Salesforce quietly updated Slack’s API terms last week, blocking third-party AI platforms like Glean from accessing message data.

The change immediately broke AI workflows that thousands of enterprises now rely on for unified search and automation.

Why did Salesforce do this? You guessed it – competition.

The Bigger Story

This is essentially vendor lock-in disguised as a terms update.

All those AI workflows that just broke? Thousands run through Slack, but leverage third-party tools instead of Salesforce’s AI tech. 

For example, countless companies use Glean to search across all their apps – Slack messages, emails, documents, everything. These tools make employees more productive by instantly surfacing information buried across dozens of platforms.

Salesforce just sabotaged Glean, Bracket, and other competitors by tightening its grip on the data pipeline.

Instead of competing head-to-head on features, it’s forcing customers into an impossible choice: give up the third-party tools you prefer, or lose access to your most critical messaging platform – Slack.

Here’s why this move is so brutal 👇

Most companies have spent months integrating AI tools across their entire tech stack. These tools pull (or push) insights to and from Slack conversations, customer records, and support tickets to automate workflows and surface buried knowledge. Salesforce just broke all of that overnight to push customers deeper into its own AI ecosystem.

The timing isn’t coincidental either. Salesforce has been pushing their AI hard, but customers keep choosing alternatives. 

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is likely feeling vindicated right now. His decision to ditch Salesforce entirely for an AI-native stack suddenly looks less radical and more like smart insurance against exactly this kind of platform squeeze. 

Why You Should Care

For compete pros, this is platform concentration risk playing out in real time.

When one vendor controls critical data flows, they can reshape your competitive landscape overnight, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Remember when we covered LinkedIn blocking Apollo and other sales tools? Same playbook, different platform.

Clearly, this is becoming the go-to move when API access becomes a competitive threat.

I’d also watch how customers respond here. This could be the catalyst that pushes enterprises toward more composable, vendor-agnostic AI stacks, as is the case with Klarna. 

Smart money says Salesforce quietly reverses this within weeks. But the trust? That’s a lot harder to rebuild 🤔

You weren’t hired to build battlecards.

You were hired to help your company win.

But tactical busywork is stealing your time and your influence.

That’s why we built Compete Agent – your new competitive intel operative.

Compete Agent automatically:

• Monitors every sales call for competitive threats
• Instantly alerts sellers with deal-specific responses
• Generates fresh competitor profiles in seconds
• Keeps all intel updated daily (not quarterly)

The result? Your team stops getting blindsided by competitors and starts winning more deals.

📌 Teams like Gainsight are already saving 250+ hours on research while hitting 72% seller adoption! Don’t let your competitors get there first.

See Compete Agent in action 👇 

A few weeks back, Adam the chance to chat with Jason Hersh (Principal, Market Intelligence at Gainsight) about one of the most under-optimized moments in the sales process: what happens after the demo ends.

Your reps might deliver a killer presentation, but if their follow-up game is weak, you’re losing deals to competitors who know how to win that crucial window.

The problem? Most post-demo emails read like product brochures. Feature lists, vague benefits, and zero evidence that anyone actually listened during the call.

We wrote a full guide on how to nail the post-demo follow-up, but if you want the key takeaways, read on.

🎯 Jason’s “Say It and Prove It” Framework

Jason’s fix is elegantly simple. Every follow-up needs three elements:

1. Reaffirm the prospect’s problem – Reference what they actually said in the meeting, using their exact words

2. State how you uniquely solve it – Connect your solution directly to the business pain they described

3. Validate with proof – Include real customer stories with concrete metrics that match their situation

The magic here is turning your follow-up into a continuation of the conversation you just had, not a generic pitch.

📤 The Template That Converts

Jason shared a follow-up template that brings this framework to life:

Subject: Re: your search for consolidation, a quick recap

Opening: “When you said your team’s challenge is consolidating tools without sacrificing performance, that stuck with me.”

Positioning: “It’s a big reason why teams choose [Your Product] over [Competitor A]. We’re built to unify [function X + function Y] in one platform.”

Proof: Real customer quote with concrete metrics, including name, role, and company

The trap: Suggest they pressure-test something you know competitors struggle with

Close: Light touch with clear next step

Making It Scale

Jason also emphasized that this doesn’t have to consume your week. Start with one solid template, test it on 3-5 deals, then systematize what works:

• Create modular proof points organized by use case and competitor
• Build a quote library with 10-15 customer stories
• Document winning patterns in a simple tracking system
• Set up a Slack channel where reps share successful follow-ups

The goal is to create a system that gets 1% better each week.

❤️ Jason insight we loved

“Every interaction has to be additive. If you’re not adding value, you’re losing ground.” This perfectly captures why generic follow-ups are deal killers. Your competitors aren’t sending polite “thank you for your time” emails—they’re reinforcing why they’re the better choice.

📌 Go Deeper: Read our full guide on differentiated follow-up, including the complete template and scaling strategies.

We also just published a video with Andy McCotter-Bicknell on the same subject!