☕ A CRO in the know

Two CROs on AI strategy.

June 02, 2026 View Online | Sign Up | Shop Presented By It’s Tuesday. The deal is done, the emails are sent, and then… silence. Meanwhile, your future revenue is quietly being decided. Join us June 9 to learn how to make the first 90 days actually work for you—not against you. In today’s edition: Stay ahead or fall behind? IBM’s new approach AI for in-store experiences —Beck Salgado, Andrew Adam Newman REVENUE STRATEGY & LEADERSHIP Live, laugh, learn Fotografielink/Getty Images Everyone talks about the benefits of AI, wants the benefits of AI, even plans around the benefits of AI, but the revenue org is where experimentation around AI implementation actually happens. CROs are often tasked with creating training grounds for AI adoption at their companies with little to no historic examples on how that should happen. From rethinking the traditional growth equation to reshaping teams around automated work, CROs are learning on the fly. Revenue Brew spoke to two growth executives about best practices for creating effective AI strategies. Solving the AI puzzle: For Matt Diederichs, VP strategic operations at conversation intelligence platform Invoca, AI has made him rethink how he organizes work on his team. He explained that the key is finding the right balance of what humans are good at and what AI is good at—and getting those pieces to work simultaneously. He also added that his role, which sits at the intersection of AI and revenue, offers a potential solution to challenges organizations face when implementing AI. “If you get that wrong, it can be really weird and uncomfortable for everyone, but if you get it right, you end up in a situation where you’re outsourcing the things that we don’t really care if a human is doing to the AI and then using human capital for the important things,” Diederichs said. Leading by example: For Brian Geddes, CRO at AI engagement platform AIQ, a new part of the workday involves setting aside time to experiment. It helps him keep up with new tools, and it allows him to give directive to employees once AI has been deployed. Keep reading about introducing new technology to your team.—BS Sponsored By Outreach Your forecast could use a reality check Are your forecast calls more like guessing games? Staring at a spreadsheet of “maybe” deals, hoping the pipeline materializes? Outreach, the agentic AI revenue platform, was built to put an end to guessing. It doesn’t just track your pipeline; it provides the right insights to drive execution. By turning scattered GTM signals into clear next steps, it transforms your forecast of “hoping you’re right” into a dashboard. Outreach’s AI projection and scenario modeling give you insight into where the period is trending, highlighting won business, pulled-in deals, and critical gaps. Its AI agents coordinate the entire revenue cycle, guiding sellers on the right moves so deals keep momentum and the pipeline can progress more consistently. No more piecing together disconnected tools. Just one unified platform that could boost productivity, tighten forecasts, and deliver more predictable revenue growth. What’s your next forecast? Request a demo. REVENUE OPERATIONS Straight to business Andy Baldwin IBM is a vast and complex business, but it’s currently divided into two large divisions: consulting and software. As AI creates a need for technical expertise, the company has experimented with combining teams. That’s where Andy Baldwin, SVP offerings and growth at IBM Consulting, comes in. He’s in charge of leading growth experiments and also plays a role in crafting IBM’s partnership ecosystem that creates a mix of internal and external software offerings for customers. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. How is IBM thinking about growth in the AI era? We’re recognizing that the buyer behavior is changing in those clients, and we need to be reflecting and adapting to that. I think the CIO, CTO is still incredibly important for technology-centric consulting firms, but actually the other buyers are becoming more important—or as important in certain areas. Our hybrid cloud data and AI business, that’s where I’m expecting to see a lot of the growth…We booked $7 billion last year. Our book of business is probably worth about $12 billion of generative AI. Interestingly, that book is about 45% Watson IBM products; 55% is actually our ecosystem partners. Instead of selling to those technical heads you’re now selling to the CFOs of the world, the HR heads of the world. How do you build strategy around understanding that shift? One of the things we did, which is probably unusual, is we’ve basically taken a number of our functional leaders out of procurement, finance, marketing, HR…and we’re putting them into the consulting business. We’re actually having them work alongside the consultants who are maybe more classically trained consultants, but you’re going in with someone with an incredibly deep subject matter expertise around driving AI in the forecasting, finance close process, because