What struck me most wasn’t the novelty; it was the quiet gift of time. I could think and have an uninterrupted conversation without small talk or second-guessing the route.
It made me wonder: what other time-consuming tasks, like driving, are ready to be delegated to technology so I can focus on other things that only I can do?
As Kristen McGarr, founder and fractional CRO of Adroit Insights, put it on our RevOps Champions podcast:
“Think about your CRM that same way… It's like another employee that you've brought into the company in the organization.”
But just like your “tech teammate" only performs if it has context and training, Waymo works because it runs on Google Maps’ decades of road data. A CRM works when it’s configured for your actual processes and fed with clean, reliable customer data.
When these things are true, using the CRM makes our sales, marketing, and customer success peoples’ lives so much easier because they have all the information they need in one place.
And since the data is all there, we can get even more benefit from the CRM if it can perform some of the duties which used to be manual, using automation and AI. It truly is like another team member and gives us time back for higher impact work that requires judgement or creativity that only humans have.
I was in San Francisco for HubSpot’s annual Inbound conference and during her keynote on the first day, the EVP and Head of Product, Karen Ng, shared her view, “The companies that win won’t be the ones with the most AI tools. They’ll have the smartest hybrid teams where AI doesn’t replace people, but multiplies their impact.”
By ‘hybrid’ Karen’s referring to “technology teams” and “human teams” working together. For example, salespeople can use HubSpot’s AI ‘prospecting agent’ to expedite the research of and outreach to new prospects. Imagine the time saved in having technology do some of that heavy lifting work for you.
So what does it take to make that a reality? McGarr shared two lessons I keep coming back to:
1. The 80% Rule
Waymo doesn’t train for every alley and detour. It masters the main roads. Do the same with your CRM. Configure for the majority of use cases, not the exceptions. That’s what drives adoption and creates data you can actually trust.
2. Adoption as the North Star
Smooth rides make repeat riders. Give every role one personal win in the tool. Keep key fields above the fold. TUrn on one automation that saves time every day. When the system feels like a considerate teammate, people want to use it.
And how about you: Who are your best ‘tech’ team members? How are they helping you? I’d love to hear your best stories.
Here’s to growing better together, us and the robots.
Kristin
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Kristin Dennewill
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