Episode Summary
Siddharth Singh, Chief Revenue Officer at Intangles, explains the skills modern salespeople need as buyers become more informed and meetings become harder to secure. He explores deeper discovery, primary research, creativity, and AI-enabled productivity. Siddharth shows why knowing a customer’s business beyond searchable information creates differentiation. He also explains why sales leaders must remain active player coaches as their responsibilities expand.
Highlights
Introduction
YouTube Short
Episode Q&A Videos
3:34 | Turn Industry Knowledge Into Faster Customer Discovery Conversations
“By virtue of being closer to his business, by a demonstrated line of questioning, you have already built his interest that the guy knows my industry and my business. The art of jumping into his problem statement at that point in time becomes a much faster exercise.”
2:29 | Asking Better Discovery Questions to Uncover Business Impact
“Very early in my career, somebody taught me the art of SPIN selling, asking situation questions, problem identification questions, implication questions, and then need-provoking questions. The skill is how fast, and in how many iterations or meetings, you go from situation questions to need-provoking questions. You've got to start jumping from what, when, who to why and how very fast. This is the elementary basis of any discovery exercise.”
6:14 | Build Customer Intelligence Competitors Cannot Search Online
“I need to have 50% secondary research and 50% primary research. Figure out a creative way to get out of your room and off your computer, and talk to people to learn about their business. That rounded perspective leads into creative outpouring of a messaging that will ensure that the customer sees and perceives you as somebody who is obsessed with that business.”
6:03 | Turning AI Into a High-Performance Sales Enablement Advantage
“I'm good with numbers, but being good with numbers doesn't mean you're good with Excel sheets. AI gives me that immediately, so I become doubly more effective. For a new sales guy, this creates a learning curve, so time to business and time to productivity is faster.”
3:49 | Why Great Revenue Leaders Never Stop Selling
“Don't stop doing what made you what you have become, which is being with the reps, doing those calls, rolling up your sleeves, going and cracking deals. Unless you remain a player-coach, you will just become another cog in the management team.”
Key Takeaways
Accelerate High-Value Sales Discovery
Move beyond basic situation and problem questions quickly to uncover the business implications and needs that matter most to the customer.
Build Deeper Customer Intelligence
Combine secondary research with direct conversations across the customer’s ecosystem to develop insights competitors cannot simply find online.
Scale Sales Judgment With AI
Use AI to accelerate learning, preparation, and productivity while preserving the creativity, judgment, and customer engagement that differentiate strong salespeople.
About Siddharth
Siddharth Singh
Siddharth Singh is the Chief Revenue Officer at Intangles, where he leads revenue strategy and growth for an AI-driven enterprise technology company. Throughout his career, he has focused on helping organizations solve complex customer problems through deep product knowledge, disciplined enterprise selling, and thoughtful leadership. In this conversation, Siddharth shares practical insights on modern B2B sales, the evolving role of AI, and why asking better questions of both customers and AI has become one of the most valuable skills for today's sales leaders.
From the Guest
Watch Us on Your Favorite Platform
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Full Episode Article
Title: "The New Skill Set Every Modern Salesperson Must Master"
This article is based on an interview with Siddharth Singh, Chief Revenue Officer at Intangles
Introduction
Buyers can learn more about a vendor before a sales meeting than ever before. They can research products, pricing, competitors, security considerations, and market positioning without speaking to a salesperson. That creates a difficult question for revenue leaders. If everyone has access to similar information, what separates an exceptional seller from everyone else?
For Siddharth Singh, Chief Revenue Officer at Intangles, the answer is a combination of deeper discovery, customer intelligence, creativity, AI-enabled productivity, and a willingness to stay close to customers. Modern sellers need to turn widely available information into insight that improves the customer’s business.
Move Faster From Information to Business Impact
Modern buyers do not need salespeople to repeat information they can find themselves. Siddharth argues that discovery must move beyond basic situation and problem questions much faster. As he explains, “The skill to work on is how fast, how much time, and in how many iterations or meetings you go from situation questions to need-provoking questions.” That shift requires active listening and an understanding of what the customer’s stated problem actually means for the business.
The goal is not simply to identify a pain point. Sellers need to understand its commercial implications. Siddharth puts it clearly. “Have I understood the problem? More importantly, have I understood the implication of that problem on the customer’s business?” This changes discovery from information collection into business diagnosis. For revenue leaders, the practical opportunity is to train teams to spend less time validating searchable facts and more time exploring why the problem matters, how it affects performance, and what happens if it remains unresolved.
Build Customer Intelligence Beyond Searchable Information
AI has dramatically accelerated secondary research, but universal access to information creates another challenge. When every salesperson can use similar tools to research the same account, research alone becomes less differentiating. Siddharth warns that rapidly converting secondary research into sales intelligence can undermine what he calls “sales creativity.” His alternative is to combine digital research with conversations that provide perspectives competitors cannot simply generate from the same prompt.
