The Last Race for Margin
Hot Take: AI will own late-stage selling. Profit now lives upstream.
The Takeaway
Our new positioning paper, The Last Race for Margin, is a field guide for CEOs, CFOs, and CROs who want profit up while AI takes busywork down. Core points:
AI is already replacing procurement work and will move into planning tasks next. Capacity rises. Capability gaps get exposed.
Margin is created early at the top of the sale. There is only room for one at that altitude.
Reallocate roughly 8 to 14 percent of revenue function spend over two years to build a demand-creation engine. Early margin gains help pay for it.
Read the paper:
Today’s Video Message:
The Real Lesson: Where Human Sellers Still Win
Initiate at executive level. Earn time with the P&L owner before a buying journey begins.
Build trust through presence and story. Translate a live trigger into a clear risk and path to value.
Align internal teams and lead to early decisions. Turn altitude into an agreed initiative with owner, metric, and timeline.
Before You Go
Remember: Capacity without capability is a discount engine.
Do this week: Replace one lead-sourced demo with a 20-minute executive risk briefing triggered by a real signal.
Watch: Percent of first meetings at VP and above. If it stalls, you are competing where AI will.