Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

Most marketing plans:

- Start with channels and tactics (syndication, events, SEO, ads, outbound, newsletter...)
- Layer in content and copywriting to "match the audience"
- Run campaigns 
- Measure results based on CPL, MQL

Then wonder why the leads aren’t converting. 

Marketing built the full-funnel way: 

1. FOUNDATION

- Ideal Customer Profile: Priority use-cases and clusters, firmographics and technographics, (dis)qualification criteria, account segmentation & prioritization and buying committee structure
- Buyer journey: where and how they learn, discover and buy a solution like yours
- Messaging, value proposition, content strategy
- Alignment of GTM teams (on KPIs, ICP, buyer journey, messaging and content strategy)

2. FULL-FUNNEL ARCHITECTURE 

Evergreen, consistent programs across the full-funnel to: 
- Drive brand awarnes with out-of-market buyers on places where they hang out and learn 
- Sow the seeds and generate demand by providing solutions to their priority challenges
- Capture the demand (both inbound on high-intent channels, and allbound in collaboration with sales)
- Accelerate demand capture and pipeline for high-value accounts 
- Drive customer success and expansion
- Never stop nurturing 

If you ignore one of them, you either: 
a) Squeeze out maximum of in-market accounts and sacrifice future pipeline
b) Create "engagement" that isn't converting to revenue
c) Deal with a huge churn and the need to re-compensate revenue with new customers

3. INFRASTRUCTURE 

- Dedicated, aligned, cross-functional teams with clear responsibilites
- Documented, repeatable playbooks 
- Lean tech stack with clear owners
- Key metrics and reports 
- Revenue and marketing ops 

4. TACTICS AND DELIVERY 

- Tactics (social, podcast, ads, outbound, events...)
- Content, copywriting, creatives

--- 

How and where you deliver your marketing message matters. 

But if that message isn’t landing — or converting?

The issue is usually deeper:
- Shaky foundations
- Misaligned teams
- Missing programs

If you notice cracks, check the foundation and structure first.

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

Here's why so many good CMOs get fired. 

Leadership wants:
- faster results
- bigger numbers
- cheaper acquisition 

...all of that at once. 

This short-term ROI pressure pushes CMOs to do what gets measured: 

When forced to choose under pressure, CMOs are 5X likely to pick demand over brand. 
(recent study by Jon Miller, Ray Rike /Benchmarkit, Bill Macaitis and Carilu Dietrich). 

But this creates a structural problem.

- We put all our effort into meeting this quarter's number
- We don't invest in long term programs that build awareness and trust 

A few quarters later, the pipeline dries up. 

The numbers back this up: we're spending $2.00 to acquire $1.00 of net-new ARR. And the CAC payback time has been constantly increasing by 12.5% at median since 2022 (Pavilion).

Why is this happening? 

Leadership still believes that marketing is like a gumball machine: you put in $ and get $$ out (credit: Jon Miller). 

We know that reality is different: 
- Non-linear, complex buying journeys
- Early influence matters: more than 80% of buyers short list products they discovered before the buying process

But our attribution hides the early influence, and the "credit" goes to the last touch was before the deal, which reinforces the gumball machine thinking. 

So, without clear attribution to early and middle-funnel activities, leadership doubles down on short-term ROI.

And when the pressure doesn't bring results, CMOs get fired. 

The cycle repeats. 

--- 

As long as we stay in this loop, things won't change. 

But ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch is not an option either. No leadership will support it. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution. 

It all starts with a small-scoped pilot: 
- No new hires, a small cross-functional team 
- No extra budget, scoped down to a small set of accounts we have 'the right to win'
- Attribution: the team gets the credits for the pipeline created 
- The main goal is not volume, but effectiveness. By working together, from awareness to pipeline, that we can turn a higher % of high-value accounts into deals

If you want to dive into the weeds, join Andrei Zinkevich and me during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

Here is how full-funnel marketing balances short-term ROI pressure with long-term brand programs:

Pre-conditions:

-Setting up a cross-functional team
-Repurposing what's been created
-Joint planning and accountability
-Agreement with leadership on allbound attribution

Short-term solutions:

-Developing account prioritization model with sales: account engagement level, signals, account sourcing, revenue potential, relationship with buying committee group, product need evidence
-Working on deal acceleration (1:1 account plans) and buyer enablement for early-stage pipeline
-Prepare personalized content hubs and content
-Set up account retargeting ads using demand capture budget

Balancing short-term ROI with long-term brand programs:

-Repurposing existing content for thought leadership / Enabling sales rep to share content
-Boosting top-performing content with thought leadership ads to target account list
-Define and capture engagement signals
-Co-create webinar narrative together with sales
-Promote webinar via partners, communities and ads
-Set up weekly meetings inviting RevOps and CS to discuss:

* Captured signals and account insights
* Planning next steps with the engaged accounts
* Planning content

-Set up post-webinar content hub, tracking content engagement, and planning next activation steps

Track:

-Engaged strategic accounts (highlight strategic accounts sales tried to engage, but never got a reply)
-Brand metrics
-Accelerated deals
-New pipeline opportunities
-Total ALLBOUND pipeline value/revenue

This "bare minimum" model enables you to show real pipeline influence while setting up fundamentals for long-term brand programs:

✅ Creating awareness of the invisible 95%
✅ Nurturing the buying committees early 
✅ Building credibility in peer networks (where real decisions happen)
✅ Co-creating account prioritization and engagement with sales
---
Most marketing teams are trapped in a brutal false choice: hit quarterly numbers or build long-term brand value.

Leadership screams for pipeline NOW. Brand programs take months to show impact. 

The "default" marketing function:

❌ Receive pipeline targets from leadership
❌ Spread budget across "demand gen" and "demand capture"
❌ Publish generic blog articles for SEO
❌ Host product-pitching webinars
❌ Hand over "leads" to sales

This playbook optimizes for the 5% of accounts actively buying TODAY while completely ignoring:

- What gets you into the consideration set of that 5%
- What creates the pre-conditions for deals to happen
- What actually influences buying decisions

But the result is always the same: being blamed for lack of revenue contribution and not enough pipeline.

The only way to get out: balancing real short-term pipeline results with long-term brand programs.

But it requires you connecting the dots between different activities across the buyer journey through cross-functional collaboration.

---
We'll share a deep dive at our Full-Funnel Summit: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How to survive as a B2B CMO, and drive revenue in 2026 
- a year of AI and long sales cycles? 

(14 masterclasses by 17 B2B leaders)

1. Use AI to drive real results, not "do more with less"

Learn how to:

- Use AI workflows at every stage of the ABM funnel with Steve Armenti (who built the program generating $2B+ in pipeline at Google)

- Redesign your marketing operating model as an AI-native CMO with Tim Rutten

- Turn AI-powered account scoring and hyper-personalized messaging into actual pipeline with Leanne Chescoe

2. Win long and complex sales cycles 

Leadership wants faster results, bigger numbers, and cheaper acquisition—all of that at once. But buying cycles have lengthened, budgets are tighter, and market noise is deafening. 

