2024: The Year of "Human"
State of the Market and 2024 GTM predictions
Well, we made it. 2023 is behind us.
And just like that, we’re back at square one.
Kidding … kind of.
Hope everyone had a relaxing week in between Christmas and New Year to wind down and recharge for year ahead.
I recently listened to an episode of the Make it Happen podcast hosted by John Barrows and guest Carole Mahoney.
The topic?
Building trust and asking the right questions.
The reason I think that questions are so important is because it helps to uncover different perspectives and get to a point of understanding. It quite literally builds trust, there’s science behind this (more on this below). It also builds the foundation for a framework to navigate uncertainty.
Last week I shared my professional 2024 goals with you. This week I thought it would be fitting to share what to expect for the GTM community in 2024.
It’s no surprise what I think the future of the GTM professional is going to look like. I think 2024 will accelerate that hypothesis. A quick snapshot of what we’ll be covering today amidst rapid advancements within AI and the evolving macro economic environment:
State of the Market Data:
SaaSLetter
DealDesk
My Predictions for 2024:
Emphasis on Soft Skills
Better Research
Adaptation
Being Human
State of the Market Data
Full breakdown on the month of December in each market (strategic, enterprise, mid market, and SDR in link above).
From the data that Matt provides, it’s clear December (and quite frankly 2023 as a whole) have been challenging for every market and sector.
Credit: Deal Director
I won’t spill all the sauce from the Deal Director’s latest newsletter edition but the one takeaway is that the Deal Director is bullish on the coming year, as am I.
You can sign up for the The Deal Desk Newsletter here.
My Predictions for 2024:
Emphasis on Soft Skills
GPT, Bard, Claude, and other AI tools have all helped to outsource and automate mundane tasks. Those tasks range from things like research, content creation, even outreach.
The thing that they are all missing?
Empathy.
The questions we ask as sellers come from a place of not just curiosity but a need to understand. Truly understanding is what builds empathy, trust, and a solid relationship. Which happen to equate into sales.
Carole Mahoney cites a Harvard Business School study known as the “IKEA effect” and its impact of understanding and building trust with buyers:
Asking clarification questions and seeking to understand releases a dopamine hit in our brains that make us trust someone more.
Crazy right?
Given that we have algorithms and data to help increase output, we’ll see reps succeed, and fail, on their ability to drive:
Trust
Understanding
Relevancy
This isn’t limited to just having a customer call/demo either. It applies to all activity. Being better at cold calling and messaging to your target prospect.
If you can’t hit on the above in any medium of communication, you’re NGMI.
Better Research
In order to be an effective communicator you need to ask the right questions and have a basic understanding of what the problem even is. Not having a basic understanding is what leads to poor questions. This results in the loss of credibility and ruins the buying experience for customers.
Similar to how buyers are 57-70% through their journey before engaging with sales to make a purchasing decision, GTM pros will have to be in a similar camp in order to thrive in 2024. AI, combined with the modern sales tech stack, helps unlock both the quality, speed, and quantity of information you can find on target prospects and accounts.
This includes but is not limited to:
Account research and mapping
Trigger Events
Outreach messaging
Using AI to get better and more precise with your research will not only lead to higher output, but higher win rates and faster sales cycles.
So when you hop on that first discovery call it’s not just about what the role is and what the business does. It’s getting right to the point of what you’re trying to understand on a call and ask the deeper questions to qualify an opp.
Adaptation
Jed Mahrle from Practical Prospecting noted this “skill” as a prediction of what’s to come for GTM pros in 2024. Although he points out it’s not necessarily a skill, it will be critical for success in the year ahead.
With all the rapid changes happening in AI, experimentation and optimization will be critical in 2024. I can easily see a tactic that might have brought you success at the end of this year, potentially not working at the end of next.
If you’re not fixing what it is broke, you will be.
Being Human
As buyer inboxes are being flooded with spammy messaging and AI automated campaigns, they’re becoming more and more numb to cold outreach. Both customers and GTM professionals have also become accustomed to Zoom calls in order to build relationships.
With that, the combination of research and better soft skills will play out and we’ll see more and more of an emphasis of in person events and meetings. We’ll have to be better at networking and getting introductions.
I already have an uptick of in person events lined up in the Q1 and much of the research I’ve been doing has been focused on getting introductions to senior level executives.
Closing Thoughts
All of these advancements in AI are both exciting and scary. Out of everything there is one theme that I find interesting and ironic in all this. It’s a theme that plays heavily in favor of sellers and even buyers.
Despite all the technology and rapid advancements in AI, it seems the market is demanding more and more of the one thing that technology can never be.
Human.
2024 is going to be wild.
As always, thank you for reading.
See you all next week.
-Andrew K