Stop Selling, Start Disqualifying to Win

We’re dropping a brand new episode of the H2H Sales Automation podcast this week, and trust us, you’ll want to tune in.

You Can Stop Selling Now: Why HubSpot's AI Wants You to Disqualify to Win

HubSpot's Inbound conference just gave us the biggest shakeup in B2B sales we've seen in years, and it's all about AI. But what does that really mean for your day-to-day? We went straight to the source to find out.

  • 16 min

Ep 23 - Anastasiia Kovtunenko - Stop Selling, Start Disqualifying

H2H Sales Automation Podcast

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Host Bart Kowalczyk sat down with Anastasiia Kovtunenko, Principal Account Executive & Sales Team Lead at HubSpot, to get the unfiltered truth. Anastasiia’s journey mirrors HubSpot's own evolution—from focusing on marketing automation to becoming a strategic, AI-powered CRM.

Below is your cheat sheet on the new AI reality and what sales leaders need to implement right now to leverage HubSpot better.

From Transactions to Transformation: The AI Pivot

"I just outsourced some of my daily routine tasks to AI and it makes my life a little bit easier."

That’s how Anastasiia describes the immediate impact of AI on her role. Her simple statement underscores a major shift: the mundane tasks are gone, allowing sales professionals to be truly strategic.

HubSpot isn't just bolting on a feature; it's integrating AI across the entire platform. This elevates it from a good CRM to a "one-stop shop" that manages every step of the customer journey, from first touch to cash in the bank.

As Anastasiia notes, the goal is now moving upmarket. It’s less about rapid, one-off sales and more about understanding a customer's deep-seated problems to build a long-term partnership.

"What I'm doing now, it's not only selling to new customers but also heavily selling to or upselling to existing customers." - Anastasiia Kovtunenko

Your New AI Arsenal: Three Must-Use HubSpot Tools

If you're a sales leader, you need to know which updates translate directly into revenue. Anastasiia highlighted three game-changers announced at Inbound:

Commerce Hub (CPQ): Say goodbye to disjointed processes! The new Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) functionality turns HubSpot into a full "quote to cash" system. You can now generate quotes, create payment links, and issue invoices directly within HubSpot, eliminating the need for complex third-party tools.

AI Gems for Outreach: Anastasiia's team uses custom AI agents (Gems, often powered by Gemini) to craft hyper-personalized outreach. These tools analyse your product data, case studies, and the prospect's industry/role to generate targeted emails and LinkedIn messages in minutes. The result? More leads and more calls booked with less manual effort.

AI-Powered Sales Tools (e.g., Breeze): Ever forget a key detail from a discovery call that happened six months ago? Breeze is the AI tool that ensures you don't. It enriches data, provides summaries of past call recordings, and gives you crucial "hints when to follow up, what topics to discuss." It turns your recorded calls into actionable intelligence.

Action Item for Leaders: The technology is ready. Identify one core task—like drafting personalised follow-up emails—and immediately start using HubSpot’s built-in AI tools to see how much time your team saves.

Bart and Anastasiia are recording a podcast in San Francisco during Inbound 2025.

The Human-to-Human Secret: Disqualify to Close

The paradox of H2H Sales Automation is that the more you automate, the more crucial your human strategy becomes. Anastasiia’s best advice is counter-intuitive but brilliant: Stop focusing on closing and start focusing on disqualifying.

"My mission would be to sell only to people who actually need your product and for whom it solves some of their daily routine or tasks. So when I join my customer calls I do maybe not typical thing, I try to disqualify." - Anastasiia Kovtunenko

This radical approach positions your sales team as true consultants. When you are willing to walk away, you instantly build trust and credibility. Your time is freed up (thanks to AI) to focus that human connection only on the prospects who are the absolute best fit.

The Power of Collaboration

Anastasiia also stresses the importance of leveraging your ecosystem. She admits that an early career mistake was trying to manage the entire process herself. Now, she heavily utilises HubSpot Partners (like AutomateNow Agency). You should too!

Partners handle the implementation, onboarding, and consulting, freeing up your internal reps to focus on the high-value activity of strategic selling. Collaboration is key to extending your pipeline and ensuring high customer retention.

🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation!

Want to hear all of Anastasiia’s strategic advice and her perspective on the future of HubSpot?

Tune in now to the latest episode of the H2H Sales Automation podcast (Spotify or Apple)!

Final Takeaway for Leaders

The formula is clear: AI handles the efficiency; humans handle the strategy. Use HubSpot's new AI tools to automate your routine tasks so your team can focus its human expertise on strategic decision-making and, yes, mastering the art of strategic disqualification.