business pitches, etc. should do the job. 🙄 But it doesn’t! 🗓️ They're wasting too much time for people to start performing, closing deals, effectively onboarding customers, reducing churn & upselling… ❌ Sometimes, they still don’t perform... And then guess what? Off leaders go through to recruiting mode again starting from ground 0. 🎯 Hence the need for action-based learning.  Not just passively reading through PDFs  and listening to call recordings. 👨‍💻 Below are some use cases we see our customers here at UJJI AI ✨ leveraging our tech for: 🔸 Business-specific lead gen and outbound 🔸 Pitching quick and easy over the phone 🔸 Delivering demos and answering queries 🔸 Effectively onboarding new customers 🔸 Efficiently implementing product features 🔸 Practising great customer support 🔸 Guiding customers to upselling 🚀 Ultimately, growing tech businesses comes down to predictable new business development, high customer retention and low churn. 💬 So, DM me if you want to see examples  of AI-powered. easy to build and consume knowledge equipping experiences. 👇 Anything to add to this, Sales and CS leaders? Gautam Rishi Rohan Dickinson George Heron Russell Mitchell Callum Hartley Jon Teale James Dixon Seán Colfer Caroline L. Guy Rubin Jake Carter David Muscat Arun Raveendran Steve Eveleigh Ayo Kukoyi,

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Ok, I'm getting on the SDR discussion train, but not in the same vein as a lot of the conversation going around over the last few days. 🌶 Hot take: SDRs shouldn't be an entry-level job. 🌶 If you take what many GTM leaders out there are saying about what SDRs should be doing, it's not a skill set for kids fresh out of school in their first professional job. Sorry, y'all. It's just not. The role of an SDR, when executed to match 2024 buying environments, takes professionalism, finesse, drive, sales technology navigate, market awareness, and many other skills that take years to develop and hone. And if you're selling enterprise deals to the C-suite, I promise not a one of them enjoys being cold-called by a 23-year-old who knows little to nothing about their business or the industry. SDRs are a niche form of sellers and should be a secondary track developed in a sales org alongside AEs. They shouldn't be 'beneath' AEs and they also should be compensated in a much more evolved structure than the BS call volume or meetings booked metrics. At a bare minimum, they should be comped on pipeline generation, but the comp side could be a whole separate post. "But Fiiioooonnna, how will our company get entry-level folks?" You know where everyone should start in a SaaS company? Customer support. Learn the product, learn the customers, learn the culture, work hard and fail fast with a safety net more experienced colleagues. Imagine how good an SDR would be if they'd spent 6-12 months supporting customers? Thoughts?

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SDRs can be taught to be AEs SDRs can be taught to be CSMs [shoutout to Eric Partaker for the post inspo] Also... SDRs can be taught to be Managers SDRs can be taught to be Marketeers SDRs can be taught to do almost any role Fact: It's better to hire someone who is 60% ready with the right behaviours. Than 100% ready with the wrong ones. SDRs deserve a chance. Do you agree? PS. Share ♻️ with others in your network. And follow Chris Ritson for more sales content like this.

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People that care about UX and productivity for sales people: SDR Managers (god bless you wonderful folks). I do find that most direct managers in Sales aren't polling their employees--especially AE's to find out what's not working, what they are putting up with and not complaining about. There are tons of tools that sales folks are buying on their own dime like Scratchpad, Superhuman, etc. We all care about "giving developers the right tools to stay in flow".. but your revenue team? Sure, leaders need our forecasting tools and enablement systems (maybe)--but ask your team "what sucks about this CRM layout, how does thing work on your mobile device, what things are getting in your way, how much time do you spend clicking around poorly designed tooling interfaces---and what would move the needle for you". As an AE-centric leader, i'm working to put things in place that sure--make folks more productive--but that they don't hate using. What say you? whats sucks in your world? what tools do you buy on your own to deal with your day? or even how should the world work for a day-to-day SDR/AE/Account Manager, etc

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SDRs don't work for AEs.... In fact, AEs should work for SDRs. If you're in a position to have an SDR helping you crack meetings you need to point them in the right direction with the right messaging and use cases. SDRs aren't your assistants. They're the tip of the spear. Cole Praver 🙌 #sales

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“Your sales team told us you could do X, Y, Z, why are these features not available to us?” WELL… they never were. 😠 Best way to cause a client to churn? Screw up the onboarding process. I’ve seen too many renewals fall off the wayside because people didn’t have their act together on that first, and arguably most important touch point. There’s a litany of ways to botch the experience, but the worst and most common is when your CS team has to manage unreasonable expectations or false promises offered by the sales team. Maybe the AE hyped up a bunch of features that are still under development, or boasted that your product can be deployed company-wide in a matter of days when that was only the case once, and the “company” consisted of five people. Now, the CS team becomes the bearer of bad news. This is how you lose trust and respect with your clients. And it’s significantly harder to resell them on your product’s value when they feel like they’ve been jipped. Get on the same page, get a roadmap, and be clear and honest with the client about how it will all unfold. Don’t set yourself up to fail. It’s hard to recover.