Learn how to:

- Build a B2B marketing playbook purpose-built for long sales cycles with Andrei Zinkevich and yours truly 

- Create GTM Focus Cycles that translate ambitious revenue plans into clear, executable priorities with Ashley Lewin

- Drive predictable pipeline in a chaotic market through orchestration and culture with Matt Heinz

3. Create content that stands out in AI noise and builds trust before the sale 

Buyers evaluate your credibility before they ever talk to sales. Most content teams are still producing for clicks, not trust.

Learn how to:

- Build a content flywheel that compounds over time instead of burning out your team with Sara Stella Lattanzio and Diandra Escobar

- Become famous in your niche and attract business through LinkedIn video and organic distribution with Tycho Luijten

- Create ads for boring products that actually stand out, with Shlomo Genchin

4. Sell like a human in a world of automation 

AI has made it easier to scale outreach. It's also made it easier to be ignored.

Learn how to:

- Practice human-first social selling when AI is accelerating faster than any previous technology shift, with Lauren Goodell

- Use human-centered marketing in the age of AI to evolve the buyer's journey from a funnel into a playground with Ashley Faus

5. Prove the ROI and get budget for long-term programs 

The pressure to show attribution has never been higher. The tools to do it honestly have never been better.

Learn how to:

- Crush LinkedIn Ads in 2026 and prove it to leadership with Justin Rowe

- Run account-based revenue programs that tie directly to bookings with Davis Potter

--- 

B2B teams have a choice in 2026.

Keep running volume plays in a market where buyers are already overwhelmed, skeptical, and using AI to filter out noise faster than you can produce it.

Or learn from practitioners who have figured out what actually works.

All sessions are live.  Don't miss it: 

https://lnkd.in/eD7JZXxT

Here is how AI is ACTUALLY being used by 44 enterprise marketing leaders: 8 new use-cases. 

1. REPLICATE SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS

Proven patterns + target market insights = replicating success. 

“We’ve been building AI-based tools to duplicate ABM campaigns, and they seem to be working well so far” — Kayleigh Duggan.

2. EMBED IN WORKFLOWS 
“The real play is embedding AI into workflows that already solve real problems. 

Start with: what’s slowing us down today? 

Some of the strongest use cases are unsexy but powerful: keeping CRMs up to date, hygiene no one wants to do, layering in insights from calls, lead qualification, personalization, and research.” 

- Sara Stella Lattanzio (biweekly expert-tested AI workflows at The Workflow).

3. SALES COACHING

“I built ‘MarkGPT’ to analyze transcripts from won vs lost deals. It confirms patterns, surfaces new insights, and provides live coaching on active deals — flagging risks like missing an economic buyer or suggesting objection handling.” — Sam Kuehnle, Loxo

4. MARKETING OPERATIONS

“Our ‘secret’ AI MarOps tool that not many people know about is Jigso.ai, which I think more companies should try.” — Ruth Favela, Tomorrow.io

5. EVENT FOLLOW UP

“We added an AI SDR that is booking meetings and running pre- and post-event follow-up.” — Carrina Ekvall, Recurly

6. ADAPTIVE NURTURING

“We use dynamic sequences: depending on engagement, the next step changes.” — Lujan Quintero, PSignite

7. QUALIFY & PROGRESS LEADS FASTER

“One of the most meaningful uses of AI we’ve found is in lead qualification and funnel progression. AI assistants engage earlier, ask smart questions, and route prospects faster. The result is higher-quality pipeline, improved conversion rates, and shorter sales cycles.” — Nicole Gates, Varonis

8. CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

“Where I’ve seen AI make a real impact is in conversion, not just production. For example, improving outreach using decision triggers.” — Sheri Otto, Redwood Software

The most common use-case: ENRICH ACCOUNTS, PRIORITIZE & PERSONALIZE AT SCALE

For example, “Research accounts & create messaging tied to their needs for 1:1 messaging at scale.” — Matt Dowis, OPEX Corporation

Other notable patterns:
- CREATE ACCOUNT CLUSTERS BY PAIN POINTS
- USE SALES & CUSTOMER CALLS TO TUNE STRATEGY & MESSAGING
- OPTIMIZE FOR THE NEW SEARCH FRONTIER (SEO → AEO)
- AUTOMATE BUYING SIGNALS CAPTURE
- ACCELERATE MARKET RESEARCH

Special thanks to the Dealfront team, especially Jamie Pagan and Simone Schiavo - for such a rich contribution. 

---

Without a clear strategy, AI just helps you produce more of the wrong thing faster.

Sara said it best: “If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing lazy prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity.”

But more and more teams successfully embed AI into a GTM. 


During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI in real B2B Companies

Here's the pattern every CMO recognizes.

You're pressured to pour everything into hitting this quarter's number. You squeeze every last drop from the existing pipeline and demand. 

By meeting this quarter's number, you've depleted next quarter's pipeline. You didn't get to invest in the activities that build awareness and trust six to nine months out.

And leadership happily raises the bar. 

We're trapped in a system that punishes long-term thinking but demands long-term results.

"I'll survive this quarter, show ROI, and next quarter will be better."

No, it won't. That's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The cost of non-strategic decisions compounds: 

1. ATTRIBUTION

65% of CMOs struggle proving marketing's revenue and pipeline contribution. This is the reality of last touch-attribution. 

Deals take months, sometimes years. Buyers might read your content, attend an event, see you on LinkedIn, talk to a partner, and only then reach out to sales.

But in the CRM, all that early influence disappears. The "credit" goes to the last touch before the deal.

Instead, consider a blend of self-attribution, account-based attribution, and customer interviews. Look for qualitative signals, not just quantitative ones.

2. PROGRAMS

Jon Miller's research: "when faced with budget cuts, marketing leaders are 5X more likely to protect demand gen budget than brand.

Odd, given 73% of companies agree that brand investment is a long-term investment that makes demand generation more efficient."

Instead, we need programs that balance long-term brand awareness, future pipeline development, and this quarter's goals

3. TEAMS

In most B2B orgs, there's a lack of cross-functional collaboration with sales.

Even with best intentions to work together, misaligned incentives get in the way. 

But without an orchestrated effort across GTM teams, it becomes impossible to influence the complete buyer journey. 

4. TECH/AI

Leadership hears "AI" and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

Yes, we can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and "personalize" at scale.

But all we're doing is scaling tactics that didn't work in the first place. 

Instead, AI should scale processes we have proven and refined through many iterations:
- Pilot → document & refine → train AI 
- Show AI what 'good looks like' with examples of high-quality output (quality benchmarks)
- Use deep insights and research about the target ICP segment as input for AI

---

The way out? 

