Customer reaction with Gainsight
Hear from Keith Pearce, CMO at Gainsight, on his pipeline problems and how Piper is helping his team harness AI to transform their funnel for good.
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Hear from Keith Pearce, CMO at Gainsight, on his pipeline problems and how Piper is helping his team harness AI to transform their funnel for good.
In this episode, Keith Pierce, CMO of Gainsight, joins Qualified to discuss how AI is transforming customer engagement, pipeline generation, and the role of marketing. Pierce shares how Gainsight created the Customer Success category and is now pushing forward with its Atlas family of AI agents. He explains how the company deployed Qualified’s AI SDR (rebranded “Ava”) to fill critical pipeline gaps, achieving significant results without expanding headcount. The conversation covers the challenges with the traditional funnel, how AI agents complement SDRs, and what the future of agentic marketing means for growth.
Key Takeaways
TRANSCRIPTION
Dan Darcy:
I’m joined here in Qualified Studios with none other than the CMO of Gainsight, Keith Pierce. Keith, thanks for joining me today.
Keith Pierce:
Thanks for having me, Dan. Great to be here.
Dan Darcy:
You’re at Gainsight, which is on the forefront of agentic AI. Gainsight recently released Atlas, your post-sales customer service agent family. You also hired Piper, Qualified’s AI SDR, to support your inbound pipeline generation. How are you feeling about the excitement and momentum around agentic marketing?
Keith Pierce:
We humbly created the Customer Success category, and now we’re riding this next wave. Atlas is our family of CS agents, designed to enhance what CSMs do. For companies with large long-tail customer bases, Atlas can step in—like our renewal agent, which is handling renewals at scale.
Dan Darcy:
That’s great. As a CMO, what pain points have you felt in the traditional inbound funnel?
Keith Pierce:
The funnel was created for companies, not customers. Customers don’t say, “I’m at the top of the funnel.” They say, “I’m considering this solution” or “I’m evaluating.” The rigid funnel stages create friction between departments. What matters is getting the right people the right information at the right time, not forcing them into predefined stages.
Dan Darcy:
You’ve also dealt with challenges around SDRs. Can you expand on that?
Keith Pierce:
Earlier this year, I was down eight SDRs. Nobody lowered my pipeline goal. I couldn’t hire replacements fast enough to impact our $150M+ target. So we turned to agentic AI. With Piper—who we rebranded as Ava—we’ve covered the workload. She’s doing the work of three SDRs we never backfilled. Ava never takes PTO, works 24/7, and gets smarter every day as we fuel her with more intelligence.
Dan Darcy:
I love that. Tell me more about how you named her Ava.
Keith Pierce:
We ran an internal naming contest with premium swag on the line—marketers can’t resist that. It created buy-in across the team. For SDRs, the key was realizing Ava wasn’t replacing them but covering smaller accounts and doing upfront qualification. That freed them up to focus on higher-value prospecting.
Dan Darcy:
That’s fantastic. Why did you choose Qualified, and what results have you seen?
Keith Pierce:
We had over 100,000 monthly visitors to our website but saw less than 1% convert through our old web chat. With Qualified, we introduced a more intelligent engagement channel. Ava learns and scales with us, giving us coverage across segments and geos. The result: a 4x improvement in website conversions. Now, AEs get named accounts booked directly on their calendars, with prospects ready for demos.
Dan Darcy:
Amazing. And today we announced PiperX—our multimodal AI SDR for voice, text, and video. What’s your reaction?
Keith Pierce:
It’s super exciting—the future is here. Marketers have been chasing hyper-personalization for 30 years. Buyers want contextual, intelligent engagement when they initiate contact. PiperX delivers exactly that. It’s a fantastic way to move people through the funnel naturally.
Dan Darcy:
As we wrap up, what excites you most about the future as a CMO?
Keith Pierce:
Growth and experimentation. The last three years have been tough without growth. Agentic AI could add 10–20% to global GDP—growth we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. And as marketers, we have to experiment, because buyer behavior and culture are always evolving. That’s what excites me most.
Dan Darcy:
Well said. Keith, thank you for the conversation today and for being a great Qualified customer.
Keith Pierce:
Thank you, Dan. Always a pleasure.
