REV UP Rebellion

In this episode, you get an extremely rare behind the scenes view on how Atlassian and Canva are rethinking sales, GTM and growth for the AI era.

Atlassian have seen results within their sales team such as:

• 87% improvement in pace of work
• 68% improvement in quality of work
• 60% reduction in tickets needing human intervention

Over at Canva, the sales team are rethinking how they drive growth via customer loyalty, how they prospect with AI and win new opportunities with the ultimate personalisation.

You will hear from Caroline Stevens, Head of Sales Growth and B2B Revenue Performance at Canva, and Jessica Gilroy, Head of APAC GTM and Enterprise Sales at Atlassian, about how two of Australia's most successful SaaS scale-ups are rethinking their sales and GTM motion with AI.

We cover everything from how they approach hypergrowth, culture non-negotiables, what they are prioritising for FY27, the skills they are hiring for, and how both companies managed to go from AI dabbling to AI results within the sales team.

Both are measuring AI results differently, and you will hear both perspectives and approaches.

You will hear the frameworks behind the results: Atlassian's Three Horizons framework and Canva's Bow Tie framework.

They also get into the one thing both leaders are now hiring for that was not on anyone's radar a year ago.

This conversation is a must-listen for any sales & GTM organisation that is looking to rethink for FY27 and embrace the Human + AI advantage.

This episode dives into:

• The skill both leaders are now hiring for that nobody was hiring for a year ago
• The Three Horizons framework Atlassian used to go AI-native
• Why Canva measures customer loyalty before it ever measures revenue, and what that protects long term
• What Canva and Atlassian are actually prioritising for their sales and GTM teams heading into FY27
• The real difference between AI dabbling and AI adoption for sales teams
• Where relationship-based selling sits as AI takes over more of the transactional work
• The mindset shift both leaders needed

Ready to rethink Sales for the Human + AI era in FY27?

Start with our Human + AI REVenue Accelerator, a live cohort program taking sales teams from AI dabbling to building real pipeline in six weeks.

Get started at https://www.revupsystem.com/accelerator/ and use promo code REVUPREBELLION at checkout for a $500 dollar saving per person, available until 13 August 2026 or until spots are full.

00:01:45 – Who owns AI for revenue teams?

00:04:23 – Inside Atlassian's sales & GTM AI journey

00:06:45 – The Three Horizons framework for AI maturity

00:16:11 – Why customer loyalty beats the revenue number

00:28:16 – Behind the scenes on hypergrowth

00:39:58 – Rethinking workflows in the human + AI era

01:01:16 – The real results, in the team's own numbers

01:08:27 – One thing every revenue leader should do this week

Connect with our guests:

• Caroline Stevens, Canva: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-stevens-4bb88359/
• Jessica Gilroy, Atlassian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicagilroy/
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/

Connect with us:

Join the Human + AI REVenue Accelerator, built for FY27 growth: https://www.revupsystem.com/accelerator/ (use code REVUPREBELLION for a $500 saving per person until 13 August 2026)

Be an Insider and receive our newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/

Follow Abbie on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/

Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn/

Keynotes and workshops with Abbie: https://abbie-white.com/

Four years ago, Grace Miller joined Diary of a CEO when it had 100,000 followers. She left the Gold Coast, took a role most of us haven't ever heard of, and started building something Steven Bartlett considered so critical he created the role specifically for it. Today the podcast has nearly 16 million followers, over a billion YouTube views, and multi-million-dollar revenue streams. Grace's title: Head of Failure and Experimentation.

In this episode of REV UP Rebellion, Grace sits down with Abbie White in front of a live audience of revenue leaders to unpack how businesses can learn from FlightStory's approach to failure and experimentation.

This episode is NOT about starting a podcast! It's about what revenue leaders can take from one of the fastest-growing media businesses on the planet, and how to apply that same experimentation edge to drive real commercial growth.

Most revenue leaders experiment to some degree, but FlightStory has built it into its DNA, even looking for these attributes in a hiring culture test. The team has achieved unparalleled growth by out-failing the competition.