1. Strong fundamentals (brand narrative, differentiation, positioning, ICP, buyer journey...)⠀
2. Full-funnel programs: awareness → demand capture → pipeline → Buyer enablement→ CS & expansion
3. Balanced time horizons 

Understand customers. Shape the journey. Build brands buyers choose.


If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

"I have $20k budget. How many leads do you guarantee?"
Sorry, what is called "demand gen" today is a rotten, broken marketing playbook that costs CMOs their jobs.

Old school demand gen aka waterfall marketing indoctrinated B2B companies that there is a predictable revenue model:

-Design gated content
-Run ads and send cold marketing emails aka "nurturing"
-Capture MQLs
-Handover to sales
-Analyze MQL to SQL conversion rate
-Figure out which channel generates more MQLs at lower CAC
-Calculate how many MQLs do you need to hit revenue targets based on the current conversion rate
-Request budget

B2B companies and VCs loved the idea of predictable revenue so much, so they completely recreated GTM around the new broken model.

The core of the new model:

Marketing & sales control the buyer journey and can push buyers.

This immediately widened the definition of target addressable market (TAM) and made companies forget about ICP.

Faster. Predictable. Scalable.

And within this nonsense we started seeing how B2B CMOs tenure is plummeting to 16 months in 2025.

I once attended a meeting where Head of ABM at a well-known (63k+ employees) B2B company presented to head of demand gen of one vertical team the idea of a cross-functional program.

The first thing she heard:

I don't have time for this. I can give you $20k for air cover. How many leads do you guarantee?

We must stop it.

The only way to generate B2B revenue for enterprise products is shifting to revenue marketing.
---

We invited Matt Heinz, who has been advocating for it for a long time, to join us, and other 15 B2B marketing leaders on our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

What is ABM?
How out industry completely messed it up.

It all started with ABM platforms selling the enterprise pipeline miracle:

-Buy an ABM platform
-Get a list of dream accounts from sales
-Launch programmatic display ads
-Build dynamic landing pages where the account name and logo will be automatically changed based on the domain or IP
-Create personalized outbound cadences

Easy to launch. 100% measurable. 0 work from sales.

The hype was picked up by many marketing agencies with junior marketers who NEVER had an experience of working, selling, or even talking to Enterprise B2B buyers.

They saw a new "predictable revenue model" that could be labeled as a high-ticket service. You just need to sound smart.

Technically, what I described above can be defined as ABM, because the accounts and the personalization is there.

The problem?

It's very different from how enterprise B2B buyers buy.

The facilitation of that model created a false expectation that ABM is 100% marketing initiative where sales, product, CS, and subject-matter experts should do nothing.

It 100% matched executive expectations because it is just a small upgrade of a lead gen program their company ran for the last decade.

It doesn't require any change management, while in reality it does!

ABM is a cross-functional program that requires significant change management:

- Having an engaged marketing leader who is willing to drive change.

- Incorporating ABM in your Go-To-Market strategy, not creating a new, siloed function

- Structuring teams from horizontal silos to cross-functional operations: marketing, content, client success, sales (SDRs and AEs), subject-matter experts & product

- Changing KPIs from MQls and SQLs to account engagement, penetration, progression, pipeline value, velocity, and revenue, and ask both teams to track them regularly

- Adjusting sales processes to run account research, full buying committee mapping and regular engagement, leveraging marketing initiatives and content for nurturing, using 1st party and 3rd party signals to add value to the conversations and facilitate opportunity creation

- Readjusting content strategy from "SEO-first" to "buyer needs first"

- Investing A LOT in brand awareness by engaging industry thought leaders, communities and partners via educational thought leadership programs

- Creating account plans based on 1st party research insights, not generic GPT research

- Having regular planning and review meetings

The success of ABM lies not in your stack or budget, but in making necessary changes, setting up cross-functional teams, adjusting their KPIs, and enabling them to focus on meaningful account engagements.



If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How seasoned B2B leaders deploy AI to scale revenue instead of broken playbooks. 
Problems + solutions + the underlying framework. 

PROBLEMS

1. Tragedy of the commons

We can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and “personalize” at scale.

The result? 

Jon Miller said it best: "every prospect now receives content specifically IRRELEVANT to them" 

We're just teaching buyers to ignore us faster.

"Marketers will use and then abuse any tactic until it becomes ineffective", said Jon.

2. The expectation gap

Leadership hears “AI” and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

But reality's different: 

“AI still requires quality data, strategic direction, and human judgment. Without alignment to pipeline metrics, it becomes just another shiny object” - Hanna Kvamme.

3. Hidden taxes

Review Tax: “AI made content faster, but shifted the bottleneck to senior reviewers. Reviewing takes twice as long” - Giorgia Guantario. 

Learning Tax: "On top of everything marketing is responsible for, we are now also responsible for figuring out AI" - Briana (Manrique) Casey.

Raised Bar Tax: "I thought it would free up time for strategic, creative work. Instead, it's increased the pressure to deliver more, faster" (Tarek Fayed)

4. Strategy vacuum → more work, not less

Many companies are deploying AI without a clear strategy.

"If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity" (Sara Stella Lattanzio)

And this creates more work, not less: "Without a clear strategy, AI can feel like another demand instead of a time-saver" (Mindy Johnson)

SOLUTIONS

1. Tie AI to GTM outcomes, not output volume

"AI works best when tied to GTM outcomes like conversion rates, sales velocity, or deal size" (Kathleen Booth)

2. Scale what’s proven

Prompt AI with detailed playbooks based on processes you've proven: Pilot → refine → document → prompt.

Real processes augmented by AI: 
- Cluster accounts by pain points (Stuart Coulton)
- Research account insights & signals (Tim Rutten)
- Qualify & progress leads faster (Nicole Gates)
- Sales live coaching on active deals (Sam Kuehnle)
…

3. Use deep ICP research & transcripts as input

Request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language. 

4. Show AI what good looks like with examples of high-quality output

5. Build detailed quality checklists

It's always fun to see AI evaluate its own results, back-paddle & fix its own work. 

--- 

Most B2B leaders aren’t struggling with AI.

They're asked for faster results and bigger numbers... with growing cycles, lower budgets, higher CACs & a deafening noise. 

During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI That Scales Revenue (not broken playbooks)

Not all types of intent are created equal: 

𝟏. 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"I want to be better at my job"

Buying intent: -/low.

Example journey:

1. I'm interested in up-skilling myself, learn the best practices and industry trends
2. I discover good content from a brand, and start following them 
3. I read something very relevant for our situation, and start binging on the related content
4. I get curious about your solution, and check it out
5. I may even reach out to you for a demo in order to understand how it works, and the potential benefits for our brand 
6. I might even try to sell it internally, but quickly realise this is not a priority 
7. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟐. 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We need a solution to a high priority problem"

Buying intent: +-/medium.

