My predictions for 2025

[blackswan]

Dear community,

I always love reading the predictions of Scott Galloway for the next year, which is why I want to do the same for Tech Sales:

Prediction 1: The market will continue to be tough and if there is a recovery, it will not be until the end of 2025.

For most of you who have day-to-day customer contact, this prediction will be like stating the obvious. From what I hear from my customers and my network, the situation across all sectors remains tense - or should I say normalized after the boom years? I don’t see any particular macroeconomic event that should bring about a sudden upswing.

Prediction 2: Tech companies will move more towards consumption-based pricing.

Driven by the AI boom, traditional SaaS companies are also questioning their pricing structure. Price per seat is more or less like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Customers who don’t like the food will no longer visit the restaurant anyway = they will churn. Those who do enjoy the food will fill their stomachs without paying adequately for the value. That’s why there will be a shift towards more consumption-based pricing and there will also be a lot of hybrid models.

Prediction 3: Almost every major tech player will integrate AI into their offering.
Not including AI in one’s offering makes absolutely no sense. Pretty much every offering can be improved by AI, even if it’s just an assistant that helps users to find their way around the platform better. The revolution will not come overnight, but gradually. Those companies that now equip their core product with AI functionalities in a meaningful (!) way will have a competitive advantage.

Prediction 4: The concept of the traditional Customer Success Team as we have seen it in Tech Sales in the last years is increasingly being called into question.
In recent years, many organizations have allowed their customer success teams to never be accountable for operational results. The only metric the customer success team is often measured against is retention. But when customers churn, macroeconomic circumstances are often taking the blame. App consolidation initiatives and tough market conditions in particular show that customer success teams are more important than ever. But when I’m talking about Customer Success I am not talking about impersonal pooling systems, or business reviews that just present KPIs without any implications, or roadmap sessions for a little crystal ball gazing. The future of great customer success teams will be working hand in hand with the account executive to increase the business value of a solution by ensuring successful adoption and use of the technology. If the account executive is the CEO at the account level, then CSMs must become the COO.

Prediction 5: AI SDRs will make major advances.
A lot of money has been poured into the market of AI SDRs, and all you hear from the industry is that the technology is not ready yet. However, I firmly believe that if you train an LLM implementation-heavy on company-specific data, you can get very good results. When I think about how few SDRs, let alone Account Executives, have a good feel for which company or which lead has potential and who can be qualified out right away, I believe that you can quickly achieve good solutions with simple heuristics. And if it is not the booking of a meeting, then at least a lead scoring procedure can be set up well.

What are your thoughts, do you agree?
What are your predictions?

[Rainmaker]

These are interesting predictions!

On Prediction 1 - I actually see this differently. While the market has been challenging, my conversations with CEOs across industries show a massive appetite for digital transformation, particularly around AI integration. Yes, buying cycles are longer and scrutiny is higher, but companies aren’t pulling back - they’re being strategic about investing in technology that drives clear business outcomes.

Your second prediction about consumption-based pricing really resonates with me. At my current company we’ve been closely watching this trend. But here’s what I’ve learned - it’s not about completely abandoning traditional pricing models, it’s about creating flexible frameworks that align with how customers actually derive value. The key is to ensure pricing reflects real business impact, not just usage.

On AI integration (Prediction 3) - absolutely spot on, but with a crucial caveat. We’re seeing that successful AI integration isn’t about just plugging in AI features - it’s about fundamentally reimagining how AI can transform core business processes. When we launched or AI functionalities, our focus wasn’t on AI for AI’s sake, but on making every customer interaction more intelligent and impactful.

Your Customer Success prediction is particularly interesting. I’ve always believed that customer success is not a department - it’s a company-wide philosophy. The idea of CSMs as COOs at the account level is powerful, but I’d take it further. In our experience, the most successful customer relationships happen when CS teams are empowered to be strategic advisors who can influence product direction and company strategy based on customer needs.

Regarding AI SDRs (Prediction 5) - while I’m excited about the potential, I believe the future isn’t about replacing SDRs with AI, but augmenting them. We’re seeing the most success when AI handles the data-heavy lifting, allowing our SDRs to focus on building genuine human connections and understanding complex business needs.

I’ll add a sixth prediction: 2025 will be the year where the line between sales and customer success becomes increasingly blurred. The most successful companies will be those that create unified revenue teams focused on customer outcomes rather than traditional sales metrics.

What are your thoughts on this perspective? How do you see the relationship between AI and human touch points evolving in sales?

[blackswan]

Thanks again for your perspective!

Re: Prediction1- In any case, you are right that technology will continue to be bought and that AI implementations are in vogue. Having sold AI solutions myself, I see a lot of interest, not necessarily a willingness to buy. There is still a lot of hesitation and many companies are not sure how to approach the whole topic. Reasons such as data protection or compliance are given. Often it is not clear which use cases should stay in-house and which should not. I think many of the reasons are simply due to a lack of knowledge of how to deal with this “new” technology.

I really like your approach to customer success. Many of the most successful companies, such as Amazon, have put the customer at the center and created because of this an experience that is often unparalleled.

Regarding AI SDRs, it is probably a question of definition. If only half of the SDRs are needed in the future, because AI makes the best SDRs more efficient and effective, then in my opinion AI replaces SDRs and empowers them at the same time.

I definitely agree with your sixth prediction about the overlap between Customer Success Managers and Account Executives. Already in the last 18 months many organizations have merged Account Executives and Account Managers, and a good Account Manager, in my opinion, has a lot of overlap with Customer Success. As far as metrics are concerned, I believe that this will and should continue to be a focus in addition to the end results. After all, without measurable metrics, you can hardly fix process weaknesses.

I am very excited about artificial intelligence in general. There are exciting LinkedIn tools like Surfe that are already doing very good personalized messaging (probably better than 80% of the sellers). However, I think the big leaps will come over the next 5 years.

[Rainmaker]

Your insights on AI adoption barriers hit home. You know, it reminds me of the early days of cloud computing - we faced similar hesitation around data security and use cases. What’s fascinating is how history seems to repeat itself with each transformative technology wave.

The comparison between AI readiness today and early cloud adoption is striking. Back then, we had to help companies understand not just the technology, but how to reorganize their processes to take advantage of it. Today’s AI adoption journey feels very similar. It’s not just about having the technology; it’s about helping organizations develop their “AI confidence.”

Your point about AI SDRs and efficiency is spot-on. I am seeing exactly this evolution - it’s not a binary replacement scenario but rather a transformation of the role itself. The best SDRs are becoming more like AI orchestrators, focusing their human intelligence where it matters most.

I’m particularly intrigued by your observation about Surfe and LinkedIn automation. It reminds me of how, in the early 2000s, many thought CRM automation would replace salespeople. Instead, it transformed how they worked. I suspect we’ll see the same with AI in sales - not replacement, but renaissance.

One thing I’d add about metrics and process weaknesses - I believe that AI is giving us unprecedented visibility into what actually drives success in customer relationships. It’s not just about tracking metrics anymore; it’s about understanding the stories behind them in real-time.