Doug is wearing the greatest logo of all time – the Milwaukee Brewers, Jess doesn’t know who the starting lineup for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds is, and surprisingly this episode is NOT about baseball.
Nor is it about math or the Pythagorean Theorem. Bet you didn’t think you’d ever hear that one again since Algebra.
This episode is all about opening a can of worms with revenue intelligence and how it impacts RevOps. AI is a hot topic currently, revenue intelligence is part of that and Jess thought it would be timely.
Audio:
Video:
Additional Resources:
[RevOps Show] Episode 49: Beware the Hidden Dangers of Automation
Show Notes:
Note: Doug and Jess are looking at a third-party article on revenue intelligence which Doug points out is a great example of creating an article for SEO purposes.
What’s the definition of Revenue Intelligence?
Forrester describes revenue intelligence solutions as, “those that capture human engagement activity between buyers and sellers and automatically update that data to CRM platforms. It analyzes the information to uncover actionable insights, provide dynamic guidance, and supply inputs on deal management, forecasting, and other revenue-generating activities.”
Jess saw in a lot of places that implementing revenue intelligence into your RevOps strategy is critical. Is that true?
Doug would agree that it’s true.
Why does he feel this way?
If you have no insight or intelligence for how you generate revenue and no insight for how to improve the generation of revenue, then you’re a sailboat without a sail…or at least without any steering.
As a general rule, you should not strive to be stupid about your revenue operations strategy or your growth strategy.
Doug has a few issues with the definition of revenue intelligence.
1. Forrester’s definition would be better as a definition for revenue intelligence technology because technology enables solutions.
2. Forrester created that definition more than likely because they were paid to do a research or content project by a revenue intelligence application.
The problem Doug has with AI in general right now is that it’s very heavily solutions trying to create problems.
Did you know there is no data you can use from the future today?
All data you can use is from the past so you have to optimize for the past.
To Doug revenue intelligence reels of manufactured antiques.
1. You can’t influence intent in the short term
2. You start to optimize for intent
With automated revenue intelligence, we become efficient, but we lose resilience.
A concern Doug has with a lot of these things coming out is it replaces the thinking. Some automation tries to eliminate busy work. Conversational AIs are promising:
- They record the call
- They notate the call
This is great because on one hand doing simple functions is busy work. On the other hand, the process of deciding what you’re going to notate or transfer is valuable.
If you write something by hand your understanding of it and your memory of it are 20 times better than if you type it into a computer. Why? It’s an active process that triggers the communication part of your brain.
Who has good revenue intelligence systems?
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Amazon
Why is Doug bringing these up? They all laid off at least 5% of their organizations. It was their revenue intelligence telling them to hire.
Where revenue intelligence is valuable is not what makes it saleable. Revenue intelligence is a methodology and process for thinking and setting hypotheses.
You have to be super purposeful about how you implement revenue intelligence. Sometimes it’s presented as the magic wand to sales. It’s not. It’s a tool in your toolbox that can help optimize, improve, and enhance.
Next Steps:
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Follow Jess, Doug & Imagine on socials for updates on the show or other insights:
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Doug Davidoff: Twitter - @dougdavidoff | LinkedIn
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Jess Cardenas: Twitter - @JessDCardenas | LinkedIn
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Imagine Business Development: Twitter - @DemandCreator | LinkedIn
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Check out Let's Play RevOps on Twitch for more commentary on this topic