Software Sales Tips by Matt Wolach

Scale Your SaaS

Embracing the AI Wave to Gain an Edge on the Competition – with Amarpreet Kalkat

https://youtu.be/wM1sngXaCck

In the most recent episode of Scale Your SaaS, Founder & CEO at Humantic AI Amarpreet Kalkat shared his journey in the AI industry with host and B2B SaaS Sales Coach Matt Wolach, reflecting on his experiences since actively engaging with AI in 2014. He noted the significant waves of AI popularity, with the current one being the most profound. 

Amarpreet’s second AI startup, Humantic AI, aims to revolutionize the software sales process by enabling sellers to deeply understand their buyers and engage in a “buyer-first manner.” This approach prioritizes the buyers’ needs and interests, making the sales process more meaningful and effective. Read on to learn more about how Humantic AI differentiates itself from the competition with AI.

PODCAST-AT-A-GLANCE

Podcast: Scale Your SaaS with Matt Wolach

Episode: Episode No. 327, “How to Separate From the Competition – with Amarpreet Kalkat”

Guest: Amarpreet Kalkat, Founder & CEO at Humantic AI 

Host: Matt Wolach, a B2B SaaS Sales Coach, Entrepreneur, and Investor

Sponsored by: Leadfeeder

TOP TIPS FROM THIS EPISODE

Revolutionizing Software Sales with AI Insights

I acknowledged the potential of Humantic AI, noting the slow adoption of AI among SaaS sales professionals compared to marketers. The tool is great for providing macro and individual insights into buyers, enhancing the sales process. 

Amarpreet emphasized that true success in sales comes from a fundamental understanding of the buyer, a lesson often learned through experience. He outlined the four key components of a successful sale: the buyer’s need, the salesperson’s ability, the deal’s progress, and the buyer themselves. He stressed that deeper insights into buyers, beyond LinkedIn information, could significantly impact sales strategy.

Unconventional Marketing and Future Innovations

To stand out, Humantic AI has adopted unconventional marketing strategies, such as creating a rap video for their product introduction and producing an AI-generated music album about buying and selling. These efforts aim to inject fun into the typically dull B2B space while ensuring their product stands out. However, Amarpreet emphasized that these gimmicks must be backed by a solid product foundation to truly succeed.

Takeaways on the Rise of AI for Software Founders

Amarpreet offered advice for other software founders. He underscored the importance of following one’s passion and focusing on creating meaningful solutions. He acknowledged the role of luck but stressed that by building a strong product and presenting it in an engaging way, founders can position themselves for success. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

From Developer to Seller: A Critical Shift

Amarpreet described his transition from developer to seller as a critical shift, emphasizing the importance of understanding the customer’s perspective and tying solutions to their problems. This approach, he noted, is crucial for effective selling. I reiterated that buyers are primarily interested in outcomes rather than the product itself.

The Evolution of AI: Milestones and Market Navigation

Amarpreet recounted AI’s various milestones, from the initial excitement in the 60s and 70s to recent advancements in generative AI. I noted the current surge in AI tools and asked how Amarpreet navigates the crowded market. Amarpreet described the situation as a “dusty tailwind,” a mix of opportunity and challenge. He stressed the importance of differentiation and focusing on fundamental changes rather than tactical solutions.

TOP QUOTES

Amarpreet Kalkat

[07:12] “The better you know your buyer, the better your chance of success.”

[10:45] “AI is not just about automation; it’s about augmenting human capabilities.”

[22:08] “Effective marketing is not about shouting the loudest, but about understanding and connecting with your audience deeply.”

[28:42] “Moving from a developer to a seller mindset was challenging but immensely rewarding.”

[35:55] “Follow your passion and solve problems that truly matter.”

Matt Wolach

[05:50] “A successful sales strategy starts with truly understanding your customer’s needs and pain points.”

[12:30] “Personalization in sales is not just a trend; it’s a necessity for connecting with modern buyers.’’

[23:45] “Embrace technology, but always keep the human element at the forefront of your sales efforts.”

[32:10] “The future of sales lies in combining human empathy with AI-driven insights for a truly personalized experience.”

