It goes back to first principles with AI. A CRM previously existed as software as a mechanism to facilitate sales, whether that was from the data layer, logic layer or application layer. Since AI can now more easily replicate (but not fully replace) the latter two, these CRMs are more reduced to primarily a data layer. SF or HS could ultimately still prevail. But it comes down to who will best facilitate the entire customer buying journey or store the data. In the future, sales might be facilitated like how Turbo Tax works. The UI just surfaces the data and directs you where to go and everything in the background stores the data and decides how to facilitate it to a rep. One area that hasn’t been done well historically is how top of funnel data or any data with a signal merges with sales data. This could play out where it’s SF/HS, or something more ToF like Clay or Hightouch or even more vastly broader like Glean or Watt Data where every piece of data is essentially a signal. The CRM/“CRM” will change from what it is today. Too hard to tell which player, but it'll be who solves the biggest friction in sales from a data layer perspective.
Gururaj P., top of funnel is commonly the top challenge of RevOps these days. But to extend Pat’s sentiments, it's pretty universal amongst RevOps professionals that RevOps is the necessary orchestration of the entire revenue engine across marketing, sales, post sales, finance, and product.
