Welcome to GTM Vault – trusted by 25,000+ GTM leaders building the future of revenue.
This week’s guest is Amber Brooner, Chief Revenue Officer at XTEL and one of the most accomplished enterprise GTM leaders of the last two decades. Amber has led global revenue organizations at SAP, Salesforce, PagerDuty and Informatica through every major shift: on-prem to cloud, horizontal to vertical, SaaS to AI-enabled GTM. She is known for a leadership philosophy she calls scaling with purpose and leading with clarity, built on accountability, transparency and trust.
Inside this episode:
Why predictable scalers share one advantage: alignment. The teams that win create clarity early and connect every role to customer value.
Amber’s AAA diagnostic for the first 30 to 60 days: Assess → Align → Accelerate. The system she uses to map friction, unify cadence and unlock execution.
How to lead with clarity across global teams: operational rigor plus trust. The mechanics behind velocity without burnout.
The shift to industry-based GTM: moving from selling products to solving business problems through data and customer language.
The operating rhythm of a high velocity CRO: pipeline velocity, forecast accuracy, customer signals and weekly operating reviews.
The human side of transformation: managing uncertainty, over-communicating and giving every person a clear place in the future state.
AI as the GTM operating system: where forecasting, pricing, promotions and retail execution become a connected loop.
This episode is for founders, CROs, RevOps and GTM operators navigating scale, complexity and the early impact of AI on modern revenue organizations.
Highlights
Alignment beats activity. The companies that scale stay anchored to customer value. The ones that stall chase motion instead of outcomes.
The AAA framework. Assess customer signals and data. Align pipeline, forecast and cadence. Accelerate once friction is removed.
Clarity is a leadership system. People execute faster when they understand the why behind change.
Industry GTM multiplies credibility. Depth creates trust. Breadth creates scale. You earn the right to expand.
Measure execution, not just outcomes. Leading indicators like engagement quality and cycle speed tell the truth earlier than bookings.
AI becomes the operating layer. At XTEL, AI connects planning, execution and outcomes so teams can act faster and smarter.
Human traits scale the org. Empathy, adaptability and clarity define the next generation of CROs.
Frameworks and Playbooks from the Episode
The AAA Diagnostic (Amber’s 30 to 60 day play):
Assess customers, field insights and data → Align operating rhythm → Accelerate with clarity.
Industry-Based GTM Blueprint:
Business imperatives → Use cases → Outcomes → Solutions mapped to customer language.
Clarity Operating System:
Weekly reviews, shared goals, unified metrics, consistent communication across Sales, Marketing and CS.
AI-Connected GTM Loop:
Data → Foresight → Execution → Outcomes. A continuous cycle where decisions compound.
Leadership Progression Map:
Shift from managing activity to leading outcomes → Influence across functions → Shine the light on your people.
Referenced Concepts
Industry GTM, forecasting quality, pipeline velocity, integrated business reviews, human-centered AI adoption, enablement systems, productivity systems and data-driven execution loops.
Recommended Framework
The Navy’s Seven P’s: Prior preparation and planning prevents piss poor performance.
Takeaways for your revenue engine
Build alignment early. Give every team a shared definition of value and the metrics that matter.
Adopt a forward-looking measurement layer. Prioritize leading indicators and execution quality.
Invest in clarity. Communicate the why behind every change and show people where they fit in the future state.
Treat vertical expertise as a credibility moat. Customers reward relevance.
Use AI for foresight and acceleration. The value is in execution, not dashboards.
We discuss
0:20 The pattern behind predictable revenue engines
1:27 Why companies stall vs scale
1:59 Amber’s AAA diagnostic for the first 30 to 60 days
2:42 Scaling with purpose and clarity
4:03 Industry-based GTM and outcome selling
5:05 Depth vs breadth in GTM strategy
5:41 Operating rhythm of a high velocity CRO
6:20 Leading indicators vs lagging indicators
7:46 Balancing global strategy with regional autonomy
8:58 AI in GTM: hype vs reality
10:23 Traits of next generation CROs
What you should do this week
Audit your operating rhythm: pipeline velocity, forecast accuracy, deal quality. Identify one friction point that slows execution.
Pick a segment or industry and map the top three business imperatives your customers care about. Align your messaging and use cases to these.
Run a transparency test: gather Sales, Marketing and CS around the same data set and see where misalignment appears.
Design a weekly clarity loop: one message that explains the why behind a key decision.
Why this matters for scaling
Companies rarely fail from lack of effort. They fail from lack of clarity. Amber’s systems show how alignment, cadence and trust unlock predictable scale even inside the most complex global organizations. As AI reshapes GTM, the leaders who win will be those who anchor their teams to clarity, measure execution quality and create a culture that adapts fast.
Predictable growth is not an accident. It is the output of a clear system.
That is the GTM Vault advantage.
Connect
Follow Amber Brooner: LinkedIn // XTEL
Follow Rick Koleta: LinkedIn // RiteGTM
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