Grace also shares how FlightStory is currently experimenting with AI, the internal AI competition that fast-tracked their progress, and the growth opportunities Grace has her eye on.

What's covered in this episode:

• 90% of experiments at Diary of a CEO either fail or come back inconclusive — find out why Grace still considers that a win
• How Grace and the Diary of a CEO team get the entire organisation consistently experimenting
• Why Steven Bartlett calls Head of Failure and Experimentation one of the most critical roles in the business
• How FlightStory is experimenting with AI right now and what their results revealed
• How to come back from a failed experiment without loss of morale
• What separates a good experiment from a wasted one
• The culture standard Grace holds her team to: it's not acceptable to NOT try something new
• What would actually surprise you most about working with Steven Bartlett!

(00:00:45) How Failing and Experimenting Can Result in $9M in Pipeline (Plus, How We Got Grace on Our Podcast!)

(00:04:33) Process is Overrated: Why Breaking Process Unlocks Growth

(00:06:35) What ‘Head of Failure’ Actually Means Day to Day

(00:07:41) How Much of Your Team's Time Should Be Spent Experimenting

(00:13:27) What Separates a Good Experiment from a Waste of Time

(00:18:50) The Culture Mechanics that Make Experimentation Stick Across the Whole Organisation

(00:25:05) How FlightStory Is Experimenting with AI Right Now

(00:39:42) How to Build a Failure and Experimentation Culture Inside a Risk-Averse Organisation

Connect with Grace: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-miller-linked-in/

Connect with us:

• Be an Insider and receive our inside track: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/
• Check out our REV UP FY27 Program: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/REVUPSystem/
• Join the REVenue Leaders executive community: https://tinyurl.com/REVenueLeaders/
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/
• The Growth Paradox keynote and workshop enquiries: ⁠https://abbie-white.com/

Abbie ran a business pre-mortem on her own company.

She sat down expecting nothing she hadn't already thought of. She lives in this world every day. Thirty minutes later she had identified risks to her business she had not seen coming, and opportunities she had been too close to spot.

That exercise became the Growth Paradox Framework.

Right now, most revenue leaders are deep in one conversation: which AI LLM to use, what is the ROI on AI, and is the team adopting AI. It's not the wrong conversation. Whilst all these questions are relevant, there is a far more critical question which could be make-or-break, one that is most often being missed.

In this episode, we dive into that critical question and stress-test your business against the Growth Paradox Framework.

The Growth Paradox is a framework Abbie uses with clients and has never shared publicly... until now!

If you lead revenue teams, this one is for you.

What's covered in this episode:

• The high-risk AI conversation nobody is having
• What Abbie found when she ran a pre-mortem on her own business, and why it surprised her
• The IKEA decision that turned displacement into over €1 billion in revenue
• The most expensive mistake most leaders are making right now
• The question that should be answered by every revenue leader before FY27 planning closes

(00:00:08) Why the AI Conversation Needs to Go Beyond LLMs and Tools

(00:02:13) Where to Start: Running a Business Pre-Mortem

(00:04:35) The Growth Paradox Framework

(00:05:13) How to Find Emerging AI-Powered Opportunities

(00:09:23) Human Connection is an Untapped Growth Lever

(00:12:12) AI Risks Leaders Need to Face

(00:14:18) What Businesses Risk by Not Adopting AI

(00:16:49) Finding Your Non-Negotiables and Redefining Your Growth Strategy

Take This Further:

The Growth Paradox: Human + AI is Abbie's signature keynote for revenue generating teams in FY27. If this episode landed, reach out via this link: https://www.abbie-white.com/the-growth-paradox

Abbie is also running FY27 planning workshops and leadership offsites for teams who want to go deeper. Book a conversation to see if it's a fit: https://www.abbie-white.com/contact-abbie

Connect With Us:

• Be an Insider and receive our inside track: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now
• Check out our REV UP FY27 Program: https://tinyurl.com/REVUPSystem
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn
• Follow us on LinkedIn for educational bites: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn
• Keynote and workshop enquiries: https://abbie-white.com

In the current volatile market and AI age, the most critical role a business needs is arguably the Chief Revenue Officer. Not the CRO running a playbook built for a market that no longer exists, but the one rising as the Growth Architect: building new systems of work, new revenue levers, and a function fit for today’s market.