The next generation of Piper has arrived. In this launch event, we showcase how Piper has evolved into an AI SDR superagent who can nurture and convert buyers 24x7.
See firsthand how Piper identifies high-intent buyers, engages them in the email inbox, and has face-to-face conversations that convert.
Watch how Piper nurtures warm leads with personalized content across both the website and email, moving them down the funnel toward conversion.
Stay up to date with weekly drops of fresh B2B marketing and sales content.
Hear from Keith Pearce, CMO at Gainsight, on his pipeline problems and how Piper is helping his team harness AI to transform their funnel for good.
In this episode, Keith Pierce, CMO of Gainsight, joins Qualified to discuss how AI is transforming customer engagement, pipeline generation, and the role of marketing. Pierce shares how Gainsight created the Customer Success category and is now pushing forward with its Atlas family of AI agents. He explains how the company deployed Qualified’s AI SDR (rebranded “Ava”) to fill critical pipeline gaps, achieving significant results without expanding headcount. The conversation covers the challenges with the traditional funnel, how AI agents complement SDRs, and what the future of agentic marketing means for growth.
Key Takeaways
TRANSCRIPTION
Dan Darcy:
I’m joined here in Qualified Studios with none other than the CMO of Gainsight, Keith Pierce. Keith, thanks for joining me today.
Keith Pierce:
Thanks for having me, Dan. Great to be here.
Dan Darcy:
You’re at Gainsight, which is on the forefront of agentic AI. Gainsight recently released Atlas, your post-sales customer service agent family. You also hired Piper, Qualified’s AI SDR, to support your inbound pipeline generation. How are you feeling about the excitement and momentum around agentic marketing?
Keith Pierce:
We humbly created the Customer Success category, and now we’re riding this next wave. Atlas is our family of CS agents, designed to enhance what CSMs do. For companies with large long-tail customer bases, Atlas can step in—like our renewal agent, which is handling renewals at scale.
Dan Darcy:
That’s great. As a CMO, what pain points have you felt in the traditional inbound funnel?
Keith Pierce:
The funnel was created for companies, not customers. Customers don’t say, “I’m at the top of the funnel.” They say, “I’m considering this solution” or “I’m evaluating.” The rigid funnel stages create friction between departments. What matters is getting the right people the right information at the right time, not forcing them into predefined stages.
Dan Darcy:
You’ve also dealt with challenges around SDRs. Can you expand on that?
Keith Pierce:
Earlier this year, I was down eight SDRs. Nobody lowered my pipeline goal. I couldn’t hire replacements fast enough to impact our $150M+ target. So we turned to agentic AI. With Piper—who we rebranded as Ava—we’ve covered the workload. She’s doing the work of three SDRs we never backfilled. Ava never takes PTO, works 24/7, and gets smarter every day as we fuel her with more intelligence.
Dan Darcy:
I love that. Tell me more about how you named her Ava.
Keith Pierce:
We ran an internal naming contest with premium swag on the line—marketers can’t resist that. It created buy-in across the team. For SDRs, the key was realizing Ava wasn’t replacing them but covering smaller accounts and doing upfront qualification. That freed them up to focus on higher-value prospecting.
Dan Darcy:
That’s fantastic. Why did you choose Qualified, and what results have you seen?
Keith Pierce:
We had over 100,000 monthly visitors to our website but saw less than 1% convert through our old web chat. With Qualified, we introduced a more intelligent engagement channel. Ava learns and scales with us, giving us coverage across segments and geos. The result: a 4x improvement in website conversions. Now, AEs get named accounts booked directly on their calendars, with prospects ready for demos.
Dan Darcy:
Amazing. And today we announced PiperX—our multimodal AI SDR for voice, text, and video. What’s your reaction?
Keith Pierce:
It’s super exciting—the future is here. Marketers have been chasing hyper-personalization for 30 years. Buyers want contextual, intelligent engagement when they initiate contact. PiperX delivers exactly that. It’s a fantastic way to move people through the funnel naturally.
Dan Darcy:
As we wrap up, what excites you most about the future as a CMO?
Keith Pierce:
Growth and experimentation. The last three years have been tough without growth. Agentic AI could add 10–20% to global GDP—growth we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. And as marketers, we have to experiment, because buyer behavior and culture are always evolving. That’s what excites me most.
