Every August the same refrain echoes through sales teams: “You cannot get hold of anyone”. For those working internationally, particularly with European clients, it is even more pronounced…

…So, if your prospects are out of office, what can you do that is genuinely valuable? The answer lies in using August not as a waiting room but as a control room. This is a time to assess, clean up and align your go to market efforts before the final push.

The term “AI” gets thrown around a lot these days as I have mentioned in my other recent Insights topics on AI, and while it promises to revolutionise sales and marketing, the reality is this: if you're not careful, adding AI into your sales process can quickly feel like bolting on a shiny toy rather than building a smarter, more human pipeline.

So how do you bring AI into your sales tech stack in a way that actually supports your team, amplifies the right parts of your process, and still puts people first? Let’s break it down.

Marketing has never been more complex.

From campaign strategy and brand storytelling to SEO, paid media, data tracking, content operations and funnel experimentation, the modern marketing function is no longer just a creative department. It is a commercially driven, technology-enabled growth engine. Yet the path to senior marketing leadership is still largely shaped by generalist experience rather than operational expertise.

So what does that mean for growing businesses trying to make sense of it all?

You have a product that works. You are generating leads. The market opportunity is there. Yet revenue is falling short. Deals are stalling, targets are missed, and there is a growing sense of frustration across the business.

Before you start changing personnel or questioning motivation, pause. In most cases, underperformance in sales is a symptom, not the root cause. This is where the real work starts: diagnosing the issue properly, and rebuilding with clarity and consistency.

Here is how to do just that.

At first glance, Outreach and Salesloft do very similar things. And that is because they do. Both tools are built to help sales teams manage multistep prospecting workflows, track activity, and measure what is working. Outreach calls it a sequence, while Salesloft prefers cadence, but ultimately they are both talking about the same thing, structured repeatable outreach across email, phone, LinkedIn and other channels.

So if the differences are minor, what actually matters when choosing or using a platform like this?

The rise of the fractional model is no accident. More and more companies are turning to experienced professionals on a part-time or project basis to fill senior roles without taking on the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Not forever, just long enough to get things under control and moving in the right direction.