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I first read about this notion in the book #ChiefCustomerOfficer 2.0 in 2015. The book discussed company Power Cores and how, for organisations to fully pivot to a 'Customer-Led' model, Power Cores need to shift from a traditional Sales-led Power Core to a Customer Power Core. The book is pretty clear on ensuring readiness but also how to: 👉 Earn the right to growth (expansion isn't a given it takes work and focus) 👉 Create customer-driven growth architecture (to support the expansion there has to be a carefully created framework to make it easy) 👉Honour and manage customers as assets to your business (the same goes for your people 😁) 👉Recognising Customer Experience Development is as important as Product Development 👉Build the revenue erosion early warning process by understanding the intersection points that impact customer decisions to stay, leave, buy more, and recommend you to others. #CustomerSuccess and the quality of the frameworks on which it is built in your organisation are at the centre of this. Instead, what did the majority of companies do? They either gave the CRO the CCO title and changed nothing or (worse still) created a #CCO role, changed nothing operationally, yelled about how badly this role fails, and went back to traditional sales models. All over, CSMs are still underappreciated and over-burdened. #CSM

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How can you be more strategic in RevOps? - Move from report jockey to strategic advisor? Here’s a tangible example: - Suppose we’re running a Pipeline Council meeting... - We start showing CQ pipeline and forecast are on target Then, we show the pipe gen for the next quarter is not on track. Here’s how we could tackle the conversation: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴? - This slide shows our pipeline for next quarter. - Current progress is $1M against a target of $3M - We’re behind pace to hit that $3M target on time. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗞𝗣𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼? - This will impact one of our major KPIs… - New business bookings for next quarter.” 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱? - We have about 40 more days here - To increase our pipeline generation - In order to close the gap we have today 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁? - If we stay at the same pace - We’ll likely only reach $2.2M in pipeline. - We would likely miss next quarter’s revenue targets. 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: - We can see the issue is in the enterprise segment. - We’re creating about 1/3rd the opportunities we need 𝗦𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: - We’d suggest having a 2nd meeting - Looping in marketing and field sales - To brainstorm a one-off campaign here - And how we can close this gap together 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽: - Other ideas to beef up pipe gen in the next 40 days? This is the fundamental difference in being strategic - We’re identifying a root issue and a potential solution - We’re making it easy for leadership to respond to this data - Not asking them to analyze data and make conclusions alone But what do you think? What would you add here? 🤔 More on this in in yesterday’s 📰 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 📰 Get it here: https://bit.ly/4cDUcVO ✌️

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The biggest change from sales rep to sales leadership? As a sales rep, you should prioritise tasks over people. If your CSM wants to talk to you. Or a fellow AE/SDR. Sure, but only after you have done your prospecting. Or sent out that follow-up. As a sales leader, however, you should prioritise people over tasks. You want to work on the playbook but someone in the team needs help? Help first. I got this very wrong when I first started in leadership. And it might be one of the important reasons top reps aren't always made for leadership positions.

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Life’s too short to work for a CEO that doesn’t get RevOps. I’ve been in sales, marketing, CS, and ops in companies that get it and also in those that don’t. Here’s the difference as I’ve seen it. 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗢𝗣𝗦 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 - Targets are hopes and dreams - Territories have the wrong accounts - Marketing content and leads don’t help - Systems create more work than they help - You lose 2/3rds your selling time to the above - Building lists, creating messaging, updating SFDC - You end up doing a lot of RevOps work on your own 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - You get pulled in 18 directions - You have insane “Lead Gen” goals - And you see sales doesn’t want them - You can’t see into what drives revenue - You’re constantly creating ad-hoc assets - You feel incredibly stressed and unfocussed 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 - You’re completely neglected - New logos are pitched over the fence - They’re often not the right people/companies - And they often have very unrealistic expectations - There’s little to no handoff process so you fly blind - You’re scrambling to clean up the mess to save them - All while being woefully understaffed and undersupported Net net, you’re setup to fail. 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗢𝗣𝗦 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 - You have realistic targets - Territories have the best accounts - And are segmented to align messaging - You have an effective system to prospect - There’s a tight sales process that saves time - And helps you to close more and bigger deals - You actually want leads and content from marketing - Because they align with your ICP and your top accounts - CS has great success stories that resonate with your targets 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - You have a revenue goal - You’re aligned with sales team - On ICP, Personas, Account Lists - On lead gen, pipe gen and revenue - You’re generating content that aligns - You have a clear plan and system in place 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 - You have an NRR goal - New customers fit the ICP - They are being “sold right” - And have right expectations - You have the right resources - And the right processes in CS - For handoff, onboarding, renewals - For health monitoring and management - And to identify and close expansion opps Net net, you’re setup for success. Anything you’d add here? 🤔

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Love these tips from Daphne to stop CSM’s being reactive and start being proactive

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A great Discovery call does 3 things: 1️⃣ It teaches The simplest way to assess the effectiveness of your Discovery calls is to ask who learned more about the prospect's business.  Far too often, the sales rep does most or all of the learning. A strong Discovery changes how the prospect thinks about the problem(s) you address, and to do that effectively, they need to learn new things about their business and situation. 2️⃣ It creates a clear & impactful dissonance between the present and the prospect’s desired future The real power of a strong Discovery call is its ability to build the basis for change. Doing that requires creating structural tension in the prospect’s mind. While this may surprise some, most buyers haven’t paused to think meaningfully about the outcomes they desire. I’ve conducted many powerful Discovery calls that simply defined success and clarified the difference between that vision and their current situation. 3️⃣ It lays out a clear path for what the rest of the sales process will look like An effective Discovery always outlines a specific next step and ensures commitment from all involved parties. You earn extra points for clarifying the overall process and identifying key milestones. Confusion is the #1 cause of decision reluctance, which kills deals. Use your Discovery to get things off to a robust start. What did I miss? What are your keys to a successful Discovery?