Dan Darcy:
Well said. Keith, thank you for the conversation today and for being a great Qualified customer.
Keith Pierce:
Thank you, Dan. Always a pleasure.
Stay up to date with weekly drops of fresh B2B marketing and sales content.
Hear from Keith Pearce, CMO at Gainsight, on his pipeline problems and how Piper is helping his team harness AI to transform their funnel for good.
In this episode, Keith Pierce, CMO of Gainsight, joins Qualified to discuss how AI is transforming customer engagement, pipeline generation, and the role of marketing. Pierce shares how Gainsight created the Customer Success category and is now pushing forward with its Atlas family of AI agents. He explains how the company deployed Qualified’s AI SDR (rebranded “Ava”) to fill critical pipeline gaps, achieving significant results without expanding headcount. The conversation covers the challenges with the traditional funnel, how AI agents complement SDRs, and what the future of agentic marketing means for growth.
Key Takeaways
TRANSCRIPTION
Dan Darcy:
I’m joined here in Qualified Studios with none other than the CMO of Gainsight, Keith Pierce. Keith, thanks for joining me today.
Keith Pierce:
Thanks for having me, Dan. Great to be here.
Dan Darcy:
You’re at Gainsight, which is on the forefront of agentic AI. Gainsight recently released Atlas, your post-sales customer service agent family. You also hired Piper, Qualified’s AI SDR, to support your inbound pipeline generation. How are you feeling about the excitement and momentum around agentic marketing?
Keith Pierce:
We humbly created the Customer Success category, and now we’re riding this next wave. Atlas is our family of CS agents, designed to enhance what CSMs do. For companies with large long-tail customer bases, Atlas can step in—like our renewal agent, which is handling renewals at scale.
Dan Darcy:
That’s great. As a CMO, what pain points have you felt in the traditional inbound funnel?
Keith Pierce:
The funnel was created for companies, not customers. Customers don’t say, “I’m at the top of the funnel.” They say, “I’m considering this solution” or “I’m evaluating.” The rigid funnel stages create friction between departments. What matters is getting the right people the right information at the right time, not forcing them into predefined stages.
Dan Darcy:
You’ve also dealt with challenges around SDRs. Can you expand on that?
Keith Pierce:
Earlier this year, I was down eight SDRs. Nobody lowered my pipeline goal. I couldn’t hire replacements fast enough to impact our $150M+ target. So we turned to agentic AI. With Piper—who we rebranded as Ava—we’ve covered the workload. She’s doing the work of three SDRs we never backfilled. Ava never takes PTO, works 24/7, and gets smarter every day as we fuel her with more intelligence.
Dan Darcy:
I love that. Tell me more about how you named her Ava.
Keith Pierce:
We ran an internal naming contest with premium swag on the line—marketers can’t resist that. It created buy-in across the team. For SDRs, the key was realizing Ava wasn’t replacing them but covering smaller accounts and doing upfront qualification. That freed them up to focus on higher-value prospecting.
Dan Darcy:
That’s fantastic. Why did you choose Qualified, and what results have you seen?
Keith Pierce:
We had over 100,000 monthly visitors to our website but saw less than 1% convert through our old web chat. With Qualified, we introduced a more intelligent engagement channel. Ava learns and scales with us, giving us coverage across segments and geos. The result: a 4x improvement in website conversions. Now, AEs get named accounts booked directly on their calendars, with prospects ready for demos.
Dan Darcy:
Amazing. And today we announced PiperX—our multimodal AI SDR for voice, text, and video. What’s your reaction?
Keith Pierce:
It’s super exciting—the future is here. Marketers have been chasing hyper-personalization for 30 years. Buyers want contextual, intelligent engagement when they initiate contact. PiperX delivers exactly that. It’s a fantastic way to move people through the funnel naturally.
Dan Darcy:
As we wrap up, what excites you most about the future as a CMO?
Keith Pierce:
Growth and experimentation. The last three years have been tough without growth. Agentic AI could add 10–20% to global GDP—growth we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. And as marketers, we have to experiment, because buyer behavior and culture are always evolving. That’s what excites me most.
