The Gartner Sales Podcast

After over a year of hype, what is the real state of generative AI (GenAI) in B2B sales? In this episode, Betsy and Billy speak with Gartner expert Adnan Zijadic to discuss how sales leaders and the C-suite are engaging with GenAI, which use cases are gaining ground, and where sales leaders are missing out.Adnan Zijadic is a director analyst in the Sales Technologies team at Gartner for Sales Leaders. His research focuses on sales force automation (SFA/CRM) platforms, evaluations, and strategy, along with Sales AI use cases and best practices. Not only that, he also pioneered Gartner’s first ever workable CRM readiness assessment, the SPEED framework. 

In 2024, the most successful CSOs will exert as much influence internally as they do externally, aligning closely with executive peers and championing the commercial organization’s needs. In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, co-hosts Betsy Gregory-Hosler and Billy Luckey speak with Dave Egloff, Gartner Vice President Analyst, to explore how CSOs can build C-suite collaboration and trust.Dave Egloff is a VP Analyst in Gartner’s sales practice. He actively advises and produces research for sales and commercial executives to boost their teams effectiveness and optimize their go-to-market strategies. With more than 20 years of global experience, Dave’s holistic approach combines qualitative assessments with quantitative insights. His areas of expertise include sales design and optimization, go-to-market strategy, sales transformation, sales operations and sales compensation.

In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, Betsy and Billy sit down with Gartner Chief of Research Robert Blaisdell to discuss our recently published 2024 CSO Leadership Vision. Robert explains the Leadership Vision results, including key trends and recommendations that will help CSOs anticipate and respond to market changes across the coming year.Robert Blaisdell is the Chief of Research for the Gartner Sales Practice. Robert has 20 years of experience in strategic account management, account planning, sales enablement, strategic planning and marketing.

Sales leaders have great expectations for their key account programs, but they frequently disappoint.  Gartner expert Dan Hawkyard joins Betsy and Billy to discuss why key accounts so often underperform and how sales leaders can strengthen them for a fast start in 2024.Dan Hawkyard is a Senior Principal Analyst in the Gartner for Sales Leaders Expert Team. He works with global sales leaders on their journey towards maturing their commercial functions and his expertise include key and account management, customer segmentation and buying insights and experience.

Your sales strategy may be a work of art, but the most brilliant plan means nothing if sellers won’t execute. In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, Betsy and Billy talk to Gartner Sr. Research Specialist Delainey Kirkwood, discussing how CSOs can drive effective seller behavior change and measure enablement’s impact in their organizations.Delainey Kirkwood is a Senior Research Specialist in Gartner's Sales Research Practice. In her current role, Delainey creates and communicates insights and tools focused on addressing the mission-critical priorities of sales enablement leaders, particularly on the topics of revenue enablement and behavior change. Delainey is the managing editor of Gartner's Chief Sales Officer Quarterly. Delainey is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and she began her career in manufacturing operations. She has been with Gartner for three years.

What does the future hold for the B2B seller? In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, Betsy and Billy talk to Gartner expert Alice Walmesley, discussing how CSOs can reimagine the seller role for the future.

You may be sold on the value of Generative AI (GenAI), but how do you actually buy it?  In this episode, Betsy and Doug continue their conversation with Dan Gottlieb, the lead analyst for GenAI in the Gartner sales practice. Dan discusses what B2B sales leaders should consider when acquiring GenAI capabilities for their sales organizations.

Generative AI (GenAI) offers new and exciting opportunities in B2B sales, if you can harness it. In this episode, Doug and Betsy speak with Dan Gottlieb, the lead analyst for GenAI in the Gartner sales practice. Dan sheds light on how GenAI can be used in B2B sales, ways to address common risk factors and where sales leaders can begin.

