Fireside chat with Godard AbelAgentic AI and Its Impact on B2B SaaS

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Julia Nimchinski: And next up Eric. Charles! Welcome.

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Erik Charles: Thank you. It’s good to be here.

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Julia Nimchinski: It’s really good to be here long time. No chat. Have you been.

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Erik Charles: I’ve been running around, you know, enjoying things. Some fractional Cmo work, some advisory work setting on people’s comp plans.

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Erik Charles: had fun digging into about 4 different industries at the end of last year, trying to help people be prepared for this year. Now I’m on the follow up calls to those clients and saying so, how’s it working? You’re one to 2 months. You’re either a few weeks into the Sas fiscal year, as we call it, or you’re a month and a half into the calendar fiscal year. So what’s happening on your sales team? It’s fun seeing how different people react to a New Year’s launch. And how do you get out of the q. 1 doldrums.

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Julia Nimchinski: It’s really fun. As we’re still waiting for God here, why can you just share like what’s your biggest prediction, I guess, for for this year.

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Erik Charles: Oh, this is a fun one. So I am a perpetual optimist. I will freely admit it. So

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Erik Charles: I’m always, you know. I’m always betting on the pass line. Not don’t pass if I’m at the crap stable, for example, and I will, and if I’m let I will put a bet on the greens, no matter how bad the odds are, because if it comes up it’s such a beautiful thing. So I am hoping we’ve got a little bit of economic stability. A lot of people are, you know, choking on their morning coffee or their lunchtime soda right now, as I say that.

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Erik Charles: But the conversations I’ve been having with some of the people involved in Ohana capital, which is the partner to Ohana operators that I’m in

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Erik Charles: are looking for opportunities to invest. I’m running into more and more companies that are at that one to 1.5 million dollar in revenue stage, and they’re ready to scale. Past founder led sales and do something.

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Erik Charles: There’s a lot of interesting conversations. And I’m loving today’s conversation on the AI side of things because that one’s really big. Everybody’s throwing out. AI. We know this. We’ve been you, and I’ve been hearing it for a decade, if not longer. For a while people tried to say machine learning to hide that they weren’t just doing AI or something. Then we all learned what Llm. Stood for.

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Erik Charles: you know, and all the lawyers like limited liability. What? No, no, no, it’s a large language model, calm down, calm down.

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Erik Charles: and we would go down that path.

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Erik Charles: But now I always said, AI will be real when there’s real application in a day to day business environment that doesn’t require me to know how to code and maybe even know how to prompt. And there’s some cool stuff like that coming out right now. One company I was talking to. I was talking to aircover or aircoverai, and they’re just. They’re another one of these agentic things.

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Erik Charles: you know, just helping sales reps. Keep on top of all the information that’s in there that’s in in their world. I mean, you know, everybody just had sales kickoff recently. Force fed a ton of stuff into hungover and exhausted sales reps.

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Erik Charles: And now you’re expecting them remember it. It’s like it’s like, I swear sales is designed around the the last minute. People who cram for university exams instead of continuous learning is one of the challenges in sales enablement, in my opinion. Well.

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Erik Charles: the agentic ais that can sit there in the side and say, you know, you’re talking too much, maybe pause, and let somebody answer the question instead of jumping in, or even, you know, remember, these are the people that in your last conversation said they had problem X find a place to insert solution. Y, little things like that, I think, are going to be huge on the, on the go to market on the sales side.

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Erik Charles: The other one. The thing I’m probably most excited about for this year

Erik Charles:
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Erik Charles: in in AI. On the Agentic AI. Side is more on the paperwork side of things

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Erik Charles: is I don’t want it, I mean, and I was listening to the prior call talking about Agentic Sdrs and Bdrs, and and I can’t wait to see it really work, and I’ll have some stories when

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Erik Charles: when when when we get going.

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Erik Charles: But I do think there’s an place there for just it’s there’s the update in salesforce is one of them, I’m sure. Agent forces all around there at Benioff, you know, as we’re watching commercials, and he license Corporate Bro. To do a pitch session on Instagram and Tiktok and the like.

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Erik Charles: But even I was talking to a company that’s using it in the healthcare space to help with just doing the paperwork.

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Erik Charles: How much of your physician’s time

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Erik Charles: are you paying for care, and how much are you paying for them to do the paperwork so that the records are properly done from a legal perspective, and that they can get paid by whichever insurance you have this week.

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Erik Charles: There’s areas like that are going to be great

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Erik Charles: taking care of that. I’m really looking forward to knowing that whenever I pay for an expert I am truly paying for their knowledge, not their ability to fill out a document.

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Julia Nimchinski: Super interesting, Eric, I’m curious. Have you seen the actual, actually good applications of agents? Agentic AI in B, 2 B. So far.

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Erik Charles: The earliest one I saw was a was honestly is a couple of years ago, and it was 6 cents and it was. And this is back on the agentic. Bdr, I got an inbound email. I was headed to the Forrester Summit, and it just said, Hey, you know, we know. And then we I was a customer of 6 cents at the time the company I was working for those when I was with exactly.

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Erik Charles: And I got this email from someone we see you’re coming would love to find some time with you and Jay-z to meet, you know, while you’re in town, and have you registered for our off-site location? 6th sense through a great off-site. By the way,

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Erik Charles: And I just responded, the way I do is like, Hey, that sounds great. Look! I understand you’re reaching out. Look! I fly in on Sunday. I have a dinner on Sunday night. So I can’t make it. Then Monday. You know, this is what my schedule looks like on Monday, and this is when the keynote is. So let’s work around that. This is fantastic. There’s a couple of slots let me bring in so and so who will finish booking the time with him?

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Erik Charles: And it wasn’t until I actually met at the lunch that I realized that was an entire

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Erik Charles: be, that was an AI Bdr talking to me conversationally via email dealing with my, I mean, you’ve seen my emails, you know I send you like 3 quick dashes. Sounds good. How about this? What next? You know I speak in bullet points.

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Erik Charles: This AI read my bullets responded perfectly casually, perfectly conversationally.

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Erik Charles: That was actually my my favorite example of that. I mean it. It passed a very short Turing test.

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Erik Charles: Now am I looking for it nowadays? Whenever I get one of these emails? Absolutely

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Erik Charles: and I’ll probably have like 20 Linkedin invites from somebody who then

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Erik Charles: wants to sell me something for Ohana operators, and I’m like, Hold it. We don’t go out, you know, sending out 2,000 messages to companies who might want our consulting services.

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Erik Charles: We choose who we want to help, and in the same way they choose us. We look for proper opportunities to assist, because our outcome is not just a successful one for our clients, but it’s actually to introduce them to some of the people we work with who like to invest in companies, you know. Ohana capital is

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Erik Charles: working closely with family offices who are looking to improve their investment outcomes. So operators make sure their existing investments are careful, but we also will keep an eye out for good opportunities for them. I’m not going to spam 2,000 emails about that. It’s just I’m not going to pay somebody, but you get that generic one.

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Erik Charles: So what do I do? I’ve now got like a all 3 of them. It’s just a notes file, and I just copy and paste things and drop it into. This is who we are. Once you’ve read the websites feel free to read out to me if you think you actually have something to apply, and that’s 1 that scares me is like. So I can see some of these agents coming in right now.

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Erik Charles: and they at least have the company name right? And they spell my 1st name right?

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Erik Charles: But what they’re not doing is digging just a tiny bit deeper, is kind of like on the last last conversation to understand what my needs are. They didn’t get it, and they just send. And I recognize that generic. It’s a nice one, but I used to get so much when I was Cmo, I mean, I would get 20 a week easy of hey? Would you like to switch over to this, you know, and there was almost the same message across 15 different companies like, Come on.

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Erik Charles: yes, you got my company name that I’m working for. Right. Yes, you got my industry kind of correct.

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Erik Charles: but you’re still not getting it.

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Julia Nimchinski: If you were to build a marketing team now like, say it exactly. What would be the balance between AI agents, humans, what would you do differently.

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Erik Charles: That’s a fun one.

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Erik Charles: I would definitely be looking for the best AI agents, and if I was at exactly, I mean, this is, people are going to laugh. I’d probably 1st look at our clients, you know, and see if any of them are building one, because I’m always a firm believer. If someone’s doing business with me, I’m going to do business with them if I can.

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Erik Charles: Not. Always. There are times I had to tell one of our customer success people. I know they’re a client. I know they’re good, but their product is atrocious, and there’s just no way I am willing to risk my, you know, bonus plan on their software.

