From 10X Engineer to 3X Seller

Sellers have about 1,600 hours a year for selling. Less than 30% of that time is spent with customers. AI can take over much of the rest. Drawing on what engineering learned as AI arrived there first, Jacco van der Kooij and David Gordillo show how much time AI can return to sellers, from about 250 hours a year at 1X to 920 at 3X. They explain why the real constraint is no longer what AI can do, but what sellers are ready to hand over. The brief then introduces the 3X Seller Program: a 32-week path where people, process, and technology move together. Sellers modernize the process, offload routine work to agents, and finally run the full customer lifecycle through renewal and expansion. The goal for every revenue team is clear. Bring all sellers to at least 2X in 16 weeks.

Best For

• CROs & Revenue Leaders setting a plan to bring every seller, not only top performers, to 2X capability
• CEOs & Founders rethinking how growth comes from capacity per seller rather than headcount
• Sales Enablement Leaders building AI skills and seller skills into a structured, measurable program
• RevOps Leaders designing the data model, workflows, and Signal Layer that AI agents run on
• Frontline & Second-Line Sales Managers coaching the middle tier as AI widens the performance gap
• Customer Success & Account Management Leaders preparing for sellers who own the account past the close

What this Brief Argues

AI has expanded what an engineer can do by 10X, and sales has a similar opportunity at closer to 3X. The multiple is smaller because every sale runs through buyers, and the complexity on the buyer’s side is outside the seller’s control. What AI can change is the seller’s main constraint, which is time. At 3X, AI can give back about 920 hours a year. Most SaaS companies should start at 2X. It frees about 650 hours, roughly 70% of what 3X frees, without changing the comp plan, org structure, or hiring profile.

The technology is ready. What holds sellers back is habit, along with incentives and management built for the old way of selling. Getting to 3X also takes a change in how sellers sell. In one enterprise software company’s data, deals where the seller captured the Impact were tied to 44% more revenue than deals that stopped at the Pain, yet only about 1 in 5 deals captured it. At 3X, the multiple comes from keeping customers. The seller owns renewal and expansion, so three years of customers stay with the seller instead of one.

Left to individual sellers, AI helps top performers pull further ahead while the middle tier drifts toward the bottom. Bringing the whole team along takes a program. The brief sets the goal for every CRO: bring all sellers to at least 2X capability in 16 weeks.

Start with 3X Outbound

Ready to put this into practice? 3X Outbound is the first course in the 3X Seller Program. It’s a five-day course where you learn to run outbound using Claude and LinkedIn. Pick the cohort that works for you.

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