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The B2B Roundtable

The B2B Roundtable

Von: Brian Carroll
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The B2B Roundtable is a podcast about what dashboards miss in B2B revenue systems. Most GTM teams manage what their dashboards can measure. But the numbers don’t always explain why growth is slowing, buyers disengage, or revenue isn’t keeping pace. Hosted by Brian Carroll, GTM advisor and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, the show features candid conversations with B2B leaders, operators, and thinkers about what’s really happening beneath the numbers, what they’ve learned, and what they changed. Learn more at https://www.markempa.comCopyright 2026 markempa Erfolg im Beruf Management & Leadership Marketing & Vertrieb Ökonomie
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  • Stop Automating the Past: How AI Is Changing the Way We Work with Liza Adams

    Stop Automating the Past: How AI Is Changing the Way We Work with Liza Adams
    Sep 14 2026
    About This Episode Most GTM teams are using AI to make existing work faster. But faster isn’t the same as different. And the teams that are actually pulling ahead aren’t automating the past — they’re reimagining the work itself. In this episode, Brian talks with Liza Adams about what separates teams that are getting faster with AI from teams that are actually changing how they work. Liza shares the story of Megan, a senior marketing leader who used AI agents to orchestrate across marketing, sales, and CS until her work outgrew her title entirely. That story illustrates the bigger idea behind the conversation: what happens when you reimagine the work first, then redesign the roles and the org around it. About Liza Adams Liza Adams is the founder of GrowthPath Partners, where she helps B2B GTM teams move beyond AI productivity into AI-driven transformation. She spent 25 years leading GTM teams at companies including Smartsheet and Juniper Networks, and has worked with AI and machine learning long before ChatGPT. She is passionate about elevating the strategic value of marketing and helping leaders use AI to become business leaders, not just functional leaders. What We Cover The AI adoption plateau and the three patterns that cause teams to stallWhy your belief about what AI can do is the cap of what your team will ever buildUsing AI as a sparring partner vs. a validation tool, and the research behind why it mattersThe difference between what’s hard for humans and what’s just historically hardHow AI doesn’t care about your org chart, your silos, or your titlesWhat CEOs are starting to want from CMOs and why most marketing leaders aren’t set up for itWhy reimagining the org chart starts with reimagining the work, not the other way around A Few Things Worth Taking Away AI for productivity should be the floor of our expectations, not the ceiling. If we only make old work go faster, we can project how it automates the human out. But if we use AI to do something different, we’re innovating, and when the business grows, humans are essential.People aren’t stupid. They just need to see what’s possible. Talking about AI capabilities is different from showing someone a workflow that pulses the market 24/7 and surfaces which customers are about to churn.Humans that use AI as a sparring partner outperform pure human teams and pure AI teams. But humans that use AI to validate their beliefs actually perform at a lower level than an all-AI team.In the RACI model, AI will never have the A. It will never be accountable. It will never lose the job for you, pay the fines for you, or go to jail for you.Don’t start with “what does the org of the future look like?” Start by reimagining the work. When you reimagine the work, the roles become clear. When the roles are clear, the org chart follows. A Few Lines That Stuck With Me “The cap of what our teams will ever build, do, and use AI for is limited by what they believe it can do.”“AI transformation can’t happen when we’re in a hamster wheel.”“AI will never lose the job for you, it will never pay the fines for you, and it will also never go to jail for you.”“It’s like hiring a bunch of actors before you even know what the script is.”“AI is making the mechanics a lot easier. I think our biggest challenge now is us.” Resources Mentioned AI Is Cannibalizing Human Intelligence. Here’s How to Stop It. by Vivienne Ming (Wall Street Journal)What Harvard Learned From 776 Professionals Using AI (Harvard/P&G research on AI and cross-functional collaboration) Chapters 00:00 Why Getting Faster With AI Isn’t Enough03:20 Why Teams Hit the AI Adoption Plateau07:43 AI as a Teammate, Not Just a Tool10:10 Using AI as a Sparring Partner12:35 What Work Is Only “Historically Hard”?18:12 AI Can Do the Work. Humans Own the Outcome.19:32 From Org Charts to Work Charts26:19 What CEOs Need From CMOs Now34:33 Reimagine the Work Before the Org Chart Transcript Brian Carroll (00:00): Well, I see this a lot in sales and marketing teams. People are using AI, some are using it really well. They built workflows, they built custom GPTs, they’re getting faster and better. But there’s a big difference between getting faster with AI and actually changing how your organization works. Welcome to the B2B roundtable. I’m Brian Carroll. And my guest today, Liza Adams. She’s the founder of GrowthPath Partners. And she spent 25 years leading GTM teams at companies like Smartsheet, Juniper Networks, and she’s worked with AI and machine learning long before ChatGPT. And now she helps teams figure out how AI can actually change the way they work. Something Liza recently said that stuck with me is you can’t reimagine the future by automating the past. Liza, welcome to the B2B roundtable. Liza Adams (00:50): Hi Brian. I’ve been looking forward to this all week long and it feels like every time you and I get together we’re always laughing. So I’m ...
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    38 Min.
  • AI Scaled Activity. It Didn’t Scale Relevance with Craig Rosenberg

