Go-to-market (GTM) teams today face a paradox in the future of sales enablement.

On one hand, the AI revolution promises faster onboarding, smarter targeting, and limitless efficiency. On the other, buyers are more skeptical than ever, reps are burning out, and tech stacks are bloating beyond reason.

We co-hosted a recent GTM roundtable with our friends at Chili Piper, where sales, marketing, and revenue leaders had the chance to swap stories and solutions with fellow operators. One theme became abundantly clear during that discussion – AI won’t save you. People and processes still matter more than platforms.

We covered a ton in just 45 minutes. Below are the key debates, insights, and lessons that stood out.

AI in sales enablement: Rollouts fail without process

Or as one of the attendees put it: “Don’t buy Gong if you’ve never listened to a call recording.”

It’s an uncomfortable truth. Too many teams race to adopt AI (heck, even enablement tools) without laying the groundwork that makes these tools effective. 

In reality, AI in sales enablement fails without process. GTM leaders need to prioritize sales process frameworks before layering in AI tools. Otherwise (without people and processes), there’s a huge risk that AI will only accelerate inefficiency.

One leader shared how reps were relying heavily on Gong’s AI call scoring instead of learning how to identify coachable moments themselves. Others highlighted how SDRs leaned on AI-generated prompts for discovery questions but struggled when the conversation veered off-script.

The message was clear: without strong foundations, AI is just an expensive crutch. This is why the framework of people, processes, and platforms is in that order. 

1. Start with the right people who understand the product and the market.
2.  Build strong processes to capture and replicate their success. 
3. Then use platforms to accelerate growth—confident that you’re scaling the right things.

Skip the first two, and AI only amplifies inefficiency.

It’s tempting to believe that the right tool will fix broken systems. But AI isn’t a Band-Aid. It’s an accelerator. If your team can’t execute the fundamentals, no amount of tooling will fix that.

Signal Stacking: The future of outbound

Outbound isn’t dead – it’s evolving. The spray-and-pray era is dead, and precision-targeting is being supplanted by a smarter playbook: signal stacking. Instead of scaling targeted (and often, templated) outreach to a swath of Tier 1 accounts, teams deploying modern demand generation strategies are combining intent signals into hyper-relevant outreach.

One attendee shared a glimpse of their signal-stacking framework:

• UserGems to track champions who switch jobs.
• Gong to pull closed lost reasons from transcripts
• 6Sense + Common Room to surface accounts showing renewed interest.

When those signals overlap, the outreach nearly writes itself. Imagine this: a past champion visits your website, and you know from historical data that “budget” was the reason they didn’t buy last time. Now your messaging becomes: “Last time budget was the blocker—did you know you can use AWS credits with us?” Obviously, a specific example, but the framework of that motion is how you deliver a relevant message to the right person at the right time – all at scale. And it’s how leading teams are breaking through without burning out their SDRs.

It’s important to note that this is very much a “BDR Acceleration” tactic – signal stacking won’t work if you don’t have the fundamentals in place. Just like we covered in the previous section, a lack of aptitude or tight processes will scale poor outreach to high-value prospects. And that’s a manager’s worst nightmare.

Signal stacking is a prime example of “automated where it makes sense, human where it matters.” Surfacing the insights your reps need to create that relevant and timely messaging should be taken care of by AI. Executing the outreach that’s informed by those signals should be done by a human.

Buyers are tired of endless qualification calls

This was an unexpected (but relevant) topic of debate – do we even need discovery calls if we have all of this information via signals stacking? Especially if we’re sitting hot prospects down with SDRs who don’t have fundamental discovery chops?

One participant’s story resonated hard. They reached out to a vendor, clearly explained their use case, and still had to sit through three separate qualification calls (two with SDRs) before being told they weren’t a fit. By then, frustration boiled over, and the buyer vented publicly on LinkedIn.