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Erik Charles: But I would be looking for agents to do the grunt work. This, you know, do something that that finds I mean Zoom info, or Apollo, or 6 sense will sometimes give me all the names, but you know, if an AI can help me build out the account profile a little bit better. Update my salesforce so that we’re not sending emails to a Cfo that left 3 months ago.

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Erik Charles: or anything like that. That’d be magnificent if I could truly teach it.

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Erik Charles: You know the kind of outreach like, you know. Let it absorb, say, the persona messaging that I wrote for selling to a Controller versus a Cfo. And those are 2 even 2 different sets of messaging

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Erik Charles: and do a few things to get that out there absolutely. I mean agentic to constantly adjust my Google adwords spend. Sure, I mean, there are great people that are on SEO for adwords. But we know that’s out there. I’ll tell you. One place I’d love, you know. I think everybody’s going to be talking about is.

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Erik Charles: how do I make sure my company shows up

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Erik Charles: in the AI answers like, I run perplexity.

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Erik Charles: So I’ve got it on my phone. I’ve got it on my laptop. I enjoy running that tool. It’s just a matter of fact. I was looking at at Openai’s deep research tool the other day, and it’s 200 bucks a month. It’s really cool. I’ve seen examples of what it can do of how it can do a lot of research for me. And yeah, I used to do that research. I still do that research. And basically by doing Google searches and things like that and digging into what can I find?

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Erik Charles: So I went to perplexity and said, Who are the competitors to Openai’s deep research? And are they any good? And it just generated this whole report for me.

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Erik Charles: of all the different people I could be looking at, and how I might be able to work with them. So

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Erik Charles: that’s an interesting. Now we’ve got AI versus AI. I want to make sure my stuff shows up when I ask perplexity a question, or if I ask Chatgpt a question, or if I ask Claude a question, or if I ask Gemini a question, and I think that’s going to be a fun one on the SEO. I don’t know if a gentic AI can help with that, or if it’s just something going on. But I see we have another picture popping up.

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Julia Nimchinski: Welcome to the show with art.

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Godard Abel: Yeah. Hi, Julia, sorry a little behind, but thank you for having me.

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Julia Nimchinski: It’s our pleasure. And yeah, join our conversation. If you were to build G 2 crowd from scratch.

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Julia Nimchinski: what would you do differently now? AI agent.

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Godard Abel: Well, and we are reimagining G 2. Right now.

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Godard Abel: we’re about to launch G 2.ai, because I do think the whole user experience

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Godard Abel: in the age of AI can be totally different now.

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Godard Abel: And I think, like most websites, most software, I think it’s gonna be much more conversational interface.

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Godard Abel: And you know, guided by. And we’ve launched our Monty AI agent

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Godard Abel: to be our virtual software buying assistant trained on all our data and 3 million reviews. And so I think that’s gonna be the future of G 2. And obviously, if I were starting today, maybe you don’t even build a kind of a web 2.0 interface anymore.

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Godard Abel: Maybe it’s only the interface. So I think we’re an exciting transition

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Godard Abel: in our industry. And for G 2, you know, kind of to an AI 1st world.

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Erik Charles: That’s kind of.

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Julia Nimchinski: Like.

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Erik Charles: When you said Monty. I was thinking Monte Carlo simulation for a second there, and I was like, Oh, that could be really interesting! But I was trying to figure out how that would fit into G 2. So.

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Godard Abel: And Monty was, is our mascot.

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Godard Abel: so our co-founder, Mark Monte, is inspired by mongoose.

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Godard Abel: And then, when AI came out, we said, Oh, great. Now, Monty can be sent in it

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Godard Abel: and can be really about smart to advise software buyers and sellers. So but we’re excited. Yeah, that Monty is now a virtual AI agent.

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Erik Charles: So is it on the buyer side or the seller side.

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Godard Abel: Both.

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Godard Abel: I think the 1st focus is to guide the buyer.

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Godard Abel: And you know, I think the world of software is really exciting can also be confusing, because now on G. 2, there’s over a hundred 1,000 different software listings in over 2,000 different categories, and those of us like you and I, Eric, that have been software forever. It’s kind of fun to nerd out about it and talk about categories and category strategy. But to most business buyers. It’s confusing.

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Godard Abel: And I think most business buyers just want to solve a problem like they want to improve their sales performance management.

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Godard Abel: They want to improve their marketing efficiency.

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Godard Abel: But they don’t want to go look for a specific type of software. Necessarily, you know, like Abm software or Abm execution or sales commission, they want to solve a problem better. And I think this was exciting about AI on G 2 is, we can now just have the software buyer

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Godard Abel: describe the business problem they’re trying to solve in plain English, and they can do it, you know, with AI the beauty of it. They can do it by video voice text. However, they want to do it.

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Godard Abel: And then the AI can synthesize that problem and predict

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Godard Abel: which software would best solve their problem. And so I think that’s what’s really exciting, you know, about AI.

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Erik Charles: And that’ll I mean that really interesting and and think of him. It’s when you said voice. I have this vision of just sitting in an executive room of like Look. We need a solution for our company in this industry headquartered here.

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Erik Charles: just looking at a North American strategy. So I need Canada, Us. Central America, Mexico, you know, to use the geographic definition of North America. But maybe to say, by North America, do you mean us Canada, or you really mean North America, which I find. Some people

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Erik Charles: forget that Central America is part of North America.

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Erik Charles: and it would, and be able to then keep on saying, No, no, no, hold it. But with this, but with this, because I agree, I think

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Erik Charles: it’s funny. I remember being trained on solution selling when I carried a bag.

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Erik Charles: and I sometimes feel that solution selling has been.

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Erik Charles: It’s been pushed a little bit to the side by Challenger, which is great. But we we forgot about what the problems

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Erik Charles: on that. So so you’re gonna have. So so Monty will be able to sit there. And I say, I’ve got a company of a hundred people kind of tell it my budget, and it’ll even help.

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Godard Abel: For sure. And I think a lot of the demographics about you, your industry, your company, which you’re right, is very relevant to software selection

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Godard Abel: can automatically pick up. Because, let’s say, you sign up for G. 2 with Linkedin

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Godard Abel: and one nice thing about Linkedin. Now they also have the trusted Id, and we’re partnering with them. But then we already know all your demographics, because your Linkedin professional profile has information on your company.

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Godard Abel: your industry, your company, size your skills. And so then the AI can much more quickly make recommendations and also ask, we can train it to ask, follow up questions, as you said, like, what’s the size of your budget?

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Godard Abel: And you know, then be able to give much better advice to the buyer. And at some point, though I said. It can also help the seller, because at some point, you know, I think the buyer wants to narrow in on a solution.

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Godard Abel: And you know at that point. Monty can also be trained by the seller to answer Seller, Faqs.

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Godard Abel: And you know, to do a lot of obviously what an Sdr. Bdr. Can do but do it right on their G 2 profile and answer specific questions, because once you’ll be on budget, it might be, hey, what’s the pricing of your solution.

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Godard Abel: You know, Monty could be trained to say, Hey, it’s this much per seat per user. And you know, based on your 100 sales reps. Here’s even like a budgetary quote. And hey, would you like to sign up for a trial? Would you like to sign up for a demo, you know? So I think it’s really cool that you know the AI agent, Monty, can guide the buyer, but at some point also.

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Godard Abel: if trained by the seller, answer seller questions, and, you know, help the buyer walk further and further down the funnel.

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Erik Charles: So this, this is interesting, because this is, we’re now taking

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Erik Charles: more and more of the process out of the hands of marketing and sales. Let’s just call the entire go to market team, because that’s when we can talk about is, how much are we continuing to blur those lines between those 2.

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Erik Charles: And and then this is like you and I were tossing around some questions. But it and I’m scanning. I was thinking about this like.

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Erik Charles: how much. Are you willing to trust to an AI right now? What are the stuff that you’re still not quite ready to let go? I mean, I will admit I have a Tesla, and I played around with the self-driving.

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Erik Charles: and I was coming. I live in Orange County. I was coming back from Napa at the Bottle Rock Music Festival, and I got a free use of it for a month, and I decided to try it.

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Erik Charles: It was nerve wracking for the 1st couple hours as I’m leaving Napa going through the various barrier area highways, and then it’s jumping between Lane and lane on the 5 through the central valley to go around things, and I’m not sure if it took me a long time to relax just for that aspect. So

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Erik Charles: on the business side. Where where’s your? Where’s your line? Right now of go ahead. Take the wheel.

