Ep # 193: A 75% Signal Correlation Nobody Is Tracking Yet ft.Mackenzie Smith (SVP, Customer Value, Backstory AI)

In this episode of Across The Funnel, Adil Saleh sits down with Mackenzie Smith, SVP of Customer Value at Backstory (formerly People.ai), to explore how AI is reshaping the post-sales operating model inside enterprise revenue teams.Mackenzie breaks down Backstory's shift from a license-based tool to a consumption-based platform, and how her team uses their own product internally to stay close to what customers experience day to day. She walks through the "magic moment" framework her team uses to compress time to value, citing a customer example where engagement signal health showed a 75% correlation with deal outcomes. The conversation covers the build-versus-buy tension enterprises face with AI orchestration, why Backstory staffed its forward-deployed "Studio" team internally instead of outsourcing to professional services, and why she believes the traditional linear onboarding-to-support handoff model needs to be unlearned in favor of a drop-in, drop-out engagement structure.