In this episode of REV UP Rebellion, Abbie sits down with Hayden Stafford for a frank and timely conversation. From the rise of the Chief Revenue Officer and why the average CRO tenure is only 18 months, to navigating growth in an AI age where, in two years, there will be 10X more AI agents than sellers!

Hayden Stafford is President and Chief Revenue Officer at Seismic, the global leader in revenue enablement, and one of the most experienced revenue leaders in enterprise technology. He has held senior revenue roles at Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Pegasystems before taking the CRO seat at Seismic, a company now operating as an AI-first revenue platform.

This is a must-listen for CROs, Heads of Sales, and senior GTM leaders who want a clearer picture of where the role is heading and what it actually takes to build a revenue engine that performs and is futureproofed.

What's covered in this episode:

• Why the obsession with pipeline volume is a red herring, and what to measure instead
• The real mandate of the CRO role, and how to lead through volatility
• The performance gap hiding in plain sight across even the highest-performing revenue teams
• Why most sellers are not getting the lift they expected from AI, and the three practical steps to close that gap
• Systems of work versus systems of record: why this distinction will define who wins the next three years in revenue

If you are leading a revenue function and want to cut through the noise on what the CRO role actually demands right now, this is the conversation to start with.

(00:01:45) Why More Pipeline Is the Wrong Answer

(00:04:57) The Rise of the CRO: What Makes a CRO More Than Just a Sales Leader

(00:09:26) How to Find Growth Opportunities in Uncertain Markets

(00:18:32) Why Annual Plans Might Be A Thing of the Past

(00:20:04) Positive and Negative Signals to Watch Out For

(00:23:05) The Biggest Performance Gap Hiding in Plain Sight

(00:25:25) AI Reality Check: Why Most Sellers Are Getting No Lift

(00:37:54) The "System of Work" Your Revenue Team Needs

(00:44:09) Seismic: The #1 Global Sales Enablement Platform

Connect with Hayden:

• Hayden Stafford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenestafford/
• Connect with Seismic: https://www.seismic.com/

Connect with Us:

• Be an Insider & receive our inside track: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/
• Check out our REV UP FY27 Program: https://tinyurl.com/REVUPSystem/
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/
• Follow us on LinkedIn for educational bites: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn/

What separates the leaders who hold their ground under pressure from those who unravel? Dan Haesler has spent his career inside that question, and the answer is rarely what most organisations are investing in. 

Dan Haesler is a performance and leadership coach who works with the biggest elite athletes and sporting teams in Australia (including the Penrith Panthers, the Socceroos, the Wallabies, and members of the Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams). He is also the author of the bestselling Australian business title 'The Act of Leadership' and director of Cut Through Coaching, which works across sport, corporate, and education. He brings the same mental skills frameworks to a revenue leader navigating a brutal quarter as he does to an athlete performing in front of a national audience. 

In this episode of REV UP Rebellion, Abbie White sits down with Dan for a conversation that cuts through the noise on sustainable high performance, identity, and what it actually means to lead when the pressure is on and the pace of change feels relentless.

This is a must-listen for every sales, GTM, and revenue leader who may be hitting their numbers but wondering how much longer they can sustain this pace, or leading a team that is showing the cracks. 

