Digital saturation has killed your old playbook. Kris Rudeegraap, CEO of Sendoso, reveals the strategic hire that will transform your revenue engine.

How to Build the Most Critical Role in Modern GTM The AI Engineer

Your sales team is fighting for attention in inboxes that overflow with automated sequences. The email tactics that once delivered 90% response rates now generate noise. Meanwhile, just 14% of sellers are responsible for 80% of new logo revenue.

In a recent episode of The Go-to-Market Podcast, host Dr. Amy Cook sits down with Kris Rudeegraap, Co-CEO of Sendoso, to discuss the role he believes will define the future of revenue teams: the go-to-market AI engineer.

Key Takeaways for Revenue Leaders

1. Digital-Only Strategies Have Hit a Wall

Kris built his early sales career on being the best at mail merge. The advantage lasted months, not years.

“I was early to use Mail Merge. I could book meetings so easily and get 90% response rates from emails. But that quickly saturated.”

The lesson is clear: any tactic that can be easily replicated will be replicated. Your competitive advantage must come from integration and execution, not from any single channel.

Action Step: Audit your current GTM motion. If you rely primarily on email and digital ads, you are competing in the most crowded space. Identify opportunities to blend digital with physical touchpoints.

2. Multi-Channel Engagement Is No Longer Optional

When digital stopped working, Kris turned to offline tactics that felt personal and unexpected.

“I’d hear a dog bark on a call and send a dog toy after. I’d go steal swag from our marketing closet and pack it up or write handwritten notes after demos. And all of it worked so well.”

The data backs this up. Research shows 87% of B2B marketers report ABM delivers higher ROI than any other marketing activity, with some organizations seeing a 171% increase in average deal size.

“I do believe in the power of digital, but I believe you can’t have a digital-only strategy. You need email, you need ads, you need content, you need direct mail offline, you need field events, you need everything.”

Action Step: Calculate the cost of inaction. What if you could do 10x more direct mail? What pipeline are you leaving on the table by under-investing in high-touch channels?

3. The GTM AI Engineer Is Your Most Critical Hire

This is Kris’s hottest take: the most important role for modern revenue teams is not another SDR or demand gen marketer. It is someone who can architect AI-driven systems from the ground up.

“I think it’s truly someone who’s obsessed over AI agents, agentic workflows, someone who wants to build out these AI frameworks. Someone who’s savvy with APIs, data warehouses, some of these advanced tools like Claude Code or N8N.”

This role is distinct from traditional RevOps. It is not about maintaining Salesforce access or building forecast reports. It is about translating human strategy into specifications that AI agents can execute autonomously.

“Someone who almost wants to be like an AI architect, and that can translate these human roles and tasks into specs that agents can then take advantage of.”

Action Step: Evaluate your current team for this skill set. Look for people who are already experimenting with AI tools, building workflows, and connecting systems through APIs. This role may already exist in your organization, just without the title.

4. Three Frameworks for Measuring GTM ROI

Kris outlined three approaches for justifying investment in new channels and capabilities:

Dollar-In, Dollar-Out: Compare the revenue generated per dollar spent across all channels. Gifting and direct mail often outperform digital advertising when measured this way.

Cost of Execution: Account for the hidden labor costs of manual processes. Using senior talent to pack boxes or upload spreadsheets destroys unit economics.

Cost of Inaction: Calculate the opportunity cost of not scaling proven channels. This is the ROI analysis most teams skip.

Action Step: Apply all three frameworks to your next budget conversation. Present channel performance not just by direct returns, but by execution efficiency and unrealized potential.

5. Stay Ahead Through Continuous Internal Intelligence

Kris shared his approach to staying current in a rapidly evolving landscape. Beyond consuming industry news and leveraging advisory networks, he prioritizes learning from his own team.

“I’ve been interviewing my team on what they’re doing. How are engineering teams using Claude Code? What tools are our SDR team using and what’s booking them the most meetings?”

Action Step: Schedule regular conversations with frontline team members about the tools and tactics driving their results. The best insights often live closest to the customer.

Final Thoughts

The GTM playbook that worked three years ago is now table stakes. Winning requires a fundamentally different approach: one that blends digital and physical engagement, unifies data across systems, and leverages AI to execute at scale.

The go-to-market AI engineer is not a future role. It is the hire you need to make now.