Latest news with #AaronBiggs
Forbes
08-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Striking The Right Balance: AI, Humans And The Go-To-Market Engine
Aaron Biggs, VP of Revenue at Summit, is a tenured technology leader with expertise in growth, go-to-market strategy and customer success. If you're a sales or marketing leader right now, there's a good chance you're feeling the squeeze: Every budget conversation includes some variant of "Why haven't we automated this yet?" or "Can't we just add an AI tool instead of hiring?" It's a fair question. AI has been positioned as the great equalizer, offering scale, speed and analytics that no human could match. But when it comes to your go-to-market (GTM) motion, the right answer isn't binary. It's not a matter of AI or people. It's about deploying the right blend of automation and human engagement to differentiate in an increasingly impersonal landscape. The AI Temptation (And The Risk) AI is a powerful accelerant. Sales enablement, lead scoring, content generation, personalization at scale—these are all fertile ground for AI-driven efficiencies. But here's the rub: Automation alone can only get you to parity with competitors also wielding AI. Where AI starts to struggle is where the complexity of human decision making and the nuances of buyer behavior live. AI can help you predict when to reach out, but it can't (yet) sit across from a client, read the room and navigate the layered politics within an account. As of now, there's no GPT model that can decode why a champion suddenly went cold because of an internal reorg. At Summit, we often see clients eager to deploy AI tools for their infrastructure, sales or customer support, hoping for an overnight transformation. Yet the most successful outcomes come when those tools are implemented alongside strategies that amplify human expertise, not bypass it. Over-indexing on AI tooling risks creating a sterile buyer journey, efficient but undifferentiated. And in a market where experience is the differentiator, that's a strategic misstep. Human-Driven, AI-Augmented GTM What high-performing organizations are discovering is that AI is best used to augment the human component of sales and marketing, not replace it. • Insight Generation: AI can synthesize vast data sets, surfacing insights that enable sales teams to be more strategic in account planning. • Administrative Automation: Free your best sellers from data entry and research tasks, empowering them to do what they do best: Build relationships and navigate complex deals. • Content And Messaging Support: AI can help draft messaging frameworks, but humans still need to tailor the message to the specific business context, industry trends and stakeholder personas. When you approach AI as a co-pilot rather than an autopilot, you empower your teams to deliver a buyer experience that feels both personalized and thoughtful with the added speed and intelligence that AI brings. At Summit, we embrace this philosophy ourselves. Whether we're designing cloud infrastructure solutions, managed services or data protection strategies, we integrate automation and AI insights where they add value, but we always keep a seasoned expert in the loop to guide the client through complex decisions. It's how we ensure every engagement feels custom-fit, not cookie-cutter. The Buyer Experience Is Your Differentiator Buyers today are sophisticated. They know when they're talking to a bot, and they're increasingly resistant to cookie-cutter outreach. The buyer experience itself has become a competitive advantage, especially in complex B2B deals where relationships and trust still matter. Human sellers backed by AI insights can better read the subtle signals of buying intent, customize their engagement strategy and build the credibility that moves deals forward. This is especially critical in late-stage sales conversations and renewals—areas where trust and authenticity outweigh automation. At Summit, we see this play out in the infrastructure space all the time. Customers evaluating cloud hosting, colocation or disaster recovery solutions aren't just buying capacity, they're buying confidence. They want a partner who understands their business, anticipates risks and tailors solutions to their unique needs. AI helps us identify patterns and flag potential issues early, but it's our people who bring the consultative insight that wins trust. How To Invest Smartly When debating whether to invest in more AI tools or expand your GTM team, ask yourself: 1. Where are our current bottlenecks? If reps are buried in admin work, automation can free them up. If you lack deep account penetration, consider expanding human resources. 2. Where is the buyer journey breaking down? AI can improve early-stage lead gen and qualification, but mid-to-late funnel stages often benefit more from experienced human engagement. 3. What is our differentiation strategy? If experience, service and expertise are how you win, human investment should be prioritized and AI should act as a support layer. 4. How will we continuously optimize? The best AI tools improve with data and feedback, but your people are the ones providing that feedback loop. Summit routinely reviews the performance of our AI-driven insights with our client-facing teams to ensure we're tuning our approach, not just scaling it. A Practical Example From The Field In our own GTM efforts at Summit, we've invested in AI to streamline prospect research, competitive analysis and even content recommendations tailored for vertical markets like financial services or SaaS providers. But we also bolstered our sales engineering team to ensure that when a prospect raises a technical question, there's a real expert who can engage in depth. That combination of AI-enhanced targeting paired with human expertise has helped us build credibility faster and progress conversations more effectively than if we had leaned exclusively on automation or hiring alone. Final Thought AI isn't here to replace your people; it's here to make them more effective. But leaders need to resist the allure of full automation at the cost of buyer experience. The organizations that win in this new era will be those who get the blend right, pairing human authenticity with AI-powered intelligence to meet buyers where they are, with what they truly need. Summit's own journey has taught us that the future isn't AI versus humans. It's AI with humans. And when you strike that balance? You won't just keep up. You'll lead. Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
