Insights

Answers to the questions sales leaders ask.

Here I answer the questions sales leaders ask me about AI, CRM and sales management. Not a list of services, but substantive answers — drawn from 35 years in B2B sales and from projects that worked, and ones that didn't.

• 01

  Why do AI projects in sales fail?

  AI projects in sales rarely fail because of the technology. They fail because AI meets a sales system that wasn't working in the first place — unclear processes, empty CRM data, leadership without a governance model.

• 02

  How is AI changing B2B buying behaviour?

  B2B customers now research, compare and decide with AI — before they ever speak to a provider. According to Forrester, 94 per cent of B2B buyers use AI in the buying process; AI answer engines have become the most important research source there, ahead of vendor websites and salespeople.

• 03

  Does B2B sales still need salespeople when customers research with AI?

  Yes — but in a different role. The salesperson is no longer the source of information, because the customer has already obtained that from AI beforehand.

• 04

  Why does AI in sales achieve nothing if the CRM doesn't work?

  AI in sales works with the data held in the CRM. If the CRM is maintained incompletely, outdated or dressed up, the AI analyses a fiction — and delivers recommendations that look precise and are wrong.

• 05

  How do I recognise that my sales system no longer works?

  A sales system announces its failure before the numbers turn. The signals are individually harmless to explain — together they form a pattern: a system that only reacts instead of shaping outcomes.

• 06

  Introducing AI in sales: where do I start?

  Not with the tool. Introducing AI in sales starts with the customer: how do they research, compare and decide today — and how is AI changing that behaviour?

• 07

  Why is our forecast wrong?

  A forecast is wrong when it's built on statistics instead of commitments. The typical pipeline calculation — volume times historical win rate — looks mathematically sound but says nothing about whether real buying decisions stand behind the deals.

• 08

  Why do CRM projects fail?

  CRM projects don't fail because of the system, but because of the triangle behind it: management, the sales team and the tool have three different expectations that are never voiced. Management wants control and forecasting, the team wants their work made easier, the project delivers software.

• 09

  How does my company become visible in AI answers?

  AI systems recommend what the web says about a company — not what the company says about itself. Anyone who wants to appear in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google therefore needs three things: a machine-readable own website, content that answers concrete customer questions, and mentions in third-party sources.

• 10

  How do I prepare my sales team for AI?

  Not with tool training, but with a new understanding of the role. The team must first understand that their customers now enter conversations AI-informed — and what that means for discovery, argumentation and their own value.

03 — Podcasts

Conversations worth a listen.

• Vertriebsfunk

  80% fewer salespeople: how AI is radically rebuilding sales.

• Ghost-Notes-Radio

  Der KI-Tsunami.