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Godard Abel: Yeah. And I think I think you still needed a human assistant in most cases.

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Godard Abel: you know, because I think we all know AI can hallucinate. It’s not perfect.

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Erik Charles: Bye.

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Godard Abel: I think what I’ve also heard from Adam Grandik, you know, for example, the the Wharton thought leader, we’ve probably all heard of, but it’s like a great AI can do like a great v 1 draft

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Godard Abel: and you know, for example, if I’m sending a board, follow up memo I think it can do, and if I give it, especially if I give it a recording right, it can do a great v 1 summary. But it’s never perfect, you know. I think any of us have used it to draft or synthesize some information. It probably gets it 90% right.

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Godard Abel: But I think you know, I think it still requires a human to get it 100% right, and also to add tone and emotion.

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Godard Abel: And I think we’ve also now all gotten used to jay

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Godard Abel: generative AI just does sound kind of bland and boring right? Because it kind of predicts the consensus of what a human would most likely say or do next.

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Godard Abel: And it’s pretty good. But also, I think it’s lacking personality.

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Godard Abel: lacking customization. And I think the numbers, the facts just aren’t 100% right. And you know. But I’d also say the same thing about humans. And you know, talking about a seller, let’s say.

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Godard Abel: I mean, and we’ve all seen it with our Sdr Bdrs. Humans make mistakes, too.

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Godard Abel: And I think that’s also interesting with self-driving, you know, I think, as Elon would say yes, every once in a while.

656
01:51:56.820 –> 01:52:00.489
Godard Abel: you know, the self-driving will still screw up, but on average it’s better than a human.

657
01:52:00.750 –> 01:52:04.949
Godard Abel: and therefore actually safer. And I do think there’s use cases in tech.

658
01:52:05.160 –> 01:52:15.289
Godard Abel: you know, maybe to answer sales. Faqs, maybe the AI. And even if it’s only 95%, right, maybe it’s already better than the human, you know, because a lot of those jobs also, reality is, we take.

659
01:52:15.640 –> 01:52:17.710
Godard Abel: you know, kids fresh out of school. If you will

660
01:52:18.100 –> 01:52:23.959
Godard Abel: we try to train them up? But also the human is never 100% perfect, either. Right? And I think that’s always a question with AI

661
01:52:24.420 –> 01:52:36.979
Godard Abel: is the AI, at least statistically, on average percentage. Wise, you know better than the human. And how risky is it, you know, and frankly, an Sdr kind of answering some faqs. That’s actually fairly low risk.

662
01:52:37.380 –> 01:53:01.590
Godard Abel: you know, because worst case to give a wrong answer, maybe you lose one prospect, but across your funnel, if it’s more accurate, 24, 7, right on average, you probably still do better with the AI, and obviously driving is more critical, you know, where obviously bad accidents could happen. People get injured. So you know. So I think it’s it’s kind of that judgment, you know, on average, is the AI better than the human at that task, and and how much downside risk is there.

663
01:53:01.880 –> 01:53:14.059
Godard Abel: and every application is different. But I think what’s amazing about Gen. AI, we’re all seeing it right. And I think and you see the tests of Chatgpt where now it’s kind of doing Phd level science and keeps moving up. So I think the

664
01:53:14.320 –> 01:53:27.500
Godard Abel: percentage of use cases, if you will, where the AI is at least statistically as good or better than the human will keep growing. And then I think you know, we can likely hand off at least initially kind of less mission critical tasks, and over time.

665
01:53:27.670 –> 01:53:32.630
Godard Abel: you know, gain enough confidence to even let it drive our car without, you know, having to look. Look at the road anymore.

666
01:53:33.570 –> 01:53:50.699
Erik Charles: I. I’m gonna take this slightly sideways because you made a comment of, we use kids right out of school, which I see the same thing. And because I, my my last kid, is coming out of school right now and applying for jobs. His older brother is 7 years older than he is, and he was able to get his start in the tech world

667
01:53:50.860 –> 01:53:55.210
Erik Charles: as a Bdr. Sdr. And is now an enterprise rep.

668
01:53:55.410 –> 01:54:13.779
Erik Charles: Little Brother was looking into it, and he keeps on hitting these walls of some companies like, well, we’re not too sure. And we’ve either outsourced the Bdr. And we’re looking at this. AI. We might have one position, but we need you to move and leave the Bay Area, and I think and yes, I know there’s still tons openings, and I’m not letting them get away with Dad. I can’t find a job, but

669
01:54:14.450 –> 01:54:26.119
Erik Charles: how much you know. Put on your your forecast. It’s 5 years from now what has happened to entry level jobs and go to market because of AI.

670
01:54:26.550 –> 01:54:36.649
Erik Charles: What has happened to those kids who maybe majored in political science like I did years ago. And I was still able to find a job because people just said, Okay, you’re educated. We’ll take you.

671
01:54:36.890 –> 01:54:38.219
Erik Charles: What’s gonna happen to that.

672
01:54:38.830 –> 01:54:45.800
Godard Abel: Well, and obviously I don’t know for sure, but but I do also have. You know, we have twin boys who are now sophomores at the University of Colorado.

673
01:54:46.880 –> 01:54:47.839
Erik Charles: And go buffs.

674
01:54:47.840 –> 01:54:51.049
Godard Abel: Both. Yeah, thank you. No big fans of Coach Prime.

675
01:54:51.390 –> 01:55:01.009
Godard Abel: That’s been exciting. But they are both studying business. And actually, you know, now that they’re sophomores are kind of looking for their 1st summer internships, and so I am trying to

676
01:55:01.280 –> 01:55:14.010
Godard Abel: give them a little bit of advice. I mean, I think entry level jobs will still be there, you know, I think, what I’m encouraging them to do. And also, actually, I got to speak at the lead school in a couple of the classes. And also I’m going to professors, hey, use the AI as a tool.

677
01:55:14.360 –> 01:55:22.650
Godard Abel: you know, because the reality is, I think it’s going to make humans better in their jobs, right? And for most of us. And even as a student, right, it’s very much an assistant.

678
01:55:22.920 –> 01:55:31.079
Godard Abel: And I think we’re seeing at G 2 like our co-founder, Mike Wheeler. He’s a coder, of course, you know, studied computer science. But now and he was already a 10 X engineer.

679
01:55:31.450 –> 01:55:47.600
Godard Abel: but with AI and copilot and Github, you know, he could probably be a 20 X engineer. And so I think that’s true. Probably for most knowledge workers. Right? If we use the tools, we can get better, we can get more productive. Obviously, I think if we don’t use the tools we’re at risk. And I did say the same thing for students entry level jobs, hey, get really good at using the AI,

680
01:55:48.160 –> 01:56:00.800
Godard Abel: you know, it almost reminds me of, you know, when I started building companies 25 years ago, Google was brand new, and it was sort of a new skill everyone had to use. Hey, how do you use Google? How do you do real time research on the Internet, you know. And and obviously everyone learned how to do it. And I think, Gen. AI. It’s

681
01:56:00.930 –> 01:56:02.580
Godard Abel: even a more powerful tool.

682
01:56:02.840 –> 01:56:13.279
Godard Abel: But I think to any student you’ve got to be able to use it, and I think even Sdrs Bdrs. They won’t totally go away, but they can probably be 10 times more productive. Yeah, because the amount of time they’re spending to research

683
01:56:13.480 –> 01:56:29.510
Godard Abel: and account the amount of time for that 1st draft of the perfect outreach email. They can just get that much faster, that much better. And so, you know, while the mix of jobs may shift. I think jobs will still be there. And and I think, especially, I think, humans, what we can do uniquely, we can still create the human connection.

684
01:56:29.900 –> 01:56:59.740
Godard Abel: And one of my sons is interested in sales and marketing, you know, and I think, like I said, the the menial part of sales if you will like the manual research finding people’s email address, figuring out who to call. I think they can all be much quicker. And then I think they can also have a quick v 1 script. But then, I think, adding the personalization, the customization, the humor, the human connection. I think all of that, maybe, will be even more valuable and maybe even more differentiating, because you know the core. The road tasks can probably be done by the AI.

