AI account research, deal context, signal monitoring, discovery prep, call prep, visit prep, and meeting strategy

Summary Dynamics 365 CX MCP Server – Sales is now generally available, giving supported AI agents and seller experiences access to trusted Dynamics 365 Sales data, business logic, and actions without requiring sellers to work inside a single CRM interface. The server provides 59 governed tools spanning opportunity, lead, account, activity, pricing, quote, and order scenarios, while existing Dataverse roles and permissions continue to control access. This approach moves CRM toward a system of action, allowing Microsoft and customer-built AI experiences to reuse Dynamics 365 Sales capabilities across the tools sellers already use.

AI will replace 100% of lazy sales reps.
AI will replace 100% of lazy sales reps.
AI will replace 100% of lazy sales reps.

I believe that more every month.

Not because the tools are magic.
And not because buyers suddenly want robots.

I believe it because lazy reps were already easy to spot before AI.
Now they are even easier to replace.

I see it in outreach all the time.

- Generic emails written in ten seconds
- Bad discovery hidden behind polished summaries
- Zero prep covered up by fancy prompts
- Follow-ups sent without a single original thought
- Reps hoping a tool can create effort they never gave

That approach was weak before.
Now it looks even weaker.

I use AI all the time in my workflow.
For prep.
For recap emails.
For sharpening ideas before a call.

But I still have to think.
I still have to listen.
I still have to care enough to write something a real buyer would read.

Lazy reps want AI to do the job for them.

Curious reps use AI to do the job better.

That difference matters a lot.

Because buyers can feel when no one behind the message gave a damn.

And the reps who keep their brains switched on will keep winning long after the lazy ones get filtered out.

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Most AI sales tools answer questions. https://t.co/j9G9olW0LT wants Claude and ChatGPT to actually run the outreach campaign.

https://t.co/j9G9olW0LT made its revenue execution platform callable directly from Claude and ChatGPT, letting sellers ask their AI assistant in plain English to build prospect lists, enrich buyer contacts, launch outreach sequences, and prep meetings, then have it actually execute the workflow rather than just summarize data. The company frames the CRM as the system of record and itself as the system of action, and the launch follows its recent Enterprise Forward Deployment announcement.

The distinction https://t.co/j9G9olW0LT is drawing, execution versus retrieval, is the real fault line forming in enterprise AI right now. An assistant that can answer questions about your pipeline is a nice feature. An assistant that can build the list, write the outreach, and start the sequence Monday is a different category of tool, and it only works if something behind the conversation actually holds the customer context to act on. Expect more vendors to compete on becoming that execution layer rather than another chat interface bolted onto a CRM.

AI made me faster at sales.
That turned out to be the least interesting part.

I work in business development, and I use AI almost every day for:
• Researching accounts
• Preparing for calls
• Writing outreach
• Summarising conversations
• Following up with prospects

Sometimes it gives me something genuinely useful.
Other times, it gives me a perfectly written email that I would never send.

The difference is usually context.

AI on its own doesn’t know:
• Someone from our team spoke to the company six months ago
• What the prospect cared about
• Why the conversation stopped
• What has changed since then
• Whether there’s a genuine reason to reconnect now

But when I started using AI alongside HubSpot and the other tools in my workflow, the picture became much clearer.

AI helps me work faster.
The context helps me decide who is worth contacting, what might matter to them and whether I have something relevant to say.

That distinction matters because my manager, Joshua Mathew, is not measuring success by the number of emails AI helps me produce.

It's more about whether those emails lead to conversations, meetings and qualified opportunities.

That’s why the thinking behind HubSpot’s new Agentic Customer Platform clicked for me.

It isn’t simply about adding another AI tool.
It’s about bringing customer data, business context, people and AI agents together, so the AI working with me knows more than what I typed into a prompt.

I work at HubSpot, so of course I’m biased.

But from my view:
AI without context can make us look busier.
AI with context has a much better chance of making us useful.

