All 2026 Conference Sessions

How to Redesign the Sales Manager Role of the Future

Speakers:

• Presented by Michael Katz, Sr. Director Analyst, Gartner

Key takeaways

• “You have managers focusing on the wrong tasks, and that dilutes their impact — or worse, it inhibits seller productivity.”

• “Role ambiguity creates variance in activity, overwhelmed managers, and enablement challenges.”

• “Over half of managers say their day-to-day responsibilities are completely different from their formal job description.”

• “The manager role needs to be redesigned by following a roadmap: reinvent the role’s purpose, audit manager activities, and rebuild the impactful future role.”

• "A lot of leaders still want managers to be super sellers: sixty-three percent of CSOs and senior sales leaders rank selling and closing as a top activity where managers should spend their time."

• "There needs to be a standardized purpose, so managers aren’t pulled in every direction by whoever needs something next. A mission statement for sales managers is needed, so they understand what the role is for.”

Leading Sales in the AI Era: Strategies for CSO Success

Speaker:

• Robert Blaisdell VP Analyst, Chief of Research, Gartner

Key takeaways

• There are three critical topics that CSOs must prioritize to make an impact in 2026:

- Drive sales productivity by leading the creation of a sales-centric AI portfolio roadmap.

- Enhance seller effectiveness and buyer engagement by transforming GTM motions aligned to buyer preferences.

- Improve seller performance by maximizing the impact of the sales manager with role clarity and organizational support.”

• “A significant barrier to realizing AI's potential in sales is the limited level of knowledge and experience of CSOs in technology initiatives.”

• "While 70% of CSOs are accountable for driving an AI ROI inside the sales org, only 13% of CEOs think their CSO is strongly AI-savvy.”

• “The buyer journey is basically split-brain now — buyers want AI for the cold, factual evaluation, and they prefer sales reps for trust and validation. They’re delegating logic and craving connection at the exact same time.”

• “Your content strategy must be bilingual: you need data-rich, fluff-free collateral for the buyer's AI agent, and highly empathetic, relationship-driven narratives for the human buyer.”