685
01:57:00.290 –> 01:57:24.639
Erik Charles: Yeah. So the fun of the AI is is 1 1 of the things that the agents must be able to do is is be human in terms of constantly learning and optimizing their pitch. And I’ve seen that I mean, it’s why we oftentimes start sales reps out even as as Smb. Aes, because if they mess up a prospect, it only cost us a little bit of money. And then, as they learn how to adjust to the challenges that come in and get faster on the fly instead of

686
01:57:24.790 –> 01:57:46.109
Erik Charles: you know. And how many early sales reps sound like they’re, you know, reading from a script. We’ve all heard it. We’ve we’ve walked the floor at Dreamforce and heard some heard the same pitch over and over and over again until they get it right, but that reinforcement. And you hinted at this, if the AI gets the wrong reinforcement.

687
01:57:46.480 –> 01:57:59.990
Erik Charles: how do you keep it from going down the wrong path? Or is that that human jumping in and and catching it? It’s like Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I can see why you thought you should go that way. It actually doesn’t work. I mean, those are human conversations I’ve had. How do we catch that in AI.

688
01:58:00.280 –> 01:58:01.030
Godard Abel: Right.

689
01:58:01.030 –> 01:58:06.670
Godard Abel: I do think humans, certainly they’ll sort of be part of our role. And then I think everyone’s like a gentic workflows.

690
01:58:07.210 –> 01:58:12.719
Godard Abel: And I think you can also chain agents together. You know where you train one agent to check another agent.

691
01:58:13.884 –> 01:58:19.370
Godard Abel: Actually, I was just talking to start up here in Boulder gravity foundation. You know, they’re chaining together 30 ais

692
01:58:20.270 –> 01:58:40.400
Godard Abel: to basically create a virtual business analyst. But the idea with agentic workflows is, you know, one agent can check another agent and even multiple, and you can have them play different roles, just like, you know we do in a human workflow. And so you know. But I think the ultimate quality will still be human right, and we have to monitor process. And at the end of the day the AI is training on human content.

693
01:58:40.900 –> 01:58:44.039
Godard Abel: And so I think it’s going to be combination.

694
01:58:44.530 –> 01:58:52.989
Godard Abel: But I do think, yeah, the AI can also be used to fact check itself more and more. So the you know the v 1 draft that the AI creates of, let’s say, an outreach email.

695
01:58:53.210 –> 01:59:00.579
Godard Abel: You know, maybe today, it’s 90% good or 95%. But I imagine it’s going to keep getting higher and higher, but I think still to make outreach good.

696
01:59:00.840 –> 01:59:06.890
Godard Abel: and I think a lot of good at Bdr. Sdrs. Or as an entrepreneur, I still do a lot of outreach, right? It’s always about like some personal element.

697
01:59:07.210 –> 01:59:07.800
Erik Charles: Break.

698
01:59:07.850 –> 01:59:15.449
Godard Abel: Back to. Hey, Eric? Remember that conversation we had, you know, when you’re exactly 10 years ago, or you know, I think the the human hook. The human connection.

699
01:59:16.140 –> 01:59:26.519
Godard Abel: I think that is still critical, you know, because otherwise, and because also with AI, the volume of content. Outreach marketing is just going to be pumped up and up. So I think, to stand out.

700
01:59:26.990 –> 01:59:33.400
Godard Abel: I do think the the human connection, the human touch, the personalization, the creativity. I think that’s still what’s going to make?

701
01:59:33.570 –> 01:59:35.749
Godard Abel: Yeah, make make it successful.

702
01:59:36.200 –> 01:59:59.519
Erik Charles: So. So how about? So we got that? So how about negotiations like pricing? Because, I mean, I’ve certainly used G 2 to try and get a feel for anybody that publishes pricing. I’ve gotten arguments with people we can’t put our pricing on our website. We already had to put it on. We’re we’re listed on the App Exchange, and we have to put it on the app exchange. So our pricing is already semi known.

703
01:59:59.860 –> 02:00:14.890
Erik Charles: and I, goodness knows is like, if I’m about to buy something now, I will look for Logos on a company’s website. I know somebody or column. It’s like, What are you paying per seat for that? Just give me a ballpark. I don’t want to find myself happy because I’m at 10% under list.

704
02:00:15.130 –> 02:00:26.820
Erik Charles: If this is a company that is always going for 50% under list. Are we going to see a balancing of pricing like, especially like even at the Enterprise? All these agents are going to know what the final price negotiated was

705
02:00:27.550 –> 02:00:34.259
Erik Charles: somehow, is that knowledge going to be shared until we start mucking around on pricing? And just say, this is what it is.

706
02:00:34.860 –> 02:00:38.599
Godard Abel: Yeah, well, I do think over time. Transparency is growing

707
02:00:38.750 –> 02:01:01.410
Godard Abel: pricing. And I think step one was the Internet. And I also remember being trained on solution, selling in my 1st startup like big machines, early 2 thousands and back. Then I think that was a common tactic. The seller could kind of control information, including pricing right? And then you were kind of taught, hey? Only give the prospect so much information, because part of your power is sort of withholding information and then

708
02:01:01.690 –> 02:01:13.949
Godard Abel: revealing it to them once they’ve revealed more to you. But I do think. And the Internet started this, I think it’s only being sold by. Yeah, right? There’s more and more transparency. And I do think the AI can be a buying advisor.

709
02:01:14.750 –> 02:01:34.410
Godard Abel: And I do think now you know, even public information, whether it’s somebody’s edition data sheet and starting on G. 2, we ask, you know, all the vendors to at least share their list, pricing their additions. And now there’s over a hundred 1,000 of them. And obviously Monty can synthesize information. We do also ask reviewers at least order of magnitude, what kind of discount are they getting?

710
02:01:34.550 –> 02:01:38.679
Godard Abel: And so I do think the AI agent can be an assistant in your negotiation.

711
02:01:39.260 –> 02:02:02.500
Godard Abel: And it’s actually interesting. I think, Gartner. They have a service like this for enterprises, you know, they they’ve traditionally used humans to do it where? Especially for large enterprise. Cios, right? They maintain kind of a off the record database, and then you can talk to one of their pricing analysts, and they give you advice as a CIO about you know. What kind of a deal should I be expecting with Microsoft, you know? Let’s say, for co-pilot. So

712
02:02:02.620 –> 02:02:18.389
Godard Abel: so I think. But I think the AI will do that even better. So I do think over time. The world’s gonna get more and more transparent. The buyer will be more and more informed, and I do think that probably will lead to, you know, more transparent pricing. And obviously there’ll still be volume discounts, because that just makes sense, but

713
02:02:18.540 –> 02:02:24.360
Godard Abel: but probably deals will get more consistent, you know, and we’ve probably all seen it, I think, 1520 years ago.

714
02:02:24.760 –> 02:02:45.940
Godard Abel: like companies like Oracle. There’s probably a vast difference on pricing, you know, for the same licenses that customers would get. But I do imagine I think AI will probably make the world better, and that the buyer will be more informed. And frankly, therefore, this seller will also be probably incentive to not play any games. And, you know, so probably take more friction out of the the buying and selling process.

715
02:02:46.240 –> 02:02:53.560
Erik Charles: Or or the friction out of the user conference. When 2 of your clients are talking to each other and say so, what are you paying for this.

716
02:02:53.750 –> 02:03:05.430
Erik Charles: you know, and all of a sudden you’re in the midst of a renegotiation. Yeah, I think transparency will be a good thing. It’s I. I enjoyed my negotiations class, and you know, and and

717
02:03:05.530 –> 02:03:27.079
Erik Charles: you know, in in my friends over at Simon Kucher, who have built an entire consulting path around, you know, helping companies with pricing. I think we’ll take a hit. But then be actually more important in having justifiable pricing versus. Oh, I think we’ll charge this much. Does that work? I think that that is such a that’s such a fuzzy world. We’re in in reality.

718
02:03:27.080 –> 02:03:31.719
Godard Abel: And I think what they also always tell you in negotiation. It’s about more than just price.

719
02:03:32.210 –> 02:03:38.590
Godard Abel: you know, as you know, there’s many other variables, and some of the more obvious ones are like contract term

720
02:03:38.990 –> 02:03:42.329
Godard Abel: payment terms, but also service levels.

721
02:03:42.790 –> 02:03:50.990
Godard Abel: Maybe, am I going to develop a new feature for you. Right so. And I think that’s also what they teach you in negotiation class in school is, hey? How do you?

