The way businesses buy has shifted dramatically. Buyers are more informed, expectations are higher, and sales cycles are longer than ever. But here’s the real problem: most companies are stuck using outdated sales processes that weren’t built for today’s market. Doing the things you're supposed to do to fuel growth, but not seeing results - extremely frustrating! While we're talking about alignment, let's also explore aligning your revenue growth strategy with emerging technologies.
What You’ll Get in This Post
This isn’t just another take on AI in sales. It’s a real-world look at how forward-thinking companies are using AI to scale smarter, not harder. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Why AI is no longer optional and how it’s shifting the way we think about sales growth
A real case study of a financial services founder who used AI to transition from founder-led sales to a scalable system
How a Smart Sales Playbook bridges the gap between human expertise and AI-driven efficiency
Sneak Peek: An exclusive clip from my conversation with Jenny from Women X AI on the future of AI in sales and leadership
What you need to do NOW to make sure your revenue engine is built for the future
If you’re leading sales growth at your company, this post is for you.
B2B Sales Has Changed, Has Your Business Kept Up?
More sales hires won’t fix it. A new CRM won’t magically solve alignment issues. And the “just work harder” mentality? That’s a race to burnout, not revenue growth.
The companies winning right now aren’t the ones with the biggest sales teams. They’re the ones using AI to qualify leads, automate nurturing and follow-up, track buyer intent, suggest follow-up emails and tailored discovery questions, research leads - in short, do the busy work.
AI isn’t here to replace salespeople, it’s here to make selling easier.
In today's rapidly evolving B2B landscape, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just an advantage, it's becoming a necessity.
Recent insights reveal that by 2028, 60% of B2B sales interactions will be executed through AI-driven interfaces, a significant leap from less than 5% today. This transformation underscores a pivotal shift: businesses must adapt to AI-enhanced sales strategies or risk falling behind.
AI's role in sales extends beyond automation; it's about amplifying human intelligence to foster deeper customer connections and drive growth. By harnessing AI, companies can streamline processes, personalize buyer engagements, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented accuracy.
Let's explore how a Founder in an industry as conservative as financial services was recently able to achieve previously unthought of goals, with the assistance of AI.
The Founder Who Wanted Growth, But Without Unnecessary Risk
Meet our client (name anonymized), a bootstrapped financial services founder who had built a steady, reliable business over the years. Like many founders, he started with referrals, website leads, and people in his network; classic founder-led sales. He grew his business to an impressive size considering her was the owner, head of operations, head of accounting, head of marketing, and the only salesperson. But there was a problem.
Growth had slowed. He wasn’t losing many clients, but he wasn’t gaining enough new ones either. He had reached the point where he was doing little more than replacing lost clients each year.
And with retirement on the horizon and kids nearing college age, he knew he needed to scale. His goal? Double revenue organically (without making acquisitions.)
Like all smart founders, he knew that the strategies that got him his current success would not give him his next level of success. He knew it was time to hire his first outside salesperson. But he had concerns:
He had never hired a salesperson before. And like all of us, had plenty of unpleasant interactions with salespeople and had heard horror stories from his business friends.
As a financial services founder, he was strong on the operations side but had no experience in sales. He knew he needed to build a process, hire the right person, and ensure they succeeded, but without sales experience he was stuck. Like a lot of founders, fear of making a wrong move, wasting money, and damaging his company's reputation, kept him from making the move he knew was the only next step toward his goals. And then something came across his LinkedIn feed that changed everything.
A Fractional Sales Leader (I think you know her) with experience in his industry, who would work part-time and on a project basis. He engaged in an 18 month project to:
Lay the foundation for scalable sales growth.
Hire the company’s first salesperson (without risking brand reputation).
Train and coach the new hire to self-sufficiency.
Ensure the salesperson could succeed long-term and without constant oversight.
The plan was simple: Get everything in place, coach the salesperson for 12 months, buildout the sales playbook, and transition to founder-led oversight.
But we saw an opportunity to make it even better.
The Smart Sales Playbook: How AI Made Scaling Possible
Rather than relying on manual processes, AI was leveraged from day one. Using insights from both the fractional sales leader and the founder, the foundational processes and the playbook were established in a fraction of the time they used to take with human work alone.
