AI + EQ + GTM: The New Growth Equation for B2B Leaders

Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast

"If done right, AI will actually make us more human. It handles the busy work and surfaces real-time insights—so GTM teams can focus on what really drives revenue: building relationships, solving real problems, and creating long-term customer value." That’s a quote from Roderick Jefferson and a sneak peek at today’s episode.

Hi there, I’m Kerry Curran—Revenue Growth Consultant, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost, A Marketing Podcast. In every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that deliver real results. So if you're serious about business growth, find us in your favorite podcast directory, hit subscribe, and start outpacing your competition today.

In this episode, titled AI + EQ + GTM: The New Growth Equation for B2B Leaders, I sit down with keynote speaker, author, and enablement powerhouse Roderick Jefferson to unpack the modern formula for revenue growth: AI + EQ + GTM.

We explore why traditional sales enablement isn’t enough in today’s landscape—and how real go-to-market success requires alignment across marketing, sales, and customer success, powered by emotional intelligence and smart technology integration.

Whether you're a CRO, CMO, or GTM leader looking to scale smarter, this episode is packed with real-world insights and actionable strategies to align your teams and drive sustainable growth.

Stick around until the end, where Roderick shares expert tips for building your own AI-powered revenue engine.

If you’re serious about long-term growth, it’s time to get serious about AI, EQ, and GTM. Let’s go.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01)
Welcome, Roderick. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.

Roderick Jefferson (00:06)
Hey, Kerry. First of all, thanks so much for having me on. I’m really excited—I’ve been looking forward to this one all day. So thanks again. I’m Roderick Jefferson, CEO of Roderick Jefferson & Associates. We’re a fractional enablement company, and we focus on helping small to mid-sized businesses—typically in the $10M to $100M range—that need help with onboarding, ongoing education, and coaching.

I’m also a keynote speaker and an author. I actually started my career in sales at AT&T years ago. I was a BDR, did well, got promoted to AE, made President’s Club a couple of times. Then I was offered a sales leadership role—and I turned it down. I know they thought I was crazy, but there were two reasons: first, I realized I loved the process of selling more than just closing big deals. And second, oddly enough, I wasn’t coin-operated. I did it because I loved it—it gave me a chance to interact with people and have conversations like this one.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:16)
I love that—and I love your background. As Roderick mentioned, he does a lot of keynote speaking, and that’s actually where I met him. He was a keynote speaker at B2BMX West in Scottsdale last month. I also have one of your books here that I’ve been diving into. I can’t believe how fast this year is flying—it’s already the first day of spring!

Roderick Jefferson (01:33)
Thank you so much. Wow, that was just last month? It feels like last week. Where is the time going?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:45)
I appreciate your experience for so many reasons. One is that—like we talked about before the show—my dad was in sales at AT&T for over 20 years. It paid for my entire education. So we were comparing notes on that era of innovation and what we learned back then.

Roderick Jefferson (02:02)
Thank you, AT&T!

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:13)
So much of what you talked about on stage and wrote about in your book is near and dear to my heart. My background is in building integrated marketing-to-sales infrastructure and strengthening it to drive revenue growth. I’m excited to hear more about what you’re seeing and hearing. You talk to so many brands and marketers—what’s hot right now? What’s the buzz? What do we need to know?

Roderick Jefferson (02:44)
A couple of things. The obvious one is AI—but I’ll add something: it’s not just AI, it’s AI plus EQ plus IQ. Without that combination, you won’t be successful.

The other big theme is the same old problem we’ve always had: Why is there such a disconnect between sales and marketing? As an enablement guy, it pains me. I spent 30 years in corporate trying to figure that out. I think we’re getting closer to alignment—thank you, AI, for finally stepping in and being smarter than all of us! But we’ve still got a long way to go.

Part of the issue is we’re still making decisions in silos. That’s why I’ve become a champion of moving away from just "sales enablement."

Yes, I know I wrote the book on sales enablement—but I don’t think that’s the focus anymore. In hindsight, “sales enablement” is too myopic. It's really about go-to-market. How do we bring HR, marketing, product marketing, engineering, sales, and enablement all to the same table to talk about the entire buyer’s journey?

Instead of focusing on our internal sales process and trying to shoehorn prospects into it, we should be asking: How do they buy? Who buys? Are there buying committees? How many people are involved? And yes, ICP matters—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It goes much deeper.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:44)
Yes, absolutely. And going back to why you loved your early sales roles—it was about helping people. That’s how I’ve always approached marketing too: what are their business challenges, and what can I offer to solve them? In your keynote, you said, “I want sales to stop selling and start helping.” But that’s not possible without partnering with marketing to learn and message around the outcomes we drive and the pain points we solve.

