Sell Humans, Not AI

Happy Friday!

Communicating your value has always been the better approach. Most people and companies sell their capabilities instead of the outcomes those capabilities deliver. The outcome, of course, is what matters most and what clients ultimately care about.

As AI proliferates and its capabilities dominate BD conversations, clients will naturally be inclined to undervalue the human element, assuming the software is doing the real work. But soon enough, AI will level up everyone's capabilities, and once again, humans and human qualities will be the differentiator.

So it's more important than ever to lean into and become good at articulating the unique value of humans and how, at every level, humans enhance project success. In ways heretofore undercommunicated, underappreciated, and largely overlooked, humans bring creativity, judgment, experience, holistic project management, trust earned with regulators, understanding of environmental and site-specific factors, the ability to spot risks, technological fluency, stakeholder engagement and trust-building, and ethical decision-making and accountability.

Having acquiesced to the foolishness of competitive bidding, much of the consulting industry has become a commodity business engaged in a race to the bottom. As AI proliferates, companies that focus on selling AI over the unique value of their humans will accelerate their own decline.

As such, I strongly recommend reframing your marketing, PR, websites, proposals, client conversations, and the mindset of your staff around valuable human attributes. Around the outcomes humans deliver, not the tools they use. Around human insights and ingenuity, not ChatGPT.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

All 150+ topics are available at @goodnewsfriday.com