We were sales ready by the salesperson's first day, but we needed a long-term solution. The goal was to get the company's sales program to run independently, but the founder didn't have time to work full-time as a sales manager. The answer? An AI-enabled smart sales playbook.
This wasn’t just a document - it was a living, intelligent system that:
Standardized the sales process so the new hire followed a proven approach.
Provided AI-driven guidance so the founder didn’t have to micromanage.
Automated sales research to free up the salesperson for more strategic work.
Provided discovery strategies so the salesperson focused on the right deals.
Strategized follow-ups so no deal fell through the cracks.
Created real-time coaching insights so the salesperson could improve and work independently.
The result?
The new salesperson ramped up and gained confidence faster than expected.
The business was set up to scale beyond founder-led sales.
The founder felt confident stepping away from day-to-day sales.
The fractional sales leader was able to step aside ahead of schedule.
Instead of 18 months, the foundation was solid months ahead of plan.
This is what AI-enabled sales alignment looks like. It’s not about replacing people; it’s about removing friction and making growth predictable.
What This Means for You
If you’re a founder struggling with slow growth, long sales cycles, or the challenge of transitioning from founder-led sales to a scalable sales team, here’s what you need to know:
Good salespeople are out there and you can find them.
A flashy hotshot salesperson won't be able to scale your company on their own.
The successful transition from founder-led sales is a long process, AI and automation will help.
If you don’t make the move, you’ll stay stuck.
But companies that embrace AI to streamline their sales process will win. Those that don’t? They’ll keep throwing money at the same problems without seeing real growth.
The choice is clear:
Align your teams, shorten sales cycles, and scale predictably with AI.
Or keep fighting against inefficiencies while your competitors move faster.
AI isn’t the future of sales, it’s the present. If you’re not using it to remove friction in your sales process, you’re already behind. And if you're already using it, is it built into your strategy, do you have policies around safe use, are you aligning with your buyer preferences? Gartner research shows that B2B buyers still value a knowledgeable and trustworthy salesperson who builds and maintains a relationship after the sale is completed.
The right approach for AI in B2B sales is to strike a balance between gen AI and automation, and human intelligence, intuition and connection. AI + HI = the recipe for success.
Want to see how AI-powered alignment could transform your sales cycle? Let’s chat.
Sneak Peek: How AI is Reshaping Growth & Leadership
I recently sat down with Jenny Kay Pollock, Fractional CMO and Co-CEO / Co-Founder of Women X AI. Want to know one of my secrets? I follow B2C leaders because they're currently working on the ideas that will filter their way into the B2B market a few years from now.
Jenny lives and works in some of the most innovative spaces in the world, and this conversation with her was very inspiring. It drops later this week, but you get a sneak peek.
This is a must-listen for any founder looking to scale smarter. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the full episode.
Final Thoughts: The Future of Sales is Here. Are You Ready?
The integration of AI into B2B sales is no longer a futuristic concept. The companies that win in the next five years won’t be the ones with the biggest sales teams. They’ll be the ones that build smarter, more efficient revenue engines; where AI and automation do the busy work and free up your sales talent to focus on their superpowers.
The founder in our case study made a choice: keep grinding away with founder-led sales and slow growth, or embrace a system that could scale beyond him. He chose to evolve. And because of that, his business is now growing faster than ever, without adding unnecessary risk or overhead.
And that’s the real takeaway: AI isn’t replacing great sales teams, it’s making them unstoppable.
So, ask yourself: Ready to stop guessing and start growing? Book a quick chat with me and I'll give you one actionable insight.
Next Steps:
Here’s your next move:
Listen to the episode featuring Jenny Kay Pollock, Co-founder or Women X AI.
Read my predictions for what the future-focused business owner will master in 2025
Explore how I can help you achieve your next-level goals.
Let’s make sure you’re on the right side of that equation. If you’re serious about scaling revenue the right way, let’s talk. Book a call with me and let’s start building your AI-powered growth engine today.
Rise of Us is a practice run by Summer Poletti, specializing in revenue growth: sales, strategic partnerships, customer success, marketing alignment. We generally work with financial services and SaaS companies from $3MM - $10MM ARR and help them plan and execute for their next stage of revenue growth. We concentrate on strategy, coaching, and organizational alignment.
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