Podcast Summary: The Dave Gerhardt Show – "How Marketing Teams Are Using AI to Drive Pipeline"
Date: December 25, 2025
Host: Jess Lytle (Head of Marketing, Exit Five; standing in for Dave Gerhardt)
Panelists:
- Morgan Cole, VP Demand Generation at Red Canary (now part of Zscaler)
- Lisa Cole, Chief Marketing, Product, and AI Officer, 2X
- Jean Cameron, Senior Director of Partner and Field Marketing, Demandbase
Episode Overview
This Exit Five Live session focuses on how leading B2B marketing teams are applying AI to drive pipeline and revenue, rather than just leveraging it for content or social tasks. The discussion moves past the traditional concept of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to explore practical and tactical strategies for revenue generation, buyer intent identification, and go-to-market team alignment—all accelerated by AI capabilities.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Shifting Pressures on B2B Marketing Teams (04:00–09:00)
- Marketing teams face rising expectations for revenue generation while dealing with stagnant or shrinking headcount and budgets.
- Traditional models focusing on MQLs and justifying marketing spend post-quarter are no longer adequate.
- AI helps marketers move from reactive reporting to proactive pipeline and revenue generation.
Quote:
"Marketing leaders aren't struggling to generate leads anymore... The real pressure is moving into pipeline and revenue and doing it fast and doing it without more headcount or more capital investment."
— Jess Lytle (07:24)
2. Using AI & Data to Identify In-Market Buyers Early (09:00–16:00)
- Alignment is key: AI is not a silver bullet; it amplifies the effectiveness of existing processes, especially sales & marketing go-to-market alignment.
- Teams look for three layers of buyer signals:
- Business changes/catalysts (e.g., leadership, acquisitions)
- AI-driven third-party intent (searches, product research)
- First-party behavioral data (website/content engagement)
- The intersection of all three indicates the best time for engagement.
Quote:
"AI isn't the answer on its own. Alignment is. AI is accelerating whatever truth already exists in your go to market motion."
— Morgan Cole (05:13)
Quote:
"For us... when you've got those three together, that's our version of in market alert where we likely would have a greater chance of winning."
— Lisa Cole (13:06)
3. Operationalizing Signals & Buyer Intent (16:00–25:00)
- Moving away from the per-person MQL focus to account-level, buying-group signals.
- The presence of multiple buyers (say, 3+ individuals from the same account engaging) is a powerful predictor of buying intent.
- Marketing and sales collaboratively ‘swarm’ accounts exhibiting these strong signals, determining whether to deploy AI-driven outreach or a human-led approach.
Memorable Moment:
Lisa Cole’s anecdote about sales rejecting hundreds of individual MQLs from a single highly engaged account, highlighting the misalignment created by old scoring models. (16:18)
4. The Predictive Power of AI & Enhanced Attribution (19:00–26:30)
- Teams dissect closed-lost and closed-won deals using AI to identify early signals and buying committee engagement.
- Unstructured data (from sales calls, community mentions, analysts, AI tools like Gemini/ChatGPT) is now analyzed for recurring patterns and word-of-mouth signals.
- Predictive analytics models score accounts holistically, not just based on isolated activities.
Quote:
"AI is great with unstructured data. And in the context that you were just talking about, a lot of the secret sauce... lies in that unstructured data."
— Lisa Cole (21:00)
5. Moving Beyond Traditional Scoring Models (30:30–36:20)
- The panel largely agrees that traditional lead/account scoring is outdated or dead.
- Modern models use holistic, predictive scoring based on multi-channel, multi-buyer signals, and surface top accounts to both marketing and sales.
- Scoring moves beyond counting activities to combining firmographics, technographics, behavioral, and buying group intent.
Quote:
“Lead scoring is... old school... like MQLs. Maybe a year from now I see it being completely dead. We do pipeline predict scoring.”
— Jean Cameron (31:10)
6. Marketing/Sales Orchestration - Swarming Accounts (36:24–41:13)
- When an account shows strong signals, marketing and sales teams coordinate personalized, omnichannel outreach—“swarming” the account.
- AI and automation help orchestrate the outreach, alert internal evangelists, and trigger content distribution across relevant channels.