722
02:03:51.310 –> 02:03:56.440
Godard Abel: And I think, especially in b 2 b, right? It’s never. You’re not selling a commodity. Right? It’s not just A,

723
02:03:56.760 –> 02:04:09.999
Godard Abel: it’s not like, you know, just a piece of steel, it’s like, hey, there’s gonna be a relationship. There’s many facets to it. And I think that can still, and probably should be negotiated, because I think that’s what they say, I think a good negotiation leads to, you know, more creative

724
02:04:10.270 –> 02:04:15.319
Godard Abel: win-win solution. And and there’s a lot more variables in price, you know, as we as we all know.

725
02:04:15.640 –> 02:04:22.100
Erik Charles: Well, it’d be fun to see when an agent can actually write the sow for a 3rd party system Integrator.

726
02:04:22.270 –> 02:04:37.876
Erik Charles: because it could somehow was given access to this. The the buyer’s agent say, yes, these are all the systems we have. And here’s how much spaghetti sequel code we have sitting here running between these 2 boxes that you’re going to run into when you try to plug this in to make it go

727
02:04:38.160 –> 02:04:43.270
Godard Abel: Yeah. And I, I do actually think that’s happening like, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Kopado.

728
02:04:43.750 –> 02:04:57.690
Godard Abel: But I was like talking to their CEO, Ted. And they’re actually working on that. You know. They they help companies with the whole Cidc, the whole software development lifecycle. But part of that. And they’re not the only ones right, but people are definitely using agents now to draft sows.

729
02:04:58.100 –> 02:05:02.899
Godard Abel: And and probably like every document you know, we have in the whole

730
02:05:03.250 –> 02:05:15.160
Godard Abel: while selling. And even the the software development project lifecycle. And yeah, I think it’s gonna make all that easier, right? And probably like what I said earlier like is that sow perfect? Yet? No. But it gives the consultant a really good v. 1,

731
02:05:15.430 –> 02:05:23.510
Godard Abel: and probably can also be trained to ask the customer all those key questions so that the sow can be as accurate as possible, you know, but I think

732
02:05:23.700 –> 02:05:28.840
Godard Abel: all those processes will will likely get more efficient with, with the AI assistance.

733
02:05:29.310 –> 02:05:32.869
Erik Charles: It’ll be interesting to see when we get an AI negotiating with an AI.

734
02:05:33.090 –> 02:05:48.939
Erik Charles: You know the buyer and seller AI is talking to each other about the sow. You know the pricing gets done fast. Now we’re in the sow for all of the different terms, and even a legalistic AI to help you with change, you know. So this is a change versus this is ex, you know, expected.

735
02:05:49.634 –> 02:05:54.500
Erik Charles: I don’t know when that will happen, but that could be another shift.

736
02:05:55.090 –> 02:05:55.700
Godard Abel: Yeah.

737
02:05:56.020 –> 02:06:08.230
Erik Charles: You you. Throughout Capato I talked earlier about 6 cents and and and air cover.ai a couple of companies I’ve worked at, and fullcast has got some interesting things on quotas and territories.

738
02:06:08.400 –> 02:06:19.400
Erik Charles: Who do you see right now who are so? I originally wrote this up of Who’s at the forefront, but that changes every minute. So so what are some of the cool AI apps you’re seeing in the business to business world right now?

739
02:06:19.560 –> 02:06:21.810
Erik Charles: Besides your own. Yeah.

740
02:06:21.810 –> 02:06:26.979
Godard Abel: And I do think you know, everyone is now applying AI,

741
02:06:27.350 –> 02:06:35.420
Godard Abel: and I think, and we’re also, I mean on G 2, we’re actually asking reviewers about that. Now, in terms of specifically asking.

742
02:06:35.790 –> 02:06:40.210
Godard Abel: you know to what extent are the customers, the users using the new AI features.

743
02:06:40.630 –> 02:06:48.689
Godard Abel: And you know, what use cases are they solving with them? And what value are they getting? Because I think it’s it’s a big question right now. And honestly, at G, 2,

744
02:06:48.870 –> 02:06:53.770
Godard Abel: yeah, it’s hard, well, hard for me to say who’s doing it best. But I would say.

745
02:06:53.930 –> 02:07:07.880
Godard Abel: Yeah, certainly. We see everyone adopting it. And I think, what’s also interesting for all the software developers for all of us. Yeah, I think that the core Llms are available and whether we’re using Chat Gpt, which are actually building Monty on top of, you know, or you’re using

746
02:07:08.550 –> 02:07:10.680
Godard Abel: Gemini or anthropic.

747
02:07:10.750 –> 02:07:38.040
Godard Abel: There’s just so many options out there for the Llm. So I think there’s so many applications. And I think what we’re seeing about G 2 is both. There’s new startups like 1 1 category that’s been really popular is like, you know, the AI. Sdr. Bdr, and we’re seeing a lot of startups like Unity. Gtm, for example, you know they’re getting great reviews, and then, of course, you know all the big platforms like salesforce. You can also build your Bdr. Sdr. Agents with agent force.

748
02:07:38.050 –> 02:07:41.730
Godard Abel: 6th sense has one zoom info is launched

749
02:07:41.880 –> 02:07:46.409
Godard Abel: also their co-pilots. So I see really everyone in sales and Martech

750
02:07:46.750 –> 02:07:51.130
Godard Abel: launching agents. And I think they’re exciting. But I think exactly.

751
02:07:51.130 –> 02:07:59.350
Erik Charles: But they’re all starting at the Sdr. Bdr. Stage. It’s it’s interesting. That’s where it seems to be teaching it for the for the the Gtm. Are they in other places.

752
02:07:59.870 –> 02:08:01.890
Godard Abel: Yeah, no, I think that’s certainly.

753
02:08:02.130 –> 02:08:13.139
Godard Abel: I think in Gtm, certainly the A you know the Sdr. Bdr. And people have probably also gotten to the point more where it’s something good for inbound right? I think the full outbound doesn’t seem to be working yet, I think on the outbound side it’s more

754
02:08:13.330 –> 02:08:17.689
Godard Abel: help. You make sense of signals. Tell you when to outreach and give you a draft of the outreach.

755
02:08:17.830 –> 02:08:26.139
Godard Abel: But I think it’s not full automation yet, you know, on the outbound, whereas on the inbound faqs, I think you can probably let it. And obviously those vendors like qualified.

756
02:08:26.420 –> 02:08:38.370
Godard Abel: I think, doing well. You know where I think more and more on the inbound side. I think it can certainly answer the prospect questions really efficiently welcome further down the funnel, and then I think the other big use case we’re seeing in Gtm. I think, is certainly writing assistance.

757
02:08:38.780 –> 02:08:48.309
Godard Abel: you know, like writer, for example. But for marketing, right for marketing content. And we’re using a g 2, and probably same thing. It doesn’t give you the 100% blog post.

758
02:08:48.600 –> 02:08:55.890
Godard Abel: But it’s the writing assistants are giving you grade. v, 1, v. 2. And we’re seeing that with our own content team, like, they can definitely produce

759
02:08:56.280 –> 02:09:04.899
Godard Abel: a lot more content, probably with higher quality. So I think those are 2 great use cases. And and I’d say the 3rd one on the go to market side, I think customer support.

760
02:09:05.610 –> 02:09:15.150
Godard Abel: And you know. So if you look at, you know Zendesk or Salesforce. Now, Service cloud plus agent force plus. There’s a bunch of startups like forethought

761
02:09:15.270 –> 02:09:23.240
Godard Abel: that are getting great reviews on G. 2. But that seems to be another great use case and certainly case resolution, customer service support.

762
02:09:23.520 –> 02:09:38.160
Godard Abel: And you know I have heard other startups reporting. They’re getting over 80 90% case resolution and even going beyond simple cases. But now you can even chain agents to truly resolve questions make changes in systems on behalf of a customer.

763
02:09:38.450 –> 02:09:40.440
Godard Abel: And so I think those are just.

764
02:09:40.750 –> 02:09:50.550
Godard Abel: you know, 3 great use cases right there. Both the you know the inbound Sdr. Bdr. The marketing writing assistant and the customer support

765
02:09:51.180 –> 02:09:56.150
Godard Abel: case automation. Those are 3 use cases, I think, are already, you know, seemingly crossing the chasm.

766
02:09:56.560 –> 02:10:04.170
Erik Charles: No, actually, I love the the customer support customer success side of things, because off odds are, if you’ve got the problem.