Has AI improved actual outcomes for your team yet, or mainly increased output?

Also, with Spider-Man all over my personal feed lately, this meme felt pretty apt.

I use AI every day in pre-sales.
And the most useful part of my setup is not a tool. It is a habit.

AI saves me hours every week.
Discovery prep, demo storylines, RFP answers, follow-ups.

But speed is only half the story. The other half is judgement.

For me, every AI task runs through two gates.

Gate 1, before the prompt: Should this information go in?
- Data privacy matters, so I think before I paste.
- Customer data, personal data, anything identifiable: I ask myself if it really needs to be there.
- Most of the time it does not. "A retail company with 40,000 employees" works just as well as the real name.

Gate 2, before I use the result: Should this result go out?
- Is it factually right? AI sounds confident even when it is wrong.
- Would I say this to a client, in the room?
- And is it mine? Edited, in my voice, with my judgement.

AI is the tool. Judgement is the job.

How do you handle this in your daily work? I am curious.

#ProductivityTuesday #PreSales #AI

Yesterday was a great example of how AI is changing field sales.

I was driving to visit a major coffee manufacturing company.
Before arriving, I used AI to research what had been happening in the business.

They recently completed a major acquisition.

10 minutes before pulling into the parking lot...
I sent an email to the Director of Procurement.

Subject line: “Dropping by in 10”

Instead of the usual “I’m in the area and wanted to introduce myself”,
I referenced the acquisition and asked a specific question.

He wasn't onsite, but he immediately replied,
and connected me with the person who was.

“I am still here. Give me a call when you get here.”

Ten minutes later, I was having an educated conversation about the acquisition, their operation, and how the integration could affect sourcing.

AI didn't get me a meeting, but it did give me context to earn the conversation.

For field reps, it can eliminate the 30–60 minutes of research that used to be required to walk through a door knowing what you're talking about.

When I began writing this edition, I wasn't trying to write another book about Artificial Intelligence. I wanted to answer a much more important question:

How can sales professionals use AI intentionally to become more effective at every stage of the sales process?

Over the past several years, AI has become one of the most talked-about technologies in business. Unfortunately, many organizations are still asking AI to replace selling rather than improve it.

My experience has been just the opposite.
AI doesn't replace Value Selling. It amplifies it.

The most successful sales professionals will use AI to:
•       Prepare more effectively before customer meetings.
•       Ask better questions during discovery.
•       Develop stronger value propositions.
•       Create more compelling proposals.
•       Coach more consistently.
•       Spend more time selling and less time on administrative work.

But AI only delivers its full potential when it supports a defined, repeatable sales process.

That philosophy is the foundation of this new edition. Throughout the book, I share practical AI prompts and real-world applications that help sales professionals improve productivity while strengthening—not replacing—the human skills that build trust and create customer value.

This book also serves as the foundation for the Value Selling Institute's Value Selling Fundamentals, Sales Process Workshop, AI Accelerator, and advanced commercial development curriculum.

My hope is that readers will finish this book with a simple realization:

AI will not replace salespeople. Salespeople using AI will replace salespeople who don't.

I'd love to hear your perspective.
How is AI changing the way you prepare for and execute customer sales calls?

#ArtificialIntelligence #Sales #ValueSelling #SalesLeadership #SalesTraining #B2BSales #CommercialExcellence #SalesEnablement #AI #ValueSellingInstitute

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Post-sales teams don't struggle because they lack customer data. They struggle because they spend too much time assembling it.

Before every renewal, executive business review, or customer meeting, teams jump between call recordings, CRM records, emails, Slack conversations, and notes just to understand what's happening in an account. Then they still have to turn those insights into plans, presentations, and customer communications.

Gong Assistant changes that by embedding AI directly into the Account Console, so account teams can get answers and take action without leaving their workflow. Instead of searching across systems or switching between tools, teams can ask questions, get trusted answers grounded in real customer interactions, and generate customer-ready deliverables — all from a single conversational experience.

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