What's covered in this episode: 

• The four pillars of engagement that COVID dismantled, and why one of them is still driving workplace friction right now
• "Radically protect your core, innovate at the edges": the framework that keeps high performers grounded when everything is moving fast 
• The identity question most leaders cannot answer, and why that's the real reason performance breaks down under pressure
• Why winning the quarter, each quarter, might be burning your team out, and what high-performing teams do differently
• The mental skills that are trainable, the equanimity that elite coaches build deliberately, and how it translates directly to revenue leadership
• Why the soft skills are actually pretty hard, and what it costs leaders who keep treating them as a nice-to-have

(00:01:41) The Conversation Most Leaders Are Avoiding

(00:07:15) Why Efficiency Could Be Killing Team Performance

(00:17:57) Radically Protect Your Core: The Strategy for Leading Through Uncertainty

(00:24:07) Most Leaders Can’t Answer This Question, And It’s Why People Break

(00:30:55) Sustainable High Performance vs the Burnout Cycle

(00:39:32) The Equanimity Edge: The Trademark of High-Performance Teams

(00:49:28) How to Train "Mental Skills" and Resilience to Be a Better Leader

(00:55:07) Why "Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast"

(00:57:42) The Key to Thriving Under Pressure and Disruption

(01:01:55) How to Start When the Gap Feels Too Big to Bridge

Connect With Dan

• Dan Haesler on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/DanHaeslerLinkedIn/
• Cut Through Coaching: https://cutthroughhq.com/
• Dan’s book, The Act of Leadership: https://www.actofleadership.com/

Connect With Us

• Be an Insider & receive our inside track: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/
• Check out our REV UP FY27 Program: https://tinyurl.com/REVUPSystem/
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/
• Follow us on LinkedIn for educational bites: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn/

As co-founder of Lendi Group, David Hyman handed over his CEO responsibilities and went into a room with ten people to rebuild a live $110 billion loan book as an AI-native business, in one of Australia’s most highly regulated, complex industries. Development cycles collapsed from under 12 weeks to under 12 days. Business teams went from waiting on technology to prototyping solutions in under an hour. A voice AI agent that David told a hackathon team "would never get there" was handling almost 100% of out-of-hours calls twelve months later.

He also wakes up every morning with what he calls a "semi-healthy level of resting anxiety" about not moving fast enough.

That tension is exactly what this episode is about.

Daniel Folb spent years as a Deloitte partner watching large organisations execute complex transformations. He knows the moment a program stalls, who kills it, and what separates the businesses that actually move from the ones that talk about moving. After watching the Lendi story unfold publicly on LinkedIn, he and David kept bumping into each other on the street. The universe, as Dan puts it, was telling them something.

Today is launch day for monō ai, Australia’s new global AI company. This episode is where the story starts.

In this episode of REV UP Rebellion, Abbie White sits down with both founders on launch day for a conversation that covers the real mechanics of how Lendi became AI-native, what it actually took to move from human motion to agentic motion, and why the leaders most at risk right now are the ones who still think they have time.

This is a must-listen for every leader inside a complex, regulated, or enterprise environment who is still hearing "we’re not ready yet."

What’s covered in this episode:

• "If you think of AI as a tool, you’ve already lost" — and what the leaders who are winning are thinking instead
• From under 12 weeks to under 12 days to under an hour: the specific operating shifts inside a business most said couldn’t do it
• What "agentic motion" actually means when it’s working inside a real business, not a demo
• Project Aurora: ten people, a board mandate, five to six months, and a live loan book; the inside account
• The "semi-healthy resting anxiety" every revenue leader should have, and what it’s actually telling you
• Why the leaders who move first are building a compounding intelligence advantage that gets harder to close every quarter
• The first move to make this week if your business is still in the "not yet" conversation

This is not just another AI hype conversation. This is the inside account of what it actually took, what worked, and what two people built on the other side of it.

(00:02:47) Why We Should Stop Thinking About AI as a "Tool"

(00:06:16) Becoming AI-Native in a Highly Regulated Industry

(00:12:07) Lendi's Cutting-Edge AI Transformation Process

(00:18:28) Introducing monō ai: The Next Global AI Company

(00:21:02) How monō ai Will Enable Businesses to Go AI-First

(00:24:35) Transformation Advice from a Former Deloitte Partner

(00:29:27) What Top Businesses Do to Ensure Execution and Results

(00:34:29) We're Measuring AI ROI Wrong

(00:42:13) Why "It's Better to Work Somewhere That's Embracing AI"