Roderick Jefferson (05:22)
Exactly. Let’s unpack that. First, about helping vs. selling—that’s why we have spam filters now. Nobody wants to be sold to. That’s also why people avoid car lots—because you know what’s coming: they’ll talk at you, try to upsell you, and push you into something you don’t need or want. Then you have buyer’s remorse.

Now apply that to corporate and entrepreneurship. If you’re doing all the talking in sales, something’s wrong. Too many people ask questions just to move the deal forward instead of being genuinely inquisitive.

Let’s take it further. If marketing is working in a silo—building messaging and positioning—and they don’t bring in sales, then guess what? Sales won’t use it. Newsflash, right? And second, it’s only going to reflect marketing’s perspective. But if you bring both teams together and say, “Hey, what are the top three to five things you’re hearing from prospects over and over?”—then you can work collaboratively and cohesively to solve those.

The third piece is: let’s stop trying to manufacture pain. Not every prospect is in pain. Sometimes the goal is to increase efficiency or productivity. If there is pain, you get to play doctor for a moment. And by that, I mean: do they need an Advil, a Vicodin, a Percocet, or an extraction? Do you need to stop the bleeding right now? You only figure that out by getting sales, marketing, product, and even HR at the same table.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:34)
Yes, absolutely. I love the analogy of different levels of pain solutions because you’re right—sometimes it’s not pain, it’s about helping the customer be more efficient, reduce costs, or drive revenue. I’ve used the doctor analogy before too: you assess the situation and then customize the solution based on where it “hurts” the most. One of the ongoing challenges, though, is that sales and marketing still aren’t fully aligned. Why do you think that’s been such a persistent issue, and where do you see it heading?

Roderick Jefferson (08:14)
Because sales speaks French and marketing speaks German. They’re close enough that they can kind of understand each other—like ordering a beer or finding a bathroom—but not enough for a meaningful conversation.

The core issue is that they’re not talking—they’re presenting to each other. They're pitching ideas instead of having a dialogue. Marketing says, “Here’s what the pitch should look like,” and sales replies, “When’s the last time you actually talked to a customer?”

They also get stuck in “I think” and “I feel,” and I always tell both groups—those are the two things you cannot say in a joint meeting. No one cares what you think or feel. Instead, say: “Here’s what I’ve seen work,” or “Here’s what I’ve heard from prospects and customers.” That way, the conversation is rooted in data and real-world insight, not opinion or emotion.

You might say, “Hey, when we get to slide six in the deck, things get fuzzy and deals stall.” That’s something marketing can fix. Or you go to product and say, “I’ve talked to 10 prospects, and eight of them asked for this feature. Can we move it up in the roadmap?”

Or go back to sales and say, “Only 28% of the team is hitting quota because they’re struggling with discovery and objection handling.” So enablement and marketing can partner to create role plays, messaging guides, or accreditations. It sounds utopian, but I’ve actually done this six times over 30 years—it is possible.

It’s not because I’m the smartest guy in the room—it’s because when sales and marketing align around shared definitions and shared goals, real change happens. Go back to MQLs and SQLs. One team says, “We gave you all these leads,” and the other says, “Yeah, but they all sucked.” Then you realize: you haven’t even agreed on what a lead is.

As a fractional enablement leader, that’s the first question I ask: “Can you both define what an MQL and SQL mean to you?” Nine times out of ten, they realize they aren’t aligned at all. That’s where real progress starts.

Once you fix communication, the next phase is collaboration. And what comes out of collaboration is the big one: accountability. That’s the word nobody likes—but it’s what gets results. You’re holding each other to timelines, deliverables, and follow-through.

The final phase is orchestration. That’s what enablement really does—we connect communication, collaboration, and accountability across the entire go-to-market team so everyone has a voice and a vote.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:16)
You’re so smart, and you bring up so many great points—especially around MQLs, SQLs, and the lack of collaboration. There’s no unified North Star. Marketing may be focused on MQLs, but those criteria don’t always match what moves an MQL to an SQL.

There’s also no feedback loop. I’ve seen teams where sales and marketing didn’t even talk to each other—but they still complained about each other! I was brought in to help, and I said, “You’re adults. It’s time to talk to one another.” And you’d think that would be obvious.

What I love is that we’re starting to see the outdated framework of MQLs as a KPI begin to fade. As you said, it’s about identifying a shared goal that everyone can be accountable to. We need to all be paddling in the same direction.