that’s what they've been doing for the last 15 years in IBM. Earlier you mentioned that IBM is having success with its partnership ecosystem, how do you execute those partnerships? We have about 450 ecosystem partners as IBM Consulting, of which, in fairness, probably 12 of them, including IBM tech, account for about 90% of the value, because that’s where the clients are either invested or they are investing today. If there’s a marketplace for that alliance partner, we’ll typically build the assets on their marketplace. Those with [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure], we’ll build our industry or business value assets onto their platforms directly so that they’ll be available for consumption off the marketplace. Keep reading about IBM’s partnership ecosystem here.—BS CUSTOMER SUCCESS Cosmetic differences Endear You won’t find “clienteling” in Merriam-Webster, and to the uninitiated it might seem like jargon for “customer service,” but don’t let anyone at Endear hear you say that. Endear, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that focuses on helping sales associates in physical stores with follow-up messaging, even goes to the trouble of disabusing those who conflate the terms in a blog post. Customer service is largely reactive, responding to issues customers have with returns or undelivered packages, the post explains. But clienteling is proactive and “uses data to anticipate needs, make personal recommendations, and create moments of delight before the customer even has to ask,” Endear wrote. The point of clienteling is not to resolve complaints like the customer service department, the post continues, but rather to “foster a relationship that encourages repeat purchases and turns customers into brand evangelists.” Now Endear is reporting that one of the key aspects of clienteling on its platform—sending personalized messages to customers rather than mass marketing email and text blasts—is gaining traction. Such personalized messages from sales associates in the 2,000-plus stores using the platform grew 50% YoY in the 12 months that ended April 30, per Endear. So how did Endear help boost such messaging, and help drive more repeat purchases and bigger orders for its retail partners? The answer combines the age-old imperative of retailers getting to know their customers better with emerging AI technology that enables them to do so en masse. Keep reading about AI for messaging.—AAN Sponsored By Outreach Predictability matters. Outreach is the agentic AI revenue platform that can turn chaotic pipeline changes into predictable revenue. With AI projection and scenario modeling, leaders can spot gaps early. From prospecting to closing, Outreach’s AI agents help keep deals on track, potentially delivering the visibility you need to hit targets. Watch the webinar. ACTIVE PIPELINE Stat: 40%. That’s the percentage Labubus reportedly made up of Pop Mart’s annual IP revenue last year, which has made some investors nervy. Those nerves might be substantiated as online visits to the retailer’s website have dropped from 2.62 million in June of last year to just 285k in March. (Business Insider) Quote: “We think the single best return that we can have on a dollar capital right now is to invest in the customer and invest in price.”—Walmart CFO John David Rainey (the Wall Street Journal) Read: AI doesn’t have to mean layoffs. (the New York Times) No more surprises: Outreach is the agentic AI revenue platform that could end forecast surprises. By converting pipeline noise into clear signals and AI-driven projections, you get the visibility you need to potentially drive revenue growth.* *A message from our sponsor. ALSO BREWING The Business of Benefits: ‘Recharge Fridays’ at Staffbase (HR Brew) Nearly every employee at Staffbase, an employee experience platform, is out of office each Friday in August. Is the business that’s trying to hire you ready for a CFO? (CFO Brew) Organizations can’t track their finances on vibes alone (unless they’re Enron—and you’ll recall how that worked out). The same goes for deciding when it’s time to hire their first chief of finance. The National Women’s Soccer League is building momentum for brands (Marketing Brew) The league has a new CMO, Rachel Epstein, and CCO, Brian Kelly, who are working to kick audience and sponsor growth up a notch. From social to sales Inbound slowed down but your team doesn’t know how to build outbound? Sales Team Six fixes that: Orchestrate multi-touch outbound campaigns that convert. Master intent signals to find ready buyers. Build repeatable pipeline systems through social, email, and phone. Transform sellers to be human-centric (not spam). 45 days to consistent pipeline without all the headaches. Join Team Six SHARE THE BREW Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag. Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: revenuebrew.com/r/?kid=953893c8 Written by Beck Salgado and Andrew Adam Newman Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. 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