Welcome to the world of RevOps After Dark where we get straight to the revenue team news you (hopefully, probably) wanna know, adding just a sprinkle of that Rattle-brand twinkle.
This week, we dish on:
- Something called "Promptbreeder" — which thankfully isn't a new Character.ai feature;
- The seeming evaporation of startups and SDRs.
- More practical tips on literal world domination (to add the next version of our new eBook, no doubt)
Let’s talk Ops!
Tools & Software News
🤖 Google Deepmind unveils Promptbreeder, an A.I. that speaks A.I.-ese
Just like... ignore the name for a second. One of the promises we’ve all gotten is that while A.I. will definitely destablize the global economy, replace whole sectors, and even threaten the existence of mankind, it’ll also at least create some new things to do. The utopic version: Instead of burger-flippin and toilet scrubbin’, we’ll all only be working 3.5 glorious days a week as prompt engineers. But it turns out, A.I.’s already replaced that one, too. Google Deepmind's new tool, Promptbreeder, isn't what it sounds like. It's an A.I. that can refine itself — *gulp* — by autonomously producing enhanced prompts using an “evolutionary algorithm.” Basically, thesystem not only optimizes task-specific cues, but also improves its the prompt-creation process itself, yielding better results than traditional manual prompting techniques. Or to wrap it all up with a bow: it's scary-good tech. Here’s the paper on it.
🖥️ Zoom attempts to broaden ecosystem with ‘Docs’
Everybody’s third-favorite pandemic darling (next to Peloton 🚲 and Joe Exotic 🐯), Zoom is still sweatin’ that fever dream of becoming your one-stop-shop to comms. Their new, kinda-obviously-named product, Zoom Docs, leverages the power of A.I. to auto-fill and summarize content, while assisting users when they need to find important info from meetings and whatnot. But before you take that celebratory 30 min HIIT class, keep in mind, as Zoom prepares to launch this feature in 2024, they’ll already be contending with heavyweights like the Carole Baskin of productivity software — Google Docs. The company still faces a major uphill 20%-grade climb from past decisions to skim user data. Which still makes us wonder: Will they ever financially recover from this?!
Strategy & Tactics
💻 Has it been a tough year for startups? Golly gee, we hadn’t heard
According to a recent post by Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta: In 2023 so far, 116.27% more startups using their cap table platform have shut down than the entirety of last year alone, showing in the numbers what we all know to be true, deep in our bellies: that it’s been a particularly crappy year — for everybody, but particularly for startups. For those of you with funding saying “Psh, not me!” — hold on there, buckaroo. While half hadn't raised any VC rounds, many of those that did most were Seed or Series A, with a notable increase in those that raised significant funds or reached Series B or later stages. The good news? We’re actually on the side of Clari’s Semir Jahic…
🧘 When attempting world domination, consider balance
Expanding internationally, like world domination itself — introduces major complexities for businesses. And who could know better than Head of EMEA Customer Sales, Shantanu Shekhar, who’s done it for both Gong and LinkedIn. Speaking on the Operations by Sean Lane podcast, Shekhar says mastering world domination is all about balancing the unique international identity of where you're expanding to the connections back to HQ. If only Shekhar had been around to help out Napoleon.
😢 Where have all the SDRs gone?
Earlier this week, users in an actually-riveting r/sales thread discussed some of their concerns that are a running thread these days in the sales — the seeming total evaporation of entry-level positions. Is the industry becoming increasingly narrow and challenging? Yes. Is it the toxicity, competitiveness, and lack of job security? Also yes. Is it that many tech companies are terrible at differentiating themselves from each other? You guessed it: Yes. While the convo particularly focuses on the role of SDR, if you’re really wondering how frontline pros are feeling about the current state of tech sales — and you want a real, honest answer... get out your panning dish, Pappy — cuz the whole thread is a goldmine.
A Good Read
Want happier customers? Make sure your CS team really knows your product
To ensure greater customer satisfaction, it’s becoming abundantly clear that businesses are gonna have to prioritize employee training on products, services, and policies, argues Logan Rush on Forbes this week. Comprehensive training should include real-world anecdotes, hands-on practice, role-playing exercises, and continuous enablement — COUGH COUGH ENABLEMENT — all of it enables employees to confidently and effectively address customer inquiries and challenges. And a maybe-even-better point? The kinds of creative problem-solving businesses need these days can only really be found (and scaled) when your team actually understands both the nuances of the problems and the intricacies of how product solves ‘em. (You honestly never know what new use cases might come up.)
The Ad-hoc
This week in brilliant marketing x2
☕️ Boom, Roasted: Last week, in celebration of National Coffee Day, nationally underrated underdog brewer Peet's Coffee launched a dark-roasted “disloyalty program,” which allowed consumers to exchange loyalty points from competitors like Dunkin' and Starbucks for free drinks at Peet's. This move came as Peet's parent company, JDE Peet’s, faces some burnt-tasting challenges, including decreasing market share and significant debt.
👽 The truth is out there, probably just waiting on your front porch: Ring, the home security company beloved by nosey-ass neighbors the world over, has launched the "Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials" competition, encouraging users to capture evidence of extraterrestrial life with their Ring devices. The winner, whose submission will be reviewed by a "Space and Extraterrestrial Expert" — which we can only take to mean Gillian Anderson — will receive a grand prize of $1 million, paid in $50,000 installments over 20 years. It’s gonna be hard to prove that it’s not cake.
Meme of the Week:
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And that's it for this week!
We'll be back next Thursday night with more news, tips, and maybe some more depressing startup stats!
Thanks for reading — and remember, you always can reach out to us at hello@gorattle.com for any questions, comments, concerns, or if you wanna show us your live alien footage
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