Example journey:

1. Something happens in our business that shifts our priorities to solving a specific challenge
2. I start exploring solutions, by searching, asking my network, in niche Sclak groups 
3. I discover your content our your brand (e.g. someone recommends it)
4. I explore your solution multiple times, and have internal discussions with my team 
5. Since it seems like it might be the right type of solution, I may reach out to you for a demo, so that I can uderstand it better
6. Meanwhile, we're exploring alternatives 
7. We decide we can solve it intenally, or to go for a different solution category 
8. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟑. 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We want a solution like yours"

Buying intent: +/high.

Example journey: 

1-6: same as for (2.)

7. I evaluate you as a vendor 

8.a) Bad fit: I remove you from a consideration set and start ghosting you
8.b) Good fit: you end up on the short list 

9. I try to build an internal consensus 
10. We review our needs and purchase criteria, and the available alternatives 
11. I introduce you to my colleagues and we dive deeper 

12.a) We decide a competitor is a good fit
12.b) We agree that we: 
- Understand the total cost , and we believe this investment would yield a significant return
- Expect impact Y within Z time 
- Have a clear plan, right people and infrastructure to implement the solution
- Understand the change management required and feel confident we will be able to do it
- Understand the main risks, and have a plan for a proof of concept to de-risk our decision. 

13. You are vetted by our procurement department 

--- 

Not every intent signal is the same. Not even all the hand raisers are ready to buy from you. 

Study previous deals, identify the red flags and the real buying signals. 

Translate those into criteria and questions you need to ask during the buying process. 

But, the fact that someone was not ready to buy right now, doesn't mean they won't become ready in the coming quarters. 

Never. Stop. Nurturing.

If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei Zinkevich and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

An AI question we got from the CMO of a $300 mil SaaS company: 
"Which parts of ABM will get automated, and which parts are the real human IP?"

Great question. Here's what Andrei Zinkevich and me told him.

What AI can do well:

1. Account research - once you know what information matters and what's noise, where to find it, how to use it - and have a benchmark of what good looks like
2. Account love letters and personalized outreach — once you have a good format, examples and insights
3. Content creation — if you feed it proprietary frameworks and real knowledge, it can generate solid drafts.
4. Signal detection - once you know which signals matters, and how to act on them

None of that is where the value is anymore.

Where the real IP lives: 

senior profiles with in-depth knowledge, relationships and planning. 

1. Senior profiles 

The quality and seniority of people becomes even more important with AI, not less.
- Subject matter expertise 
- Customer knowledge - especially being in contact with customers regularly and knowing what lives in the industry NOW 
- Knowing what good looks like - including empathy for what customers will consider superficial dribble vs real insight
- Deep understanding of the complete (ABM) process

For example, we could only generate useful AI drafts after we had 
- Clearly defined the ICP through dwon & loss deal analysis and in-depth workshops with SMEs and AEs who talk to customers daily 
- Understood the specific challenges of a narrow segment (e.g. $1B+ industrial manufacturers with export dominant business)
- Integrated deep subject matter expertise their head of strategy, founder and their CMO have built over the last 20+ years

Without that work, we'd end up with b.s. buyers would ignore. 

2. Relationships

You can use AI to write tons of LinkedIn comments and connect to people 'personally', but that would be fake and negatively impact everyone. 

Multi-threading, genuine engagement (not standard automated emails) and relationship building (people-to-people) are the key.

3. Strategic planning

The cross-functional workshops are where the magic happens. Bringing together people from product, sales, and marketing means everyone looks at buyer personas and jobs-to-be-done from different angles. 

This produces an unbiased, multi-angle narrative that no AI can replicate on its own.

For example, when a team member suggested specific outomated outreach for DACH, the AE pushed back saying certain approaches wouldn't resonate culturally. That kind of nuance only comes from human judgment in a collaborative setting.

--- 

You'll probably need fewer people. But more senior ones.

The job changes, but critical thinking, discernment, and deep market knowledge become THE differentiators. 

Those are precisely the qualities hardest to find in people.

And they're what matters most in an AI-augmented world.

Account score is the new MQL. A metric that gives your team false confidence that the account is sales-ready. But by the time sales reach out, you already lost. Here's the fundamental problem:

The account score tracks 1st party interactions and 3rd party signals (hiring, funding, exec interviews, etc.). But it completely ignores:

- Relationship
- Vendor awareness
- Product need evidence

Marketing and sales wait until the account hits an engagement threshold to act on it, ignoring that:

- It might be too late. You're evaluated as vendor #5 and as a backup if the first 4 options won't be a fit.
- The score could be driven by irrelevant contact or signals (I've seen this a couple of times)
- The engagement behind the signals doesn't mean the buying intent.

The utopian idea behind the account scoring is that when an account reaches a certain score:

- Marketing did their job of creating awareness
- Sales should start outreach

There is no system. Sales just do the standard outbound, maybe, a bit more personalized. But the problem is: buyers don’t know them, and there is a completely different level of intent (e.g. just to learn, not to select the vendor).

It's very similar to the ugly and broken MQL handover playbook we all are fed up with.

We've replaced account scoring with account prioritization framework that groups accounts into three buckets by likelihood of creating a sales opportunity with them this quarter:

1) Cluster ICP: <5%. Cold accounts that don't know us and we don't know if they are in the market. 

Goal: Engage Champions and create internal awareness.

2) Future pipeline: <30%. Accounts with early engagement but unknown product need evidence. 

Goal: build a relationship with the buying committee, validate buyer journey stage and product need evidence. 

3) Active focus: > 30%. Accounts with the relationship and known need. 

Goal: Create a personalized solution and generate an opportunity.

Each bucket requires a different engagement strategy where both marketing and sales:

- Define the level of intent behind the signal
- Create marketing and sales playbooks aligned with the level of intent
- Run personalized engagement with Future Pipeline and Active Focus accounts to boost internal awareness and facilitate nurturing

I just finished reading Influ2 research about contact-level ABM. Two fascinating facts:

1) Group decision carries the most weight when selecting a vendor. But if you look at who raises most objections, you immediately see IT and finance. 

The takeaway: if you are not doing multithreading, you drastically decrease your chances to win the deal.

2) Even a simple personalized marketing air cover to the contacts sales are targeting uplifts pipeline conversion by 118%:

2.44% meetings booked rate with 1 click and 15+ impressions compared to 1.40% without ad exposure.

The report + how to orchestrate ABM at the contact level is here: https://lnkd.in/edT9kdWX

Most CMOs know the short-term B2B playbook is broken - but it’s the only type of program the leadership accepts. 

Here's how to get buy-in for long-term full-funnel programs.