LEARN MORE

To learn more about Humantic AI, visit: https://humantic.ai/ 

You can also find Amarpreet Kalkat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amarpreetkalkat/

For more about how Matt Wolach helps software companies achieve maximum growth, visit https://mattwolach.com.

Head over to leadfeeder.com and sign up for a 14-day (no strings attached) free trial: https://www.leadfeeder.com/ 

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Check out the whole episode transcript here:

Matt Wolach  00:00

Hello and welcome to Scale Your SaaS. By the way if you are here because you want to learn to generate a whole bunch of good leads, you want to learn how to close deals, or maybe you want to learn how to scale a team who can do all that for you. You are in the right place Scale Your SaaS is where we show you exactly the steps to take so that you can grow your software company if you want those things. Subscribe to the show, hit that subscribe button right now that way you will get notices of all the times we put out new videos, new information, new podcast episodes, where we put the best in the world of B2B software in front of you so you can learn from their experiences. And one of those best is with me today. I’ve got Amarpreet Kalkat with me, Amarpreet, how you doing?

Amarpreet Kalkat  00:39

Good, Matt. Thanks for having me on the podcast today.

Matt Wolach  00:42

Absolutely. Thank you very much for being here. Let me make sure everybody knows who you are. So I’m afraid he’s the founder and CEO at Humantic AI. And basically this guy, he’s an AI buff. Amarpreet he absolutely knows how to make things happen using AI and he’s built an amazing product. He leads a team of very talented people doing this thing. He’s also a Kyokushin black belt and a big fan of limit pushers. Did I say that right? Kyokushin 

Amarpreet Kalkat  01:11

Kyokushin karate. It’s a very it’s like kickboxing essentially. But yes, it’s martial art. 

Matt Wolach  01:16

Okay, that that makes me a little scared of you. Now, you might be like the Karate Kid and going, Okay, I’m gonna be I’m gonna be careful. But that’s very, very awesome. Takes a lot of dedication to achieve that level. I’m absolutely sure. By the way, if you’re wondering what Humantic AI does, this thing ensures that revenue teams have a buyer insights available at every stage of the sales funnel through multiple connected products. Lots of really cool stuff they’re doing. I can’t wait to learn more about it. Amarpreet, Thanks for being on the show.

Amarpreet Kalkat  01:46

Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Looking forward,

Matt Wolach  01:48

likewise. So tell me what have you been up to lately? And what do you have going on?

Amarpreet Kalkat  01:55

In a very broad sense, AI, you know, you mentioned about me, and being an AI buff. I’ll start with an interesting piece. I have been doing AI actively for 10 years. This is my second AI startup. I started way earlier than most people 2014 is when I started my AI journey actively passively actually goes a bit longer than that. A lot of people don’t know AI is have had three, four waves. You know, when it’s been big, never never this big though. So you have right now this is like a sudden my second AI startup we call Humantic AI, we make sure that when sellers walk into any meeting any interaction, they truly deeply meaningfully know their buyers. And now they can sell in what we call a buyer first manner, right? Where they start putting their buyers first because they understand what matters to them. It’s been good fun, it’s been a good ride the last couple of years.

Matt Wolach  02:52

That’s so cool. And I totally agree. I’m a very big proponent of buyer first, those of you out there who are listening who are members of mine, they’re probably saying, oh, yeah, Matt has taught me that for sure. We want to focus on the buyer, we want to make sure we truly understand what their needs are, and that we put things in their best interest. And when you can do that what’s surprising, you know, when you help people, it’s kind of crazy how you actually can sell a lot more. And so that’s awesome that you have that same philosophy. I want to learn though, what inspired you to create Humantic? Where did that come from? And how did that come about?

