ELEVATE 2026, the customer value event Ecosystems co-hosts with TSIA, opened with a set of short talks from CROs on how they run value selling. When those CROs came back on stage together for audience questions, the panel opened with a question about what their talks had in common: simplification, instrumentation, and being "not bashful about putting mandates."
Across the Customer Value Community, which spans more than 1,600 companies, members keep raising the same blocker to value selling adoption: getting their CRO to sponsor it. This post covers the answers from two of the panelists: Chris Mills, Chief Revenue Officer at ID.me, and Al Caravelli, Chief Revenue Officer at Talkdesk. Martin Dove, Founder and Principal Advisor at It's The Outcome, moderated.
Make Value Selling Adoption Part of How the Company Works
At ID.me, value selling is part of how the company runs. Chris has run the same approach since 2016, across four CRO roles, with people, process, and technology built around it. "It's just what we do. It's how we hire," he said. Candidates get asked what sales process they've used before.
ID.me's founder and CEO, a former Army Ranger, gets asked to join customer meetings all the time. His first answer, which Chris trained him on, is to ask for the value prompter, the per-persona summary ID.me sellers build of what each buyer expects to gain. A ValuePrompter® is part of the ValueSelling Framework® from ValueSelling Associates.
"It starts way at the top, all the way down."
— Chris Mills, Chief Revenue Officer at ID.me
Push the Playbook Through
Al grew up in a household his father ran like the military, and he runs his playbook the same way. "I believe that you have this playbook, it's successful, it's repeatable, and you push it through," he said. "And you've got to get the buy-in."
That came with real turnover, especially among first-line leaders. "If you weren't part of that solution, you became the problem," Al said. Talkdesk backs the expectation with enablement. Its program spends about three hours on the strategy and value team, the four people who approve and present every business value assessment: what's expected of reps and how they'll be held accountable.
Does Value Selling Still Apply When AI Speeds Up Deployment?
Yes. Al said faster deployment makes time to value the main way a vendor stands out. One table asked whether Talkdesk had rethought the model from Al's session, which plots each AI use case by its economic value against how hard it is to deploy, now that agentic AI is making implementations faster.
Al said the model still applies. In AI, Talkdesk now competes with pure-play AI companies, and "everybody's technology is about the same here or there," he said. "The one thing that you need to do to separate yourself is time to value." A voice AI project that might have taken three or four months last year now has to take "hours and days." That's why he wants reps to pick the solution for the problem the customer actually has and get it live as soon as possible.
Pay for the Behavior You Want
Both CROs pay reps for what their business model needs. Talkdesk sells AI through paid pilots in three sizes, $25,000, $35,000, and $50,000, and none can run longer than 30 days. The pilots run in a production environment, so a customer can move to full use quickly. Talkdesk reps used to be paid only on the annual contract value they signed. Now they're paid on any booking, whether it's a pilot or pay-as-you-go.
ID.me's plan, from Chris's own session, ties pay to delivery. ID.me sells on pure consumption with no contract minimums, so the AE who sells a deal owns it for a year after launch and gets paid on what the customer actually consumes.
Both CROs run value selling with Ecosystems. Chris called Ecosystems "a great partner" in his session, and Talkdesk brought it in when spreadsheets made its value team a bottleneck. Business value assessments are now built into Talkdesk's sales stages, so every seller brings a value case to the deal.
Read More From Both CROs
The panel recording isn't available to share, but both CROs' individual sessions are. Watch Chris's session and Al's session within our youtube series on the ELEVATE speakers. For the themes that ran through the whole day, read our ELEVATE 2026 recap, Closing the Promise Gap.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you drive value selling adoption in a sales team?
Make value selling part of how the company works, then measure it. At ID.me, it shapes hiring, sales stages, and even the CEO's response to meeting requests. Talkdesk built it into its sales stages and enablement and holds reps accountable for it. Chris said the process has to stay simple enough for every rep to follow.
Does value selling still apply when AI speeds up deployment?
Yes. Talkdesk CRO Al Caravelli said that when competing AI products are about the same, time to value is what separates a vendor. A voice AI project that might have taken three or four months a year ago now has to go live in "hours and days." He wants reps to pick the solution for the problem the customer actually has and get it live as soon as possible.
Why does Talkdesk sell AI through paid pilots?
Paid pilots let a customer see a vendor deliver before committing more. Talkdesk offers them at $25,000, $35,000, or $50,000, and none runs longer than 30 days. Because the pilots run in a production environment, a customer can move to full use quickly and add use cases as trust grows. Talkdesk reps are now paid on every booking, pilots included.
How should sales compensation change for consumption and AI pricing?
Pay for the behavior the model needs. Talkdesk now pays reps on any booking, including paid AI pilots of $25,000, $35,000, or $50,000, where reps used to be paid only on signed annual contract value. At ID.me, which sells on pure consumption, the AE who sold a deal owns it for a year after launch and is paid on what the customer consumes.
Keep the Conversation Going
The conversations that started at ELEVATE continue all year with peers who are solving the same problems. Join the Customer Value Community to be part of them. And if you'd like to see how teams use Ecosystems to make value part of every deal, book a demo.
