Welcome to GTM Vault — trusted by 25,000+ GTM leaders building the future of revenue.
This week’s guest is Michele Shepard, Chief Revenue Officer at Emburse — one of enterprise software’s most accomplished revenue leaders.
Michele has led organizations through private-equity transformations and multi-billion-dollar exits across Vertafore, Insurity, and Paya.
At Emburse, she’s defining AI-powered Expense Intelligence — where finance, travel, and accounts payable shift from reactive workflows to predictive orchestration.
Inside, Michele shares how to build repeatable GTM systems that align people, process, and technology — turning complexity into clarity and strategy into measurable, predictable growth.
“We’re not just automating workflows anymore. We’re building the intelligence layer underneath that powers the future of enterprise finance.”
This episode is for CROs, RevOps leaders, founders, and anyone building AI-native GTM in complex markets — where alignment, precision, and cadence beat brute force.
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Highlights
Pattern recognition > chaos: how great orgs align on TAM, focus, and an opportunity scorecard
The 8×8 listening forum: Michele’s 30/60-day framework to unify GTM quickly
AI as operating system: from touchless expense to predictive audit & policy guidance
Concrete ROI: 30% faster processing, 40% higher audit accuracy, 25% cost reduction
Tooling that compounds: Demandbase, Goldcast, HeyGen, Consensus, Google Notebooks, Gong, Nooks
Horizontal vs vertical: when to speak the industry’s language vs. go broad
Building unanimity: aligning sales, marketing, product, and CS around one plan
Metrics that matter: ditch “4× pipeline” for contextual velocity & win rate by segment
Agentic AI & jobs: fewer manual tasks, more strategic roles and cross-functional collaboration
Culture in practice: cadence, enablement, reinforcement — clarity over chaos
Frameworks & Playbooks from the Episode
1) The 30–60 Framework for New CROs (incl. “8×8 Forum”)
30-day discovery + 60-day alignment to unify leadership around priorities, gaps, and dependencies.
Related: Chapter 1: Foundations of Winning GTM Strategy, Scaling GTM Alignment Across Sales, Marketing, Product & Success
2) The Opportunity Scorecard (TAM × Segment × Velocity)
A shared scoring model for Sales, Marketing, and Product to decide where to place bets.
Related: The Beachhead Strategy Playbook, Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down GTM in Early-Stage SaaS, The SaaS Motion Map
3) The GTM Operating System (People × Process × Technology)
Role clarity + cadences + an AI-native stack = predictable revenue.
Related: Chapter 8: The 2025 GTM Operating System, Build a Modern Revenue Engine — Fast, The Remote With Too Many Buttons
4) The AI Blueprint Model (Audit → Use Cases → ROI Dashboard)
Audit the stack, map automation and personalization, and require time/accuracy/cost ROI per team.
Related: The Architecture of AI-Native GTM, AI Broke the GTM Playbook, The AI-Powered GTM Operator, How to Automate 80 % of Your Work with AI Agents, The AI Stack You’ll Actually Use
5) Predictive Orchestration (AI Turns Data → Direction)
From rear-view reporting to real-time next-best action across GTM and finance.
Related: Agentic Marketing: The New GTM Architecture, The State of AI GTM — 2025 Edition
6) “The Stalking Horse” Market Validation
Run controlled tests before scaling big bets — use data to de-risk narrative and offer.
Related: The GTM Debug Framework Every AI Startup Should Know, From 0 to $1M ARR: The 10 GTM Foundations
7) The Alignment Loop (Quarterly Leadership Forum)
Thesis → Strategic Levers → Execution (who/what/when) to keep GTM + Product/Eng aligned.
Related: Chapter 4 – Sales & Revenue Acceleration
8) The Fail-Fast Loop (Experiment → Measure → Codify → Compound)
Kill quickly, keep what compounds, and feed learnings back into enablement systems.
Related: Clip Farming: The 2025 Distribution Exploit for Founders, 100+ Startup Marketing Tactics That Actually Work, The Future of GTM Isn’t Bigger. It’s Smaller.
Referenced Tools
Demandbase · Goldcast · HeyGen · Consensus · NotebookLM · Gong · Nooks · Emburse
Recommended Books
Leaders Eat Last — Simon Sinek
Michele cites this as a cornerstone for building high-trust, high-performance cultures — aligning perfectly with her focus on clarity, cadence, and collaboration in GTM.
Takeaways
Deliberate focus wins. Define TAM, build an opportunity scorecard, and align execution to it.
AI turns data into direction. Move from rear-view reporting to real-time guidance and prediction.
Enablement is a force multiplier. Treat it as a core system, not a checkbox.
Context > vanity. Measure velocity, win rate, and stage health by segment/vertical, not generic ratios.
Unify the blueprint. Stop tooling silos. Share data and decisions across sales, marketing, CS, product.
Experiment with rhythm. Innovation needs structure: training, practice tools, and weekly reinforcement.
Evolve or stall. What worked last year won’t carry the next stage of scale — update org design and roles.
We discuss
02:08 – How great orgs align around TAM, focus & opportunity scorecards
03:49 – The 8×8 listening framework for GTM alignment
15:50 – Unifying GTM + Product & Engineering
17:12 – The metrics most leaders misuse
20:08 – Private-equity GTM blind spots
26:44 – AI turns data into direction
36:35 – Predictive orchestration & agentic AI
40:17 – Building a high-performance revenue culture
45:30 – Rapid Fire: metrics, lessons, and frameworks shaping modern GTM
Connect
Follow Michele Shepard: LinkedIn // Emburse
Follow Rick Koleta: LinkedIn // RiteGTM
Emburse is proving that AI isn’t just a feature — it’s the intelligence layer that makes revenue systems predictable.
This episode is a playbook for leaders who want clarity, alignment, and execution at enterprise scale.
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