Related, AI transformation, among many other things, is an internal sales job.
No matter how many perfect tools you buy or build, it doesn’t matter if you don’t sell people on using them.
The lesson is actually an important one for many startups, founders, and leaders. Often, companies build amazing products but they forget that the goal of the organization is not to build great products, but to sell great products.
Before, during, and after building great internal tools as part of the AI transformation process, you need to be selling those tools to the team. That problem is a lot like selling anything to anyone. You have to:
1. Repeat Yourself. Hit people over and over again with the pitch.
2. Vary the Media. Hit people across various media: all hands meetings, smaller meetings, 1-1s, water cooler conversations, emails, chat, training sessions, informational sessions.
3. Vary the Message. Hit people with different kinds of messaging: Value created, time saved, do more interesting work, looking cool, inspirational, comical, metrics-based, emotional appeals, and probably some begging.
4. Ensure Success. Make sure early adopters succeed and get some reference customers to talk about how great the transformation is working for them.
5. Show Success. As you start getting adoption, show people the success. Show the metrics. Show the happiness. Show the wins.
6. Create Urgency. Make people feel like they’re missing out, being left behind. They need a deadline. Make not acting feel like the risk. They need a reason to do it now.
Like any good sales and marketing person, learn what approaches work, and then keep doing them.
If you do this, then slowly, people will come around. They’ll think they figured it out themselves. They’ll feel like they’ve discovered a new land, a new life. You can’t force someone to get there. But you can keep doing the things to make getting there easier.
Resources for Startup Operators 