They bought Aida for sales. Their product and marketing teams ended up using it too.
That wasn't the plan. But that's what happened at WorkWave.
When John Ortwerth stepped into the CRO seat at the 30-year-old field service software company, he inherited a sales organization and a mandate to transform it. The timing was serendipitous: the AI revolution was hitting stride just as he needed to retool how his team showed up for customers. His philosophy isn't about replacing people with automation. "In a world full of AI, in a world full of automation, you've got to be human and you've got to drive the human connection more often than ever," he told us. "But you've got to leverage the tools and resources around you to make your human interactions as best as they can possibly be."
What started as a sales conversation tool grew into something broader. John's team began sharing call transcripts with product to validate what's working, feeding customer insights into marketing, and giving customer success the same 360-degree view. One product feedback call got captured, and the insight reached product and marketing directly. No extra work. No one had to ask. "It's become my go-to spot for how I inspect deals, inspect pipeline, inspect coaching, and really understand what's going on at the rep level," John said.
The coaching piece is close to his heart. A basketball coach for his son's eight-year-old team on weekends, he applies the same principle at work: "The best leaders set their people up to have success, give them the tools to have success, and then get out of the way and let them play."
There's a lot more in the full conversation, including how John coaches individual reps in ways that weren't possible before. Worth the watch if you're figuring out where AI fits in your own revenue team. It's below.
