AI for Revenue Leaders: The AI Hat Podcast

Your sales team spends 70% of their time on admin work - not selling. Do the math: if your top AE makes $120K and only spends 30% of their time on revenue activities, you're paying $84,000 for data entry and CRM updates. That's the Admin Drag tax killing your pipeline velocity in 2026.

But here's the real problem: you bought AI six months ago (Gemini, ChatGPT, Einstein), rolled it out with a 45-minute webinar, and… crickets. Adoption is at 14%. Your VP is asking what you're paying for.

This isn't a technology problem. It's a leadership problem. You installed software when you needed to redesign the workflow.

In this episode, Mike Allton (Director of Partner-Led Growth at Agorapulse) deconstructs the 95% AI pilot failure rate and shows you exactly what Revenue Architecture looks like in practice. You'll discover:

• The real cost of manual meeting prep (90 minutes vs. 8 minutes with Gemini's Scheduler)• How to build a "Digital Crew" that automates research, briefing docs, and objection prep• Why Gemini's 2 million token context window changes everything for sales intelligence• The 3-day audit that reveals where your team is hemorrhaging time• How to move from "Human-in-the-Loop" to "Human-on-the-Loop" automation

Stop installing tools your team won't use. Start architecting workflows that reclaim 25-30 hours per rep, per week.

Resources: TheAIHat.com/speaking

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 - Introduction: The $600K Call She's Unprepared For

00:02:20 - The $84,000 Admin Drag Tax (Do the Math)

00:03:41 - Why 95% of AI Pilots Fail (It's Not the Technology)

00:04:05 - The Da Vinci Workshop: Building a Digital Crew

00:05:17 - Pilot Purgatory: The 6-Month Failure Timeline

00:07:06 - The Old Way: 90 Minutes of Manual Meeting Prep

00:08:48 - The Digital Crew Way: Gemini Scheduler in Action

00:11:48 - Why Gemini Is Structurally Different

00:12:16 - Native Workspace Integration (Friction Removal)

00:12:36 - The 2 Million Token Context Window

00:13:20 - Multimodal Native (Not Franken-Botted)

00:14:23 - Grounding with Google Search (The Accuracy Engine)

00:14:43 - The Scheduler: The Agentic Unlock

00:15:36 - Your Homework: The 3-Day Time Tracking Audit

00:17:01 - How to Architect Your Digital Crew (Workshop Info)

00:17:45 - Closing: Stop Installing Software, Start Architecting Systems

Show Notes & Transcript: https://theaihat.com/geminis-scheduler-just-fixed-sales-meeting-prep-and-killed-the-90-minute-research-grind/
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$1M in sales. $500K saved. Zero new headcount.

Your sales team isn't ignoring dead leads because they're lazy - they're drowning in admin drag. While you're debating whether to hire two more SDRs, your competitors have stopped asking "Who do I hire next?" and started asking "What system do I build next?"

Will Del Principe (Growth & Solutions Engineering Leader at Thoughtly) reveals how AI voice agents have crossed the quality threshold - handling objections, qualifying leads, and booking meetings at scale. Will personally drove close to $1M in sales in 6 months using voice agent workflows, and his clients are generating hundreds of thousands per month by reactivating dead pipeline.

You'll learn:

Why voice agents are fundamentally different from chatbots (and why that matters for stalled pipeline)

How to design re-engagement campaigns that resurrect cold leads without damaging your brand

Quality benchmarks for evaluating voice AI providers (70% of prospects don't detect it's AI)

The mindset shift from headcount scaling to system architecture

The low-risk pilot strategy for testing voice agents this quarter

Who this is for: VPs of Sales, CROs, and RevOps Directors in mid-market to enterprise B2B who need workflow architecture that produces measurable P&L impact - not pilot purgatory.

Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI at theaihat.com/shadow-ai

CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Introduction: The Efficiency Crisis Killing Your Pipeline02:08 - Your Sales Team Isn't Lazy - They're Drowning in Admin Drag03:27 - Meet Will Del Principe: $1M in Sales Using AI Voice Agents03:58 - The Coffee Invitation: When AI Crossed the Uncanny Valley06:00 - What Is a Voice Agent? (And Why It's Not Just Another Chatbot)08:05 - The Podcast Guest Analogy: How AI Removes Bottlenecks Without Replacing People11:14 - Mixing Outbound and Inbound: The New Campaign Architecture13:20 - Why You Can't Cold Call with AI (And How to Get Consent)15:07 - The Handoff: When Does AI Transfer to Human Sales Reps?16:22 - Reactivating Dead Leads: 650 Meetings Booked in 90 Days18:04 - Mid-Roll: The Executive Guide to Shadow AI20:23 - Quality Benchmarks: What Makes a Voice Agent Sound Human?24:22 - The Thoughtly Roadmap: Omnichannel AI Personas Are Coming26:49 - From "Who Do I Hire?" to "What System Do I Build?"28:10 - How to Pilot a Voice Agent: The Low-Risk, High-ROI Use Case29:47 - The CRM Graveyard Audit: What Would 10% Reactivation Mean for Your Revenue?31:02 - Where to Learn More About Thoughtly31:46 - Outro: Download the Shadow AI Guide

CONNECT:Will Del Principe - Thoughtly: thoughtly.co | thoughtly.co/demoMike Allton - The AI Hat: theaihat.com | theaihat.com/shadow-ai

AI for Revenue Leaders is your operational playbook for the Agentic Era. Host Mike Allton deconstructs how practitioners are deploying sanctioned AI to hit quota and reclaim sales capacity lost to admin drag. Stop guessing. Start architecting.
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If your revenue team takes three weeks to deliver a diagnostic report - and still misses the $21 million opportunity hiding in your pipeline - this episode reveals why manual analysis is costing you deals and how a RevOps CEO architected an AI agent that does it in 24 hours.

Tara Kinney, Founder and CEO of Atomic Revenue, has led 18 CRM implementations across 76 companies. She knows what "normal" looks like in revenue operations - and she blew it up. Her agency used to spend weeks qualifying prospects and delivering diagnostics. Now her Digital Crew does it in 24-48 hours, cuts the sales cycle by 90%, and finds revenue opportunities her manual analysis missed.

In this episode, Tara walks through the exact workflow: how the Revenue Reality Check agent integrates with HubSpot and Slack, how it auto-assigns prospects to the right strategist based on industry and pain point, and why the "Human-in-the-Loop" governance layer is non-negotiable. She also reveals the $21 million story - the moment her AI agent identified a conversion bottleneck she hadn't even tracked, proving that agents don't just save time, they see what humans miss.

This isn't theory. This is a deployable blueprint for Revenue Leaders who need to stop drowning in Admin Drag and start architecting workflows that deliver measurable P&L impact.

You'll Learn:

Why manual revenue diagnostics are too slow (and too shallow) for 2026 B2B velocity

The 24-hour diagnostic workflow that cut Atomic Revenue's sales cycle by 90%

How AI found a $21M opportunity by modeling scenarios humans can't calculate at scale

The HubSpot + Slack + Multi-LLM integration stack behind the Revenue Reality Check

Why "Human-in-the-Loop" governance prevents hallucination risks and protects your brand

The three revenue killers hiding in your pipeline: Sales handoffs, legal bottlenecks, and client onboarding gaps

Guest: Tara Kinney, Founder & CEO, Atomic RevenueCredentials: 76 companies supported, 18 CRM implementations, RevOps practitioner with real P&L accountability

If you're a VP of Sales, CRO, or RevOps Director tired of waiting weeks for answers while your competitors move faster, this episode gives you the audit framework and workflow architecture to deploy your first diagnostic agent.

Resources:

Try the Revenue Reality Check: atomicrevenue.com

Download the Executive Guide to Shadow AI: theaihat.com/shadow-ai

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction: The Impact of AI on Sales Processes

00:51 Meet Mike Allton and The AI Hat Podcast

02:00 Welcome to AI for Revenue Leaders

02:21 The Problem with Traditional Revenue Diagnostics

03:00 Introducing Tara Kinney and Atomic Revenue

03:55 The Evolution of Revenue Diagnostics with AI

06:07 How AI Transforms Revenue Reality Checks

08:45 The Role of AI in Enhancing Sales Strategies

17:00 The Human-AI Collaboration in Revenue Diagnostics

33:32 Key Metrics and Questions for Revenue Leaders

36:22 Conclusion and Next Steps
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If your sales team is stuck at 25% conversion despite investing in AI tools, this episode reveals why most AI pilots fail - and the sales methodology audit every Revenue Leader should run first.