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SDR Dashboards - what do you want to see? Gimme your top 3 stats/charts/reports you like to see on YOUR dashboard for pipeline gen. There's the obvious activity levels and SQL/SAL volumes but what else do you like to see.....

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I was asked what is the fasted way to win new business for sales - get warm introductions in your target accounts. Here are 7 steps that I think will help you get radically more pipeline fast:🔥📈 Inboxes are overflowing, cold outreach is losing its punch. Warm introductions are the key to breaking through the noise and accelerating your sales pipeline. 1. Define Target Accounts 🎯 Zero in on accounts that align with your ideal customer profile. Know their challenges, and understand how your solution uniquely solves them. Focus on a subset you’re confident about – don’t let analysis paralysis slow you down. Key: Don’t get stuck on the first step; just go for it! 2. Identify Connectors in Your Network 🕸️ Expand your network (or automate this with platforms like https://lnkd.in/e-XsFVmR) to match up with contacts who have trusted relationships with key players in your target accounts. Look for people with deep industry and solution experience- they’ll help boost your credibility.  3. Engage with Value First 💬 When requesting an intro, lead with value. Show why the intro matters to their connection and how it benefits them. Remember, your Trusted Advisor isn’t your sales rep – they’re a facilitator of value for their network. Offer insights, unique perspectives, and collaborate in a knowledge exchange. This will set you apart as more than “just another sales rep.” 4. Personalize Your Outreach to the New Contact 🧑‍💼 After a warm into, skip the canned pitch. Reference your mutual connection, then tailor your message to your target accounts needs. Tap into your advisor’s inside knowledge on what truly matters, from active projects to key priorities. This approach makes you relevant, aware, and genuinely interesting. 5. Nurture the Relationship, Not Just the Opportunity 🤝 Warm intros open doors, but it’s the relationships that close deals. Focus on building trust, actively listening, and providing value. Even if there’s no immediate sale. 6. Don’t Forget Your Sales Process 🚀 Whether it’s Solution Selling, MEDDICC, or MEDDPICC, stick to your process to stay on track. Use your advisor’s insights to set you apart, but also to qualify out quickly – if it’s not a fit, pivot to protect your credibility and the trust of your connection. 7. Reward Your Trusted Advisor 🏆 Recognize your advisor’s role in your success! A thoughtful gesture, creative reward, or a few percentage points on the deal can make a significant impact. It shows appreciation, strengthens the partnership, and sets the stage for future collaboration. Warm introductions are your ticket to stronger connections, faster cycles, and higher close rates. Are you tapping into them? 🔑 And if you want to make this easy, check out https://lnkd.in/e-XsFVmR – the first platform designed to automate and scale your ability to find and leverage warm introductions into all of your target accounts. 🔗 #SalesTips #Sales #SDR #SalesPipeline #WarmIntroductions #ForceEquals

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Here's my hot take/best advice for fellow Sales Coaches after being at Salesforce World Tour NYC yesterday: spend less effort seeking opps for rep-level Sales Coaching engagements, particularly with tech companies. Here's why: AI-driven sales coaching tech products have made sales coaching for reps/non-leadership roles a race to the bottom on price. This is not a complaint or a lament; it's just a read of the market. Most leaders will choose sales coaching tech for their reps over coaching sessions with a human coach because it hits their love of low cost and potential for scalability. This is particularly true for tech companies. Most tech companies have little free cash on hand these days, and even when they do, they historically do not invest aggressively in employee skill development. There are many things that AI coaching tech can not do better than a human coach, but there are many things these products do really well (see Luster, GTM Buddy, Hyperbound, Amotions), and for at least the next few years, we human coaches will likely struggle to compete beyond the edge cases of leaders who have personal or philosophical commitments to human coaching rather than AI-driven coaching. The smart move for human sales coaches appears to be increased focus on executive level coaching opportunities. Executives have buying decision power, they still value human coaching for themselves, and executive coaching sessions command a much higher price than non-leader sessions do. As for Salesforce's AI Coaching product, which is named Agentforce, I didn't see anything in it yesterday that meaningfully differentiates it from other AI SDR and Coaching tools. Its differentiator will be how it integrates with other Salesforce products, So, Salesforce customers who can pay for the services needed to establish those cross-product workflows are most likely to dig in, and I won't be surprised by a high churn rate for first-year Agentforce customers who can’t pay for large amounts of services. #ai #coaching #coach #salesforce #sales #leadership #bestadvice #futureofwork

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