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Revenue Hotline: How to build a more efficient GTM Engine with Go Nimbly's CEO Jen Igartua
In our latest Revenue Hotline webinar, Jen Igartua, CEO of Go Nimbly, shared practical tips on optimizing your go-to-market strategies. Go Nimbly, a top RevOps consulting agency, works with top companies like Intercom, Twilio, Zendesk, and Rippling to improve their revenue operations. She started her career at Bluewolf, a big Salesforce partner. Her first client was Twilio, though she didn't know much about them at first. A friend at Twilio called her to help fix their Eloqua-Salesforce connection. What began as a three-month job turned into a long partnership that has lasted through Twilio's IPO. Her second client was Zendesk, which is still with Go Nimbly today.
Why Clean Data Matters More Than AI for Your Sales Team
Q: "What's the one implementation that gives GTM teams the biggest ROI?"
The most helpful thing for your sales and marketing teams isn't flashy AI - it's having clean, consistent data. Jen explained that getting everyone in your company to use the same fields for industry, company size, and contact information creates huge benefits.
"The biggest bang for your buck are the places where I see the most energy and alignment across the business—normalizing data points," Jen said during the webinar.
When your data is organized, you can route leads better, personalize messages, improve reporting, and create smoother handoffs between teams. Even the best AI tools won't work well if your data is messy.
Jen's expertise in this area stems from her early career at Bluewolf, one of the largest Salesforce partners, where she honed her skills in marketing operations and integrations.
Getting Started with Better Data (Even When It's Not Perfect)
Q: "Why is it such a pain for companies to have this set up in the first place?"
Jen mentioned that perfect data is impossible, but that shouldn't stop you from making improvements:
"We have to get rid of the fantasy that we're never gonna have the wrong LinkedIn profile or wrong title on the wrong person," she explained.
Companies can't just hire more people to fix efficiency problems anymore. Executives now expect teams to work smarter with what they have, which creates great opportunities for revenue operations professionals.
Jen highlighted Clay as a tool that's helping many companies manage their data better without needing specialized data teams. She also pointed to the innovative work being done by Alexander DeMoulin at Intercom, who has taken a practical approach to data cleanliness by focusing on key accounts rather than trying to fix everything at once.
The GTM Pyramid: Balancing Must-Haves with Exciting Features
Q: "Are there important foundations companies should focus on to set themselves up for success later?"
Jen shared a helpful concept called The Kano Model that she learned from Jodi Mesa at Luster.
The model breaks down revenue operations work into three parts:
- Must-Have Basics: Things like clean data, tool integrations, and tracking opportunities
- Performance Boosters: Features that help sales teams sell better
- Delighters: AI tools and automations that save time and create enthusiasm
Instead of doing all the basics first before moving to the exciting stuff, Jen recommends working on all three levels at once - just spending different amounts of time on each.
"Think about Recapped," Jen explained during the webinar. "What makes a sales team love Recapped? It's because I'm updating my MEDDPICC fields automatically in Salesforce by having my calls piped in, by updating my mutual action plan that's already done for me. That's a delighter - you're saving me time. Anytime time is saved, life is good."
These time-saving automations make reps' lives better while still supporting the essential tracking needs of the business. By focusing on tools that actually reduce the administrative burden on sales teams, companies can create both efficiency and enthusiasm among their reps.
Why Over-Structured Sales Processes Don't Work
Q: "The linear stage-based sales process seems less like a mirror of the way customers really buy. Are you seeing this, and how do we adapt systems like CRM?"
Many companies create rigid sales processes that don't match how customers actually buy. Jen referenced sales expert Jeff Hoffman, explaining that we need to give sales reps more flexibility:
"We've lost the magic of what it means to be a really incredible seller, which is you gotta meet your prospect where they're at," Jen said.
She pointed out that if a customer knows exactly what they want, making them go through your entire sales process just slows things down and creates frustration. This insight came from a valuable training day organized by John Barrows, a well-known sales influencer, where Jen had the opportunity to learn from seasoned sales professionals.
Mark Fershteyn from Recapped added that successful deals often don't follow a linear path. Rather than focusing only on CRM stages, effective sales teams track the critical buyer actions and engagement that need to happen. This approach recognizes that deals move forward when buyers take specific actions, not just when salespeople complete their tasks. Tools that track buyer engagement and actions rather than just sales stages provide a much clearer picture of deal health.
How to Make AI Work in Sales (Without Sounding Like a Robot)
Q: "With everyone scrambling to plug AI into their go-to-market stack, what's one implementation you've seen that was a complete waste of money and why?"
As companies rush to add AI to their sales stack, Jen warned against generic solutions:
"I can spot an AI email follow-up from these tools a mile away," she noted. "They don't have the special knowledge about your company, the way you follow up, or how you talk about things."
She recommended companies create their own AI approach using their unique data and voice, rather than using out-of-the-box solutions. Jen mentioned how Snowflake is doing this well by combining their data platform with AI tools and using Workato to integrate with an LLM to create personalized outreach that still gets reviewed by a human.
Jen also discussed how partnerships can accelerate deals and bring velocity to sales cycles. She gave credit to Bob Moore from Crossbeam for his book on ecosystem-led growth, noting how important it is to leverage partnerships when they're in the same sales cycle as you.
Will AI Replace Sales Teams? Jen's Take on the Future
Q: "What are your thoughts on the next couple years of go-to-market with AI? Will it replace jobs or enhance them?"
When asked about AI's future impact on sales teams, Jen offered a balanced view:
"I don't think CRMs like Salesforce are going away," she explained. "The tools might change how they work, but companies still need ways to manage their pipeline and report on it."
Interestingly, she suggested that as AI handles more routine tasks, human connections might become even more valuable: "Maybe this actually makes us more human... face time becomes really important."
Jen mentioned tools like Gong and Outreach that are working on AI integrations, but emphasized that companies will need to customize these solutions with their own data and messaging to be truly effective. She believes in a future where humans will focus on relationship-building while AI handles administrative tasks.
5 Action Steps for GTM Leaders
Q: "How can RevOps become more strategic rather than just a support function?"
- Fix Your Data First: Make sure your basic information is clean before trying advanced AI tools.
- Think Like a Product Team: Plan your RevOps work with a roadmap like product teams do.
- Automate Behind the Scenes: Be aggressive with internal automation but careful with customer-facing automation.
- Create Custom AI Solutions: Build AI that reflects your company's unique approach rather than using generic tools.
- Turn Data into Signals: Help your team know exactly when to reach out to customers, like Intercom does by tracking when customer satisfaction scores drop.
Modern sales organizations need tools that provide visibility into what's actually happening with buyers, not just what reps put in the CRM. Collaborative spaces where both buyers and sellers can engage create transparency that benefits everyone involved in the deal process, from reps to managers to executives trying to forecast accurately.
Join us for the next weekly Revenue Hotline webinar where real leaders solve real GTM challenges. Live on Wednesdays at 3pm ET.
Want to learn more from Jen? Check out RevFest happening on June 10th in Brooklyn, featuring speakers from OpenAI, Intercom, and Ironclad. Get tickets here.
Looking to improve your deal collaboration, visibility, and coaching? Recapped helps GTM teams guide buyers through their journey while providing complete visibility into buyer engagement and deal health. Request your personalized demo today.