767
02:10:04.790 –> 02:10:31.060
Erik Charles: the company has seen that problem before. There is. I don’t want to call it a canned answer, but there is a standard answer. You know it’s the classic to turn it off and turn it back on again if ever I call my Internet Provider. But going, you know, backing up from that, I think, is is really interesting, and you know you can have years now, that’s which, is it? Which is fun? Because then your your AI agent will get smarter and smarter back to that iteration.

768
02:10:31.540 –> 02:10:42.390
Erik Charles: Y’all have got tons of great data at G 2. You’ve been around long enough so you can teach your ais based on. I would a ton of history to make it smarter and smarter.

769
02:10:43.310 –> 02:10:55.749
Erik Charles: That would seem in the AI world to give a huge advantage to the sales forces. Oracle sap. G 2. You know anybody, Zendesk? 6 cents. They’ve they’ve all been around long enough. They have lots of data

770
02:10:56.200 –> 02:10:57.850
Erik Charles: to train the engine.

771
02:10:58.230 –> 02:11:05.489
Erik Charles: How are start. But you’ve just listed a couple startups which so obviously they do not have a decade’s worth of data to train.

772
02:11:06.010 –> 02:11:09.189
Erik Charles: So how? How? How are we going to see a balance in the marketplace? There.

773
02:11:09.980 –> 02:11:18.260
Godard Abel: True. And I think I mean also, it’s still true of the the platform providers like salesforce. Obviously, they’re building agent force. Yeah, so

774
02:11:18.430 –> 02:11:26.109
Godard Abel: powerful platform for enterprises to, I think, what they would say, build trusted, secure agents, but at the same time I think salesforce is still very open to partners.

775
02:11:26.620 –> 02:11:30.210
Godard Abel: you know the app exchange. So I think also Isvs can still.

776
02:11:30.360 –> 02:11:37.420
Godard Abel: you know, they can develop unique agents. They can develop unique AI and still tap into their customers salesforce data.

777
02:11:38.490 –> 02:11:46.660
Godard Abel: Of course you’re right. I mean, I think the sales forces of the world would have the advantage, you know, of maybe being able to optimize their agents across thousands and thousands of customers.

778
02:11:47.360 –> 02:11:54.409
Godard Abel: But I think, yeah, which way that goes, you know. Honestly, I’m not sure. And I did interview Thomas Tungas, the Vc.

779
02:11:55.110 –> 02:11:57.959
Godard Abel: Conference, and I just saw the Vcs. Are bullish that

780
02:11:58.490 –> 02:12:00.959
Godard Abel: there are opportunities for startups to reimagine.

781
02:12:01.600 –> 02:12:06.389
Godard Abel: you know. Now there’s also, for example, there’s AI 1st Crm startups being built.

782
02:12:06.870 –> 02:12:18.429
Godard Abel: And yeah, cause it could also be the possibility to totally reimagine Crm, right? Without any ux any ui, and maybe the future world is no rep. Even logs in the Crm anymore. Right? It’s just behind the scenes.

783
02:12:18.930 –> 02:12:21.349
Godard Abel: And I think it’s also interesting, like gong.

784
02:12:21.690 –> 02:12:41.460
Godard Abel: you know. For example, they have all the conversations, and I know now, G. 2, we’re using gong, for example, to also fill in. We’re using Med pick as our sales methodology. Eric’s been rolling that out, but now the cool thing in medpick and any sales methodology used to have to put like manual plugins into salesforce, and the rep would have to fill in like 10 fields

785
02:12:41.650 –> 02:12:52.249
Godard Abel: or solution selling how to plug in right now, the AI can do that for you, because gong can just parse all the sales conversations and say, Hey, I filled in your medpick for you and the human like. Just proofs it, you know. So I think

786
02:12:52.780 –> 02:12:57.350
Godard Abel: that’s also exciting. Where you know, I think there’s just.

787
02:12:57.620 –> 02:13:01.040
Godard Abel: you know, ways to reimagine Crm, and probably reimagine every system.

Godard Abel:
788
02:13:01.240 –> 02:13:08.329
And I think you probably also saw Klarna. They did the press release where they said, Hey, they’re gonna with AI build their own Crm build their own Hr system.

789
02:13:08.590 –> 02:13:13.220
Godard Abel: And so I think that’s the opportunity for startups. Right? Can we reimagine these systems?

790
02:13:13.410 –> 02:13:17.009
Godard Abel: And you know, without all the legacy? And truly, AI first.st

791
02:13:17.250 –> 02:13:21.470
Godard Abel: And so it’ll be interesting. It’s like one of those interesting inflection points in our industry.

792
02:13:21.810 –> 02:13:31.640
Godard Abel: and I think certainly I don’t know. You know. I think the Vcs are betting all of the early startups. The incumbents are trying to innovate fast, and and there’s probably enough opportunity for both to win. But

793
02:13:31.920 –> 02:13:34.810
Godard Abel: yeah, who will win bigger? I honestly don’t know.

794
02:13:35.550 –> 02:13:41.299
Erik Charles: Well, and that’s, I think, the the reimagine. It’s kind of like we’re already seeing the reimagining search.

795
02:13:41.901 –> 02:13:52.089
Erik Charles: I I simply open up perplexity. Every I mean auto opens on my laptop when I wake up in the morning, and any quick question I have I just throw into that. I don’t search.

796
02:13:52.390 –> 02:14:16.399
Erik Charles: If I have a question I ask perplexity and not that. And every now and then I’ll test it against you know, Claude, you know Chat, and you know and Gemini see? See what the different answers across 4 different platforms are, and I’m sure somebody out there has probably got an interface that lets you that asks all for, and puts, drops it into a table for me or something. If not, someone should go create that until someone tells them to stop, but

797
02:14:16.870 –> 02:14:21.579
Erik Charles: I think the Crm side to be able to log in. And all of a sudden, instead of

798
02:14:21.830 –> 02:14:26.969
Erik Charles: you know, the the usual Crm dashboard, no matter how modified, just says, Good morning, Eric.

799
02:14:27.330 –> 02:14:53.659
Erik Charles: Here’s the 5 things you should be. Here are the 5 things that are on your calendar, not necessarily on your calendar per se. But, like, based on recent conversations, you should probably do the follow up to these 3 companies and these 2 venture funds at Ohana, and don’t forget at the end of this week I mean some. You know the the true agent that’s just gonna sit there, you know, and remind me all the stuff I promised to do last week in recorded conversations that might have slipped my brain, or

800
02:14:53.720 –> 02:15:05.380
Erik Charles: and I’m sitting here talking to you, staring at a screen, and I honestly have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 post-it notes. Outlining my screen of big reminders of you still haven’t done that. Follow up. When are you gonna do it? So.

801
02:15:05.740 –> 02:15:12.520
Godard Abel: Exactly. And I think maybe. And I think what could be? You know, you’re not even logging into your quote unquote Crm. It’s kind of hidden from you, but it tags.

802
02:15:12.860 –> 02:15:14.450
Godard Abel: You. It slacks you.

803
02:15:14.750 –> 02:15:22.099
Godard Abel: you know it emails you. And then, yeah, you don’t even have to log in that system. And obviously behind the scenes. It’s still also

804
02:15:22.740 –> 02:15:36.069
Godard Abel: figuring out where there’s an opportunity doing your forecast for you, you know. But I think that’s probably Nirvana for most sales reps, and I’ve also been in the Crm. World. Well, Cpq. World adjacent to Crm for many years. Right? And as always, that was always the challenge, how do you get your reps to adopt it.

805
02:15:36.320 –> 02:15:41.649
Godard Abel: you know. How do you get them to update their Crm. How do you get them? Update the opportunity? How to get them to use their Cpq to do their quote. And

806
02:15:41.770 –> 02:16:02.430
Godard Abel: and I think, yeah, that could be excited about the future world. Right? Sales Rep no longer has to go into any system. It’s behind the scenes helping them do the work, and of course the Cro. Still getting their reports or dashboards or business intelligence. But maybe they’re even getting a better forecast. And that’s just driven by the AI. And the rep is no longer having to manually update their forecast. Maybe just for.

807
02:16:03.250 –> 02:16:22.479
Erik Charles: I obviously was watching that at exactly. And I know. And and when Clary was a partner of mine and some of those in salesforce. And Einstein. Yeah, can we? Why are you? I’ve always wanted to say to sales leaders, why are you asking a question? You should already know the answer to? Or are you actually just testing the rep to see if they know what you know.