PROBLEM BUY-IN

1. Map and engage internal buyers
- Identify and interview key stakeholders about their challenges and priorities, and their experience as B2B buyers
- Start creating problem awareness and nurturing stakeholders by sharing best practices, anecdotes and asking questions
- Identify change agents across client-facing teams, they will help you co-create the pilot and are candidates for your future a cross-functional pilot team

2. Collect evidence that the current playbook is broken
- Analyze where the revenue is coming from and the characteristics of top revenue-generating, strategic accounts 
- Analyze performance of the current programs both in terms of pipeline and revenue generation, but also in how effective they are in generating deals with strategic accounts 

3. Show that the problem is worth solving now
- Connect the problem to leadership's top business priority
- Show the cost of doing nothing

SOLUTION BUY-IN

1. Diagnose root causes and define measurable requirements
- Run a full-funnel GTM audit across 12 key areas to identify what's working, what's not, and how challenges connect to each other
- Bring your change agents into the process — share your findings, get their input, and co-create requirements: what needs to improve, why, and how you'll measure it
- Define a small-scope pilot program to try a new program (without budget increase or additional resources, using the current marketing and sales mix)

2. Align on the approach. Prepare to defend four core requirements for high ACV and long sales cycles:
- Efficiency over volume: show that strategic accounts drive most revenue, calculate the current account-to-pipeline ratio and present the comparison between the current playbook and the more efficient approach you're proposing
- Document the actual buyer journey for your best deals to show the multi-touch journey across different channels that’s required (and the mismatch with the current approach)
- Run the CFO quiz to get agreement that last-click attribution doesn't reflect the reality of complex, multi-touch deals
- Make the case for a cross-functional pilot team with allbound attribution and aligned incentives

3. Get the approval
- Create a pilot project memo: challenges, cost of inaction, high-level pilot plan, expected results, team structure, risks, and a clear ask
- Present it to leadership and formally ask to approve the pilot

---

It might feel that the only path forward requires ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch. New systems, new metrics, new team structures.

But no leadership will support it. Revolutions get marketing leaders fired. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution of your marketing mix and how your team works.

And it starts with these two buy-ins.

Helen Yu

CEO @Tigon Advisory Corp. | Host of CXO Spice | Board Director |Top 50 Women in Tech | AI, Cybersecurity, FinTech, Insurance, Industry40, Growth Acceleration

I'm passionate about human-AI amplification rather than replacement.As the founder &amp; CEO of Tigon Advisory, I help tech companies multiply growth through responsible AI, cybersecurity, IoT, supply chain, and CX strategies. Offering CXO-as-a-service in digital transformation, risk management, GTM, and thought leadership. Clients include NVIDIA, Salesforce, Microsoft, Cisco and innovative startups in Cybersecurity, SaaS, Fintech, etc. Also serve as board director and VC advisor on ethical tech and governance. Credentials include cybersecurity certification from MIT Sloan, MBA from Loyola University Chicago, WSJ/Amazon bestselling author ("Ascend Your Start-Up"), keynote speaker, and host of CXO Spice podcast where I explore leadership in emerging tech.On LinkedIn, my daily posts (300+ in 2025, 136k+ reactions, 38k+ comments) share practical insights on ethical AI scaling, voice agents, bias mitigation, and building trust in human-AI teams.I'm passionate about mentoring the next generation, especially women and underrepresented leaders in tech.If you're shaping responsible AI strategies, navigating cyber risks in AI, or debating amplification vs. automation, let's connect. Comment below, share your take, or reach out. Excited to amplify together.#ResponsibleAI #HumanAI #AIEthics #Cybersecurity #DigitalTransformation

Director Board of Directors

CEC is a security service integrator with focus markets in manufacturing, healthcare, SLED and Corporate Campus.  Customers with complicated organizations and physical plants rely on CEC as extensions of their teams in making strategic investment and management decisions related to their technology and infrastructure. I serve as Culture and Compensation Committee Chair. 

What would the world look like if we truly accelerated action for women?

Right now, full gender parity won't arrive until 2158 according to the World Economic Forum.

That’s 132 years away.

We have the power to move that date forward.

In this special #IWD2026 newsletter edition, I reflect on the progress we’ve made, highlight the women who inspire me, and share actions we can take to accelerate change.

Inside you’ll find:
✅ Highlights from a powerful Women in Technology panel at the Acumatica Summit
✅ Books and podcasts that expand perspective
✅ Simple actions anyone can take to move the needle

Over the past year, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to learn from many inspiring women leaders across technology, financial services, manufacturing and communications.

Now I want to hear from you 👇
Tag one woman who inspired you and tell us why.

Let's amplify women’s voices together. 
Happy International Women’s Day 🌸

#IWD2026 #AccelerateAction #WomenInLeadership #GenderEquity

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter here https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg
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Bridging Responsible AI Innovation | Advisor to Tech Leaders | Host, CXO Spice | Human-AI Amplification Advocate

Every March 8th, the world pauses to honor the achievements, resilience, and brilliance of women. But this year’s theme, Accelerate Action, reminds us

Open article: Accelerating Change: Celebrating Women and the Work Still Ahead by Helen Yu • 4 min read

Accelerating Change: Celebrating Women and the Work Still Ahead

What lights you up about the work you do?

For me, it's this.
Fresh off Conga Connect in Orlando and straight into Enterprise Connect in Vegas, I hosted "Hot Takes & Cold Drinks" with two women who are redefining what leadership looks like in communications and technology.
⭐️ Millicent McIntyre, MSOB — 2026 Spotlight Award Winner, Senior Director, Buyer Services IAA
⭐️ Lori Wodrich — 2025 Winner & this year's judge, Senior Systems Engineer Amerisure Insurance

What resonated with me most was HOW they got there.
🔥Millie started in a contact center after cosmetology school.
No title. No roadmap.
She became the person everyone came to through curiosity, consistency, and caring deeply about people.
"Culture is the foundation of everything we do."
She meant every word.

🔥Lori's defining moment was A hackathon.
Surrounded by engineers far more technical than her, she almost changed her answer to fit in.
She didn't.
She held her ground. Shared her reasoning. And the entire panel shifted to her choice.
That's confidence backed by data.

Lori's Three S's I'm taking with me:
✅ Speak Up
✅ Say Yes — to growth, not every task
✅ Share Results

And here is Millie's closing wisdom:
Don't try to be like every other leader.
Be authentically, unapologetically YOU.

These are two women who didn't wait for a title to lead.
They showed up. Over-delivered. Built trust.
And the title eventually followed.

My biggest takeaway: Leadership is earned, not assigned.
Here is my personal hot take:
Sometimes you need to put down your to-do list and focus on your to-be list.
Who do you want to BE? Let that guide everything else.

Thank you, Millie and Lori, for being so open, so real, and so generous with your stories. You reminded all of us of what's possible. 🙌

And a heartfelt thank you to Erica Marois and Cheryl Kahan-Radhuber at Informa and Enterprise Connect for creating this space for women in communications. This is exactly the kind of platform our community needs. 💜

▶️ Watch the full 15-minute conversation below!

#EnterpriseConnect #WomenInTech #Leadership #EC2026 #Communications 

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What did I learn from the OECD - OCDE Responsible AI Due Diligence Guidance?

Responsible AI is shifting from principles to accountability; clarifying who is responsible, at what point, and across the value chain.

