Empathy As a Revenue Strategy ft. Matt Garrett (Brex)

Most revenue teams think the gap between a stalled deal and a closed one is a process problem. Garrett Marker thinks it’s an empathy problem.

Garrett Marker, Chief Revenue Officer at Brex, joined host Josh Schachter on this week’s [Un]Churned episode, “206. 2 Months of Revenue in 8 Days: How Brex’s CRO Fixes What Breaks at Scale“. They cover how Brex, an AI financial platform, is scaling one of the fastest-growing sales forces in tech without letting rep performance slip, the internally built narrative platform mapping the full buyer journey across sales and post-sale, and why Garrett never raised SDR quotas when AI made his team more productive.

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🎯 The [Un]Churned Take: Your Buyer Isn’t Confused. They’re Worried It Won’t Work.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Garrett Marker leads nearly 700 people across sales, Customer Success (CS), RevOps, enablement, and support at Brex. His 2026 mandate: scale one of the fastest-growing salesforces in tech without letting rep performance slip. Some segments are growing 200% year over year; one rebounded from a slump to hit two months of revenue in just eight days, thanks to a course correction. It’s a high bar, but the bigger story is how he’s closing the gap between good and great teams.

Garrett’s core belief is that the biggest gap between good and great revenue teams isn’t process; it’s understanding the buyer’s emotional journey, especially after the deal is signed.

"The core difference oftentimes between top sellers that do 10x better than everybody else and the sellers that are not doing as well is their understanding of the buyer's journey and their ability to then better do active listening."

Pattern Recognition Over Process

Garrett’s strategy goes beyond discovery questions or objection frameworks. It’s about empathy. The seller needs to internalize the emotional situation a buyer is in well enough to respond to what’s actually happening in the room, not what the script says should happen next.

That classic scenario, where a rep asks a set question, gets an answer, and then asks the next set question that has nothing to do with what the buyer just said, leaves a weak foundation for the sale to stand on. The rep may have done their research and preparation, but what they missed is the story underneath the process.

How Brex Closed the Gap

To address this, Garrett built what he calls a narrative platform. Unlike typical productivity tools focused on individual reps—think better notes, CRM hygiene, call prompts—this platform is designed for the entire customer journey. It pulls in data from sales, CS, support, and implementation, focusing less on closing deals and more on whether the customer is thriving two years later. For CS leaders, this means measuring and coaching for ecosystem fit and long-term value, not just initial adoption.

That’s a different design philosophy and it leads to a different set of questions. Not “what should I say next on this call?” but “what does this customer need to be true twelve months after close?”

Inviting Your Buyers to Trust You

Brex increased the share of customers who close their books on the platform by 20% in a year—not because the product changed, but because CS shifted from product-centric to ecosystem-centric conversations. Instead of explaining features, the team started mapping Brex into the CFO’s existing workflow—NetSuite, QBO, Rillet, and beyond. Adoption rose because anxiety dropped: buyers saw how Brex actually worked in their world.

The buyer isn’t confused about your product. They’re anxious about whether it’ll work in their unique environment. Miss this, and you risk stalled deals and churn. When CS and revenue teams address the real source of buyer anxiety, the entire conversation and the outcome changes.

Asking “what are the reasons you won’t move forward?” is an invitation for trust. Objections exist whether you surface them or not. Those who address them open the door for stronger relationships and deeper understanding.

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🎧 Listen for These Moments

Revenue leaders interested in how AI is changing sales enablement and rep ramp will learn a lot in this episode. Here are three moments to listen for in this week’s episode:

1. The eight-day recovery: how one slumping segment turned around fast, and the AI-assisted competitive diagnosis that made it possible

2. The narrative platform: why Brex built something the market doesn’t offer, and what data it pulls that most seller tools ignore entirely

3. The TAP program: how SDRs earn on-the-spot promotion to AE by closing real deals first, and why Garrett never raised their quotas when AI made them more productive

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🔎 Where to Find the Speakers

• Garrett Marker — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmarker/

• Josh Schachter — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/

📎 Referenced in This Episode

• Brex — financial platform for business spend, expense management, and agentic finance products

• RepVue — sales rep review platform

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Wrapping Up

Imagine if every customer felt total confidence that your solution fit seamlessly into their world. Not just at close, but a year later. That’s the kind of trust that drives both growth and retention.

See you next week 🧠