We've been talking about being a #Playmaker for a few months now and a lot of people have asked me, "What is a Playmaker?" With Dreamforce here we decided to formally launch Playmakers and let you in on how we came up with the idea of playmakers and some of the fun things we hope to do with the idea over the coming weeks and months.

AI is having an impact on sales productivity and it's here to stay but few people know what AI is or how it works. In this episode, Dave Boyce, Chief Strategy Officer at InsideSales.com discusses what leaders need to know about AI and how they can get started without going in the wrong direction.

I'm a big believer in using direct mail in prospecting strategies but it doesn't mean I always get it right. Partnering with Joey Wood from InsideSales.com we ran a test with one of our direct mail campaigns and it completely failed. We called it the Magic Eight Ball Play

I know, I know, we've talked a lot about direct mail but this is different. Rather than hearing some expert, we did some research and asked 325 B2B associates what they think of the topic. Rather than focus on one specific thing, we decided to understand the opinions of those that may send or receive direct mail. Interesting results, check them out!

Direct mailers are a hot commodity nobody knows more about them than John Coe, founder of B2B marketing.com. In this episode John talks about his experience with direct mailers and principles he's learned and taught others to be successful.

If you want big fish you have to go outbound, end of story. The question is how do you build that. Some people start with an outsourced model but eventually companies typically bring that back in house. Every company is different but there are tried and true principles to creating and building an outbound machine. In this episode, Aaron Ross, author of Predictable Revenue discusses his experiences creating prospecting machines for companies and his lessons learned.

Sales Development isn't going anywhere but what should you do them? Many sales development reps are just a fancy marketing automation system using templates and pressing buttons so do we really need them? Marketo works fine and in many cases it's better a sales development rep. In this episode, John Barrows, founder of JBarrows Training discusses the role of sales development and how sales development reps need to start acting in order to be successful. In addition, John hits on AI and the relationship of sales and marketing.

Trouble comes in many formats and as good as LinkedIn in it still doesn't quite hit the spot when it comes to trigger events. Kyle Morris, founder of SifData talks about the importance of staying on top of key events and receiving real-time notifications about your buyers.

Some things are popular and then they fade out and come back again. High impact mailers are back. For some they are back in style and for others they are new. High impact mailers are physical items mailed to a prospect or customer to initiate a conversation or build a relationship. There are different types of mailers and different use cases. Valerie Sklar, president at Corporate Specialties, is an expert in mailers and has been in the business of working with companies on such initiatives for years. In this episode, Valerie expounds on what mailers are and how companies should start thinking about them.

The message isn't all bad. Enterprise companies are behind the times and some of that is our fault and some of that is their fault. The good thing is they know it and they are actively doing "stuff" to change it. InsideSales.com Labs did a study with nearly 1200 companies and it revealed how companies are winning using structure, systems, and people.