Dan Darcy:
Well said. Keith, thank you for the conversation today and for being a great Qualified customer.
Keith Pierce:
Thank you, Dan. Always a pleasure.
Stay up to date with weekly drops of fresh B2B marketing and sales content.
Hear from Keith Pearce, CMO at Gainsight, on his pipeline problems and how Piper is helping his team harness AI to transform their funnel for good.
In this episode, Keith Pierce, CMO of Gainsight, joins Qualified to discuss how AI is transforming customer engagement, pipeline generation, and the role of marketing. Pierce shares how Gainsight created the Customer Success category and is now pushing forward with its Atlas family of AI agents. He explains how the company deployed Qualified’s AI SDR (rebranded “Ava”) to fill critical pipeline gaps, achieving significant results without expanding headcount. The conversation covers the challenges with the traditional funnel, how AI agents complement SDRs, and what the future of agentic marketing means for growth.
Key Takeaways
TRANSCRIPTION
Dan Darcy:
I’m joined here in Qualified Studios with none other than the CMO of Gainsight, Keith Pierce. Keith, thanks for joining me today.
Keith Pierce:
Thanks for having me, Dan. Great to be here.
Dan Darcy:
You’re at Gainsight, which is on the forefront of agentic AI. Gainsight recently released Atlas, your post-sales customer service agent family. You also hired Piper, Qualified’s AI SDR, to support your inbound pipeline generation. How are you feeling about the excitement and momentum around agentic marketing?
Keith Pierce:
We humbly created the Customer Success category, and now we’re riding this next wave. Atlas is our family of CS agents, designed to enhance what CSMs do. For companies with large long-tail customer bases, Atlas can step in—like our renewal agent, which is handling renewals at scale.
Dan Darcy:
That’s great. As a CMO, what pain points have you felt in the traditional inbound funnel?
Keith Pierce:
The funnel was created for companies, not customers. Customers don’t say, “I’m at the top of the funnel.” They say, “I’m considering this solution” or “I’m evaluating.” The rigid funnel stages create friction between departments. What matters is getting the right people the right information at the right time, not forcing them into predefined stages.
Dan Darcy:
You’ve also dealt with challenges around SDRs. Can you expand on that?
Keith Pierce:
Earlier this year, I was down eight SDRs. Nobody lowered my pipeline goal. I couldn’t hire replacements fast enough to impact our $150M+ target. So we turned to agentic AI. With Piper—who we rebranded as Ava—we’ve covered the workload. She’s doing the work of three SDRs we never backfilled. Ava never takes PTO, works 24/7, and gets smarter every day as we fuel her with more intelligence.
Dan Darcy:
I love that. Tell me more about how you named her Ava.
Keith Pierce:
We ran an internal naming contest with premium swag on the line—marketers can’t resist that. It created buy-in across the team. For SDRs, the key was realizing Ava wasn’t replacing them but covering smaller accounts and doing upfront qualification. That freed them up to focus on higher-value prospecting.
Dan Darcy:
That’s fantastic. Why did you choose Qualified, and what results have you seen?
Keith Pierce:
We had over 100,000 monthly visitors to our website but saw less than 1% convert through our old web chat. With Qualified, we introduced a more intelligent engagement channel. Ava learns and scales with us, giving us coverage across segments and geos. The result: a 4x improvement in website conversions. Now, AEs get named accounts booked directly on their calendars, with prospects ready for demos.
Dan Darcy:
Amazing. And today we announced PiperX—our multimodal AI SDR for voice, text, and video. What’s your reaction?
Keith Pierce:
It’s super exciting—the future is here. Marketers have been chasing hyper-personalization for 30 years. Buyers want contextual, intelligent engagement when they initiate contact. PiperX delivers exactly that. It’s a fantastic way to move people through the funnel naturally.
Dan Darcy:
As we wrap up, what excites you most about the future as a CMO?
Keith Pierce:
Growth and experimentation. The last three years have been tough without growth. Agentic AI could add 10–20% to global GDP—growth we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. And as marketers, we have to experiment, because buyer behavior and culture are always evolving. That’s what excites me most.
Dan Darcy:
Well said. Keith, thank you for the conversation today and for being a great Qualified customer.
Keith Pierce:
Thank you, Dan. Always a pleasure.
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