Roderick Jefferson (14:16)
Exactly. I wouldn't say we’re all rowing yet, but we’ve definitely got our hands in the water, and we’re starting to go in the same direction. You can see that North Star flickering out there.

And I give big kudos to AI for helping with that. In some ways, it reminds me of social media. Would you agree that social media initially made us less social?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:27)
Yes, totally agree. We can see the North Star.

Roderick Jefferson (14:57)
Now I’m going to flip that idea on its head: if done right, I believe AI will actually make us more human—and drive more meaningful conversations. I know that sounds crazy, but I have six ways AI can help us do that.

First, let’s go back to streamlining lead scoring. If we use AI to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, sales can focus efforts on the most promising opportunities. Once we align on those criteria, volume and quality both improve. With confidence comes competence—and vice versa.

Second is automating task management. Whether it’s data entry, appointment scheduling, or follow-up emails, those repetitive tasks eat up sales time. Less than 30% of a rep’s time is spent actually selling. If we offload that admin work, reps can focus on high-value activities—like building relationships, doing discovery, and closing deals.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:59)
Yes! And pre-call planning. Having the time to prepare properly makes a huge difference.

Roderick Jefferson (16:19)
Exactly. Third is real-time analytics. If marketing and ops can provide sales reps with real-time insights—like funnel data, deal velocity, or content performance—we can start making decisions based on data, not assumptions or feelings.

The fourth area is personalized sales coaching. I talk to a lot of leaders, and I’ll make a bold statement: most sales leaders don’t know how to coach. They either use outdated methods or try to “peanut butter” their advice across the team.

But what if we could use AI to analyze calls, emails, and meetings—then provide coaching based on each rep’s strengths and weaknesses? Sales leaders could shift from managing to leading.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:55)
Yes, I love that. It would completely elevate team performance.

Roderick Jefferson (18:11)
Exactly. Fifth is increasing efficiency in the sales process. AI can create proposals, contracts, and other documents, which frees up time for reps to focus on helping—not chasing paperwork. And by streamlining the process, we can qualify faster and avoid wasting time on poor-fit deals.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:58)
Right, and they can focus on the deals that are actually likely to move forward.

Roderick Jefferson (19:09)
Exactly. And sixth—and most overlooked—is customer success. That’s often left out of GTM conversations, but it’s critical. We can use AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to handle basic inquiries. That frees up CSMs to focus on more strategic tasks like renewals, cross-sell, and upsell.

Let’s be honest—most CSMs were trained for renewals, not selling. But cross-sell and upsell aren’t really selling—they’re reselling to warm, happy customers. The better trained and equipped CSMs are, the better your customer retention and growth.

Because let’s face it—we’ve all seen it: 90 days before renewal, suddenly a CSM becomes your best friend. Where were they for the last two years? If we get ahead of that and connect all the dots—sales, marketing, CS, and product—guess who wins?

• The prospect.
• The customer.
• The company—because revenue goes up.
• The employee—because bonuses happen, spiffs get paid, and KPIs are hit.

But most importantly, we build customers for life. And that has to start from the very beginning, not just when the CSM steps in at the end.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:47)
Yes, this is so smart. I love that you brought customer success into the conversation. One of the things I love about go-to-market strategy is that it includes lifetime value—upsell and renewal are a critical part of the revenue journey.

In my past roles, I've seen teams say, “Well, that’s just client services—they don’t know how to sell.” But to your point, if we coach them, equip them, and make them comfortable, it can go a long way.

Roderick Jefferson (21:34)
Absolutely. They become the lifeblood of your business. Yes, you need net-new revenue, but if sales builds this big, beautiful house on the front end and then customers just walk out the back door—what’s the point?

And I won’t even get into the stats—you know them—about how much more expensive it is to acquire a new customer versus retaining one. The key is being human and actually helping.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:46)
Exactly. I love that. It leads perfectly into my next question—because one of the core components of your strategy and presentation was the importance of EQ, or emotional intelligence. Can you talk about why that’s so critical?

Roderick Jefferson (22:19)
Yeah. It really comes down to this: AI can provide content—tons of it, endlessly. It can give you all the data and information in the world. But it still requires a human to provide context. For now, at least. I’m not saying it’ll be that way forever, but for now, context is everything.

I love analogies, so I’ll give you one: it’s like making gumbo. You sprinkle in some seasoning here, some spice there. In this case, AI provides the content. Then the human provides the interpretation—context. That’s understanding how to use that generated content to reach the right person or company, at the right time, with the right message, in the right tone.