(00:47:34) Addressing AI Security Concerns

(00:52:55) First Steps to Truly Integrate AI into Businesses

Check out monō ai: monoai.co

Connect with our guests:

• David Hyman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhyman/
• Dan Folb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-folb-877aaa69/

Connect with us:

• Check out our REV UP 2026 program to uplift sales & GTM team capability together: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/REV-UP-2026/
• Be an Insider & receive our inside track every other Thursday: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/
• Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn for educational bites: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn/

Everyone is busy. Everyone is overwhelmed. And for most revenue leaders right now, the pace of change is not just fast, it’s relentless.

But what if the busyness isn’t the problem? What if it's the excuse?

Abbie White, host of this podcast, is a growth strategist who has spent years working behind the scenes of fast-growth businesses, from ASX 200 to Fortune 500 companies. She’s deep in kick-off season right now, in the rooms where revenue strategy gets set, where teams are being challenged to do more with less, and where the same themes keep emerging across industries and organisations of every size.

In this solo episode, she pauses to share five things she is seeing actually working, not just predictions or theory. This is what’s cutting through for her clients and her own business in this market, right now. And the leaders navigating complexity best all have one thing in common that most wouldn't expect.

One client has already built multi-million dollar pipeline from a challenge, designed by Abbie, that is still running!

If you’ve said 'I don't have time' recently, this one's for you. Because as Abbie puts it: none of us have the time not to.

What's covered in this episode:

• What Abbie is seeing actually cut through the noise and disruption right now
• Why 'I don't have time' is the wrong answer, and the reframe that is shifting things for clients
• The counterintuitive growth trends that are outperforming
• The difference between AI leaders and laggards
• The principle separating leaders who execute from those who stay stuck in the busyness

(00:00:17) – Opportunity 1: The Pace of Change

(00:02:37) – Opportunity 2: Intimate, In-Person Connection

(00:04:01) – Opportunity 3: AI Leaders vs Laggards

(00:07:05) – Opportunity 4: Going Bigger Is Easier Than You Think

(00:08:12) – Opportunity 5: Why the Best Leaders Embrace Limits

Connect with us:

• Check out our REV UP 2026 program to uplift sales & GTM team capability together: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/REV-UP-2026
• Be an Insider & receive our inside track every other Thursday: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now/
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn/
• Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn for educational bites: ⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn/

What if the biggest barrier between you and high performance isn't strategy, skills, or resources, but the language you've inherited about what success is supposed to look like? 

For most leaders and high performers, success has been defined externally: the targets, the status, the titles, the deal sizes. But Andy Reid, business owner, award-winning auctioneer, podcaster and author of 'Success Curious: How to Define and Achieve High Performance', makes a very compelling case that the entire framework is broken.

Not because the concepts are wrong, but because the language used to communicate them has stopped working. Discipline, sacrifice, high performance: these words carry weight that can shut us down rather than opening us up. 

In this episode of the REV UP Rebellion, Abbie White sits down with Andy Reid for a conversation that is as honest as it is thought-provoking. 

Andy brings together years of lived experience with mental health, ADHD, grief, and personal reinvention to challenge the idea that success is an external game. 

His framework is simple, deeply personal, and built for the kind of leader who has ticked every box on the conventional checklist and still feels something is off. 

This is a must-listen for leaders, business owners, and anyone who has achieved what they set out to achieve and found themselves wondering: is this it? 

What's covered in this episode: 

• Why success is a flow state, not a finish line, and what that means in practice 
• How the language of discipline and sacrifice can sabotage performance, especially with younger team members 
• Why 'being loyal to the next version of yourself' works where 'sacrifice' fails 
• The real cost of setting goals that ignore your actual life and circumstances 
• What ADHD, depression, and grief can teach you about high performance 
• Why non-negotiables can be dangerous... unless they are anchored to something real 
• The accountability partner mistake most people make 
• The one thing to do first if you want to genuinely change your trajectory

(00:00:00) – Introducing Andy Reid, author of 'Success Curious'