👉 The real shift is from “Do we use AI responsibly?” to “Can we prove it — continuously?”

AI governance is becoming a core business capability rather than a compliance exercise.

I’ve broken down the insights that stood out to me me most in the carousel including where responsibility escalates, when scrutiny should be deeper, and why disengagement is sometimes the responsible choice.

Let me know what stood out to you 👇

#ResponsibleAI #AIGovernance #RiskManagement #BoardDirectors #CEOs

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CEO of Tigon Advisory Corp. | Host of CXO Spice | Board Director |Top 50 Women in Tech | AI, Cybersecurity, FinTech, Insurance, Industry40, Growth Acceleration

5 Key Learnings from OECD Responsible AI Due Diligence

Are you modernizing your systems fast and wondering if you’re doing it securely?

In this short CXO Spice trailer, John Picinich and I touch on the real tension leaders are facing right now; moving quickly to innovate while making sure security, risk, and trust don’t fall behind. It’s a conversation about what works in the real world.

This builds on the themes from the #CXOSpice newsletter I shared three weeks ago on breaking down data silos in financial services, where we explored why governance, secure data movement, and a strong foundation are essential before layering on automation and AI.

I had the chance to host John Picinich at Progress Software to unpack:
✅ Where most organizations misjudge modernization risk
✅ How security teams can become enablers, not blockers
✅ What “secure by design” looks like in practice

🎥 Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gPq8B8Tg

And stay tuned. I’ll be hosting Progress Software’ Chief AI Officer Ed Keisling on agent orchestration soon.

#FinancialServices #AI #Agents

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What the #WomenInTech stage taught me at Acumatica Summit?

Have you ever walked into a room and felt momentum happening in real time?
Speaking at Acumatica Summit this year was one of those moments.

I left thinking less about the stage and more about the people. Leaders choosing courage over comfort. Learning out loud. Lifting each other higher.

A few lessons that stayed with me
✨ Confidence starts with the story we tell ourselves
✨ Preparation creates clarity when pressure rises
✨ Leadership means sending the ladder down

I shared a few deeper reflections in my latest newsletter. Check out the full story: https://lnkd.in/e2Ad_BXf

What is one lesson that has changed how you show up this year?

#WomenInTech #Leadership #Technology #Innovation

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A FIRST TIMER’S PERSPECTIVE I didn’t know what to expect walking into my first Acumatica Summit. I knew the event was significant, and I felt honored 

Open article: What the Women in Tech Stage at Acumatica Summit Taught Me? by Helen Yu • 7 min read

What the Women in Tech Stage at Acumatica Summit Taught Me?

What does success look like twelve months in if you go all in on a frictionless Commerce Chain?

I asked Lisa Martin, CRO of Conga during our interview at Conga Connect.
Her answer was precise.

Deal velocity accelerates. Deal volume grows. Revenue leakage stops hiding in quarterly post-mortems.

Most organizations look at discounting retrospectively. A scattergram tells you where you bled. Commerce Chain stops the bleeding.

A connected Commerce Chain changes the equation. You see where margin is slipping in the moment. You catch at-risk customers before renewal. You act on upsell signals the data was always telling you.

And when agentic AI matures inside that chain, it executes the insight.
Faster deals. Protected margin. Smarter renewals.

👉 Read the full story in CXO Spice Newsletter 
👉 Watch the conversation: https://lnkd.in/gpdCFhkS

#CommerceChain #CRO #CongaConnect #CongaPartner

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“It’s not growth at all costs anymore. It’s growth, but profitable growth , and the thing getting inspected is how easy we are to do business with.” —

Open article: Commerce Chain Is the Revenue Operating System Your Business Has Been Missing by Helen Yu • 5 min read

Commerce Chain Is the Revenue Operating System Your Business Has Been Missing

What does every business leader need to understand about the agentic era?

Here are 5 things I took away from Jensen Huang’s keynote at NVIDIA GTC:

1️⃣ Tokens are the new oil
Jensen redefined what a data center is.
Data centers are no longer places where we store files.
They are factories producing tokens.
Power goes in.
Data goes in.
Intelligence comes out.
Every watt of power you have is either generating revenue or wasting it.
The next metric CEOs may start tracking alongside EBITDA: tokens per watt.

2️⃣ The inference inflection
For years AI was a training story about who had the biggest models and the most parameters.
That era is over.
AI now must think, reason, and act in real time.
That requires inference at massive scale.
Compute demand has grown roughly 1,000,000× in two years.
That’s not hype.
That’s infrastructure reality.

3️⃣ Every SaaS company will become an AaaS company
Just as every company eventually needed:
• an HTTP strategy
• a cloud strategy
• a Kubernetes strategy
Every company now needs an agent strategy.
The question is no longer if.
It’s how fast.

4️⃣ The security model just changed
Agentic systems can:
• access sensitive data
• execute code
• communicate externally
Jensen said that out loud. Slowly.
Let that sink in.
The opportunity is enormous.
So is the risk.
In the agentic era, security and governance are the foundation.
The companies that get this right will win.

5️⃣ Synthetic data will unlock robotics
Real-world data will never be sufficient to train robots for every scenario.
Simulation closes the gap.
Synthetic data allows robots to learn faster than the real world can generate experience.
The GPT moment for autonomous systems may already be happening.
BYD, Hyundai, Nissan, and Geely just joined the platform, representing 18M vehicles per year.

The closing scene of the keynote said everything.
Robots and humans sitting around a campfire in a forest.
Playing music together.
The caption:
“The future’s here. Won’t you come and see.”
Not a warning.
An invitation.

Two stops worth making on the show floor today:
✅ Cisco Booth #1421 - The agentic era needs a secure foundation. I’ll be interviewing Kevin Wollenweber, SVP & GM of Data Center at Cisco, on what Secure AI Factory means at enterprise scale.
✅ Elastic Booth #3200 - Jensen said 90% of the world’s data is unstructured and largely inaccessible. Elastic is building the retrieval layer to unlock it. Don’t miss their sessions on eliminating the data bottleneck and how NVIDIA itself is using it.

The token factory is only as powerful as its security, networking, and data retrieval layers.

That’s the story continuing on the show floor.

#NVIDIAGTC #NVIDIAPartner #CiscoPartner

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What Boards and Security Leaders Must Know about AI-Driven Threats?

Last week, I hosted Mike Riemer, Field CISO at Ivanti on a webinar secure by design: prevent weaponized AI attacks with Kernel security strategies.

Mike put the stakes in sharp focus from the start:

Threat actors can reverse engineer a patch and weaponize it within 72 hours.
In some cases, attacks begin within 90 seconds of code being published.

Let that sink in.

This is not a technology problem you can delegate to your CISO.
It is a governance issue, and boards have a fiduciary duty to act.

