Tim Baynes, Founder and CEO at Compatio chats about the benefits of guided selling and how sellers should approach new sales tactics in an AI driven SaaS marketplace in this SalesTechStar interview:
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Hi Tim, tell us about yourself and your role at Compatio AI.
I’m the founder and CEO of Compatio AI. I also function as the CTO because I’ve always been deeply involved in the technical side. My background includes decades of experience designing configuration and guided selling systems for companies with large, complex product catalogs. Compatio brings all of that experience together to help businesses scale their expertise and close more sales.
We’d love the top highlights of your new guided selling platform and how it enables sales teams.
Our platform was built specifically to help teams sell complex solutions. It supports dynamic sales logic, adapts in real time, and works across large catalogs with multiple brands and cross-selling opportunities. The system combines recommendation and configuration capabilities, enabling predictive, testable guidance that improves over time. It’s easy to maintain, cost-effective, and integrates with systems like eCommerce, ERP and CRM. We also provide integrations for order history, product catalogs and inventory. Most importantly, it allows sellers to build and present solution-based offerings that align with each customer persona’s specific needs and business goals.
Why, in your view, should more sellers across varied industries start to rely on guided selling to drive impact?
We’re seeing major shifts in how companies retain and apply product expertise. Many are facing a growing gap as long-tenured employees retire and new hires lack the time or support to gain deep product knowledge. At the same time, AI is gaining traction quickly. Companies need to act now to capture institutional knowledge before it’s either lost or captured by someone else through AI training, and make it available across their sales, manufacturing, and service operations. Guided selling allows them to do that while also increasing accuracy, improving the buyer experience, and maintaining a competitive edge. Those who act quickly can position themselves to scale efficiently and protect the expertise that makes them unique.
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As AI-driven sales processes become more mainstream, how can sellers develop new skills to continue adding value to sales operations while scaling with AI?
It starts with a mindset shift. Any process that can be automated or optimized with AI should be. If it can’t, the process itself may need to change. At Compatio, we focus on recommendation and configuration. While recommendation can benefit from prediction and machine learning, configuration is a different challenge. It involves complex, symbolic logic that must be accurate. In most cases, “almost right” is still completely wrong when configuring products. AI can help capture and organize the knowledge behind these configurations, but success depends on strong data, clear processes, and the right infrastructure. For sellers and DevOps professionals, that means focusing on high-quality data, secure access, and algorithm transparency. Sales managers also need to track new tools and providers closely, test automation opportunities quickly, and be ready to implement solutions that deliver measurable impact.
What can modern sellers do to train themselves effectively on the best of AI and salestech?
This space is moving faster than anything I’ve ever seen. Learning how to work with AI systems and interpret their output will become just as important as traditional sales skills. Sellers who embrace this shift will have a clear advantage. Here are few areas are worth focusing on:
- Closed-loop feedback and optimization
- Analytics and AI-driven operations
- Workflow automation and agent-based systems
- Collaborative prompt engineering
- Dynamic interfaces and specialized AI models
Five thoughts on the future of sales and salestech in a market where AI is dominating these landscapes?
- The human element still matters. Relationships and trust remain essential.
- AI will make top performers even better by increasing speed, precision, and insight.
- Optimization is key. Sellers must deliver the best possible solution for both the customer and the organization.
- Cross-selling will become more strategic through intelligent detection of related opportunities.
- Now is the time to document and scale internal expertise before it’s lost or exploited by competitors.
What key takeaways or tips would you leave for sales and salestech professionals before we wrap up?
Beyond implementing Compatio Guide, I’d say this: build a strong data foundation. Take a hard look at your processes and identify where automation or optimization is possible. Treat AI as the major shift that it is. It’s not just a tool to experiment with, it’s something that will reshape how businesses operate. Those who lean into this change will be far better prepared for what’s coming next.
Read More: Developing Sales Leaders in 2025 – Top Recommendations to Meet Changing Selling Cycles
Compatio’s AI-based recommendation and smart bundling systems connect customers with exactly the right products, increasing revenues and improving margins
Tim Baynes, is Founder and CEO at Compatio