Bardeen reposted this
Enterprise AI GTM tools: $7B invested, 60% unused after 90 days. The math doesn't math, folks. GTM automation tools are a dime a dozen these days. Every week, another Series A startup promising to "transform revenue operations" (aka compete with Clay) hits TechCrunch. $7B poured into GTM tech last year, a big wave of AI SDRs, copilots, etc. Results? Mostly short trials and disappointment. Limited repeatable revenue. Why? Most tools are purchased on a trial/POC, celebrated at all hands, then abandoned. The ROI pitch is compelling. The website is world class. The reality is going from bad to BAD: - Average enterprise deploys up to 90 tools. Uses 30% effectively. - GTM teams spend 10 hrs per week navigating tools, not selling. - 72% of automation trials don't convert. - Enterprise AI tools average 5 months to full implementation. So... we're confusing PURCHASING with TRANSFORMATION. Now this year: the market is splitting into two camps: 1. The educators: "Here's our platform. Watch these videos. Join our cohort. Become an expert." 2. The implementers: "Here's our platform. We'll build you what you need. You focus on revenue." Education-first might seem noble and scalable. Teach a man to fish, etc etc. But enterprise teams are drowning in "opportunities to learn and 'jump in' to the new tool" while quotas stay the same. The back of the envelope math: - CRO making ~$300k = $144/hr. - 40 hours to master a platform = $5,760 opportunity cost. - Now scale that across a team....... ouch. - Partial implementation = zero results. AI promised to eliminate this problem. It hasn't. It's made it worse. 60% of executives report that AI implementations haven't yielded substantial ROI. So, the next wave of GTM tech will be ALL about implementation velocity. The winners will combine: - Powerful automation tech - Human expertise - Fast time to value - No "you figure it out" handoffs and "priority Slack support" (does not work in Enterprise) TLDR: 2025 winners won't be the most powerful tools. They will be the tech that can expand upmarket with the fastest shipping velocity and minimal customer effort. What's your take? **source credit: Forrester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Salesforce, McKinsey & Company
Love it. Top class content per usual.
💪Colby to the rescue!
There are proven AI tools out there to drive GTM. It's not all failures. Clay is difficult and time consuming. The market has changed from company intent to individual/buying group intent. GTM as a service is the future, not just for SMB's. Sales just wants great leads. You can try to do it yourself, but most companies don't have the expertise, time, processes, technology, budget, and staff to manage all of the pieces and actually get it to spit out a usable report, with sales happy. Companies have been doing demand as a service and abm as a service for 30 and 20 years respectively. It's now much riskier today to do it yourself. Buy CPL and CPM, use your partners tech stack. New technologies over the past few months have improved sales accepted opportunities in both CPM and CPL.
That's super valid. Investing in tools that have no learning curve and no new added platforms is important for any user. One of the main reasons ours is on Salesforce. The reps don't even know they are using Spotlight.ai.
Interesting take on the current Enterprise landscape for GTM tech. This is why I am focusing my time on Mid-market companies in a specific use case of CRM data cleaning and enrichment. I believe this is where tools like Clay shine! I agree that automation tools are a dime a dozen and it leads to short term contracts versus recurring revenue. It’s forcing me to get creative and think outside the box when it comes to offering recurring monthly customer support…I am looking at potential ways I can help put the newly enriched data to use in other aspects of a customer’s business such as advising clients on how can we use the data for your omni-channel marketing campaigns to target customers who are showing high intent buying signals and what might that look like if we use various automation tools beyond clay.
Insightful Colby Morgan The GTM Truth: Buying AI isn’t the same as using AI. Companies don’t need more tools. They need faster outcomes. AI isn’t replacing work, it’s creating new work that no one accounted for. Everyone talks about AI’s potential to transform revenue teams. The market isn’t short on AI. It’s short on execution.
The biggest lie in GTM tech? “AI will automate everything.” Reality? It automates confusion. Buying tech does NOT = transforming revenue. CROs don’t need another tool in the stack...they need results, fast. And yet, most AI tools still expect teams to figure it out post-purchase, while sellers burn hours trying to make it work. The winners? They won’t just ship software. They’ll ship outcomes. The best tech won’t be the most advanced - it’ll be the easiest to implement, the fastest to deliver ROI, and the hardest to churn.
Co-Founder @ ViewIn Advisory | GTM Strategy & Implementation | A leading Clay.com Agency
3wCouldn’t agree more. That’s why at ViewIn Advisory, we only focus on implementing GTM tools and strategies (Clay being the central hub) to yield that high velocity right away. Growth teams don’t have time to learn new tools or become experts, and sales teams should only spend time in meetings, and closing deals.