(00:00:59) – Redefining Success in 2026 

(00:04:28) – What Andy Hopes Readers Get From 'Success Curious'

(00:07:45) – Removing the Barriers to Success and High-Performance 

(00:11:51) – The Biggest Myth About Success Andy Wants to Bust 

(00:15:55) – Goal-Setting vs. Being Present: The Real Tension 

(00:21:10) – When Goals Become Intimidating and Counter-Productive (And How to Make Goal-Setting Work for You) 

(00:26:56) – Non-Negotiables: When They Work and When They Backfire 

(00:32:00) – What Writing the Book Revealed: The Problem with Language Around Success 

(00:39:16) – ADHD, Depression, and Giving the Middle Finger to Labels 

(00:43:17) – Eradicating Excuses and Finding Your Reasons 

(00:48:13) – Accountability Partners and Mentors: How to Pick the Right Person 

(00:54:34) – The First Step to Real Success: Accept Where You Are 

(00:58:20) – Andy’s Book Recommendation: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 

Connect with Andy: 

• Andy Reid on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyreidcoaching
• Success Curious (book): https://andyreid.com.au/product/success-curious

Connect with us: 

• Check out our REV UP 2026 program to uplift sales & GTM team capability together: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/REV-UP-2026⁠ 
• Be an Insider & receive our inside track every other Thursday: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now⁠ 
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn⁠ 
• Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn for educational bites: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn⁠ 

HubSpot ran a pilot deploying AI agents inside their sales teams. One result: approximately 95% of admin removed from a prospecting task.

Another pilot with a prospecting agent: around 20% of the sales week back. Every week. That's roughly 12 to 15 hours per seller. 

In this episode of the REV UP Rebellion podcast, Abbie sits down with Alli Kleppe, Lead Enablement Partner at HubSpot for APAC, to get into how HubSpot is actually building AI agent capability across their sales teams. What's working, what stalls adoption, and why most AI initiatives inside revenue teams quietly lose momentum before they ever deliver results. 

They also get into the one thing revenue leaders are at risk of losing in the race to AI-first. And it is the thing that determines whether your team will do the hard work for you when it counts. 

This episode dives into: 

• Why "hybrid teams" doesn't mean in-office plus virtual anymore (and what it really means to work alongside AI)
• The unexpected trend that's on the rise (hint: it's not just about new tools and tech)
• Where revenue teams get stuck when building AI skills (and how to shortcut the frustration)
• Prompts, agents, and tools: the mindset shift to finally make AI work for you
• How high performers are accelerating results without getting bogged down by digital noise
• The balancing act between automation, authenticity, and customer trust 
• The "messy middle" of CRM and data foundations (and why your tech stack could be holding you back)
• A candid look at adoption, change management, and why behavioural change still makes or breaks ROI
• How cross-functional enablement boosts buy-in and results (there's an art to it!) 

If you're leading a sales or GTM function into 2026 and want to bridge the gap between ambition and execution, this episode will give you the real-world edge you need. 

(00:00:00) Sponsor - Seismic City Tours

(00:00:43) In this episode

(00:01:15) Introducing Alli Kleppe, Lead Enablement Partner for HubSpot (APAC)

(00:02:14) Humans + AI Agents: How to make it work

(00:05:18) The AI expectation trap leaders fall into

(00:08:41) The #1 skill that stands the test of time

(00:11:14) Why relationship skills are making a comeback

(00:14:37) The AI enablement strategy top businesses need (trusted by HubSpot)

(00:21:29) Key AI skills to get ahead in 2026

(00:24:21) Does using AI actually get an ROI?

(00:28:04) Where to use AI and where to keep it human

(00:30:03) Measuring AI success for B2B

(00:35:34) What leaders need to do to make enablement work

(00:43:09) Final thoughts: a north star for revenue leaders

Book your spot at Seismic City Tours – Sydney: 

Abbie is a guest speaker at the Revenue Leaders Working Lunch at the Seismic City Tour in Sydney on 31 March, and you're invited too.  