Amarpreet Kalkat  03:24

So it’s a bit of a bit of a long journey. I started up in, in a way that I would not recommend to most founders, and, you know, perhaps, people eager to be founders, I call myself a hammer looking for a nail. You better off, you know, finding finding, actually, you know, going the other way around. But for me, I spend 10 years in corporate life between 2000-2010 Old enough, you know, in that sense, if that tells you? And I always thought that software’s pretty dumb. That’s what I used to call it, I still call it it’s gotten better since then. So and my take was I said, Look, software’s got to be intelligent, you. It shouldn’t have to, you know, wait till you tell it to do something. I mean, why can’t it do things on your behalf? Right? I mean, that’s intelligent software. There’s a small, small difference. So like I said, bit of a hammer looking for a nail wanted to build that I was a builder. I am a builder, seller I’ve become over time, and I have enjoyed that journey too. But at the core, I’m a builder. So 2010 I’m like, Well, I’ve been in the industry for 10 years. I’m still not building what I want to build. And that’s how my journey started. led to my first startup. And like I said that was in the consumer intelligence phase. We will take millions billions of data pieces from social media essentially analyze it, but rather than purely just analyze it for basic statistics, insights, summaries, etc. We were trying To go deeper, like into consumer psychology, how they think what matters. Eventually, one of the small things we were doing there ended up leading to what became Humantic AI. So this journey started in 2021. It’s been three years now, where, if you don’t know, but we can predict, with AI people’s personality behavior, we built our own proprietary models, just by taking their LinkedIn profile or something they have written, and pretty well, not perfect. 85% accurate. Now, you can imagine before you spend a minute with them, you know, what matters to them? What doesn’t matter to them? What scares them? What excites them? And like I said, once you know that about your customers, we focus on salespeople. So that’s our that’s our segment, because one of the most transactional things needs most work. So once now, I’ve spent for example, I saw your profile. Matt, once I know about you, odds of me putting you first, right, because now I’m like, Okay, I care about Matt, I care about what matters to Matt. I matter but I matter a little bit less than that. So So that’s been my journey, starting with just software should be intelligent. Over a period of time you learn your lessons from the first startup to here’s a problem that really needs solving. And it can be solved at a large scale. And I think the last few years have been a pretty, pretty exciting, exciting journey. Yeah.

Matt Wolach  06:27

Yeah, it sounds like yeah, that sounds like a really cool thing. Because I feel like, from a sales perspective, a lot of people in the sales world, haven’t seen yet how AI can really help them. You know, marketers, of course, are saying, Oh, well, we can create, copy. And we can do this, we can even create video with this. They’ve got all kinds of cool things they can do on the marketing side. But sales hasn’t really seen this, it sounds like this is something that can really help. And, you know, I’ve preached a long time, we need to understand our buyer, on a macro level and also individually. And this sounds like one of those things that can really help you understand your buyer. Is that right?

Amarpreet Kalkat  07:08

See, the problem is we’re to tactical. And again, I would say younger sellers are more tactical than, you know, senior sellers, because we all I would say, the lessons of life, you know, the hard lessons of life teach you what you said what I said, it’s really about putting your buyers first. When I was younger, I was starting my sales career in that sense. You’re so tactical, right? You just want to go and you want to just somehow sell that deal. And slowly you learn. That’s not how big ticket sellers sell. You never sell anything worthwhile that way. And I see the same thing in AI products today. I think a lot of them are very tactical, hey, I can write an email for you personalize this that is that. That doesn’t stick the buyers not idiot, right? The buyers not a fool. You can see a ChatGPT email and say this is a ChatGPT created email, right? It’s not very hard. So our belief has always been you got to think more fundamentally, that’s how the best sellers always have been anyone you pick up? That’s how they’ve always been think more fundamentally, right? What are the basics, what truly matters? And one of the missing pieces? So I call it a house with, you know, walls on three sides? Where if you really think you know, what is what are the key components of a sale? I would say the account company and their need matters, right? Who wants to buy what because if there’s no need, then there’s no conversation. The rep matters, the person who’s selling Yeah, then how the deals progressing matters. So we call that deal intelligence, wrap intelligence, account intelligence. But the fourth piece, and probably the most critical one is the buyer. So I often asked sales leaders this question, I’m like, What do you know about your buyer? And they say, LinkedIn, I said, That’s it. I mean, that’s all you know, like, don’t you want to know more? And then it hits you like, Oh, is it possible? I said of course it’s possible now you know, so it’s an exciting like I said, it’s an exciting conversation.

