It’s a fascinating time in SaaS right now, as dozens of vendors compete to figure out the best way to use AI for outbound growth. There are companies offering literal AI SDRs—agents that will autonomously compose emails, send them at scale, even conduct two-way conversations. Others (more common) have AI creating first drafts but keeping the human in the loop. And still others see AI more as a research assistant: crawling the web on targeted missions, creating briefs for human sellers to consolidate info on an account or suggest relevant talking points. My honest take after talking to about a dozen vendors / experts in the past few months: it’s a brave new world, very early in the game, and I don’t think anyone has totally figured it out just yet. But if I had to bank on someone’s vision for how to leverage AI for outbound intelligently and sustainably—without just creating a massive spam cannon—I’d probably trust Jordan Crawford. He believes growth of the future will definitely leverage AI, but it will be a team sport, with the following players: 1) Customer insights expert—someone who knows why customers buy. 2) Growth strategist—the creative person who figures out the data points that indicate who to reach out to and the offer to send. 3) Technical expert—handles domains, deliverability, and AI workflows (might be the same person as #2). 4) The XDRs—people-focused sellers who actually talk to prospects and build relationships. This model makes a ton of sense to me, as did pretty much everything Jordan said in our recent chat (even the extended surrealistic analogies!) • How to use AI as a thought partner • Why relying totally on simple signals are not the answer • How to make AI plays resilient • Mid-market vs. Enterprise buyers • The rise of mouse jigglers • And a Star Trek tangent that warmed my heart You’d be hard pressed to find a more insightful and funny dude in this space. Truly loved hanging out with him—this is a must-watch/listen episode.
For outbound success it’s all about this (below). And the magic is about how the rep packages up research into a single, clear, human message. And still others see AI more as a research assistant: crawling the web on targeted missions, creating briefs for human sellers to consolidate info on an account or suggest relevant talking points.
I’m at the HubSpot #INBOUND24 conference this week and the use of AI in sessions topics feels like a tsunami. I’m refining my take on the viability of AI for ideation, creation of scalable automation, content distribution, and collaboration (human and AI). I look forward to listening to this episode.
WHAAAA! SAMBA MUSIC!! I have never been put to Samba Music… this might be the first time I listen to myself on a podcast.
So much for that "you'll be the first Jordan on my podcast" promise - now I'm definitely not doing it!
Sr. Director of Marketing Ops @ 360Learning | Host @ RevOps FM 🎙️ | Thinking out loud about GTM strategy and operations
3moCatch the whole episode with GTM data scientist Jordan Crawford here: revops.fm/jordan-crawford