korrents

Jason Lemkin

@jason-lemkin · 24 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and CEO of SaaStr, the B2B software community and events business, and a SaaS investor who previously co-founded EchoSign and sold it to Adobe.

Jason Lemkin did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    AI is not taking the jobs people wanted; it is taking the jobs nobody wanted and the careers of everyone who is merely average.

    Their wordsAI is replacing the jobs people don't want to do today, and it is displacing the midpack and the mediocre.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:00:30 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 1st of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    AI sales agents do not work out of the box; the training is the product.

    Their wordsI think it's important that it takes time to train these agents. They don't work out of the box.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:09:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 2nd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    In many software categories more than half of all prospects are now in market at once, against a historical three to five percent.

    Their wordsSo, add all that up, 5%. In many categories, we're north of 50% in market. So, that just totally changes.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:18:09 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 3rd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    The email-based sales development rep will be ninety percent displaced by AI within a year.

    Their wordsThe emailbased cadence SDR will be 90% displaced by AI next year.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:19:47 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 4th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Having a human qualify inbound leads is already obsolete, and the role should be extinct within a year.

    Their wordsThe contact mess that we see, we have no need for them today. They should be extinct next year.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:19:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 5th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Almost nobody should build their own AI go-to-market tools; buy them, the way you would buy any other software.

    Their wordsDon't build it yourself. You're not Versel. You don't have a full-time wicked awesome engineer that wants to build this.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:29:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 6th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Choosing an AI vendor on features is the wrong criterion: the best software with nobody to help you train it is the wrong purchase for almost everyone.

    Their wordsbecause you have to train them because it takes a month, the world's best software with no help training you is not one 99% of people should buy.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:35:43 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 7th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    You need far less scale than you think for AI sales agents to pay for themselves.

    Their wordsYou don't need the scale of numbers that you and I have to make these agents work. You need you need a little bit of scale and you need a little bit of traffic, but not as much as you think.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:37:24 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 8th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    The real cost of an agent workforce is that it never stops: agents work nights, weekends and holidays, and somebody has to review all of it.

    Their wordsit's exhausting because agents work all night and they work weekends and they work on Christmas.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:40:47 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 9th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    The next constraint on AI adoption is not what the agents can do but how many of them a company can absorb.

    Their wordsAnd so that's going to be a headwind that today everything seems like it has tailwinds, right? Everything's on fire. But people are going to get exhausted for having so many agents.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:42:00 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 10th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    A badly written AI outbound email is evidence of a bad vendor, not of a limit of AI.

    Their wordsAnd so what ends up happening is the emails that the AI write are pretty good. Okay? If you're getting terrible emails, it's a poorly trained product from a bad vendor.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:44:20 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 11th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Recipients do not care whether a sales email was written by an AI, so there is no point disclosing or disguising it.

    Their wordsAnd what we've learned is now we just send it. We We just send it and no one cares.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:45:46 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 12th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    The bar an AI go-to-market agent has to clear is lower than people think, because it only has to beat the average rep.

    Their wordsThe bar for good enough for AI GTM is not as high as we think.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:47:15 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 13th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    Everything closes at a higher rate in person, and tech sales is automating anyway.

    Their wordsWe should knock on more doors. We should do more in person. All the data I've ever collected shows everything closes at a higher rate if you go in person.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:52:28 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 14th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    The person who orchestrates a company's AI agents has to be promoted from inside, and it will not be someone from sales.

    Their wordsyou've got to promote someone internally. It's got to be a nerd, someone that likes marketing and sales and is quant.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:54:23 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 15th of 24 in this recording

    AI agents

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    AI is raising what a single sales rep is expected to produce by an order of magnitude.

    Their wordsWith AI, he's trying he's targeting 3 to five million in revenue per rep. 3 to 5 million. Honestly, if this was three or four years ago for a similar company, it would be 3 to 500K. That's an order of magnitude more efficiency.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:00:36 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 16th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    Running a business on AI agents is more work than running it on people, not less.

    Their wordsWe do more work with AI. I'm working the hardest I've ever worked.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:02:20 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 17th of 24 in this recording

    AI agents

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    The forward-deployed engineer inverts the old sales-engineer model: their first job is the customer's success, not supporting the reps.

    Their wordsThis is inverted. The FDE's number one job is to make the customer a success.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:06:36 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 18th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    AI will not give every salesperson superpowers; it will give the best ones superpowers and make the mediocre ones more mediocre.

    Their wordsa lot of old school GTM leaders are like, you know, AI isn't going to hurt sales reps. It's just going to make them give them superpowers. The best ones, yes, the mediocre are just going to be like more mediocre, right?
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:09:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 19th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    Being a people person is no longer a sufficient qualification for a sales job.

    Their wordswe will always have salespeople, but being a people person is not enough anymore.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:10:13 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 20th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  41. Our reading

    AI will leave the world needing more go-to-market people than ever, because the winners grow faster than the efficiency gains.

    Their wordsNet net, we're going to need more sales and go to market professionals than ever because the winners are growing so quickly that even if they're more efficient, they will need more human beings than ever.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:16:29 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 21st of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  43. Our reading

    The way to find where AI belongs in your company is to go through your own product anonymously and see which part makes you cry.

    Their wordsgo fire up your browser. Do it in incognito. Go to your app and do everything with a fresh Gmail address. Try support. See how your support is. Try to contact sales.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:25:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 22nd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  45. Our reading

    The go-to-market plays all still work; it is the playbooks built around them that have stopped working.

    Their wordsSo, so many of these GTM books are playbooks, especially folks selling courses and stuff, but they're playbooks. Run from the playbooks. Embrace the plays.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:30:50 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording

    Interesting

  47. Our reading

    It is still early in AI go-to-market: the markets have not hardened and the good tools do not exist yet.

    Their wordsWe don't even have great AI marketing tools. We're really early on these AIS SDRs. The markets have not hardened.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:36:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)youtube.com 24th of 24 in this recording

    Interesting