Matt Wolach  09:10

Yeah, definitely. I think that that’s super super valuable. It’s something that I think that more people selling need to truly understand their buyer. The thing I caution my my clients against is just you got to be careful the curse of knowledge, just because you understand them. Don’t think oh, you can skip discovery or you don’t have to go into some of the key steps of the process we need to do so everybody out there thinking oh, well this is great. I’ll skip discovery no still get this because it’s great to have that information and all of that I definitely think this is very valuable. Just don’t skip some of your steps. It makes it better. Yeah,

Amarpreet Kalkat  09:44

you do it better like you still got to do discovery because again, unless you understand what they want to solve what they need solved. You You just gonna keep going yep, yep, yep, you know me this me that you mentioned this, this mentioned that. It doesn’t really matter, right? What matters is what it does for them, that’s the only thing that matters, but that you need to understand. Yeah.

Matt Wolach  10:03

And it’s crazy. Because one of the things I tell my clients is, discovery is as important for us as it is for them, they need to realize sometimes you’ll know their problem before they do, especially if you’re an expert, especially if you’re using a tool like this, you’ll know their problem sometimes before they do, but you need them to go through the process so that they can almost discover it themselves with you. And then by the way, if you do that, they will love you as a prospect, they’ll think you’re the best thing because you consulted them, you help them and advise them through their problems. It’s, it’s just fantastic. Sounds like this is a great tool for that. Well, I want to learn is you talked about how you’re a developer at heart. And I know there’s a lot of developers listening who have built a great product, and now it’s on them to sell it, how did you kind of make that transition from developing a tool to realizing I need to get out there and sell?

Amarpreet Kalkat  10:53

It’s, it’s, in some ways a big transition, in some ways, it’s a, I would say, you know, critical critical transition, you have to make it there’s no way around it. If I tried to simplify it, like you said, if you know you’re a developer or a builder, who’s not so like I was at when I started out, you got to basically look at it outside in we engineers, we tend to look at things as inside out, I have built this there for what you build does not matter. You start with the customer, you start with their problem, and then you just work backwards. So you know, I’ll often be telling my team, they’ll go into a demo and say, Oh, this feature does this, this feature does that. I’m like, no, no, no, you say, hey, look, you’re a seller, you want to send an email, your boss is after you saying personalize it, personalize it. And look how easy this becomes, you know, he’ll it’s the same thing showing them the same personalization feature. But now you’re talking from their point of view, I think that’s the most important distinction, then, of course, you know, there’s more beyond that. But the fundamental changes, that you understand the problems and you tie your solution to the problem, rather than just obsess about your your product, and how cool and how fast, and how quick and how neat and how beautiful it is. It doesn’t matter. It’s

Matt Wolach  12:14

it’s so true. I love how you’re saying this, you’re speaking to my heart right now Amarpreet because it doesn’t matter. The buyer doesn’t care about you, and they don’t care about your product, they only care about the results they can get from it, what is the outcome and so I constantly preach, do not sell your product, sell the outcome, what’s going to happen through using your product. And that’s really what’s critical. I think it’s something that a lot of people sometimes forget. So you mentioned you’ve been in AI for a while. Tell me about some of the change that you’ve seen was that kind of Is it crazy to did you think that was gonna happen? The change has to be monumental in the last 10 years of AI?

Amarpreet Kalkat  12:52

Well, that there’s been multiple milestones, so McAfee speak about that. I mean, for those who, you know, came to know a little bit of the history very quickly, back in 60s, maybe late 60s 70s AI was a big, big thing people don’t know. like it felt people felt AI was like here, didn’t happen. I think 80s were more quiet on the AI front, you know, there was a lot of computer stuff happening, you know, Macintosh windows, etc, etc. UI late 90s, very late 90s Huge AI wave again, people again, don’t know, you know, so and then smaller ones then I would say the the really big change of you know, those who know AI came around, technically speaking also around 2013. So what is called essentially the work around computer vision, ability to understand images that was huge at that point of time. I think 2013 to 2015 16 lot of improvement. In fact, a lot of people back then again, AI got pretty big lot of people got into AI, but we all knew it was coming like there were big things happening. I don’t think anyone really knew it was gonna be on the LLMs generative AI front that actually started happening around 2019 20 OpenAI’s first models came out around 2019 20 Most people again don’t know. But then it went of course when mainstream you know, late 2022. So there’s been four or five comings of AI. 2013 was a big, big milestone. 2016 17 Another big one. And then of course, nothing like 2022

Matt Wolach  14:34

Yeah, it’s been crazy lately, that’s for sure. What do you think? I mean, you sell an AI tool. And there’s all kinds of AI tools now flooding the market. Do you see this as Uh Oh, we’ve got to find a way to separate and differentiate from all the other noise out there. But also you also have that two letter nice little deal there AI that people are also attracted to so it’s kind of a double edged sword, isn’t it?