Amid economic uncertainty, technology is crucial to revenue growth. However, investments in sales training and enormous amounts of revenue technology are not improving sales effectiveness for most companies.In this episode, Doug and Betsy speak with professor and author Dr. Howard Dover, discussing:How to develop modern sales methods and become a sales disruptorHow digital buying has changed traditional sales activityHow organizational and environmental obstacles keep the field in a state of paradox

Machine customers aren’t just coming — in some places, they are already here. In this episode, Betsy and Doug speak with Don Scheibenreif and Mark Raskino, Gartner experts and authors of “When Machines Become Customers,” to discuss how machine customers are changing B2B sales. Don Scheibenreif is a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner based in California and a leader of Gartner’s research on customer experience. He works primarily with IT and business leaders on topics at the intersection of technology and customers. Don has led the development of Gartner’s research on machine customers since 2015. He is an accomplished international keynote speaker and has won numerous thought leadership awards for his work on digital business, Gartner’s IT Symposium Opening Keynotes, and the future of customer experience. Before joining Gartner in 2010, Don spent 22 years as a senior marketing leader in the consumer packaged goods, retail and B2B distribution markets.

In this episode, Doug and Betsy speak with Steve Rietberg, VP analyst with Gartner’s Sales Research practice, about Gartner’s current sales operations leadership vision and the power of comparative performance metrics.Steve Rietberg is a world-renowned author, speaker and sales operations leader with extensive experience conceiving and implementing methodology and technology solutions to address critical business needs. Steve specializes in mobilizing cross-functional teams to streamline operations and deliver actionable insights through data and analytics.

Women remain underrepresented in B2B sales, comprising 24% of individual seller roles and 21% of sales leadership roles, according to the 2022 Gartner Chief Sales Officer Strategy Survey.In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast with co-hosts Betsy Gregory-Hosler and Doug Bushée, we talk to Cynthia Barnes, author, sales influencer, and founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals. Many recruitment strategies that are geared to women don't work; Cynthia helps us unpack why that’s happening, even as there’s a sales talent scarcity across many industries.Cynthia Barnes, founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, is the first Black woman to keynote a national sales conference. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice, LinkedIn Top Sales influencer, and 2x Salesforce Top Influencer. Cynthia is also the creator of THRIVE: Success Strategies for Women in Sales, a women-centric sales training delivered to more than 15,500 women worldwide.

In this episode, the team speaks with sales thought leader David Brock. David shares his thoughts on the role of the CSO in 2023, the challenges sales leaders are facing, and key trends that are changing B2B sales.

In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, Betsy and Doug sit down with Gartner Chief of Research Craig Riley to discuss our recently published 2023 Leadership Vision series. Each Leadership Vision is individually tailored for CSOs, sales enablement leaders and sales operations leaders. They are designed to help sales leaders anticipate market changes and necessary responses across the coming year. About The GuestCraig Riley is chief of research for Gartner for Sales Leaders. Craig is focused on helping commercial leaders respond to changes in B2B buying behavior in ways that produce long-term revenue growth. As a Gartner analyst, Craig sees countless examples of effective go-to-market structures, sales force deployment models, and pipeline generation strategies. He uses that information to share what top companies and their leaders do to differentiate themselves in the market and pull ahead of the competition.

In this episode, the team speaks with Gartner expert Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone, discussing new research on the successful alignment of sales and marketing. Kristina describes how both digital and human interactions can underperform, where sales leaders are in their alignment journeys, and what smart organizations are doing to get it right. About the GuestKristina LaRocca-Cerrone is a Sr. Director, Advisory for Gartner and helps enterprise marketers better understand how customers (both B2B and B2C) buy and make decisions. Kristina’s work includes topics like how buying groups research potential suppliers and make purchase decisions, and how to create compelling content marketing aligned to the customer journey. Her work examines how to improve overall digital experiences (in a way that is industry-agnostic) to impact customer behavior, and how to effectively engage in customer journey mapping and persona building. Kristina also covers marketing leadership and strategy, and marketing organization trends.