15 Pitch-Perfect Strategies To Win Influencers And Build Partnerships
There's always strength in numbers, especially when it comes to elevating your brand's status in today's marketplace. In a digital economy, driven by social media comments and content marketing, connecting with influencers and high-ranking organizations to collaborate on potential projects is one of the fastest, easiest ways to increase brand awareness and growth. But how do you accomplish that goal if you are an unknown establishment, new to the industry? With the right methods in place, demonstrating your company's value proposition and credibility doesn't have to be as tough as it sounds. Here are 15 ideas from Forbes Business Development Council members to help you get started with a pitch letter worthy of proposing a collab with any influencer or potential partner who knows little to nothing about your emerging brand. Analyze your joint total addressable market size and highlight your market cap or valuation factors if applicable. Understand how your organization can fill a gap that exists in the partner's ecosystem, and focus on complementary areas that would add value to your joint customers. Voilà, you have a great start to your pitch letter! - Anoma Baste, Space Matrix Start with the value prop—why this collab moves the needle for them. Then tie it to a clear use case, shared audience or mutual win. Keep it tight, relevant and confident. The first pitch isn't to close the deal, it's to earn the next conversation. - Aaron Biggs, Summit As a leader, you must have a strong elevator pitch that's also easy to personalize for the audience at hand, whether that's tailoring it for their company or industry, their job title or their knowledge of your business. A great pitch must also include the "what's in it for me" message, clearly stating why they should care about the value your products or services deliver. - Toby Carrington, Seismic Keep it short and visually appealing. Use one bold stat or achievement about your brand (for example, early traction or a unique feature) paired with a sleek design to grab attention and build credibility fast. - Vivek Vishal, Honeywell Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify? Lead with value. Show you've done the homework. Make it clear why this collab makes sense right now. Focus less on your intro and more on what's in it for them—their goals, their audience, their brand. Keep it tight, relevant and easy to say yes to. - Michael Fritsch, Smarter Operations Start by learning about them. Look into their audience, how they communicate and what they seem to care about. Then, shape your message so it speaks directly to that. Point out where your brand fits with what they're already doing and show exactly how working with you could be useful for them, not just for you. - Max Avery, Digital Ascension Group When crafting your pitch letter, show you understand the partner's brand and why the collaboration makes sense. Highlight how it can support their strategy and add value to their journey. Focus on strategic alignment and share execution ideas that fit their priorities. This goes beyond just commercial negotiations, demonstrating you've thought through the partnership's long-term potential. - Jayant Walia, Gainbridge The most effective collaborations start with shared values. If your brand is still relatively unknown, your pitch to a potential partner should explain why you and why now. Then, shift the focus to them, articulating how this partnership would benefit their goals, audience or mission. Make it about co-creating something valuable together. - Raviraj Hegde, Donorbox Business partners care about outcomes, so pitch the outcome. Lead with what this collaboration makes possible: revenue, reach, speed, relevance. Then prove you're the only one who can deliver it that way, right now. The best partners don't need convincing—they just need a reason to act. - Alexander Masters, MBA, BIDA, Siemens I always keep it conversational and personal. I avoid sounding like a PR blast because that just feels cold and generic. Instead, I write like I'm talking to a peer—someone I respect, someone I'm genuinely curious about working with. I stay confident, but never salesy or robotic. - Bryce Welker, The CPA Exam Guy Lead with a brief, authentic story that shares your brand's mission and connects to the influencer's values. Show you've done your homework, then highlight how the collaboration benefits them, their audience and your shared goals. Clarity and sincerity are key to turning a cold pitch into a meaningful opportunity. - Rahul Saluja, Cognizant To craft a good pitch, deeply understand the influencer or partner's audience. Research their interests, challenges and expectations. Then, tailor your messaging, tone and unique selling points to highlight how your collaboration benefits them and their audience. Make the value clear—whether