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E38: How Adam Alfano Is Leading Salesforce Into Its AI Era

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Release Date: 06/27/2025

E38: How Adam Alfano Is Leading Salesforce Into Its AI Era show art E38: How Adam Alfano Is Leading Salesforce Into Its AI Era

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

, EVP of Global SMB and Emerging Products at Salesforce, joins Kyle Norton to share what it takes to lead through change at scale. Over 17 years at Salesforce, Adam has navigated market cycles, evolving go-to-market models, and now the rise of AI—while building and inspiring high-performing teams. He explains how to stay relevant as a leader, scale culture across thousands, and embrace mindset as a competitive advantage. Kyle and Adam also dig into Salesforce’s AgentForce strategy, how AI is transforming sales execution, and why adaptability is the most underrated leadership skill. Thanks...

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E37: Jason Wolf on Uncovering Hidden Growth Opportunities in Go-To-Market show art E37: Jason Wolf on Uncovering Hidden Growth Opportunities in Go-To-Market

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Jason Wolf, President of FullStory and former CRO at Ping Identity and SAP Ariba, joins Kyle Norton to share how companies unlock step-change growth by entering new markets, building new capabilities, and aligning cross-functional teams. Jason has led revenue growth from $200 million to $1.6 billion and brings hard-won lessons from scaling globally.


He explains how to time multi-product and multi-region moves, validate new growth bets, and build strategies driven by customer pull rather

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E36: Why Product Thinking Beats Process Obsession in GTM with Sangeeta Chakraborty show art E36: Why Product Thinking Beats Process Obsession in GTM with Sangeeta Chakraborty

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Most GTM teams operate in straight lines. Sangeeta Chakraborty believes they should function more like product organizations, with constant iteration, testing, and learning.


In this episode, the former CRO of Miro shares how applying product management principles helped her design go-to-market systems that reflect the full customer journey. She explains how her team ran structured GTM experiments, embraced cross-functional collaboration, and built systems for long-term customer growth. K

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E35: Building a Multi-Product Platform with Seismic’s CRO, Hayden Stafford show art E35: Building a Multi-Product Platform with Seismic’s CRO, Hayden Stafford

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

In this episode, Kyle Norton sits down with Hayden Stafford, President and CRO at Seismic, to unpack what it really takes to transform a company from a single-product business into a true multi-product platform. Drawing from his experience leading global teams at Microsoft and now steering Seismic toward half a billion in ARR, Hayden shares the go-to-market, organizational, and cultural changes required t

info_outline E34: Why Enablement Is the Most Overlooked Growth Lever with Luke Arno, CRO of Transcend show art E34: Why Enablement Is the Most Overlooked Growth Lever with Luke Arno, CRO of Transcend

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Is enablement the most overlooked growth lever in sales? Luke Arno thinks so—and he’s got the track record to prove it.


In this episode, Kyle Norton talks with Luke Arno, CRO at Transcend and veteran of Salesforce, Box, and Segment, about how great enablement can drive real sales productivity. Luke breaks down his three-part framework—onboarding, ongoing development, and in-the-moment fiel

info_outline E33: What It Takes to Be a Revenue Leader in the AI Era with Mike Donohue, CRO of 11x show art E33: What It Takes to Be a Revenue Leader in the AI Era with Mike Donohue, CRO of 11x

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

What happens when a company completely replaces its SDR team with AI? In this episode, Kyle Norton sits down with Mike Donahue, CRO at 11X, to unpack how digital workers—AI agents named Alice and Julian—now generate over 90% of the company’s pipeline.


Mike shares how 11X is pioneering an AI-native go-to-market model, where full-cycle reps are supported by centralized agent orchestration, and where growth marketing owns what used to be outbound sales. You’ll hear how AI is reshapi

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E32: Layering SLG Without Breaking the Product with John Eitel show art E32: Layering SLG Without Breaking the Product with John Eitel

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Most product-led companies hit a wall when they try to add sales-led growth. Too often, the motions clash, teams misalign, and growth stalls. So, how do you scale revenue without sacrificing your product-led roots?


In this episode of The Revenue Leadership Podcast, Kyle Norton sits down with John Eitel, former Global VP of Sales & Success at Canva and CRO at Demandbase, about how to success

info_outline E31: The Rise of the 10X SDR with Florin Tatulea of Common Room show art E31: The Rise of the 10X SDR with Florin Tatulea of Common Room

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

In today’s episode, Kyle sits down with Florin Tatulea, Head of Sales Development at Common Room, to discuss the evolution of outbound sales in the context of AI and technology. Florin shares insights on the importance of understanding signals and intent in sales, the changing profile of sales reps, and the role of RevOps in strategizing outbound efforts. The discussion highligh

info_outline E30: Building AI-Powered Sales Teams with Finally's CRO Kevin E30: Building AI-Powered Sales Teams with Finally's CRO Kevin "KD" Dorsey

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Kevin "KD" Dorsey is the Chief Revenue Officer at Finally, an all-in-one accounting and finance platform that recently raised $200 million in Series B funding. KD joins the show to discuss real-world examples of how he uses AI in his day-to-day: from developing internal AI agents to evaluating his team's calls.


New episodes of The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton drop every Wednesday

info_outline E29: Mastering Sales Commission Plans with QuotaPath's Ryan Milligan show art E29: Mastering Sales Commission Plans with QuotaPath's Ryan Milligan

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Kyle is joined by Ryan Milligan, VP of Sales, Marketing, and RevOps at QuotaPath, to discuss sales commission planning. They dive into the essentials of creating effective comp plans that align with business goals, the importance of incremental incentives, and how to drive desirable sales behavior. Ryan shares insights from h

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More Episodes

Adam Alfano, EVP of Global SMB and Emerging Products at Salesforce, joins Kyle Norton to share what it takes to lead through change at scale. Over 17 years at Salesforce, Adam has navigated market cycles, evolving go-to-market models, and now the rise of AI—while building and inspiring high-performing teams.

He explains how to stay relevant as a leader, scale culture across thousands, and embrace mindset as a competitive advantage. Kyle and Adam also dig into Salesforce’s AgentForce strategy, how AI is transforming sales execution, and why adaptability is the most underrated leadership skill.

Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of The Revenue Leadership Podcast drop every Wednesday. 

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Key chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction to Revenue Leadership Podcast

(00:54) - Guest Introduction: Adam Alfano from Salesforce

(02:45) - Career Lessons and Leadership Insights

(03:43) - Leading Through Change and Reinvention

(05:39) - The Importance of a Balanced Mindset

(08:05) - Scaling Mindset and Mental Fitness

(12:27) - Creating a Positive Team Culture

(16:18) - Competitive Stamina in SMB Sales

(17:42) - Scaling Corporate Athlete Mindset

(19:42) - Engaging with the Field and Team Feedback

(23:22) - Building Trust and Psychological Safety

(26:43) - Inspiring and Motivating Teams

(29:57) - Balancing Company and Team Culture

(33:21) - Evolving Company Culture Over Time

(40:02) - Reinventing Yourself in a Changing Market

(44:38) - Embracing an Evolutionary Mindset

(46:48) - The Importance of Experimentation and Learning

(48:38) - Shifting Perspectives on Sales Processes

(50:53) - Calculated Risks and Career Growth

(52:44) - Intentional Career Planning

(56:03) - Integrating AI into Sales Strategies

(01:00:38) - Driving Engagement with AI Tools

(01:04:37) - The Future of Sales with AI

(01:08:55) - Navigating Change and Fear in AI Adoption

(01:13:57) - The Role of Leadership in Market Adaptation

(01:17:39) - Lessons in Leadership and Team Dynamics