Amarpreet Kalkat  15:00

I call it a dusty tailwind. It’s a strong dusty tailwind is what it is. It’s very dusty, because everyone and their, you know, nanny and their friend and their brothers got an AI startup, right? You put something around your ChatGPT and you’ve got a product. It was like this during the Ecommerce days, you know, website building, etc. Again, those have been around, so not the first time, but it’s also a huge tailwind, huge tailwind. Everyone, we I’ll tell you, you’ll be surprised. We recently sold a product to a Midwestern company that builds welding tables, welding tables, in the Midwest. So they came to one of our partners partnership with a fantastic sales training company called Sandler, you probably heard of them. So that’s how they heard about us. And they said, We love this. And when I told our Sandler partners, they were like, they are relatively new to technology. So that’s the tailwind that everyone’s keen and excited from the biggest companies. I just got off a call 30 minutes 30 minutes ago, I would say with a fortune 500. To this, you know, company making welding tables, it’s a family business, you know, somewhere in Midwest, somewhere in Ohio? I think they are. So So yeah, standing out is very, very critical. I think we are lucky. Like if you were the number two product sales AI product, if you go to G2, Salesforce, and then it is us, we are very lucky that we are able to jump right now. Partly, I think it’s the focus on fundamentals, we don’t tell say that we are a tactical product, we say look, if you want a fundamental change in how you sell and how your sellers evolve, then you come to us. But it’s a great time, because everyone is excited about AI. And I think everyone will get to ride the wave to some degree, but those who really have substance, they will they will eventually sail through, you know, to bigger boats and bigger horizons.

Matt Wolach  17:07

Very cool. And I want to do counter something that you said you said you’re very lucky. I would say there is some luck to it. But my guess is you’ve done a lot of the right things to make sure that you are one of the most popular systems out there. So tell me what were some of those good moves that you’ve made that have really kind of accelerated your company, especially growth wise.

Amarpreet Kalkat  17:30

So we’ve our product introduction video is a rap video. It’s one of the funny that really we do every year and no no shit.

Matt Wolach  17:40

That’s amazing.

Amarpreet Kalkat  17:41

Yeah,

Matt Wolach  17:41

right on your website.

Amarpreet Kalkat  17:42

I think website should have it. Our YouTube channel definitely has it. 

Matt Wolach  17:47

Okay cool. Well check that out. That’s awesome.

Amarpreet Kalkat  17:49

Right now we are actually launching you know, we producing a music album about buying and selling we’ve launched two songs. So there AI generated, by the way, you know, so Lyrics by us, but you know, AI generated AI does a lot of stuff. What am I saying, really? My point is, you can’t do the usual. Right. So if you to stand out, you will have to do unusual. But a lot of people end up thinking that it’s about the gimmicks. It’s not about the gimmicks, it is about standing out it is about being doing fun stuff. B2B is so boring, right? So boring. Like why why do you have to do the same Stupid white papers and case studies? Right? Why? Why can’t you do something more fun? But the way I see it is, I think your product is your foundation. That’s that’s the way I’ve always thought about it. Product is the foundation, right? What you build. And until GTM is the building on top of it. So you could build the best product and it will go nowhere, it will be a zero sized building. But can you build a skyscraper on top of a weak, shaky foundation? No, you can’t do that. So, so substance has to be there. But then you got to take it to people in a manner that catches their eye. Now that you caught their eye, when they try your product, they should they should say, Holy shit. This is good. So otherwise, they’ll say yeah, blah these guys are just, you know, funky fellows, you know, just to put in some gimmicks. So combine those two and I think you’ve you’ve got, you know, shot on your hand, you still have to get a little lucky but at least you put yourself in a position of getting lucky. 

