Zayd Ali
Aug 8, 2024
a16z’s Take on the Next Gen of Sales Tech
a16z released an article a few days ago sharing their thesis on how AI will transform the next generation of sales tech:
“AI will so fundamentally reimagine the core system of record and the sales workflows that no incumbent is safe.”
The current stack depends on products like Salesforce and HubSpot, but the core of these companies is in rows and columns.
We stack this with another point solution, and it’s easy for data to wind up siloed. You need a way to view everything that’s happening from one end of the sales process to the other.
a16z predicts that the winning sales platform will be unstructured and multi-modal (as opposed to structured and text-based).
With AI, it’ll be able to extract insights from customers at a level we’re not yet able to comprehend. It’ll become commonplace to have things like these stored in your database:
Recordings and transcripts from calls
Emails and Slack messages
Product usage data
Customer support activity and engagement
Public news
Financial reports
etc
We might also see fewer point solutions and more all-in-one solutions. Things like converting inbound leads and automating outbound campaigns were once seen as two separate tasks.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see AI sales platforms expand to cover the sales pipeline end-to-end.
Sales Workflows Will Fundamentally Change
AI cuts the need to spend hours researching new leads. It does it in seconds.
Reps won’t be digging to determine the readiness of a customer - AI will have already figured it out.
Sales activities we’re used to could disappear. We’re also bound to see seller workflows emerge that our current stack couldn’t even do.
The Way Software is Sold is Changing
This is something I’ve talked about before. We’re seeing a transition from per-seat pricing to outcome-based pricing.
Sales professionals need to be open to this.
Pricing is beginning to align more with the value delivered, as opposed to simple per-seat rates. Alex Rampell (a partner at a16z) says Zendesk is a great example of this.
Let’s say a company has 1,000 support agents, each with a $75k salary. They answer 2,000 tickets per year.
($75m in salaries / 2m tickets = $37.50 per resolved ticket)
If you arm each agent with a Zendesk license at $115 per seat, you’re spending another $1.4m in software costs.
With the software alone, it’d cost you just $0.69 per resolved ticket.
($1.4m in software costs / 2m tickets = $0.69)
Zendesk will need to figure out how to price a resolved ticket.
Most AI sales companies will likely charge for the outcome — a closed deal. This is something we need to start getting used to.
Read the article here.
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