Leaders in the room agreed: bad discovery is worse than no discovery at all. Discovery calls can add tremendous value when done well – helping tailor demos, uncovering hidden needs, and saving time for both sides. But when they’re repetitive, slow, or clearly just a checkbox exercise, they erode trust and stall deals.

The consensus was simple: one effective discovery call, then a demo. Buyers don’t have the patience for multi-step hoops. If your process prioritizes internal efficiency over buyer experience, you’re probably losing deals before they even reach your pipeline.

The “Layup” Effect: Why SDRs still need easy wins

Now all that being said, a few of our attendees wanted to reiterate the value of plugging SDRs into the inbound engine – even with existing bells and whistles.

Outbound prospecting is hard. SDRs grind through hundreds of touches to hit 6–8 meetings per month, often connecting with only a couple of prospects per day. Burnout and attrition are inevitable in that environment. But the function itself is still valuable, and building a rep turnstile can be a slippery slope.

That’s why one leader made a contrarian argument: sometimes SDRs need “layups.” Giving them the occasional inbound hand-raiser—even if AI could route it straight to an AE—keeps morale high and attrition low.

Critics can argue that inbound should always be automated, but culture ROI matters. Constantly replacing SDRs costs far more than handing them a few easy wins. Pair that with the fact that if you properly implement people → processes → platforms, the learning curve for an SDR will be much smaller and they’ll ramp up much faster – a recipe for a happy rep.

A motivated SDR who feels successful is more likely to stay, grow, and potentially graduate into a closing role. Sometimes, the best investment isn’t in automation, it’s in people.

Outbound sales trends: Cold calling is quietly making a comeback

With inboxes saturated by AI-generated “personalized” emails, another channel is re-emerging: the phone.

Cold calling is making a comeback as a key outbound sales trend. While AI-driven emails flood inboxes, phone outreach stands out as a human, authentic GTM motion.

One attendee noted that their SDRs are booking 10–15 meetings per week by picking up the phone. Last year, demandDrive booked just over 8,000 meetings, 72% of which were over the phone.

Email outreach is quickly being tuned out – it’s often too generic and there’s certainly too much of it. But phone calls and voicemails? They’re standing out precisely because fewer teams are making them. What was once considered “dying” is now becoming a competitive differentiator.

It’s a full-circle moment: cold calling never truly died, but it’s transforming into a pattern interrupt. In a digital world where everyone’s trying to automate, the most human channel is regaining its edge.

The takeaway: if your team has written off the phone as a viable outbound channel, you’re leaving pipeline on the table.

Tech stack bloat before consolidation

If your GTM stack feels heavier than ever, you’re not alone. Participants commiserated over the fact that some legacy sales + marketing tools haven’t innovated fast enough, and it’s allowing niche startups to enter the game (and often overpromise on what they can deliver).

Nearly every attendee stated that they would rather consolidate their vendors than add new tools, but they capabilities of their existing tools can’t compete with the niche startups that seem to pop up daily.

The consensus was that we’re in the bloat phase. Teams are stacking tool after tool on top of their already sprawling ecosystems. They’re experimenting, learning, and trying to find an edge. But no one expects this to last. Within 12–18 months, most leaders predict consolidation—fewer tools, better integration, and more rationalized spend.

In short: bloat now, consolidation later. The key is knowing which experiments are worth running and which tools will still matter once the dust settles.

The future of GTM strategy: Human > Hype

The future of sales enablement isn’t “AI replaces humans.” It’s “AI accelerates humans who already know what they’re doing.” The roundtable made one thing clear: leaders who balance AI with strong process, skilled people, and authentic engagement are the ones who will thrive.

• Cold calls are cutting through where emails fail.
• Signal stacking is making outbound smarter, not louder.
• SDR morale still matters as much as pipeline metrics.

AI is here to stay. But the winners won’t be those who chase every new tool. They’ll be the leaders who keep their tech grounded in process, their reps focused on authenticity, and their buyers at the center of the journey. The rest? They’ll be stuck with bloated stacks, burned-out teams, and buyers who just wanted a demo without three qualification calls.