“I need 50% secondary research and 50% primary research,” Siddharth explains. He encourages salespeople to learn from people throughout a prospect’s ecosystem, including suppliers, customers, distributors, and others familiar with the business. He adds, “Figure out the creative way to go out there, out of your room, out of your computer, and talk to people to learn about their business.” For strategic accounts, this deeper intelligence can help sellers develop messages and questions rooted in the customer’s actual operating environment rather than generic account research.
Use AI to Scale Judgment and Productivity
AI becomes more valuable when it strengthens an already capable salesperson rather than replacing the work of understanding customers. Siddharth describes using AI as a conversational whiteboard that helps him access institutional knowledge, analyze information, develop collateral, and prepare customer-facing material faster. “It is adding scale and velocity to my already intelligent, creative thought process,” he explains. That distinction matters because the value comes from combining technology with human judgment, experience, and curiosity.
The productivity implications can be significant. Siddharth says, “I saw myself being five times more productive.” He also saw AI accelerate learning for salespeople who would otherwise spend months absorbing institutional knowledge. The benefit extended beyond individual efficiency. He observed more meetings and engagement, and less time required to get customers excited about pilots. For revenue leaders, the opportunity is to measure AI not simply by adoption, but by its impact on preparation, learning, customer engagement, and progression through the sales process.
Keep Revenue Leadership Connected to Selling
The same principle applies as salespeople advance into executive leadership. Becoming a CRO brings responsibility for metrics, investors, governance, forecasts, and board communication. Those responsibilities are essential, but Siddharth argues that they should not disconnect a revenue leader from the work that created their commercial judgment in the first place.
He describes spending a day in the field with his sales team, traveling through Philadelphia and New Jersey and knocking on doors at trucking and bus companies. “We actually closed two deals there,” Siddharth says. His larger point is not that every CRO should return to door-to-door prospecting every day. It is that direct customer and rep engagement keeps leaders grounded in how markets actually behave.
Conclusion
The modern salesperson’s advantage is not access to more information. Buyers and competitors increasingly have access to the same information. The advantage comes from what sellers do with it. Strong discovery, primary research, creativity, active listening, business understanding, and AI-enabled productivity allow salespeople to turn information into insight and insight into commercially relevant conversations.
Revenue leaders have an equally important responsibility to model those behaviors. As Siddharth Singh says, “Don’t stop doing what made you what you are: being with the reps, doing those calls, rolling up your sleeves, and cracking deals.” Technology can increase speed and scale, but sustainable sales performance still depends on people who understand customers deeply enough to create value that cannot simply be searched online.
ELEVATING CONTENT MARKETING STANDARDS RAISES A CRUCIAL QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t the very act of creating thought leadership content also spark new conversations with in-pipeline deals, top prospects, and high-priority customers for revenue expansion? Or serve as the cornerstone for learning and applying voice-of-customer strategies? That’s the power of ABM Podcasting—engaging B2B buyers and customers in meaningful conversations that uncover essential go-to-market insights, support long sales cycles, reinforce your market perspective, build peer-level trust, and dismantle objections that kill deals.
Steven MacDonald
Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.
Steven MacDonald
Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.
Explore more articles
Unlocking the Business Value of AI Personalization
Episode #349: Alysha McCree, Head of Marketing at FPT Americas, explains why simply claiming AI leadership no longer sets a company apart. She shares how ...
Read More
(2:19 Q&A Video) “Improve AI Learning With Prompts, Documentation, and Practice”
In this 2:19 video, Alysha McCree shares how her team learns to use AI through ongoing experimentation and peer teaching. They build documentation and prompt ...
Read More
Category Leadership: Setting the Foundations of Success
Episode #348: David Carrel, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Thomson Reuters, explains how category leadership goes beyond thought leadership to shape how a market thinks. ...
Read More
Part Seventeen: The Revenue Logic of Customer Obsession
Episode #347: Melanie Zmetek Naconecy de Souza, Chief Marketing Officer at AERTEC, explains why customer obsession begins with clarity. She shares how purpose, shared customer ...
Read More
(1:54 Q&A Video) “Customer Understanding Is a Core Business Discipline”
In this 1:54 video, Melanie Zmetek Naconecy de Souza explains why B2B customer understanding must begin with people. She shares how buyers bring priorities, challenges, ...
Read More
The Growth Asset Most Companies Barely Use
Episode #346: Ashley Deibert, a three-time Chief Marketing Officer, explains why customers are one of the most valuable growth assets B2B companies often underuse. She ...
Read More
