Sales Team Enablement, AI Tools and The Real Cost of Implementation, with Monika Owczarek

AI can transform your sales team, but adding more tools doesn’t automatically create better results.

In this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with sales strategist Monika Owczarek to discuss building consistent, AI powered revenue systems that actually work. Monika shares how leaders can identify gaps in their sales process, learn from top performers, and use AI and automation strategically instead of overwhelming teams with tools they barely use.

They also explore the real cost of AI implementation, why AI still requires training and oversight, how founders can transition from founder led sales to scalable sales teams, and why authenticity and listening remain essential leadership skills.

About Monika Owczarek

Monika is the Founder & CEO of Strattik Sales Consulting, specializing in AI powered revenue systems, B2B sales infrastructure, go to market strategy, RevOps, and scaling technology companies.

Her experience spans PE backed companies, Fortune 500 environments, unicorns, and VC backed startups, including work supporting clients such as Google, Rolls Royce, Johnson & Johnson, and Pinterest. She has led global sales teams, built enablement programs from the ground up, and coached hundreds of sales representatives and leaders through structured onboarding and methodology.

Monika helps companies solve the sales problems that create chaos and stall growth, from demos that confuse buyers and inconsistent discovery processes to unreliable CRM data, technical sales challenges, and missing playbooks.

She is an Executive Member and Steering Committee participant at Pavilion, a keynote speaker on sales, leadership, and AI, and a past university lecturer.

Connect with Monika
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-owc/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Welcome to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where I have Monica of Charek, who's helping B2B tech companies build AI-powered revenue engines. So welcome, Monica.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Thanks very much, Corey. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

Awesome. Awesome. I'm excited to have you. So tell everyone what do you do and how do you serve the world?

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yeah, so I'm a sales strategist and I help B2B companies in tech primarily that have service-based businesses with their sales strategies. So that's typically companies that have sales teams and are looking to grow, or growth has stalled, and they need to figure out why. And they need some transparency and consistency in their revenue and in their sales area. So that's where I come in and leverage background that I have in private equity and venture capital and Fortune 500 and leading dozens or hundreds of startups in my career.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Awesome. Awesome. And then how did you get started in sales? Because I think when we spoke offline, you talked about, I think you said you are extroverted now currently, is that correct? But you also have some of your introverted sides of things. So the fact that you're in sales, a lot of people think, oh, you've got to be extroverted all the time. So did I get that correct?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Yeah, so I think I'm extroverted because I get energy from being around people, which is why I love sales and why I was gravitated to sales. But people that have known me, at least earlier in my life, would say that I was very shy. And when I got into sales, which was right after university, people would tell me there's no way you can go into sales. You're way too quiet. And I was a science, I had a science degree, so I graduated with sciences. And my first year after I started working for an environmental consulting company with my science degree, but I was levitating to business, and I asked the owner, which was a small business, and I said, Can I start doing cold calling for you? And you know, she was surprised.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Seriously? Exactly. I know most people would be very surprised. This young kid, 20-year-old, is so excited to start cold calling.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Yeah. Yeah. And that'd be the last, the last set of words out of anybody's mouth. Can I do cold calling?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

So I started doing that and I loved it. I love being on the phones and talking to people. I like the challenge to figure out how I could help them and to keep them on the phone. Um and so, you know, with that experience, I then switched my career to go into sales and started working for a Fortune 500 company because I wanted a company that could provide me training, proper sales training. And this was with ADP, largest payroll HR provider. Yeah, so went through their training and I was with ADP for nine years, and pretty much every year, except my first year, I was their top performer. And then I went on to managing sales teams and had the top sales teams as well. So was really successful at that, and then went on to you know managing other sales teams at other companies and sales strategy and operations and other areas. So yeah, but it all really started with that, with being that shy science kid that said, no, I want to try this and I know I can do it. And you know, going over what what other people were telling me that had doubts. One being shy, and two, not having a business degree at that time, uh, which I went on to complete later. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Yeah, a few things there that kind of resonate with me because I've the 40 years in my career, I have typically been introverted, shy, quiet, and most of that stemmed from a lot of insecurity and what I felt was comfortable at the time. And over time, not really having a business degree either, but growing up in our family marketing business gave me kind of all the skill sets that I needed to run a business, which I never thought about that. So I many times have discounted my skill sets, all the experiences I've had. But so that's awesome that you would go into from science into this area where you're you're like, hey, I can truly help somebody and I want to try this. You're you have some curiosity, you had some courage, as other people would see, but you didn't allow any label, whether it's introvertedness, shy, or somebody else's estimation of you, dictate what you chose in life. So I think that's a really powerful concept when it comes to being an unapologetic leader and also running your own business.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Yeah, and I think it comes down to motivation as well. You know, and having managed many salespeople over my career, everyone has different ways that they get motivated and that they're driven. For me, it was I can do it, I will prove to myself mostly that I can do it, and to other people, but really to myself. And, you know, if I fail, I will be very disappointed in myself. And so I have to figure out a way to make this work. And so having that drive made me successful and made me be the top performer, the top 1% over my career. But it, you know, it comes down to understanding who you are and um yeah, and also trying something, right? That you don't know whether you're going to succeed or not, but you will only know if you can do it by giving it your full effort.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