it's exclusive content, revenue potential or credibility enhancement—to ensure they see the opportunity. - Anna Jankowska, RTB House Keep your letter short and clear. Avoid unnecessary words—it should be strict and to the point. All details can be discussed later; the goal of the first email is simply to get it opened and read. Use a catchy subject line, a clear structure, key figures and potential benefits. That's all you need. - Dima Raketa, Reputation House Craft a concise pitch letter introducing your brand's mission and value. Highlight one key achievement, like a recent milestone, and propose a specific collab idea tailored to their audience. Include a link to a sleek one-pager with metrics and close with a clear CTA, like scheduling a 15-minute call. - Tomer Warschauer Nuni, PRIM3 Capital Research their career, interests, target audience and pain points. Reference specifics like recent posts. Mention specific content they've created or a recent achievement. Say something like, "I saw your recent post about [specific topic], and it really resonated with me because ..." Showcase how you can help them with case studies, proving tangible results. - William DeCourcy, AmeriLife
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
10 Ways To Protect Fintech Data Security And Regulate Compliance
The rise of fintech has brought about numerous opportunities for financial innovation, but it has also introduced a higher risk related to data security and regulatory compliance. Business leaders within these organizations must not only foster growth and agility but also implement effective strategies to ensure their companies adhere to strict data protection laws and financial regulations. Below, Forbes Business Development Council members share their best practices to ensure compliance and data security are maintained within their fintech organizations. Fintech leaders must ensure compliance and data security with solid governance, technology and corporate culture. Define clear policies (GDPR, PSD2), invest in cybersecurity (encryption, RBAC), train employees, conduct regular audits and manage suppliers with strict standards. This mitigates risks, protects trust and ensures compliance. - Davide Sartini, SpA Fintech teams stay ahead on compliance and security by creating a true urgency and priority within their businesses. In addition to setting clear policies, leaders must train their teams regularly and invest in the right tech. Think about encryption, AI-driven fraud detection and secure cloud solutions. There are so many checkboxes for IT today, that you cannot let the table stakes go overlooked or assumed. - Aaron Biggs, Summit I embedded compliance into ops reviews—linking KPIs to data integrity and audit readiness. My advice: Make security a shared responsibility, not just IT's job. Tie it to performance metrics to drive accountability. - Vivek Vishal, Honeywell Business leaders can safeguard compliance and data security by implementing robust cybersecurity protocols alongside systematic policy reviews and risk assessments. By analyzing pertinent case studies to benchmark best practices, they ensure that policies are continually refined to address evolving regulatory requirements and emerging threats. - Suhail Syed, Vesper Telecom Companies should consider implementing robust encryption, multifactor authentication and real-time fraud detection. Regular audits, adherence to industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS), and employee training on security best practices are crucial. Partnering with trusted verification providers and continuously updating protocols against emerging threats further strengthens compliance. - Luke Boddis, Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify? Leaders can ensure compliance and data security by adhering to regulations, implementing cybersecurity measures, training staff and deploying AI systems for fraud detection. Disaster recovery and business continuity plans are also essential. - Umberto Cavallaro, AscoService Establishing a robust organizational-level policy with well-defined processes and controls is crucial to ensuring compliance and data security. Collaborating closely with banking partners is equally important as a strategic approach. Additionally, maintaining oversight of software vendors (ISVs and SaaS providers) and their compliance programs helps mitigate counterparty risk. - Srinivas Vadhri, Kestone Integrated Marketing Solutions It starts with the regulations and policies agreed upon by the company and its employees. That is where the first layer of the compliance pyramid is formed—through moral responsibility. The second layer is ongoing security training, which keeps awareness high. The third layer involves adding extra security software and establishing dedicated security teams to strengthen protection even further. - Dima Raketa, Reputation House Fintech organizations require a holistic and proactive compliance and data security approach due to the sensitive nature of financial data and the highly regulated environment. Apply a strong compliance and data security framework. Leverage AI-driven tools to identify anomalies and predict potential security risks. Subscribe to threat intelligence feeds to stay ahead of emerging threats. - Salice Thomas, Wipro Limited Embed security into every process, not just IT. Fintech leaders must integrate compliance and data security into daily workflows, using real-time visibility, automated risk alerts and encryption by design. Equip teams with real-time dashboards and ongoing training to stay ahead of threats. Proactive security isn't a one-time fix—it's a living strategy that evolves with the industry. - Michael Fritsch, Smarter Operations