    AI Scaled Activity. It Didn’t Scale Relevance with Craig Rosenberg
    Aug 18 2026
    For years, B2B teams tried to make SDRs more efficient. More calls. More emails. More activity. Then AI arrived, and many teams tried to automate the same model. But what if the problem wasn’t needing a faster version of the old playbook? What if the real opportunity is to use AI to make people better at the things only humans can do? That’s the question behind my conversation with Craig Rosenberg. Craig has been gathering some of the best SDR and pipeline leaders in B2B through Scale Venture Partners’ Pipeline Council. What he’s seeing feels less like a completely new playbook and more like a return to fundamentals, with much better tools. AI can help us choose the right accounts, recognize signals, research buyers, practice conversations, and move faster. But the last mile still comes down to relevance, judgment, taste, trust, and human connection. About this episode Craig and I have known each other since the early days of B2B marketing and demand generation. I followed his Funnelholic blog back in 2008, and he reminded me during our conversation that my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, was one of the first B2B GTM books he read. Several things Craig had recently been sharing from Scale’s Pipeline Council brought us back together. One of the big questions they’re working through is simple: What does a high-performing SDR motion look like now that AI can do so much of the work SDRs used to do? The answer isn’t fewer humans everywhere. In fact, Craig is seeing AI companies hiring SDRs and experienced enterprise sellers as they move beyond product-led growth and into harder-to-reach markets. Craig and I discuss: Why automating the old activity-based SDR model didn’t solve the pipeline problemHow Glean uses AI to help SDRs get better at human conversationsWhy Craig believes the “last mile” of selling is still humanWhat unmistakably human outreach looks like when buyers are surrounded by AI-generated messagesWhy AI companies are hiring SDRs and experienced enterprise sellers againHow ICP and signals help teams focus on the accounts most likely to buyWhy selling AI is becoming harder and business process may become the new software moat About Craig Rosenberg Craig Rosenberg is Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners, where he helps build and lead Scale’s go-to-market platform for software companies. Before joining Scale, Craig was Distinguished Vice President in Gartner’s sales practice. He joined Gartner through its acquisition of TOPO, the research and advisory firm he co-founded. Long before that, many B2B marketers and sales leaders knew Craig as the Funnelholic, where he built a following writing and speaking about demand generation, sales development, and B2B go-to-market strategy. He also co-hosts The Transaction podcast with Matt Amundson. Connect with Craig Craig Rosenberg on LinkedIn Scale Venture Partners The Transaction podcast Chapters 00:00 What Top SDR Leaders Are Figuring Out 04:41 How Glean Uses AI to Make SDRs Better on the Phone 09:09 The Last Mile Is Human 12:46 Why AI Companies Are Hiring SDRs Again 15:33 What Does “Unmistakably Human” Look Like? 22:06 Why Enterprise Prospecting Shouldn’t Always Scale 23:36 ICP, Signals and Choosing the Right Accounts 25:25 Why Selling AI Is Getting Harder A few things worth taking away The old SDR model treated people like “human robots.” Automating the same activity-heavy motion with AI didn’t solve the underlying problem of relevance.The better teams are using AI to prepare humans, not replace them. At Glean, AI supports account selection, research, signals, and practice while SDRs focus on getting better at live conversations.The last mile is still human. AI can provide information and suggestions, but judgment, taste, relevance, trust, and relationship building still require people.Being unmistakably human sometimes means admitting what you don’t know. AI can help you understand a buyer’s situation, but it shouldn’t create expertise or experience you don’t actually have.AI companies are hiring SDRs and experienced sellers as they move beyond product-led growth into enterprise markets. As Craig put it, “The minute you want to talk to people that aren’t coming to you, you need people.”ICP matters more when data is abundant. Craig shared an example where ICP opportunities converted at 37% compared with 17% outside the ICP. Signals then help determine when to reach out and what may matter.AI is also changing software competition. As products become easier to build and replace, Craig believes companies need to expand from TAM to “Total Available Problem” and become deeply embedded in customer workflows and business processes. A few lines that stuck with me “The reality is the most important thing now is trust building, humanity and relationship building.” “It’s that last mile, which is the human.” “The minute you want to talk to people that aren’t coming to you, ...
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    31 Min.
  • Why GTM Rebuilds for the Enterprise Start With Clarity, Not Campaigns, with Corey Livingston