In my latest newsletter, I cover:

✅ Why traditional perimeter defenses are failing
✅ What Secure by Design means  and how to hold vendors accountable
✅ Why kernel-level security is the new line of defense
✅ The questions every board and audit committee must be asking now

Knowledge without action leaves your organization exposed.

As AI-driven threats accelerate, kernel-level security has become the new line of defense.

Are you ready for it?

Watch the full conversation with Mike here:
https://lnkd.in/gP4hnwGT

Join us for the upcoming #LinkedInLive where we'll be continuing this critical conversation. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gF8YcTqf

#CyberSecurity #BoardGovernance #KernelSecurity #AIThreats #CISO #RiskManagement #IvantiPartner

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“Threat actors can reverse engineer a patch and weaponize it within 72 hours — and we’ve seen attacks begin within 90 seconds of vulnerable code being

Open article: What Boards and Security Leaders Must Know About AI-Driven Threats and Kernel-Level Defense by Helen Yu • 6 min read

What Boards and Security Leaders Must Know About AI-Driven Threats and Kernel-Level Defense

Why are companies still using 8 platforms to move money?

I just saw a CFO’s finance stack:
Stripe. Wise. Ramp. Mercury. Chargebee.
Plus 3 international bank accounts.
Eight logins. Eight reconciliations.
And they’re still losing 4–6% on every international transaction.

Here’s the hidden tax 👇
You get paid €100K → converted to USD (≈3% gone)
You pay a European supplier → USD back to EUR (≈3% gone)
That’s 6% lost moving the same money in a circle.
On a $10M business? $600K/year.

This is why Airwallex exists.
One platform to:
✅ Accept global payments
✅ Hold 20+ currencies (no forced FX)
✅ Pay suppliers same-day
✅ Issue cards globally (zero FX fees)
✅ Open accounts in minutes
One integration. One dashboard.
Companies doing $10M+ internationally save $400K–$600K/year just by consolidating.

Airwallex just opened their second HQ in San Francisco. They're bringing global-first infrastructure to companies tired of fragmented stacks and hidden fees.

So Why are you still using 8 platforms to move money?

#AirwallexPartner #CFOs

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How do you prepare for the next frontier of transformation?

AI is reshaping how we build, decide, and serve customers; and getting ready means learning, experimenting, and connecting with others who are doing the same.

You’ll find a mix of business leaders and builders at the #MicrosoftAITour. 
People like me, are focused on turning AI ideas into real impact. What I love about this experience is how hands-on it is. You not only hear about the technology, but also get to explore it, build with it, and learn directly from Microsoft engineers and the community. From secure apps to agents and solutions using tools like Foundry and Copilot, you walk away inspired and ready to apply what you’ve learned.

This 20-second clip is a throwback to my favorite moments from the Chicago tour last September 🎥

I’m excited for the upcoming U.S. stops:
📍 Washington, DC on March 10 - Register here 👉 hhttps://lnkd.in/ebyjqCQb
📍 Atlanta on April 29 (I will be there in person)- Register here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ey83fdKc
📍 Houston on May 28 - Register here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eKVZVvE9

If you’re looking to prepare your organization for this frontier transformation, join a tour near you and start turning possibilities into action.

#MicrosoftAITour #FrontierTransformation #AILeadership #MicrosoftAmbassador Microsoft in Business

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When was the last time a support call made you feel heard?

After 2.3 million miles in the air and more support calls than I can count, I've come to believe we've been measuring customer experience all wrong.
We track resolution time. Handle time. CSAT scores. But nobody measures how it felt to be spoken to.

I've been hung up on agents who said all the right things and still left me feeling dismissed. And I've had problems go unresolved by agents who somehow made me feel taken care of anyway. The difference was never the script. It was tone. Pacing. The small human signals that say I hear you before a single solution is offered.

As executives, we've optimized everything we can see on a dashboard. But the felt experience of a conversation, that's been the blind spot.

That's what made me pay attention when I came across ElevenLabs' emotional voice agent. Because it points at something I've believed for years: conversational quality is product quality. And we're finally at the point where AI can deliver it at scale.

The leaders who get ahead of this won't just have faster support. They'll have support that people remember for the right reasons.

See it in action: https://lnkd.in/eDtV-aGs

#VoiceAgent #ConversationalAI #CX #CustomerOperations #ElevenLabsPartner

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How many of your #security alerts matter?

Last quarter, my team reviewed 14,000 alerts. Only eleven led to investigation.
That's not a security program. That's noise with a compliance checkbox on it.

As a Board Director, the question I keep bringing back to leadership is simple: would we catch it before it happens?

Most organizations can't answer that with confidence. Not because they lack tools. But because they're measuring the wrong things. Volume of alerts. Hours logged. Endpoints covered. 

None of it tells you what the board needs to know: where is the human risk, and is it escalating?

The shift I've been advocating for is moving from reactive reporting to predictive intelligence. Not just flagging what already happened, but understanding behavioral patterns early enough to intervene before damage is done.

When I look at what predictive risk scoring is doing now, platforms like Teramind being able to detect behavioral shifts weeks before an incident occurs, that's the kind of intelligence that belongs in a board briefing.

Rule-based systems catch what you anticipated. Behavioral AI catches what you didn't. In insider risk, what you didn't anticipate is almost always what gets you.

Stop counting alerts. Start asking: what does this pattern mean?

#PredictiveIntelligence #Workforce #AIGovernance #TeramindPartner

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What happens when AI stops living in the cloud and starts living in the world?

That's the question at the center of NVIDIA GTC.  That’s the premier global AI conference where developers, researchers, and business leaders come together to explore the next wave of AI innovation.

From physical AI and AI factories to agentic AI and inference, this is where the breakthroughs shaping every industry get unveiled. With 500+ sessions, labs, and workshops, there's no better place to go deep on real-world AI use cases and connect with the people building the future.

Last year's GTC drew 27K in-person attendees and 40M+ keynote views. I can't wait to see what 2026 has in store.

Register now and explore the session catalog: https://nvda.ws/4kfWXS8

#GTC25 #NVIDIAPartner #AI #PhysicalAI #GenerativeAI

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What does a connected, intelligent Commerce Chain look like in action?

At Conga’s 5th Annual Inspire Awards, we celebrated real, measurable business impact with CRO Lisa Martin.

When pricing, quoting, contracting, and revenue operate as one connected system, companies move faster, price smarter, and scale growth.

Here’s what that looked like this year:
✅ Commercial Excellence — IBM
Unified quoting and renewals for 3,000+ sellers and partners worldwide, accelerating deal cycles while improving seller productivity and global customer experience.
 
✅ Future of Commerce — Electronics Digikey
2× market outperformance in 2025 by unifying e-commerce with customer-specific pricing through neural networks and real-time pricing execution.
 
✅ Momentum Leader — Pediatrics Plus
Automated ~50% of monthly billing and reduced DSO from 84 → 54 days.
 
✅ Buyer Experience — Jack Henry 
Eliminated manual pricing errors, unified siloed sales processes, and accelerated time-to-revenue for financial institutions nationwide.
 
