What a Conversation with Sam Queen Taught Me About Going Against the AI Crowd

There aren't many CROs out there these days who will tell you they're not using AI in their sales processes.

Sam Queen is one of the few.

When I sat down with Sam for our recent episode of the Sales Operator Series, I asked him what's changed about how he's running sales over the past year. I expected to hear some version of what I've heard from a lot of revenue leaders I've interviewed recently: AI for prospecting, research, writing, and coaching.

Instead, he told me Sendblue isn't using AI in its sales process at all.

No AI SDRs, no automated cold outreach or AI-written emails. And he's pretty adamant about it.

What really interested me about this approach is that Sam isn't just being contrarian for the sake of it. He has actually built a sales motion around a belief that's worth considering as more and more companies race toward the same AI playbook: When everyone is automating the same things, doing something genuinely different can become a competitive advantage.

Let's get into what Sam has to say about it. If you'd rather watch our conversation, find it here on Youtube.

The problem with AI outreach isn't AI. It's sameness.

Sam can spot an AI-written email almost immediately. If he suspects someone didn't take the time to actually write him a thoughtful message, it goes straight to the junk folder. His reasoning? If you couldn't spend 60 seconds writing the email yourself, why should he believe you care about the conversation? 

And I have to say, that's tough to argue with.

Sure, AI is capable of writing a good email. But when everyone has access to roughly the same tools, signals, and formulas for generating "personalized" outreach, it stops being personalized.

Sam's solution: Do something the bots can't

Sam gave a great example from Sendblue's outbound strategy. If you're selling abandoned-cart recovery, don't just tell someone their company could recover more abandoned carts. Actually go abandon a cart on their website and see what happens. Document the email and text follow-up and show the prospect exactly what their current experience looks like. Then, show them what could be different!

You can't automate that kind of outreach. And more importantly, it demonstrates you've actually done your homework.

The broader lesson here is that the best way to stand out from the automated outreach crowd is to do something that requires enough effort that most people won't bother.

Sometimes the counter-strategy is the strategy

Sam talked about trying to build an enterprise sales team the traditional way. He hired three outbound calling agencies and an email agency that promised tens of thousands of emails per month. The result, he says, was one demo and zero deals.

That's a pretty costly reminder that more activity doesn't necessarily translate to more pipeline.

Instead, Sendblue has gone in a different direction. Sam has six SDRs covering a broad span of the day. When someone opts into the funnel, a real person picks up the phone and calls them within minutes. When someone texts, a real person responds.

Sendblue's product itself creates another interesting opportunity. It can send iMessages, which means instead of another unknown phone call or email competing with spam filters, a prospect may simply see a familiar blue bubble from a real person. That's creates a very different experience than trying to hit volume-based goals.

The more the decision matters, the more the human experience matters

Sam and I spent some time talking about enterprise sales, and his philosophy really piqued my interest. For a simple transaction, the difference between a human and an AI agent may not matter much. But the bigger and more strategic (and expensive!) a decision becomes, the more valuable person-to-person trust becomes.

If I'm making an important decision for my business, I don't just want information. I want to know that the person selling to me understands my problem, that they'll do what they say they're going to do, and that I can actually talk to them when things get complicated.

Yes, AI can make the research process dramatically better, but it absolutely cannot replicate a human-centric buying experience. In a super simplified metaphor, it's the same reason I'd rather have a knowledgeable waiter explain a complicated restaurant menu to me than have a zippy robot deliver my food to the table. Yeah, the robot is more efficient, but I'd still rather talk to the person who knows the restaurant.

Relentless process still matters

There's an interesting tension in Sam's approach that I want to make sure we touch on. He's skeptical of automating the sales process, but he's not skeptical of the process itself (or its importance). In fact, he's more process-oriented than a lot of sales leaders I've met.

His team still follows a script, they review calls every day, and they train consistently. He described it as "relentless execution" against a process.

Why does this distinction matter? When you have disciplined humans, the alternative to AI doesn't have to mean chaos.

Instead of asking what AI can automate, Sam is asking what happens if we get really, really good at the things we don't want to automate? He thinks there's still plenty of room to win in that arena.

As more sales organizations converge on the same AI tools, signals, workflows, and outreach strategies, being different becomes more difficult, and also more valuable.

If you enjoyed this recap and want to learn more, you can see our full conversation (as well as other installments of the Sales Operator Series) here.