And how do you know how far to go with this? Because that's probably one of the biggest questions I get with leaders is how this is uncomfortable territory for me, this growth point. How do I know when or where? And maybe I don't know if there is a right answer or a wrong answer.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, I don't know if there is a right answer, and I think that comes down to each person. For me, I tend to really push myself, and I have to learn and learning over the years to be able to step back and actually give myself breaks. And I think that that also comes with having experience, actually look at it from you know, high level and stepping back and saying, okay, where is this going? What am I doing well? What do I need to improve on? Um, and understanding yourself. Um so, but you know, it's going to be different for every person out there.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Yeah. Yeah, and you brought up two great points there. One of them is just the whole idea of knowing yourself. You've said that a few times here, knowing yourself, uh, really reflecting on who you are and the experiences and things you've learned. And also the area of we as human beings, there's two sides of the coin. There's this success, drive, activity, assertiveness, but then there's also that rest side too that we have to have, or two sides of the coin, two sides of a sword, whatever you want to look at, but you have to have both in order to figure out exactly what balance works for you. And do you find that you technically in the past have had have been on the assertive side of things and have been work, work, work, work, work, focus, focus, and maybe not enough rest? Or do you find you've adjusted pretty well with that balance that works for you? It's not going to be the same for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yeah. Yeah, for me, it's been on the go, like just work and work and work. And, you know, on the personal side for me, it's also been pushing really hard. So being competitive in sports, I've competed in world competitions and running and cycling. And, you know, but for me, again, I need to push myself, I need to challenge myself. But there does come a point where I you need I need a break as well, right? And I will push myself, but in order to push myself that much, I need to step back and take some breaks here and there. So, you know, that may be after a few months of pushing myself and then taking a break, but still having that time to just step away and and rest.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Yeah, no, that's great. Because that just like when we're I think of working out and building a muscle, you've got to give it breaks in order for it to grow and repair. Otherwise, you're working in vain and you could get an injury and in the workforce. Yep. And in the workforce, that an injury pretty much could be burnout, which can mess up a lot of things professionally and personally. So yeah, no, that's really good. And so what do you feel has been one of the bigger side challenges of the professionals that you help in developing their sales process and the other areas that you help lead with tools and everything else? But what do you what's maybe a common challenge that you help with?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Yeah, so I help with uh a number of different challenges. And it really depends on the stage of the business and where they are in terms of their growth and the size of their business. But you know, the first step is really understanding what's working and then figuring out what the gaps are. So, for example, if we look at a company that has a sales team that's established, been running, but they're having a lot of inconsistency in terms of the sales reps and they're not understanding what one person is doing better than the other, then we figure out okay, what's your best performer doing compared to other people? And how can we help everybody else to get to that level by learning from the top performer? Um, you know, we also look at things, I look at a lot of data. So if it's throughout the sales process, we figure out their conversions and where deal stalling. So we look at data there, or we look at, you know, how can we improve quality or productivity through automation or AI or tools. So I know that's a pretty general answer because it does depend on each company. But yeah, it's really the first place is just stepping in to understand what's working and does the business really have clarity on what's working, and then figuring out how we can improve that and figure out what the gaps are.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah, yeah. No, I like that, like you said, it might sound general, but it's hard to tell. And I work this way with my clients to find out who they are, what's going on, what's working, what isn't working based upon the goals they have, and finding out really where they can be helped and not just have a one-size fits all program that can work for anybody, which isn't going to be great for anybody if you just have a one-size-fits-all, but at least you have a great starting point there. And when it comes to AI tools, do you find that there's just so many AI tools coming out on a constant basis? There's constant iterations and upgrades and all kinds of things, or do you find that there are certain tools that you've used that are pretty effective for when you're helping people?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah, I use a number of tools, and but the tools have changed, and they change very quickly. So even if I look at two months ago, the tools that I was using compared to now, that's changed. And I expect two months from now that will change again.