Quote:
“Are you visible or findable and chosen wherever your buyer's questions are being asked?”
— Lisa Cole (37:26)
7. Balancing Brand Building with Pipeline Pressure (41:38–49:07)
- Brand building is not optional; it’s a necessity for predictable future pipeline.
- Consistent, value-driven content builds ‘digital mass’—increasing your brand’s ‘gravity’ to attract in-market buyers when they’re ready.
- AI accelerates the production, distribution, and measurement of brand-building activities, while helping attribute brand investments to pipeline outcomes.
Quote:
"If you do the first investment well, like if you invest in your long term brand building you don't find yourself in the second problem... you don't find yourself under short term pressure on pipeline because you've been findable right."
— Lisa Cole (45:05)
8. Attribution, AI, and Content Distribution in Practice (48:28–54:39)
- While AI helps scale content creation and deployment, proving direct attribution for brand remains challenging. AI does enable better tracking of pre-pipeline engagement across platforms.
- Marketers use "content turkey" (large content carved into multichannel snippets) to reach buyers wherever they are—online communities, social, direct outreach, and partner channels.
- AI tools including custom GPTs can play an active role in coaching sales with context-aware messaging and outreach strategies.
Quote:
"I created a custom GPT, trained it on our positioning, our messaging and all the signals... It's basically meant to be a sales enablement coach."
— Lisa Cole (53:21)
9. Future Marketing Skillsets and Mindsets (56:03–58:30)
- The age of “I need more people/time/budget” is over; marketers must flip constraints into strategies—using AI to operate more efficiently and flexibly.
- Prioritization, limitlessly creative thinking, and embracing AI as a superpower are the new non-negotiables.
- Marketers’ value is shifting towards strategy, insight, and human expertise, with AI handling much of the execution.
Quote:
"The phase of us being able to use our constraints as excuses... is over. Start to actually think limitlessly."
— Lisa Cole (56:03)
Quote:
"The human side of it... is more strategic and the AI is picking up all of the grunt work... so we don't have to be in the day-to-day."
— Jess Lytle (57:32)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “Pattern intelligence, where we’re not talking about tactics and channels, but our ability to look at those breadcrumbs... and remove the latency of ‘here’s what impacted this’ in the future.” — Morgan Cole (26:52)
- "Your brand requires digital mass... so your digital gravity attracts buyers and keeps them with you until they're ready..." — Lisa Cole (45:05)
- “If you get enjoyment from clicking the button 21 times to get an email out... that’s a new career now.” — Lisa Cole (58:12)
Key Timestamps
- 00:00–01:20 – Intro, sponsor messages (skip)
- 02:27 – Jess sets the stage for the panel and goals of the session
- 04:55 – Panelist introductions
- 07:24 – Setting the scene: new pressures and old models no longer applicable
- 09:47 – Using AI to identify in-market buyers
- 12:13 – Morgan: Go-to-market alignment as pillar for AI acceleration
- 13:06 – Lisa: Three layers of buying signals
- 16:18 – Lisa's anecdote on multi-MQL misalignment
- 19:45 – Morgan: Predictive analytics and deal dissection
- 21:00 – Lisa: AI and unstructured data
- 31:10 – Jean: End of traditional lead/account scoring
- 36:24 – 'Swarming' accounts: Marketing & sales orchestration
- 41:38 – Balancing brand and pipeline, “Brand Gravity”
- 48:28 – AI scaling content and enablement support
- 53:21 – Custom GPT for sales enablement
- 56:03 – Closing thoughts: Future marketer mindsets
Closing Takeaways
- AI is only as strong as your alignment and strategy.
- Shift focus to buying groups and account-based engagement, not single MQLs.
- Layer multiple behavioral and intent signals to reach in-market buyers early.
- Predictive analytics and content “carving” maximize budget and outreach.
- Brand building and pipeline generation are not in opposition; both are essential.
- AI enables greater scale, but human marketers become more strategic and creative.
- New marketing skillset: prioritization, limitlessly leveraging AI, and buyer-first omnichannel thinking.
For more sessions and the full Exit Five community experience, visit exitfive.com.