808
02:16:22.710 –> 02:16:26.299
Godard Abel: Yeah. And I think we’re getting closer and closer to the ladder. And I remember

809
02:16:26.420 –> 02:16:32.540
Godard Abel: Mark Benioff when I was in salesforce, like way back in 2017. Yeah, which when they’d 1st launched Einstein.

810
02:16:32.660 –> 02:16:35.219
Godard Abel: you know, Mark was already saying that that with Einstein

811
02:16:35.440 –> 02:16:51.210
Godard Abel: you kind of check it against Brian Milam, you know the President and the other sales leaders like hey? Which is better right, like, what’s the the human sales leader? Forecast versus the AI forecast? I think you can also see it in apps like Clary Gong. They’re all doing that right where they’re giving you an AI forecast.

812
02:16:51.930 –> 02:17:03.450
Godard Abel: You can check it versus a human, but it’s kind of like self-driving right? At what point do you take the Cro’s hands off the steering wheel and just trust the AI forecast. And we’re getting closer and closer to it. And at minimum, I think it’s a good check.

813
02:17:03.660 –> 02:17:09.899
Godard Abel: Yeah. Cause now, the obvious stuff where you used to have to like. Do a sales manager review like oh, you haven’t had a call with that account.

814
02:17:10.160 –> 02:17:13.910
Godard Abel: you know, for this quarter like how the heck can it be.

815
02:17:14.309 –> 02:17:21.669
Godard Abel: you know, in your and I used to take human scrubbing and human sales managers. And I think now the AI really highlights that right. And

816
02:17:21.770 –> 02:17:29.900
Godard Abel: and I think you can even configure it to block that right like, hey? If there isn’t a certain amount of activity on this account, and I think all of these.

817
02:17:30.000 –> 02:17:36.000
Godard Abel: you know, salesforce kind of tools. Now they can plug into your gmail, into your slack.

818
02:17:36.100 –> 02:17:43.070
Godard Abel: into your zoom recordings, your gong recordings, and you know, kind of make sense of it for you. So I think all those areas are really progressing.

819
02:17:43.280 –> 02:17:50.340
Godard Abel: And yeah, I do wonder how many more years, you know? Is the the human hand still on the the sales forecast wheel.

820
02:17:50.629 –> 02:18:00.549
Erik Charles: Right well, and I think another one there that it makes me think was like, when I open up the Crm we’re using at Ohana, I’m I see so much stuff. And it’s analysis paralysis.

821
02:18:00.669 –> 02:18:11.799
Erik Charles: And I’m playing around with the tool right now. That helps me folk. Honestly, it just helps me focus because I’m the classic, easily distracted by oh, Squirrel, you know.

822
02:18:11.799 –> 02:18:14.569
Godard Abel: Sooner I share that right? Oh, here’s a new idea. It’s like, Okay, well.

823
02:18:14.570 –> 02:18:15.049
Erik Charles: Right.

824
02:18:15.059 –> 02:18:17.649
Godard Abel: How about? How about following up on the last meeting, you know? Like.

825
02:18:17.650 –> 02:18:35.749
Erik Charles: And if the AI yeah, hey, Eric, for the next 25 min, you’re just gonna do this. You’re just gonna chase this path. Oh, okay, that’s a really good idea. I wish I would have thought of it. And it was like you did last week, and you told me to remind you. It’ll be fun to see where all of that

826
02:18:36.020 –> 02:18:38.229
Erik Charles: that that really comes in.

827
02:18:38.379 –> 02:18:44.169
Erik Charles: Now, the one part you didn’t mention, though, is, we’re tracking all the sales reps for improving. The forecast is, of course, the cell phone.

828
02:18:44.469 –> 02:18:54.319
Godard Abel: Since we don’t have desk phones anymore. And yes, I know we’re supposed to make all of our outbound calls through the VoIP system that the company is licensed this week, or whatever.

829
02:18:54.820 –> 02:19:14.150
Erik Charles: But that’s gonna be interesting of like, how do you for companies in general? Hey? We want to help you. Would you please let us, you know, use this app on your phone when you make calls as opposed to using your actual phone number. So we know what’s going on with the customers or something. A big, I mean. Sales has always been used to Crm big Brother, though.

830
02:19:15.160 –> 02:19:19.979
Godard Abel: And you’re right if there’s 1 thing. And I think also, we’re all getting used to like our zooms.

831
02:19:20.200 –> 02:19:26.730
Godard Abel: our web meetings, or you know Google meet. Or you know, we’re getting used to that being recorded. But you’re right. The mobile phone.

832
02:19:27.280 –> 02:19:33.799
Godard Abel: and probably even like texting on imessage, you know, that’s still Mst, outside the system.

833
02:19:34.000 –> 02:19:34.420
Godard Abel: Yeah.

834
02:19:34.420 –> 02:19:40.600
Godard Abel: Terms of just, you know, data not being available to the AI potentially to train.

835
02:19:41.129 –> 02:19:48.749
Erik Charles: And and as Gen. Z. Is selling to Gen. Z, they’re gonna be, I mean. And I’ve observed this, they’re gonna be texting each other something.

836
02:19:48.750 –> 02:19:54.839
Godard Abel: Well, they’ll probably even, like, you know, like our kids I mentioned in college right there. They’re still, I think they mainly use snap.

837
02:19:55.850 –> 02:20:02.409
Godard Abel: or they use insta, so yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how.

838
02:20:02.610 –> 02:20:06.279
Godard Abel: Yeah, that kind of communication. How can that data get into the AI

839
02:20:07.111 –> 02:20:10.509
Godard Abel: you know, to to inform the forecast and and all that that might.

840
02:20:10.510 –> 02:20:19.379
Erik Charles: Specialist, and Snap was designed not to put anything into the system. It was supposed to be the auto auto delete, and there is no record here. Interface.

841
02:20:19.380 –> 02:20:23.039
Godard Abel: It’s still very popular, I think. Just talking to my kids, right? I think it’s still

842
02:20:23.040 –> 02:20:26.210
Godard Abel: yeah. So they’re use of communications.

843
02:20:26.750 –> 02:20:41.399
Erik Charles: Let’s see. So so I did. I did start this earlier with what is your forecast or prognostication? What are you willing to? What? What’s next on the roadmap for Monty that you’re willing to share on in this forum.

844
02:20:43.256 –> 02:20:55.340
Godard Abel: Well, I think what we’re excited about, like I said, we are going to. And obviously G, 2.com is our destination for software buyers, and we have over a hundred coming every year. But we’re also we are launching. We’re gonna launch a g 2.ai

Godard Abel:
845
02:20:56.300 –> 02:21:00.170
Godard Abel: more as a kind of alternative interface where we can really reimagine.

846
02:21:01.120 –> 02:21:05.380
Godard Abel: You know, kind of an AI 1st buying experience. And like I said, G. 2 to me.

847
02:21:05.570 –> 02:21:09.330
Godard Abel: And it’s not just G 2, right? But it’s kind of a called like a web, 2.0 site.

848
02:21:09.520 –> 02:21:15.199
Godard Abel: Yeah, built about 10 years ago, and probably similar to any site, you know, like a yelp or a tripadvisor.

849
02:21:15.360 –> 02:21:18.440
Godard Abel: you know where, with a traditional web, 2.0 interface.

850
02:21:18.700 –> 02:21:27.340
Godard Abel: But I think we’re going to, you know, reimagine it with just a clean AI 1st interface and kind of like you mentioned. You’re going to perplexity now for search.

851
02:21:27.810 –> 02:21:31.009
Godard Abel: you know. But is there also a whole new, better

852
02:21:31.160 –> 02:21:36.820
Godard Abel: experience we can create for software buyers. And it probably won’t have the 2,000 categories.

853
02:21:36.930 –> 02:21:45.510
Godard Abel: And yeah, because in some ways. When I think about it, we almost built it like Yahoo, and and you probably remember it. I remember the 1st version of Yahoo, but it was like a human created hierarchy.

854
02:21:45.740 –> 02:21:46.180
Erik Charles: Yep.

855
02:21:46.180 –> 02:21:46.880
Godard Abel: Of the Internet.

856
02:21:47.532 –> 02:21:51.449
Erik Charles: Another hierarchical, officious oracle, I believe.

857
02:21:51.450 –> 02:22:04.569
Godard Abel: Yes, that was the that is what Yahoo means. And but I think in some ways, that’s how we’ve built G, 2. And frankly, most software websites, right? It’s still a human defined hierarchy of categories.