    Why GTM Rebuilds for the Enterprise Start With Clarity, Not Campaigns, with Corey Livingston
    Jul 28 2026
    A company reaches a key moment. The strategy changes, the target buyer shifts, and leadership decides to focus on the enterprise market. But the go-to-market system underneath the business may still be built for an earlier stage of growth. Corey Livingston shares why rebuilding your GTM should start with understanding and clarity, how marketing can build trust with sales before results appear, and what leaders should measure before the pipeline is visible. About this episode Financial reports show how a business is doing, but they don’t show if the go-to-market engine is ready to support the company’s next phase of growth. That is the tension at the center of this conversation with Corey Livingston, Vice President of Marketing at DartPoints. Corey has spent more than two decades leading B2B marketing through growth and change. She has worked inside companies moving upmarket, entering new segments, and trying to build several GTM motions at once. Her starting point is not another campaign. It is understanding the growth hypothesis, determining whether each motion is in the build, activate, or scale phase, and getting the organization aligned around what it can realistically produce next. We talk about why moving into enterprise requires more than changing the target account list, how marketing earns credibility with sales, why alignment must extend below the CRO, and what leaders often get wrong during the first 90 days of a GTM rebuild. About Corey Livingston Corey Livingston is the Vice President of Marketing at DartPoints. She has more than two decades of B2B marketing experience, including leadership roles at Level 3 Communications and OneNeck Solutions, as well as fractional CMO work across multiple companies. Her work focuses on GTM strategy, sales and marketing alignment, enterprise growth, and helping companies build the operating systems required for their next stage of growth. Connect with Corey Follow Corey Livingston on LinkedIn Chapters 00:00 Why healthy dashboards can hide a broken GTM system 00:49 What dashboards miss in a GTM rebuild 02:36 Why moving upmarket changes the entire motion 05:35 How to diagnose the gap between strategy and execution 09:02 How marketing earns sales’ trust before results 17:58 How to decide which GTM motion comes first 21:00 What to measure before pipeline shows up 26:23 What leaders get wrong in the first 90 days A few things worth taking away GTM is a lifecycle, not a switch. Leaders need to know whether a motion is being built, activated, or scaled before deciding what to measure.Moving upmarket is not just a strategy shift. Enterprise buyers require more credibility, stronger proof, deeper content, and tighter coordination with sales.Sales trust comes from clarity, follow-through, and quick wins, especially while the longer-term GTM system is still being built.Alignment with the CRO is not enough. Marketing also needs to earn the trust of frontline sales leaders and the people doing the work every day.You cannot scale every motion at once. Investment decisions should connect to the company’s growth hypothesis, resources, timing, and near-term revenue needs.Pipeline is a lagging indicator. Operational readiness, engagement from the right accounts, and qualified meetings can show whether the motion is beginning to work.For an early enterprise motion, one of the most useful questions is: are we meeting with the right person at the right account, and are they moving to a next step? A few lines that stuck with me “I look at GTM as more of a lifecycle, not a switch.” “A corporate strategy and vision is not a go-to-market strategy.” “Sales trust comes from creating clarity. It comes from follow-through and quick wins.” “You can’t scale everything at once.” “You can’t get to pipeline without engagement.” “Are we getting a meeting with the right person at the right account?” “Most leaders try to fix things too fast in the first 90 days.” Listen and subscribe Subscribe to The B2B Roundtable wherever you listen to podcasts. Transcript Brian Carroll: Welcome to The B2B Roundtable. I’m Brian Carroll, and we’re going to talk about something people don’t often talk about. A company hits an inflection point. The strategy shifts, the buyer changes, and the dashboard shows green. But the system underneath was built for a different version of the business. The gap doesn’t show up in a report. It shows up when things start to stall, and nobody can explain why. My guest today is Corey Livingston. She has spent more than two decades in B2B marketing, leading at companies including Level 3 Communications and OneNeck Solutions. She has also done fractional CMO work across multiple companies. Today, she is serving as the Vice President of Marketing at DartPoints. I invited Corey because she has been through these inflection points in several different seats. Corey, welcome. Corey Livingston: Thank you, Brian. It’s great to be here. ...
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    31 Min.
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