Marketing’s AI Frontier, Continued: Turning Account Research into Revenue Context
- Carilu Dietrich from Hypergrowth Leadership <carilu@substack.com>
- Hidden Recipient <hidden@emailshot.io>
Marketing’s AI Frontier, Continued: Turning Account Research into Revenue ContextHow SupportLogic Built a 90-Second Account Intelligence System That's Transforming Their GTM Motion
Last week, I wrote about how AI is reshaping the workflows of modern GTM teams—from campaign content to post-sale success. I also created a State of AI in B2B Marketing Scorecard that shows what processes marketers are prioritizing and how much impact they are seeing — both BDR/SDR Optimization and Sales Enablement ranked high on the list. Some quiet deployments by top growth marketers in these areas are even more impressive than the flashy demos of vendors. Usable innovation is here! One of the more thoughtful builds I’ve seen recently comes from Blake Cohlan, Growth Marketing leader at SupportLogic. Blake has been experimenting with AI to streamline execution and improve relevance across the full go-to-market motion—from research and messaging to campaigns and enablement. He’s not building an AI product or chasing hype. He’s tackling a practical challenge every GTM team faces: how to make account context actionable without spending hours buried in transcripts, earnings calls, and fragmented CRM data. The system he built started as BDR prep. It’s now become something more foundational, providing account research to inform engagement ideas, messaging, and campaigns. The Build: AI-Powered Research, Triggered on DemandBlake built a system that starts with a click. From inside Salesforce, any team member can trigger an account research workflow: Run Company Analysis. That sets off a Zapier-powered sequence that pulls in both external intelligence and internal opportunity data, returning a structured research brief, a historical opportunity analysis, and personalized messaging recommendations built on real-time context. The brief summarizes inputs to provide a synthesis of the following:
Insights are based on and structured around the Account Planning template SupportLogic uses for strategizing sales for target accounts. The stack includes:
The system runs on demand, giving teams a refreshed view of an account when they need it. It’s fast, cost-aware, and doesn’t rely on a constant data stream to be effective. One AE reported saving one to two hours on heavy prospecting days. Research that once took 45 minutes per account is now generated in under 90 seconds. Just as important, the outputs are now structured, repeatable, and consistent, regardless of the researcher. Blake shared this comparison chart: Process & ChallengesBuilding the system wasn’t without its bumps. Blake leaned heavily on what some call “vibe coding,” using OpenAI itself to troubleshoot prompts and refine script logic. He quickly learned how easy it is to burn budget while testing models or debugging workflows. He also encountered indexing gaps with Perplexity when key executive signals didn’t surface in the results. That’s led to new experiments combining outputs from multiple LLMs to generate more complete research, rather than relying on a single model. Developing this process took more than three months as Blake and the team looked at vendors and juggled the project amidst different projects/priorities. The actual vibe coding part of the project, after refining tools and inputs, took just 5 days. Blake recently shared the full build in a masterclass at the AI x Marketing Summit, alongside Reid Robinson, AI Product Lead at Zapier. He walked through every step, complete with prompts and code, so others could adapt this AI-powered foundation for their own GTM workflows. Here’s a sneak peek at the process:
How One Workflow is Fueling New ExperimentsThis research foundation has now become the launchpad for a series of focused experiments across the GTM org:
These are early tests, but the direction is clear. What began as research enablement is evolving into a responsive GTM system—one that learns from every interaction and adapts how the team shows up. Key Takeaways
From Hacks to Systems: The Future of GTM Is Already Being BuiltThis deployment by Blake is a great example of AI in action - where usefulness wins. This morning, in a few hours, I’m interviewing Wade Foster, Zapier’s Co-Founder & CEO, on how teams can transform their orgs with AI at the Agentic AI Summit - I’m seeing Zapier have big momentum in the space, with SupportLogic and many other marketers I know. Register to watch the session or the replay here. I am not sponsored by Zapier - I’ve just been running into them frequently as I’ve researched marketers building impactful real-world AI deployments. And real-world implementations are indeed here — helping teams move faster, show up smarter, and stay aligned. If you’re building something similar or testing your own ideas, I’d love to hear it! Carilu Dietrich is a former CMO, most notably the head of marketing who took Atlassian public. She currently advises CEOs and CMOs of high-growth tech companies. Carilu helps leaders operationalize the chaos of scale, see around corners, and improve marketing and company performance. You're currently a free subscriber to Hypergrowth Leadership. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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