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I do find that a lot of businesses are overwhelmed in terms of figuring out what tools to use. And some businesses are actually either they're not implementing tools because they don't know where to start, or they're implementing so many tools, and now they have too many and they're not using those tools effectively, and then it's overwhelming for the organization. So, you know, sometimes it's figuring out like what is actually really important, and that's going back to what are the gaps and how do we help to improve, and so what tools are best to help them with that.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Yeah, yeah. I was just having another conversation with a business owner on the same exact thing that almost exactly what you said, that many times people have multiple tools. I'm thinking like Chat GPT, Claude, a number of other AI tools or LM Large Language, whatever. Large language model tools, yes. With those, and once again, like you said, they're not using them effectively. And the way I said it with this conversation was that, yeah, they're probably only using 5% of the capability and could remove some of those tools in some of these cases and just go deep and get really good to get high quality rather than being spread too thin on a superficial level. And as you said earlier, they're not being effective with that, which then stalls and creates procrastination and just not a clear direction in where they're going. So yeah, that's yep, yeah, that's real. And like you, and like you said, depending if they're using too many tools or no tools, that's a problem. Yeah, yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah, we I actually looked at some data on this about a month ago, maybe two months ago now, um, a little bit than two months ago in January, and how those the LLM tools have changed to last year, Chat GPT being the primary that people were using. Now you're seeing people moving over to Gemini and to Claude, Copilot as well, if it's part of their stack, if they're Windows. So um, but you know, you're starting to see a shift, but also depending on what people are using it for. But I expect again that that will change as these tools get better and to develop, and depending on where they're investing and what these tools can do.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's awesome. Yeah, because I think in your bio it talked about that you and you said it too, you help people use these tools. And is it when it comes to the humanizing factor of things, there's a lot of people afraid of AI replacing jobs, you know, from everything up to medical professionals and doctors, all this stuff. Do you ever have those kinds of conversations, or it really is the effectiveness of how can we transform our sales and get that in a definite positive and consistent area?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah. I mean, I focus on the the sales area, and at this point, for the most part, the AI is helping people be better. So be more productive, be more efficient, have better quality. Um, there are some cases where AI is replacing some roles. So, for example, AI SDRs. And those roles, I mean, when I look at those jobs, they have high turnover. They're junior positions, typically entry-level for people that are wanting to get into sales. They have a repetitive nature to them, and why they have higher turnover as well. People get in, and because it's so repetitive, it's not challenging after a while. And so if you can replace that with AI, and it doesn't work for every single business, but that will help, that may help your business in terms of that turnover and that retraining. But what we're also finding with AI SDRs, it's not super easy where you just purchase it and you set it up and just walk away. It's showing that there's a lot of hours spent implementing it, training the AI, double checking, and constantly reiterating to make sure it's getting it right. So it's still you know an investment in terms of time as well as um cost to make sure that it's done properly. So these tools are not super easy where you say, I'm just going to replace a role and just step away. So understanding what that looks like and you know what the investment will be is important.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yeah, and I think I've heard some of that language from some other tech professionals that have said that there's a lot of people worried about AI and stuff, but there's a couple of people I've talked to who have said people don't have to be as worried as what the media shows, because that's all about generating visibility and eyeballs on their content so they can sell sponsorships in many cases. But if we look at history, even over the last 50 years, before the internet was a thing, and that's what we started our family marketing business, my dad did back in 1980, almost a decade before the internet was public. And it's like the whole thing I'm trying to say is just basically there's always a progression or change in the market or what's happening when it comes to innovation. And we've had to shift, we've had to shift. So some positions that people have had have been defined with certain characteristics, and now maybe those same positions might be just defined differently. So there's new capabilities and adaptability that people have to realize. It's always been happening through history. So this is nothing new, however, it just seems to be happening faster than maybe what we're we're used to seeing.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah. Yeah, and there will be new roles. For example, we're seeing go-to-market engineers that are managing that whole flow of all these tools and what they actually do throughout the entire sales process. You know, and even with AI agents, if you have AI agents, the oversight on how all those agents communicate together and having an agent also overseeing them. But you know, all of that takes somebody that understands it, has the knowledge on that, and can actually implement it effectively. So we're going to see some changes in roles, but we are going to see some new roles happen out of this.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

