The best commercial moves are made before you have to make them
Kickoff on a sales development programme – proactive customer development, coaching and AI training
Leadership invests in competence, ways of working and sales behaviour before the numbers force change. Commercial transformation happens when people start working differently.
Today I had the kickoff for a new coaching assignment through my own company, Marius Ottesen Consulting (MOC).
Over time, much of the company's sales has been driven by inbound and existing demand. Now they want to deliberately strengthen proactive customer development, meet increased competition and build a more robust pipeline.
What I especially appreciate is the timing.
Leadership is not waiting until the numbers force change. They are investing in competence, ways of working and sales behaviour before the need becomes critical.
Equally important is that the need for change is also anchored with those who must work differently in practice. When both leadership and those closest to customers see the need for a more proactive way of working, the starting point for change is much stronger.
Commercial transformation happens first when people start working differently.
The assignment is structured as an individual sales development programme over eight weeks, with clear goals, close coaching and training linked directly to the commercial everyday. After the period, the development programme can be extended if needed.
Between sessions I will use The Predictive Sales Coach (PSC), an AI-based training tool I have developed. Here we can practise on real customer cases, different customer types, sales phases and demanding situations before they are encountered in the market.
In August, Gartner published a dedicated market overview of AI-based B2B sales role-play applications, highlighting scenario-based training, realistic situations and ongoing feedback as central use cases.
An important part of the programme is also joint listening, customer visits and field coaching. That creates an opportunity to observe real customer situations, see what works, uncover areas for improvement and give concrete feedback close to execution.
McKinsey describes the same principle through, among other things, «field and forum», on-the-job coaching and simulation, where learning is closely linked to everyday work.
The kickoff gave us a good starting point. We connected the company's ambitions, the leader's expectations and the employee's development goals to a concrete plan for the coming weeks.
A small bonus: The company found me through a search in ChatGPT.
That is both fun and interesting. For me it is also a concrete example of how visibility now involves more than traditional SEO. Companies must increasingly understand how they are found and interpreted in both search engines and generative AI services, through among other things SEO, AEO and GEO.
That is also an area I work on and offer services within.
Through MOC I have at the same time developed services and tools for companies that want to work more systematically with sales, AI, people and execution.
If you are curious about whether any of this could be relevant for your company, I am happy to have an informal coffee. ☕
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