AI as Partner: Replacing Tasks, Not Jobs
The AI-as-replacement debate is pretty much over. What we're seeing now is much more interesting, and important. TLDR - It's a relationship, not a replacement. The most productive GTM leaders and practitioners have built a highly interactive working relationship with AI. They know what it's good at, where it cuts corners, how to give it enough context to be genuinely useful and when to override it entirely. A marketing ops leader I met with last week described it as working with a talented but inexperienced colleague. You invest in figuring them out. You calibrate over time. You give them more responsibility as they earn it. She's managing and deepening a working relationship she's been building for months, that will continue to grow in depth and complexity. We will over time expect more from our AI partners. More complexity, more thoughtfulness, more consistency. It will replace tasks, not jobs. It will replace work, not accountability. The jobs "disappearing" due to AI are more about the task than the accountability. The safe jobs will be those that successfully manage a very fluid and increasingly productive relationship with AI moving forward.
AI Won’t Replace BDRs—It Complements Specific Sales Scenarios
Three years ago, someone told me that BDRs would be extinct by now. The role isn’t remotely dead, of course, but the job has clearly changed significantly. Most teams want a single answer to the “future of BDR” question. Keep...
Multi‑threaded Deals Boost Win Rates by 130%
Single-threaded deals are the biggest risk in your pipeline and to your forecast. You're counting on one person, one champion, to carry your case into a room you never get to see or engage with. Sounds risky to me! And...
Focus AI on Bottlenecks, Not Token‑maximizing Busywork
Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints is still just as relevant in the age of AI. And his theory predicted much of the tension around token budgets happening in corporations worldwide right now. The output of any system is limited by...
Demo-Led Growth Replaces PLG in Complex B2B Buying
Demo-led growth might just be the new PLG. Y’all know how much I hate more acronyms in B2B and “what I’m selling led” anything, but this feels more substantial and there’s data to back it up. Product-led growth worked because...
Tackle Avoided High-Impact Problems for AI Gains
Most AI agent and workflow projects fall into one of three buckets: 1️⃣ Things you're already doing. AI makes them faster, sharper, easier. Real value based on what is already on your list. 2️⃣ Things you haven't been doing. A...
Prioritize Business Friction Over AI for Real Growth
AI is only as good as the problem we put in front of it. And too often, it’s solving countless problems that aren’t big enough. So I’ve been asking marketing leaders to name their ACTUAL biggest problems. The biggest friction...
B2B Attribution Is Dying as Marketers Give Up
B2B attribution was always an impossible task. And finally, marketers and CFOs have simply stopped trying. You’d think a category this hotly and frequently debated would be one B2B marketing leaders actively prioritize and fund. It isn’t. We’ve been watching...
Accepting Compliments Shows True Humility, Not Deflection
Every time someone gives me a genuine compliment, my first instinct is to immediately deflect. "Thank you, but really it was the team." "Appreciate it, but I still have a lot to learn." "I'm just making this up as I...
Recession Forced Focus, Fueled 18-Year Success
I quit my job and started Heinz Marketing Inc in November 2008. In retrospect: one of the better decisions I've ever made. The conditions were objectively terrible in hindsight. The financial crisis was reaching its nadir. My wife was finally...
Skip Resumes, Pitch Solutions Directly to Hiring Managers
Talked this week with a friend's daughter who's been job hunting since a layoff this spring. She asked what actually works to get the attention of and preference from hiring managers. Here's what I told her: Stop submitting resumes. Or...
Adobe's SEMrush Deal Highlights AI‑Driven SEO Shift
Adobe just bought SEMrush. The optimistic take: Adobe finally has a content and search story for the AI era — keyword research, share of voice, content gaps, all integrated into Experience Cloud. The skeptical take: Adobe paid up for the...
AI Tools Cheap; Adoption Fails without Change Management
Too many companies are about to learn that the tools were the cheap part. So many companies are at one or more of these stages already: 🛠️ Organization buys the AI stack. ✂️ Cuts the team that would have actually...
AI Workflow Skills Will Become Table‑stakes—Start Building Now
The people on your team learning to build and manage AI workflows today — in Claude, or whatever tools your org is actually using — aren't early adopters. They're just early. In a few years (if not sooner), managing a...
Personal, Tangible Gestures Outlast Automated B2B Outreach
A few years ago, someone sent me tiki cups. Not branded cups. Not a box with a company logo slapped on the side. Just a set of those fancy ceramic tiki mugs — the kind you’d get at Trader Vic’s...