✅ Judges’ Choice — Southwest Airlines
Reduced contract creation time to just 5 minutes, delivering enterprise-grade governance with startup speed.
 
✅ Community Champion — Natalie Myers
Amplified peer voices and strengthened knowledge sharing across the entire Conga community.

A connected Commerce Chain unlocks measurable revenue performance across the entire lifecycle.

Stay tuned for my conversation with Conga CRO Lisa Martin with a deeper dive into what the Commerce Chain means for the future of revenue leadership.

#CongaConnect #InspireAwards #CommerceChain #CustomerSuccess #CongaPartner

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What does it take to turn B2B influencer content into qualified pipeline?

I recently had a great conversation with Heather Barnett about this challenge and it’s clear this topic is rising on many B2B leaders’ agendas.

There’s a smarter way to approach it.

The Insight Collective and Custom Influence have put together an ebook that breaks it all down, featuring insights from leading B2B voices.

If you’re focused on making influencer marketing deliver measurable impact, this is worth your time.

https://lnkd.in/epkRekqz

#B2B #Influencer #Marketing 

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When was the last time an AI investment delivered what it promised?

I've sat in enough boardrooms to know that question lands differently depending on who's in the room.

For most enterprises, the pattern is the same; a promising pilot, a growing consulting retainer, and a strategy deck that never quite becomes a production system.

That's the cycle Klika Tech built VELOCITY™ to break.

It's a 16-month, fixed-price program that takes organizations from AI uncertainty to a fully operational, self-sustaining AI capability. One contract. Five structured phases. And your team owns everything they build including the models, the infrastructure and the IP.

Team don't get paid for hours. They get paid for outcomes.

ROI validation begins at Month 8 so you get proof mid-journey
If AI is on your roadmap this year, reach out to see what it looks like in practice.

Drop a “Yes” comment if you want to learn more. 👇

#AI #EnterpriseAI #KlikaTech #VELOCITY #DigitalTransformation

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Ready to launch your #career in #AI in 2026? 

LinkedIn just released its Skills on the Rise 2026 list and the signal is clear: AI is reshaping every role, not just technical ones. 

Here are the fastest-growing skills: Prompt Engineering, RAG, LangChain, Vector Databases, and Model Fine-Tuning along people skills like Stakeholder Management and Leadership Communication. Employers want professionals who can build and lead with AI.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 20% growth in computer and information research roles between 2024 and 2034. The opportunity is real.

I've consolidated what I learned from Coursera and U.S. Bureau of Labor and put together a table of 9 high-demand AI roles with required skills, salary ranges, and core responsibilities to help you find your best fit.

Which role excites you most? Drop it in the comments 👇

#SkillsOnTheRise #FutureOfWork #ArtificialIntelligence #TechCareers
#AI #Jobs #MachineLearning #DataScience #WomenInTech

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉#CXOSpiceNewsletter here https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg 
or 👉#CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

9 AI Jobs to Consider in 2026

What are the two things that define a world-class data center?

Here's what I learned from Equinix team at last year's NVIDIA GTC 
(watch the 1-minute clip below)
→ Environment - power, space, and cooling
→ Interconnectivity - dense access to public clouds and GPU-as-a-service

Equinix operates 280 data centers across 77 global markets. The London facility Aaron showcased was built with his in mind: 170,000 sq ft, 100% renewable energy, 99.999% availability, and 200+ cloud interconnection points all water-cooled.

Equinix also announced they'll be the first to offer the NVIDIA Instant AI Factory; fully provisioned AI infrastructure powered by DGX GB300 and B300 systems, across 45 global markets.

This year, I'm going deeper on the #sustainability side of all of this.
I look forward to speaking with Christopher Wellise, Global VP of Sustainability at Equinix to talk about what it takes to build and operate AI infrastructure responsibly; from closing the gap between pledges and results, to whether the industry is measuring the right things.

Tune in to our upcoming CXO Spice from #NVIDAGTC. What would YOU ask Chris? Drop it below 👇

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter here https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg
or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

Where are the real conversations about the future of revenue lifecycle happening right now?

At Conga Connect.

Just arrived at the venue and the energy is already building. This quick clip gives a glimpse of the space and a great catch-up with Amy Williams from the Conga team as things get underway.

Looking ahead to a packed agenda for Day 1:
✅ The future of commerce keynote from David Osborne CEO of Conga
✅ Accelerating Innovation across the commerce chain from Rohit Chhabra, CPO
✅ My 1:1 with Lisa Martin, CRO, diving into Commerce Chain
✅ Tonight’s customer panel and awards
✅ And wrapping the evening with the VIP dinner with Conga executives, select customers and fellow analysts Shelly DeMotte Kramer, Roy Atkinson, Eric Kavanagh.

Events like this are where product vision, customer experience, and strategy come together. I’m interested in hearing how organizations are approaching revenue lifecycle transformation and connected commerce.

Let's connect if you're here at Conga Connect. Or follow #CXOSpice to get the latest updates.

#CongaConnect #RevenueLifecycle #CPQ #CommerceChain #Analysts #CongaPartner

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation, Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter here https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg
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What does responsible AI governance look like when the infrastructure at stake is an entire city?

It's a question that I'm proud to have helped answer along with an exceptional group of experts in collaboration with AI & Partners.

In this whitepaper, Digital Public Services: Governance Challenges in AI-Enabled Smart Cities, we explore how we can build trustworthy, interoperable urban infrastructure as AI becomes central to transport, energy, health, and public administration.

Key takeaways:
✅ Interconnected systems create cascading risks - resilience must be built in by design
✅ Interoperability and open standards are governance tools rather than just technical ones
✅ Privacy-by-design is essential as sensor networks and data fusion expand across cities
✅ The EU AI Act creates real obligations for municipalities deploying high-risk AI

Thank you to my fellow contributors for making this such a rigorous and timely piece of work:
Sean Musch, Michael Charles Borrelli, Dr. Don Liyanage, Dr. Benedikt Kohn, Harvey Castro, Lisa Ventura MBE FCIIS MBCS, Mariia Shcherbakova, Patrick Orsos, Shreyas Karanjkar, Edward Cole, Mitko Karushkov, Vibhav Mithal, FHCA, Mateo Jarrin Cuvi, Michael Boevink, Ina Schöne, Richard Chiumento, and Carolyn Harrison.

If you work in urban policy, AI regulation, or digital public services, this one is for you. 

#SmartCities #AIGovernance #EUAIAct #DigitalTransformation #AI

To stay current with the latest trends in #Technology and #Innovation,
Subscribe to 👉 #CXOSpiceNewsletter here https://lnkd.in/gy2RJ9xg
or 👉 #CXOSpiceYouTube here https://lnkd.in/gnMc-Vpj

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The Battle

Vladimir Blagojević

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Vladimir Blagojević's LinkedIn Performance

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