In this episode, Doug sits down with Melissa Hilbert, senior director at Gartner in the Application IT Leaders Group. Melissa discusses her leading work in revenue enablement, including a recent revenue enablement maturity model, revenue enablement Market Guide and key insights for chief sales officers, chief revenue officers and other sales leaders.  Melissa Hilbert is a senior director at Gartner in the Application IT Leaders Group, where she is responsible for the revenue (formerly sales) enablement agenda within digital commerce and CRM sales technology, which includes a Market Guide. The technology includes sales content, training and coaching. She covers the digital adoption platform market, which also includes a Market Guide. She is also responsible for sales performance management (SPM). She has extensive knowledge of SPM systems and processes, including sales incentive compensation, quota management and territory management. She has additional expertise in digital sales rooms. She contributes to research on Gartner’s CX CORE model. She also covers sales force automation (SFA)/CRM tools around adoption and usage and high-level strategy as well as digital twin of a customer for sales.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is finding its way into sales technology, but how can AI impact sales performance and revenue growth? This week, Doug Bushée and Betsy Gregory-Hosler speak with Gartner Senior Director and Analyst Robert Blaisdell to hear how AI helps sales organizations better align to buyer preferences for seller-free engagement and multithreaded sales experiences. Listeners will also hear how AI also enables CSOs to reduce sales cycles and increase forecasting accuracy.Robert Blaisdell is a Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Sales Research and Advisory Practice. He covers all aspects of sales, but has a primary focus on current customer management and growth via account planning best practices and strategic key account management.  Robert has 20 years of experience in strategic account management, account planning, sales enablement, strategic planning and marketing. Most recently he worked as the Senior Director of Sales and Account Management Strategic Planning and Execution at Express Scripts. In his role, he led the division of the sales and account management organization of seven departments in the areas of strategic planning, execution and operations. Robert has extensive experience driving the development and implementation of internal and external business solutions, methodologies and best practices to increase customer retention and account growth. He is leader for research with the Sales Strategy and Leadership Key Initiative.

Today’s selling environment is taking a toll on sellers. Supply chain issues, price increases, and the challenges presented by working in a more remote and digital environment lead to seller fatigue, decreased morale, and higher attrition. Sales leaders are working harder than ever to keep seller motivation high and address these issues. In this episode, the team sits down with Alice Walmesley, director, advisory, from the Gartner for Sales Leaders practice. Alice shares new Gartner research into seller motivation and shows us that a focus on seller drive may be missing the mark.Alice Walmesley is a Director in Gartner’s Expert Advisory team. Alice consults with cross-industry heads of sales/senior sales leaders to understand and address their most pressing challenges and opportunities for growth. She provides guidance derived from Gartner sales quantitative and best-practice research into sales execution, enablement, and strategy areas. She has been with Gartner for nine years.

In this episode, the team sits down with Daniel Hawkyard, senior principal, advisory, from the Gartner for Sales Leaders practice. Daniel just hosted a gathering of sales leaders called “CSO Priorities for a Disrupted World” and has a collection of insights on the mindset of today’s leaders as they navigate an uncertain economic climate. Daniel Hawkyard is a senior principal in Gartner’s Expert Advisory team. He works with global sales executives to help them on their journey towards maturing their commercial functions. His expertise include changes in B2B buying behavior, the future of selling, as well as customer understanding and engagement strategies.

In this episode, Craig sits down with Dan Gottlieb, senior director analyst from the Gartner for Sales practice. As the head of the Gartner for Sales Leaders Revenue Technology Strategy research agenda, Dan has the pulse of this exploding market. Dan and Craig discuss data from a couple of recent Gartner studies, and they talk about what’s happening today in revenue technology, from the current stack to what’s coming for the rest of 2022. Dan Gottlieb leads Gartner’s Revenue Technology Strategy Key Initiative and covers a spectrum of topics related to pipeline generation. Dan combines a decade of SaaS sales experience and creative thinking to collaborate with clients. His facilitation style invites clients to convert Gartner’s research into actionable insights that yield scalable, repeatable growth. He believes meetings are most effective when they’re fun. As a SaaS sales leader, Dan’s responsibilities spanned quota-carrying sales, operations and enablement at fast-growing companies.