Matt Wolach  19:34

I totally agree. I’ve seen great products fail because they just don’t have the right marketing the right sales behind it. And they didn’t differentiate like you said, differentiation. Separation is great. I love this album coming up. By the way. I need to talk to you about that. Maybe Maybe I should give you some of my ideas and get to be one of those songs on there. That will be really fun. That sounds like a great idea. But yeah, I think differentiation and and separation are so critical. I love that you have that rap video that it’s really popular. I’m sure that that’s something that makes people say, wow, these people are more than just some coders that made us offer, there are people that have that have feelings and seem really cool. And I want to align with them.

Amarpreet Kalkat  20:17

Our demos or training sessions as the first thing we play. And the part that I enjoy the most marries the smile it puts on people’s faces. I mean, there’s the yes, just the smile, of course, we know it also ties them a little bit more strongly to our product, because they, you know, you’ve, you put some warm feelings, you know, around them, and you know, they’ll think about you more warmly, but just the sheer smile that I’m like, Okay, this is good. You know, we put a little bit of a, you know, good moment into someone’s someone’s day, you know, you never know, selling is a hard, hard business. It’s so hard, you know, so I just cherish that ability to put a smile on people’s faces.

Matt Wolach  20:56

That’s really cool. Yeah, so true. I love it. So awesome. This has been great stuff Amarpreet, we need to wrap we’re running low on time, but what advice would you have for other software founders who are kind of starting out and want to figure out how they can take advantage of AI or how they can differentiate from their competition?

Amarpreet Kalkat  21:14

So I think a couple of things, you know, two, three points we’ve covered, you know, essentially, are, are very, very, you know, critical. But if I have to say something beyond that, I’ve always believed following your heart, following your passions, the most important thing you can do, opportunities come and go, yeah, there’s AI and you can do this and that. But if you don’t have like passion about a problem, then odds are that’s that’s not the best thing for you see, anything consequential is never ever easy. So and you can only stay in the game if you’re really passionate about it. So start with a passion. Ai if it’s AI, great if it’s not AI, so be it if it’s, you know, making shoes, just go and be a bloody Jimmy Choo or something, right? So that’s not a problem at all. Start with a passion. Build something really, really well we believe in if it says all smart people say for very small audience, that’s not a problem. And the piece I would add is differentiate strongly. GTM is critical today. There’s abundance and over abundance of information and everything that’s coming at us as customers, consumers as people. So pay extra attention. You know what with someone like Matt, for example, who who knows how to make GTM happen, you know, he’s probably done it dozens of times.

Matt Wolach  22:36

Great advice. And especially the last part about come to me if you want help. So thank you, thank you for the plug. I’m are brave enough, but no really fantastic advice. I really think that somebody should just bottle that up and follow it because it’s really good. Obviously, somebody like yourself who has that experience and has become successful. It can really, really help motivate someone to do the same. So tell us how can our audience learn more about you and Humantic AI?

Amarpreet Kalkat  23:01

If you go to Humantic.ai, that is us. Humantic is human T I C you know, that’s us, Amarpreet Kalkat till a month or so ago, I used to say I’m the only Amarpreet Kalkat then I saw someone in New Zealand called Amarpreet Kalkat. But still, if you whatever, you will probably find me I think that person’s probably too young to new. So I’m Amarpreet Kalkat on LinkedIn, I’m active on Twitter. So please connect. But if you’re a founder, if you’re a salesperson, go ahead, go to your Humantic.ai We’ve got a free trial, try it out. We’re typically good or great for big deal sellers, small deals, not as much. But if you care about people trust relationships and just learning the fundamentals of selling, like I said, going buyer first this is probably your best vehicle to to become a buyer for seller.

Matt Wolach  23:55

Love it. We’ll put all that into the show notes. So if you’re listening or watching, go grab that you can see all this stuff and make sure you connect with them Amarpreet sounds really, really cool. So, Amarpreet this has been great. Thanks for coming on the show and sharing all your wisdom.

Amarpreet Kalkat  24:08

Well, thank you for having me getting an opportunity and glad results have given us a chance to meet. So thank you, Matt.

Matt Wolach  24:14

Yeah, absolutely. You’re welcome. And thank you all for being here. Again, make sure you’re subscribed, you do not want to miss out on any other amazing interviews we do with incredible creators and innovators within the software world. So hit that subscribe button, and then we will see you next time. Take care bye bye