AI-Driven Sales Innovation with Bobby Morrison

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Jun 19, 2025

Bobby Morrison, Chief Revenue Officer at Shopify and veteran sales leader, discusses the transformative impact of AI on sales strategies. He reveals Shopify's innovative pod-based approach that blends sales, customer success, and engineering teams. Bobby emphasizes the importance of industry knowledge and shares insights on how AI streamlines workflows and enhances client engagement. He also reflects on navigating organizational changes through the Chaos Monkey initiative, promoting adaptability in sales culture and the need for meaningful customer interactions.

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INSIGHT

Shopify's Pod Structure Benefits

Shopify uses a pod structure combining sales, customer success, and engineering focused on a single customer cohort.
Pods are incentivized together, improving customer continuity and accountability.

ADVICE

AE Leads Industry Expertise

Assign AEs as primary owners of industry domain expertise while SEs and customer success reps support the journey.
Supplement domain expertise with third-party content infused into AI tools for faster learning.

ADVICE

Blend Content with AI Tools

Infuse new third-party industry content with existing internal documents to create enriched learning assets.
Use LLM frameworks that reps can query to prepare for meetings efficiently.

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In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan are joined by Bobby Morrison, Chief Revenue Officer of Shopify, to discuss the transformative power of AI in the sales domain. Bobby shares an in-depth look at Shopify's innovative approach to structuring their go-to-market strategy using pods, which integrate sales, customer success, and engineering teams for optimal client engagement and business growth. He delves into the role of AI in streamlining tasks, enhancing craft, and orchestrating workflows, while highlighting Shopify's AI-first philosophy and the democratization of AI tools across the company. Bobby also touches on the importance of industry-specific knowledge, the benefits of the Chaos Monkey practice to prevent organizational entropy, and the evolving expectations of modern buyers. This episode provides invaluable insights into leveraging AI to drive sales performance and organizational agility.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Learn more about Bobby Morrison:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-morrison-60663327/

Watch Force Management’s Panel Discussion on AI in Sales Leadership: https://hubs.ly/Q03rlW4Z0

Read Force Management’s Guide to Embedding AI In Your B2B Sales Organization: https://hubs.li/Q03ldrzD0

Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0

HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT

[00:01:25] Understanding Shopify's Business Model
[00:02:57] Shopify's Go-to-Market Strategy
[00:04:55] Transition to Pod Structure
[00:09:21] Industry Expertise and Pod Implementation
[00:14:00] AI Integration at Shopify
[00:17:17] Hiring and Training for AI Proficiency
[00:21:38] Challenges and Future of AI in Sale
[00:29:41] Enhancing Employee Performance Through Observation
[00:30:21] Leveraging Call Recordings for Better Coaching
[00:32:17] The Role of AI in Job Security
[00:33:25] Importance of Deep Domain Expertise
[00:35:30] Customer Expectations and Specialized Software
[00:37:22] The Pod Structure and Compensation Models
[00:41:31] Partner Ecosystem and Collaboration|
[00:42:47] Managing AI and Intellectual Property
[00:45:54] Chaos Monkey and Organizational Flexibility
[00:51:50] Future of Sales Teams with AI

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

On AI: “AI is not gonna replace your job, but the people using AI will.”

On Culture: “Toby [the CEO] advises that Shopify should intentionally destabilize enough to avoid ruts and maintain agility.”

On Alignment: “We win best when we win with our partners.”

On Future Vision: “I dream one day that our sales teams will wake up and just have great conversations with customers, free from low-value tasks.”