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/SeismicCityToursSydney 

Connect with Ali Kleppe:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/allikleppe

Connect with us: 

• Check out our REV UP 2026 program to uplift sales & GTM team capability together: https://tinyurl.com/REV-UP-2026 
• Be an Insider & receive our inside track every other Thursday: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now 
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn 
• Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn for educational bites: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn 

What does the data actually say about where ANZ sales leadership and their teams are really at right now? 

Nearly 700 sales professionals across Australia and New Zealand fed into the 2026 Mood of the Sales Leader report by Indicator and Trinity and the findings raise opportunities and a few red flags. 

Cian McLoughlin, CEO and Founder of Trinity and one of the sharpest minds in B2B win-loss analysis, is back on the REV UP Rebellion podcast for his second appearance. 

Cian and Abbie go beneath the data to unpack what is actually shifting in sales, where the execution gaps are widening, and what the best revenue leaders are doing differently. 

The data doesn't lie: 

• 62% of Australian companies achieved revenue growth in 2025, yet development budgets dropped 30% in a single year
• AI adoption jumped from 56% to 90% of salespeople in twelve months, but only 34% say it has lifted their results
• Pricing has become a major reason deals fall through... but there is far more to that story than meets the eye
• There's a rising opportunity that could offset shrinking marketing budgets that almost no one is capturing

Check out the full breakdown of the 2026 Mood of the Sales Leader Report here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34D5cMR8DkU 

What's also covered in this episode: 

• AI adoption has gone near-universal — while most companies still have no guardrails on where to use it and where to stop 
• The one gap stalling AI ROI (hint: it lives inside your team, not your tech stack) 
• Where personalisation and human communication are making a comeback, and the moments where automation is quietly damaging your brand 
• The development budget drop that is eroding sales capability across Australia, and what salespeople need to do about it when their company won't 
• Why pricing rarely wins you a deal, and the mistakes most revenue teams keep making
• How to lead with clarity when the path forward is genuinely unclear and your team is watching to see what you do next
• Practical ways to close the execution gap and build a team that performs in complexity 

This is the inside track on what ANZ sales leaders are actually seeing, not just saying. 

Book your spot at Seismic City Tour – Sydney: 

Abbie is a guest speaker at the Revenue Leaders Working Lunch at the Seismic City Tour in Sydney on 31 March, and you're invited too.  

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/SeismicCityToursSydney 

(00:00:00) Sponsor - Seismic City Tours 

(00:00:38) In this episode  

(00:01:05) Introducing Cian McLoughlin and the 2026 Mood of the Sales Leader Report 

(00:02:10) The AI Gap Sales Leaders Need to Close 

(00:08:41) Where AI and Automation Can Be Brand Damaging 

(00:14:01) Stop Falling Into the "I Don't Have Time" Trap 

(00:15:48) What Businesses Won't Spend On… But Sellers Need 

(00:20:28) What Leadership Needs to Look Like in 2026 

(00:26:03) "You Won't Win on Price, But You Will Lose on It" 

(00:29:16) Real Cases of AEO Impact on Businesses 

(00:30:57) Have We Finally Aligned Sales and Marketing? 

(00:38:33) How to Win Deals in a Longer Sales Cycle 

(00:43:15) The Future of Work in the AI Era 

(00:48:06) Final Thoughts: Critical Leadership Moves for 2026 

Connect with Cian: 

• Cian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cianmcloughlin/  
• Trinity: https://www.usetrinity.com/  
• Download the Mood of the Sales Leader 2026 Report: https://tinyurl.com/2026MoodOfTheSalesLeader  

Connect with us: 

• Check out our REV UP 2026 Program, built for vendors and partners to grow together: https://tinyurl.com/REV-UP-2026 
• Be an Insider & receive our inside track every other Thursday: https://tinyurl.com/be-an-insider-now 
• Follow Abbie for the behind-the-scenes journey: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-Abbie-on-LinkedIn 
• Follow Sales Redefined on LinkedIn for educational bites: https://tinyurl.com/Follow-SR-on-LinkedIn