Over the last decade, outbound sales followed a predictable formula. Companies hired more sales reps, bought more data, sent more emails and made more cold calls. And for a while, it worked. Tools like ZoomInfo, Apollo, Outreach and Salesloft were successful in helping go-to-market (GTM) teams scale outreach through automation and volume.

But as channels have become more saturated, the returns on high-volume, outbound sales have diminished. Conversion rates are dropping, quotas are being missed and sales teams are starting to ask a hard question: Does all this still work?

We don’t think so. And we believe a new GTM platform is emerging to take its place.

From art to science

In the next era of outbound sales, we believe success will come not from sending more messages. Instead, it will come from sending the right message to the right person at the right time, in a system powered by data and intent signals rather than guesswork. What was once a creative art is becoming a data-driven science.

While GTM teams recognize this and want to adapt to this change, unfortunately, the infrastructure to support that transition has not kept up. Over the past decade, companies have invested heavily in siloed prospecting and demand generation tools: data vendors like ZoomInfo, LinkedIn and G2, account-based marketing products like 6Sense* and Demandbase and engagement tools like Salesloft and Outreach. The result is a fragmented stack and scattered signals, forcing GTM teams to spend more time stitching together disparate workflows and systems than actually engaging buyers.  For many reps, the job has shifted from selling to managing tools.  What should be time spent “on the floor” is instead spent collecting data and wrangling software.  One of the most common complaints we hear from reps today is that their job has become learning a sales tech stack, not selling.

Meanwhile, AI-generated messaging has added more noise to the problem, adding more volume and creating a distribution bottleneck as outbound channels have become more saturated with generic outreach that often doesn’t land with customers. The result has been bloated SDR teams with diminishing returns.

What’s changing

There is a shift underway in how go-to-market teams think about outbound. This shift is catalyzing a new class of GTM software companies to emerge. Underpinning this trend are some new realities in sales:

1. The nature of sales work is becoming more technical. GTM teams are shifting away from manual outreach and headcount-driven models towards a more data-first, systems-oriented approach.  The individuals driving outbound today are not just sending more emails, they are building workflows, integrating data and managing automation to scale personalized engagement.  As outbound becomes more intelligent, GTM teams need new tools designed for people who think in systems and data, not for junior reps executing one-off tasks.
2. Pipeline is the bottleneck. Most teams today are struggling to generate enough pipeline, but the problem runs deeper than volume. Much of the pipeline being created is low quality, randomly sourced and lacking in prioritization. Signals are ignored, leads are unqualified, and reps are spending time chasing accounts that were never a fit to begin with. As a result, conversion rates are falling and customer-acquisition cost is climbing. The real challenge is not just getting more pipeline; it’s building the right pipeline that aligns with a company’s ideal customer profile.
3. Timing and context are everything.  In outbound, success hinges not just on who you reach out to, but when you reach out to them and why.  Buyers are overwhelmed with generic outreach, and static account lists don’t cut it.  Modern GTM organizations need to act on real-time signals, like product usage, shifts in hiring, content engagement, relevant news and funding activity, and pair them with contextual, personalized messaging.  Without precise timing and contextual relevance, even well-targeted outreach falls flat.
4. Generative AI is shifting from augmentation to automation. Large language models are now capable of handling tasks that previously required human reasoning and judgment. At the forefront of this shift are AI agents, autonomous systems that can plan, execute, and adapt across complex workflows with minimal human intervention. Processes that once took a full marketing and SDR team to create and complete can now be orchestrated by a single operator leveraging agents embedded in AI-native platforms like Unify. This shift is not just about efficiency. It is fundamentally expanding the opportunity for modern, AI-native GTM platforms by capturing not only software spend but also headcount budgets that the previous generation of GTM tools couldn’t access.
5. Sales teams want consolidation. Point solutions created complexity. GTM teams are now looking for end-to-end platforms that unify the workflow across data, intent, enrichment, engagement and measurement.

Why we invested in Unify*

With all of this in mind, we are excited to announce that Battery led a $40M Series B in Unify*.

Unify is building the end-to-end system of intelligence and action to power warm outbound. The platform brings together AI agents, data, people and actions in one unified workflow, enabling go-to-market teams to identify the right prospects, personalize outreach and execute targeted, high-quality outbound campaigns with minimal human oversight.  Sales reps are then freed to do what they uniquely do best, which is building relationships, not spreadsheets or sending thousands of cold emails.

In under two years, Unify has seen notable growth and is currently supporting high-performing teams at companies like Airwallex, Cursor, Perplexity, Together AI and Flock Safety. The product is designed for today’s innovative GTM operators, specifically those who think in systems and want to scale outbound intelligently, not through brute force.

The co-founders, Austin and Connor, bring a rare combination of product, GTM, and deep technical expertise to this problem. Austin was a leader on the growth product team at Ramp, building systems that scaled personalized outreach through data and signal. Connor, a ML Research Engineer at Scale, built complex AI and data infrastructure. Their experience positions them to rethink outbound for the AI era, not just to automate outbound, but to make growth more predictable, repeatable and creative.

We believe Unify represents the next chapter in GTM software.

*Denotes a Battery portfolio company. For a full list of all Battery investments, please click here.