Each Monday, a short list of the sharpest sales + GTM thinking from the past week. Not summaries — read the originals, they're better. Just what's worth your time.
Four pieces this week.
1. Mark Roberge — "Sales enablement becomes the agentic operating layer of go-to-market"
Mark Roberge (Stage 2 Capital, formerly HubSpot's first VP of Sales) has been arguing that the biggest AI shift in GTM sits inside the rep workflow — specifically in pre-meeting account research, real-time insight surfacing, and the personalization layer that used to be the SDR's job. The math he keeps coming back to: reps today spend 25-30% of their week actually selling. If AI drives that to 75-80%, the org math collapses — fewer handoffs, fewer roles, more ownership per seat.
→ The Science of Scaling (book, Feb 2026) is the long-form articulation of his playbook.
2. Sam Jacobs — "AI-educated buyers shift seller value to orchestration"
Sam Jacobs (CEO, Pavilion) has been writing about how enterprise sellers increasingly face buyers who have already self-researched with AI before the first call. The implication he draws: the seller's value moves from information transfer (which the buyer has done themselves) to relationship, insight, orchestration, and outcome design.
→ Pavilion is launching an AI for GTM Mastery Program as part of their 2026 curriculum.
3. Jacco van der Kooij — "Revenue Architecture for AI-Native operating models"
Jacco van der Kooij (Winning by Design) is the architect of Revenue Architecture, the Bowtie model, and SPICED. His current work focuses on redesigning GTM operating models for the AI era — compounding growth systems, probabilistic modeling, growth governance, and the transition from SaaS-Native to AI-Native operating models. His core point: AI changes the operating model, not just the tooling — the architectural shape of an AI-Native GTM org is a CRM at the center, with AI surfaces that compound into it rather than around it.
→ Revenue Architecture (book) is the definitive long-form treatment.
4. Kyle Norton — "50% AI agents, 50% humans, by end of year"
Kyle Norton (CRO, Owner.com) is the most practical operator in this conversation. He scaled Owner.com from $2M to $40M ARR in under three years selling to SMB restaurants — one of the hardest segments in B2B. His recent 20Sales episode is the most concrete walkthrough of an AI-augmented sales org I've heard this year. He's explicit: CROs will be managing teams that are 50% AI agents and 50% human by end of 2026, and "AI-curious" is now a hiring filter at Owner.
→ Also worth: Owner's AI sales stack walkthrough on his podcast (E65, Inside Our AI Sales Stack).
Common thread this week. All four are arguing — from different vantages — that AI in revenue is best understood as an operating-layer shift, not a feature category. Roberge from the rep-workflow side, Jacobs from the buyer-readiness side, Jacco from the architectural side, Norton from the operator side. They disagree on details. They agree on the shape.
Next Monday: a new four.
If you've read something this week worth flagging in next week's list — hello@mallin.io.