AI That Sells (and When It Doesn’t): VALR Advisors’ Mike Brunnick on GTM Fit, Coaching Agents, and RepFit
Summary
AI is everywhere—but how do you turn it into real revenue without drowning in generic outputs and “productivity theater”? Mike Brunnick, founder and CEO of VALR Advisors and interim CRO at HyperLayer, shares a holistic playbook for diagnosing revenue gaps across the entire go-to-market engine. Drawing on 25 years leading services, sales, and customer orgs—and seven years as a Marine infantry officer—Mike explains the VALR framework (Vision, Action, Leadership through change = Results) and why bravery means choosing one strategic initiative and saying no to the rest. He breaks down how to govern GenAI for true productivity, encode your company’s differentiation into closed-loop agents, and why AI sales coaching tools like GRW.AI can fill the widening gap left by stretched first-line managers. Mike also unveils RepFit, VALR's behavioral-science-plus-LLM assessment that quantifies sales-team quality with a predictive 0–100 score and practical coaching maps. Expect clear guidance on where you actually win, when to walk away, and why agentic buyers—not sellers—may be the next big shift.
Timestamps
[00:35] – From Marines to CRO: Mike’s path to VALR Advisors and interim CRO at HyperLayer
[02:05] – The GTM engine: holistic assessments across product, marketing, sales, CS, and services; the VALR framework and “brevity is bravery”
[06:10] – AI that drives outcomes: govern usage, avoid productivity sinks, and build closed-loop agents with your unique differentiators
[09:10] – Coaching at scale: GRW.AI (Grow) as an AI sales coach, rising spans of control, and lifting win rates
[12:30] – Measuring sales-team quality: introducing RepFit—behavioral science + LLMs to predict top-performer potential and guide org design
[17:35] – The biggest GTM challenge: knowing where you win and saying no to misfit deals
[19:40] – Agentic AI today and tomorrow: human sellers, automated CS, and why agentic buyers may arrive before agentic sellers
[22:05] – How to engage VALR: consulting, workshops, coaching, and assessments on VALRAdvisors.com
[23:15] – Parting advice: talk to employees about how they use AI—optimize for customer time and real productivity
Takeaways
- Govern AI usage and define “productive vs. busy” to prevent GenAI from becoming a time sink.
- Encode your company’s differentiation into closed-loop agents to avoid generic, undifferentiated outputs.
- Deploy AI sales coaching (e.g., GRW.AI) to augment overstretched first-line managers and improve deal velocity.
- Quantify sales talent with behavioral science plus LLM scoring (RepFit) to predict top performers and design stronger teams.
- Focus bravely: choose one strategic initiative, align KPIs, and walk away from poor-fit opportunities.
- Prepare for agentic buyers by tightening RFP responses, feature mapping, and seller readiness to “sell to an agent.”