Sales strategy expert Aleasha Bahr (author of Black Sheep Sales) walks through the 3-step diagnostic to identify broken sales processes, explains the difference between "Admin Drag" (tasks AI should handle) and "Relationship Moments" (where humans must stay in control), and shares the counterintuitive truth about taking fewer calls to close more revenue.

You'll learn:

Why "automating a broken process" is the #1 reason AI pilots end up in "Pilot Purgatory"

How to identify if your team is wasting capacity on leads that were never going to close

Where AI actually fits in a high-converting sales workflow (hint: it's not messaging)

The Sales Methodology Audit framework to run before your next AI investment

Aleasha's methodology has helped clients achieve 80% lead conversion rates - without pressure tactics or massive AI stacks. Over 15 years in the sales trenches, she's helped sell tens of millions in offers by focusing on what most teams skip: a repeatable, authentic process built on clarity and connection.

Your sales team isn't selling. They're updating CRM fields, doing prospect research, chasing down meeting notes - spending 70% of their time on what Mike Allton calls "Admin Drag." And here's the kicker: You've probably already tried to fix this with an AI pilot. But six months later, the conversion rates are still stuck, the pipeline is still stalled, and you're wondering if you just wasted another chunk of budget on software that promised magic but delivered more logins your team ignores.

Here's what nobody's telling you: The problem isn't the AI. The problem is that you're automating a broken sales process. If you can't answer the question "What does a high-converting sales process actually look like?" - then no chatbot, no cadence tool, no "AI SDR" is going to save you.

This is the pre-mortem you should have run six months ago.

Download the free Executive Guide to Shadow AI: theaihat.com/shadow-ai

00:00 The Problem with Too Many Sales Calls

01:17 Introduction to The AI Hat Podcast

02:26 The Hidden Costs of Admin Drag

03:12 Introducing Aleasha Bahr and Black Sheep Sales

04:33 Key Elements of a High-Converting Sales Process

10:46 The Role of AI in Sales Efficiency

18:46 Balancing AI and Human Touch in Sales

34:08 Final Thoughts and Resources
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Here's what's happening in your sales org right now.

Your top rep just walked into a meeting with a six-figure prospect. And she's completely winging it - not because she's unprepared, but because she spent the last 45 minutes in back-to-back calls and didn't have time to research.

Meanwhile, her competitor walked in knowing the prospect's company announced a hiring freeze last week, that the VP is stressed about doing more with less, and exactly which case study would resonate.

How? They didn't spend 45 minutes on LinkedIn. They hired a Digital Crew member to do the research for them.

This is Episode 03 of our Launch Trilogy - and today we execute. I'm going to walk you through creating The Pre-Flight Agent: an AI teammate that researches your prospects while you sleep and drops a strategic battle card in your inbox before every sales call.

You'll learn:

Why this is agentic AI, not just automation (the AI uses discretion - like a Tesla factory vs. Ford's 1913 assembly line)

The 3-component architecture every AI agent needs (Trigger, Brain, Action)

How to build this in Zapier with zero coding (I just built this myself - I'll show you the exact steps)

The "Context Block" secret that turns generic summaries into strategic intelligence

The Traffic Light safety check (public data only - no risk)

The ROI math: How 5 hours saved per week = $500k in monthly pipeline capacity for a 10-person team

I'm not a futurist selling science fiction. I'm the Director of Partner-led Growth at Agorapulse. I carry quota pressure. I built this agent over the weekend, and it saved me 4 hours this week.

This episode is your blueprint.

And here's what's beautiful - this agent makes your reps MORE human, not less. Because they show up prepared, empathetic, and asking questions that prove they actually care about solving the prospect's problem.

Build the MVP this week. Test it. Then imagine your entire Digital Crew: Proposal Agents, Roleplay Agents, Pipeline Health Agents.

The technology exists. The only limit is your architecture.
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