So I think it's an exciting time to be part of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Yeah. I think that's a great attitude to have because I know I used to have a very scarce or scarcity mindset, and there's still some people out there that still have scarcity mindsets rather than looking at looking at all the doom and gloom rather than what are the opportunities that this AI and all this tech is creating. Because anytime you create something new, there's always something on the flip side that needs to be fixed with it or changed or figured out. So I think that's really cool. And I see that on your profile, you you work with startups, billion-dollar companies, small businesses. And when it comes to startups, are you finding the same challenges that they're having? And I'm trying to put together sales process, is what I'm thinking with startups. Is that happening with startups, or is it all about getting funding from what you've dealt with from your side of things?

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah, I mean, there's definitely funding from my part. I look at helping them transition from founder-led sales to starting to hire a sales team and what that looks like, and so that the founder can step away and actually do more strategic work or other work that requires their attention. It could be product development, it could be getting funding. But you know, what that actually looks like in terms of stepping away and having the business run so that the revenues there and and consistently as you know, as when the founder was in that role doing sales. So that's typically what I focus on. And or if they're at a small stage where they have a small sales team and they're not getting success within those salespeople, we try to figure out the reason for that. Because that could be a reason that their business is not growing. A lot of times, what I see is a founder, you know, if they're the ones involved in the sales interactions, they have good closing ratios. But when they bring other people on board, that's quite not the same. And there's a few reasons for that. But you know, we look at okay, how do we make that transition easier? Let new people that you hire have similar success or as close to the success as you've had by providing the right onboarding and training and messaging.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, because I know it seems like I talked to so many people in startups or doing something, and I see it out there all the time too. And I've never really been part of a startup in terms of me working in one, but it's it's pretty amazing. And how easy it is to start to create a startup these days just with the tech and what's available out there. So a a questi, yeah, a question I had for you is when challenges come up from your maybe as you've gone through your career or life, how do you stay aligned with your values and stay on task, focused?

SPEAKER_02 21:53

For me, it's understanding what my goals are. So I look at you know, two, five years. where do I want to be? And that helps me create a vision of of that and then how to get there. And I talked about sports earlier, but for me being outdoors, being active, that helps to give me energy as well. And yeah, help helps me move forward. So you know those are the two things that I use to help me.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Yeah, no, I think that's awesome. And what about what's one of your biggest leadership lessons that you've learned that has helped to impact how you lead your life today?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

One is to be authentic who you are as a leader and to really build on that and use that strength. And that's going to be different for everybody. Right? For me, I'm really good at being strategic and looking at like different pieces and how to put them together and figure out a roadmap and a direction. I'm also good at coaching through my career being a leader, you know, having to coach people. So again, understand what that strength is and what you're good at. And don't try and be somebody different because that will come through. And you know early in my career as a leader when I started managing people it was I was trying to be a certain role because I thought that's what was expected of me. And as soon as I turned that around and I leaned into who I actually was and how I communicated it came through a lot more authentic and people related to that a lot more. And so with that we also had better performance as a team for the people that I was leading. So yeah just lean into who you are I think is probably the best advice and it's easier said than done because it takes some courage as well sometimes to be who you are.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

Yeah yeah takes a lot of courage at least from what I've experienced from my perspective yeah so no that's really good. And another great point you had mentioned offline before this recording is that you said that being a good listener or that you are a good listener. So that obviously is a great emphasis on a great quality I feel leaders need to have. But can you tell me more about you being a good listener what is what is that what does that meant for you?

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah and that's you know that goes back to me having the strength and knowing what that is and being that shy kid when I was younger but one of my strengths is listening. And you know when you listen to people and you understand where they're coming from you can better communicate either your needs or what you're trying to get across or how you're trying to help them if it's in a sales interaction. So the listening is really important because if you're not listening then you may be saying something that just doesn't click with that other person or that group of people that you're speaking to. So for me I found that that's a really key component listen first before you you speak.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Nice nice and I've heard the I don't know what you call it the idea of we have two ears and one mouth in that proportion. Yeah that's really great yeah that's a good point. Yeah yeah I forget that point many times but something to be reminded of but when you hear it it makes sense right yes yes yes that's great. Yeah so thank you so much Monica for being here and for sharing just some of your wisdom and insights on your journey through life both personally and professionally so thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Thank you as well really appreciate the time.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Yeah you are most welcome and can you let our listeners know what's the best way to connect with you yeah the best way is on LinkedIn and so look up my name although there are multiple Monikov cherrics out there surprisingly even though it's not such an easy name but Stratic Sales Consulting is my website we can put that maybe as a link in the in the description I think that's probably the easiest way to locate me with my LinkedIn profile. Okay. Yeah we can do both of those that's awesome. Yeah so thank you very much again for being here.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yes you're welcome and I want to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic leadership where Monica shared a lot of things in regards to sales leadership and regards to moving forward and improving what sales teams do. And it's important to make sure you have you're clear and clarity runs through a lot of what she talks about that being clear on what your business goals are, getting clear on what kind of outcomes you're getting and what you want to improve and where the gaps are, along with making sure that you're clear in terms of your own self and how you lead yourself, self-leadership and you're clear on what your values are and being authentic as a leader. Stop trying to be somebody else and to fit in but truly being authentic can really be a huge difference maker. And then especially the last piece we have two ears, one mouth let's use them in that proportion and when you listen not only do you get clearer communication and understanding between both parties and now you can actually move forward in a more effective fashion because you're focused on what's happening and there's a deep understanding. So thank you again for listening and we'll see you in the next episode of Unapologetic leadership.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic leadership head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Unapologetic leadership podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift and join us on the next episode.