What you get is a balanced, powerful approach: IQ + EQ + AI. That’s what leads to truly optimal outcomes—if you do it right.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:19)
Yes! I love that. And I love every stage of your process, Roderick—it’s so valuable. I know your clients are lucky to work with you.

For people listening and thinking, “Yes, I need this,” how do they get started? What’s the baseline readiness? How do they begin integrating sales and marketing more effectively—and leveraging AI?

Roderick Jefferson (23:34)
Thank you so much for that. It really starts with a conversation. Reach out—LinkedIn, social media, my website. And from there, we talk. We get to the core questions: Where are you today? Where have you been? Where are you trying to go? And most importantly: What does success look like?

And not just, “What does success look like?” but, “Who is success for?”

Then we move into an assessment. I want to talk to every part of the go-to-market team. Because not only do we have French and German—we’ve also got Dutch, Spanish, and every other language. My job is to become the translator—not just of language, but of dialects and context.

“This is what they said, but here’s what they meant. And this is what they meant, but here’s what they actually need.”

Then we dig into what’s really going on. Most clients have a sense of what’s “broken.” I’m not just looking for the broken parts—I’m looking at what you’ve already tried. What worked? What didn’t? Why or why not?

I basically become a persistent four-year-old asking, “Why? But why? But why?” And yes, it gets frustrating—but it’s the only way to build a unified GTM team with a shared North Star.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (25:32)
Yes, I love that. And just to add—sometimes something didn’t work not because it was a bad strategy, but because it was evaluated with the wrong KPI or misunderstood entirely.

Like a top-of-funnel strategy did work—but the team expected it to generate leads that same month. It takes time. So much of this comes down to digging into the root of the issue, and I love your approach.

Roderick Jefferson (26:10)
Exactly. And it’s also about understanding that every GTM function has different KPIs.

If I’m talking to sales, I’m asking about average deal size, quota attainment, deal velocity, win rate, pipeline generation.
If I’m talking to sales engineering, they care about number of demos per deal, wins and losses, and number of POCs.
Customer success? They care about adoption, churn, CSAT, NPS, lifetime value.

My job is to set the North Star and speak in their language—not in “enablement-ese.” Sometimes that means speaking in sales terms, sometimes marketing terms. And I always say, “Assume I know nothing about your job. Spell out your acronyms. Define your terms.”

Because over 30 years, I’ve learned: the same acronym can mean 12 different things at 12 different companies.

The goal is to get away from confusion and start finding commonality. When you break down the silos and the masks, you realize we’re all working toward the same thing: new, long-term, happy customers for life.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (27:55)
Yes—thank you, Roderick. I love this. So, how can people find you?

Roderick Jefferson (28:00)
Funny—I always say if you can’t find me on social media, you’re not trying to find me.You can reach me at roderickjefferson.com, and you can find my book, Sales Enablement 3.0: The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence and the upcoming Sales 3.0 companion workbook there as well.

I’m on LinkedIn as Roderick Jefferson, Instagram and Threads at @roderick_j_associates, YouTube at Roderick Jefferson, and on BlueSky as @voiceofrod.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:33)
Excellent. I’ll make sure to include all of that in the show notes—I’m sure this episode will have your phone ringing!

Thank you so much, Roderick. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us. This was valuable for me, and I’m sure for the audience as well.

Roderick Jefferson (28:40)

Ring-a-ling—bring it on! Let’s dance. Thank you again. This was an absolute honor, and I’m glad we got the chance to reconnect, Kerry.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:59)
For sure. Thank you—you too.

Roderick Jefferson (29:01)
Take care, all.

Thanks for tuning in. If you’re struggling with flat or slowing revenue growth, you’re not alone. That’s why Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast brings you expert insights, actionable strategies, and real-world success stories to help you scale faster.

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To learn more about Kerry Curran and the RBMA: Revenue Based Marketing Advisors, go to www.revenuebasedmarketing.com and be sure to follow us on Kerry's LinkedIn Profile and The RBMA: Revenue Based Marketing Advisors Profile.

RBMA specializes in business transformation to drive revenue growth. We lead companies move from an ABM strategy to a company wide Go-to-Market program that sets you up for sustainable, year-over-year revenue growth.

If you're in the market for a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer or Fractional Chief Revenue Officer be sure to reach out to Kerry. Kerry is also available for speaking, panel moderation, and other professional presentation services. For services and contact information check out the RBMA: Revenue Based Marketing Advisors website here.