What's up, it's Zayd.

The average B2B sales team uses 11 different tools. The average response rate in B2B sales is under 2%.

Either we're really bad at math, or something's not adding up here.

I spend most of my day talking to sales teams about their outbound strategies, and there's a pattern I can't ignore: The teams with the fanciest tool stacks often have the worst results. Meanwhile, teams with basic setups are booking meetings left and right.

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Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week.

• LinkedIn tactic that got 32 sales calls in 40 days (link)

• The 7 things GTM orgs need to run effectively (link)

• Use cost of inaction to show prospects the magnitude of their problems (link)

• Get higher conversion rates on cold calls (link)

• Strategy that led to 950 inbound calls (link)

• Outbound is simple (link)

The Dependency Problem Nobody Talks About

The problem is that we've built sales teams that are completely dependent on their tools to think for them. It’s emblematic of a larger problem with the way we think and recall as a whole (I can’t get to my sister’s apartment without using Google Maps despite going…every three days), but that’s a topic for a different letter entirely.

The ease of access and lack of friction when it comes to acquiring information and spitting out results has caused us to both lose our ability to think and process critically and a dependency on someone or something else to do the hard part for us. That's what we've done to sales reps, except with prospect research and message writing.

The tools promise to make reps "more efficient," but what they actually do is make reps incapable of functioning without them. When your favorite AI writing assistant goes down, half your team suddenly can't compose a coherent email.

That's…an addiction.

The Three Types of Sales Automation (And Why Most of Them Suck)

Category 1: Mindless Automation 

Does exactly what you tell it to do. Think basic email sequencing. Useful but boring. Like a really expensive calculator.

Category 2: "Smart" Automation 

Promises to think for you but actually just creates more decisions to make. Most AI tools fall here. They give you 47 different message options and expect you to somehow know which one is best.

Category 3: Actually Intelligent Automation Handles the grunt work so humans can focus on strategy and relationships. Rare but incredibly valuable when done right.

Most teams are drowning in Category 2 tools that promise intelligence but deliver decision paralysis.

The Real Cost of Tool Bloat

Let's do some quick math. If your AE spends 37% of their day managing tools (industry average), and they're making $100K, you're paying $37K annually for tool administration.

Context Switching Cost: Every time a rep switches between tools, they lose 2-3 minutes of productive thinking time. With 11 tools, that adds up fast.

Decision Fatigue: The human brain can make about 35,000 decisions per day before quality deteriorates. Your tool stack is burning through that quota before lunch.

Skills Atrophy: Reps who rely on AI to write every message literally forget how to personalize outreach manually. It's like muscle memory, except in reverse.

The Valley Philosophy (And Why We Built It This Way)

When we started building Valley, we could have created another tool that bombards users with options and requires constant decision-making. Instead, we asked a different question: What if the AI did all the heavy lifting so humans could focus on being human?

Valley's research agents spend hours digging through LinkedIn posts, company news, and industry trends, but rather than presenting you with 47 data points on a silver platter and asking you to figure out what matters, they synthesize everything into clear, actionable insights.

The AI writes the message. You approve it.

You're still thinking strategically about timing, approach, and relationship building. Just without the busywork.

The Smart Automation Audit

Here's how to figure out if your tools are helping or hurting:

The Failure Test: If this tool stopped working right now, how screwed would your team be?

• "We'd be fine, just slower" = Good

• "We'd panic and our performance would crater" = Problem

The Explanation Test: Can your reps explain how the tool actually works?

• "Yes, and they can replicate the process manually if needed" = Good

• "No idea, it's a black box" = Red flag

The Results Test: Since adding this tool, have your actual outcomes improved?

• "Yes, we're booking more meetings/closing more deals" = Keep it

• "Well, we're more efficient..." = That's not an answer

What Actually Works

The highest-performing sales teams I work with follow these principles:

Automate the Research, Not the Strategy: Use tools to gather information, but keep humans in charge of how to use it.

Enhance Skills, Don't Replace Them: Look for tools that make your existing capabilities stronger, not tools that do everything for you.

Measure Outcomes, Not Activities: Who cares if you can send 500 emails per day if none of them get responses?

You need smarter tools that do more.

Tools that respect your intelligence and enhance your capabilities rather than treating you like a meat robot who clicks buttons when prompted.

How I Can Help?

Let me book sales calls for you while you’re decluttering your tool stack. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.

How can we work together 🏔️

1. See more of Valley’s messaging examples, feel free to roast them: https://withvalley.notion.site/Cool-Message-Bro-1c0b917b0ed481dab014c465c354b4b8 

2. Generate more demos for your company using LinkedIn: https://meetings.hubspot.com/zayd-from-valley/tryvalley
   

3. Become a Valley partner and get 20% recurring commission for every user you bring in: https://withvalley.notion.site/valley-affiliate-partner-program