858
02:22:04.930 –> 02:22:11.409
Godard Abel: And obviously, I think we’ve all needed that. But you know, in the future, maybe. And it’ll be interesting, right? Also very disruptive.

859
02:22:11.740 –> 02:22:35.939
Godard Abel: And part of we’ve been wanting to disrupt the gardeners of the world. Right? You have the Gartner quadrants, of course, for waves, and you know, but that’s traditionally all been based on one analyst opinion and how the analyst defines the category. But maybe that’s not needed anymore. Right. And and we won’t have to shop for software through hierarchies and categories. But we can just talk to the AI. And, as we said at the beginning of the call. Right? Describe our problems.

860
02:22:36.070 –> 02:22:38.890
Godard Abel: The AI has context on that user

861
02:22:39.270 –> 02:22:43.220
Godard Abel: and can just make you know, much better recommendations. And

862
02:22:43.360 –> 02:22:48.599
Godard Abel: so that could really change software go to market. Right? I think we also, it’s fun like to do category building.

863
02:22:49.120 –> 02:22:58.389
Godard Abel: And like, I remember, you know, our 1st company big machines were involved in building the Cpq category, and ultimately that was very helpful to us and our customers. But maybe in a new world.

864
02:22:58.530 –> 02:23:00.960
Godard Abel: you know, there won’t be categories anymore in software.

865
02:23:01.150 –> 02:23:07.300
Godard Abel: And because all the you know, all the the search and discovery of apps is done through AI.

866
02:23:08.410 –> 02:23:22.319
Erik Charles: I think the categories are definitely ready for disruption. We should almost have a drinking game around that. You said, he said. Disruption. Take a shot or something, but it’s, you know, 11 o’clock in the morning for me.

867
02:23:23.110 –> 02:23:27.810
Erik Charles: I think. One thing you know, free, random advice that you probably already know

868
02:23:27.940 –> 02:23:41.979
Erik Charles: when I think about a natural question I’d ask you, too, is like, Hey, I’ve got a new company. I’ve got a company I’m advising. They’re at 1.5 million their b 2 b, they target this industry. What’s a good tech stack for them for the next 4 to 5 years.

869
02:23:42.290 –> 02:23:52.779
Erik Charles: So it’s not just. I need to see. I don’t need a Crm. I need a place to have the records to track this stuff to maybe do some pricing and put it together, and all that, and asking for.

870
02:23:52.930 –> 02:23:56.299
Erik Charles: you know, tech stack, that’s all integrated with each other.

871
02:23:56.730 –> 02:24:09.580
Erik Charles: And then if I were asking Monty maybe my follow on question would be great, and how many of those have agents that will talk to each other to make sure that you know all knowledge is being passed up and down the the go to market tech stack.

872
02:24:10.430 –> 02:24:12.559
Godard Abel: Yeah, I think that’s that’s a good point, I think.

873
02:24:12.730 –> 02:24:24.319
Godard Abel: Yeah, for startups. Certainly. You just like picking one app standalone is never that useful because it has to be in context of what’s my best practice stack, and as we all know, the interoperability of different

874
02:24:24.630 –> 02:24:32.439
Godard Abel: apps ultimately makes your stack work or not, and I’d say same thing, for, like a Cro, you know, or a Cmo or any line of

875
02:24:32.890 –> 02:24:37.339
Godard Abel: you know, functional leader, they really need a cohesive stack.

876
02:24:37.610 –> 02:24:47.340
Godard Abel: and like you and I lived in that, you know. Crm ecosystem for years, and I think we were both in the Salesforce camp. But obviously other apps were more in the Microsoft dynamics.

877
02:24:47.520 –> 02:25:00.080
Godard Abel: And so that interoperability is really key. And I do think that’s part of what AI can do is, you know especially. And I think with the AI we can discover a lot of your stack already. Yeah. And then maybe ask you some more questions on stack

878
02:25:00.180 –> 02:25:05.790
Godard Abel: on the rest of your tech stacks. You can make much better recommendations. So I think you’re right. That and AI can do all of that

879
02:25:05.980 –> 02:25:20.410
Godard Abel: better because it can digest more context, and then obviously compare it to the context, to the stack of other customers that have written reviews, and then say, Hey, you know, people already running salesforce or people already running dynamics. Here’s what they’re having more or less success with.

880
02:25:21.120 –> 02:25:39.629
Godard Abel: Based on that tech stack context. So I think you’re right, that that’s always been important. But traditionally it’s probably been more something where we’ve relied on like consultants or peer advice, right? Or you had to go to dreamforce to figure out what worked well on the Salesforce stack. And now you can probably just ask the AI, you know, like, Hey, I’m running. Hubspot.

881
02:25:39.900 –> 02:25:41.689
Godard Abel: What are the.

882
02:25:42.080 –> 02:25:48.669
Erik Charles: What’s the spm in there? What’s what’s the what’s the the the Cpq. For in there? What’s the yeah.

883
02:25:48.920 –> 02:25:49.920
Godard Abel: Yeah.

884
02:25:49.920 –> 02:26:03.619
Godard Abel: you can also make recommendations also, hey? You know, because most of the the suites in you know, including Hubspot, they’re all growing. They’re adding more of their own modules, more their own functionality. Salesforce certainly has over the years. Right? And then.

885
02:26:03.860 –> 02:26:09.669
Godard Abel: hey, am I? Should I just go with what the the suite vendors providing? Or is it worth going best of breed here?

886
02:26:09.790 –> 02:26:20.160
Godard Abel: And these are all interesting questions that traditionally, you’ve needed, probably peers or experts to talk to, and I think this is all information the AI can be trained on, and

887
02:26:20.650 –> 02:26:25.189
Godard Abel: probably make, you know, pretty good nuanced recommendations that considers.

888
02:26:25.430 –> 02:26:32.780
Godard Abel: you know, considers the stack, and also considers, hey, do you want to go best of breed for this functionality? Do you want to just go with the suite vendor.

889
02:26:33.010 –> 02:26:39.700
Godard Abel: and, you know, advise, advise software buyers to really optimize their whole tech stack with context.

890
02:26:40.140 –> 02:26:50.750
Erik Charles: Well, and I wonder if we’re going to hit the an era of agentic Apis, I mean, we’ve always worried about who’s got open and open Apis who’s got a rest? Api, who’s got all, all the different ways.

891
02:26:50.930 –> 02:27:07.789
Erik Charles: How quickly can we just have an agent do it? You know a 3rd party agent that will talk to 2 of the pieces of our tech stack, but we are at least according to my clock, about a minute, and and Julia will come hunting me if I talk long, because I may have done that a few times when we’ve had these.

892
02:27:08.590 –> 02:27:08.980
Erik Charles: Thank you.

893
02:27:10.090 –> 02:27:12.389
Julia Nimchinski: Thank you so much, Eric. Thank you so much, Goddard.

894
02:27:12.540 –> 02:27:17.680
Julia Nimchinski: The community enjoying this. Gedorth, I can’t help but ask you.

895
02:27:17.800 –> 02:27:21.900
Julia Nimchinski: are you gonna enter the agent marketplace space.

896
02:27:22.260 –> 02:27:26.349
Julia Nimchinski: as in the Z AI. All the agent force.

897
02:27:27.978 –> 02:27:29.890
Godard Abel: I don’t think we’re gonna create our own

898
02:27:30.110 –> 02:27:36.459
Godard Abel: agent marketplace. I think we’re more going to try to provide a software buyers, insights on which agents work best.

899
02:27:36.910 –> 02:27:39.760
Godard Abel: But I do think the agentic

900
02:27:40.290 –> 02:27:48.659
Godard Abel: marketplace an exciting trend. And, like I said, we just want to help buyers, you know, pick the best agents, and maybe figure out which which is the best marketplace for them to go to.

901
02:27:49.760 –> 02:27:54.249
Julia Nimchinski: Thank you. And what’s the best way to support you? You mentioned Monty?

902
02:27:55.120 –> 02:27:56.799
Julia Nimchinski: Where should our community go?

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Godard Abel: Well, for now I’d say you can sort of go to G 2.com. Monty’s on the homepage, so if you want to try it, and also, you know, feel free. If you have feedback ideas for G 2, I’m always trying to get better. So my emails just go to G. 2, and

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Godard Abel: or ping me on Linkedin, but I look forward to hearing from some of you, and thank you, Julia and Eric, for having me.

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Erik Charles: Absolutely.