Role
Sales consultant
How long does it take before a new consultant answers a client without asking a colleague for help? If it is six months, then for six months every new person occupies two people - themselves and whoever they ask.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
Which client question repeats most often?
If the team can name five such questions from memory, it means they answer each of them for the thousandth time - and that the answer sounds slightly different each time, depending on who picks up.
How long does it take before a new person is independent?
That time is a cost you pay at every turnover. It is rarely counted, because it is spread across other people's hours - the ones in which an experienced consultant explains instead of selling.
What happens when a client asks about a product launched last week?
Usually: the consultant promises to call back. Sometimes: they answer from memory about the previous version. The first costs a conversation, the second costs a complaint.
How do you know the information a consultant gives is current?
If it rests on a file downloaded to a desktop at some point, you do not know. Specifications change more often than anyone sends updates round.
We take over the searching, you keep the advising
Access to current product knowledge, matching it to a stated need and recording the conversation is done by the machine. The recommendation, the language of the conversation and the decision what to really advise stay with the consultant.
- The consultant speaks in their own words. - The system supplies a fact - a specification, availability, a warranty condition - not a ready-made script to read out.
- A source and a date with every piece of information. - The consultant can see where a number comes from and when it was updated. That is the only way not to repeat an out-of-date specification.
- A question with no answer stays a question. - The system does not fill gaps with guesswork. Missing information is shown as missing - and goes onto the list of things to supply.
Scope
What can be taken off a consultant's desk
Nineteen example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your process.
Product knowledge at hand
- An answer to a specification question with the source and date marked (passed to the client by: the consultant)
- A comparison of two products on the features that matter to the client
- Availability and lead time
- The warranty and service terms for a specific model
- Pointing out a substitute when a product is unavailable (recommendation: the consultant)
Matching to a need
- A set of clarifying questions for a given category
- Products meeting the stated criteria, with which criterion is decisive
- Pointing out the accessories and parts required for it to work
- A warning about technical incompatibility between chosen items
- Comparison material for the client (edited and sent by: the consultant)
Technical questions and difficult cases
- Finding the answer in the manufacturer's documentation
- The history of similar cases and how they were resolved
- Preparing a question to the manufacturer when there is no answer (sent by: the consultant)
- A register of questions that had no answer - the list of gaps in knowledge
A record of the conversation, and onboarding
- Recording what was agreed on the client's page (approved by: the consultant)
- Preparing a quote from the items discussed
- A starter set for a new consultant, with the most frequent questions
- Pointing out products the team does not propose despite their availability
- A summary of the questions that came up this week for the first time
A day's work
Today
- At a harder question you pause the conversation and search the catalogue or a colleague
- You check the specification in a file you are not sure is the latest
- With a new product you wait for training or learn on a client
- The answer to the same question differs depending on who picks up
- You record what was agreed if you manage it before the next call
- A new person on the team asks you a dozen or so times a day
With AI assistance
- You have the answer during the conversation, with the update date and the source
- Where information is out of date the system says plainly that there is no certain data
- A new product is available to the team from the day it launches, not from the training
- The facts are shared; what differs between consultants is the way they talk, not the content
- What was agreed is recorded from your note, with no retyping
- A new person asks less often, because most answers are at hand
- Time to independence
a new consultant works on their own sooner
the knowledge is available rather than passed on verbally by a busy person
- Consistent answers
the client gets the same information whoever picks up
the facts come from one place, not from the memory of a dozen people
- Current knowledge
a new product is on sale from the first day
an update reaches the team without a training cycle
- A conversation that flows
the conversation does not break off to search for an answer
a fact about a product is available during it, not after
We start with one product category, not with the whole catalogue.
- Step 1
We collect questions, not documents
For two weeks the team notes down client questions. That is the list we start from, because knowledge is needed in the shape of a question, not in the shape of a manufacturer's catalogue.
- Step 2
One category, answers with a source
For the chosen category the answers are available during the conversation, with a date and a source. Deliberately narrow, so it can be judged whether the team trusts them.
- Step 3
Matching and comparisons
Selection by criteria and comparisons follow. This stage needs the product attributes to be in order - and that is usually the longest part of the whole job.
- Step 4
Extending, and onboarding
Further categories and the starter set for new people. The list of knowledge gaps, collected from step 2 onwards, is the most valuable by-product here.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
What if it suggests an out-of-date specification?
That is why every piece of information carries a date and a source, and missing data is shown as missing. It is deliberately less convenient than an answer to everything - but an invented answer costs a complaint, not just a moment of embarrassment.
What do I tell the people who do this today?
That they will stop looking for product information in four places and start talking more. A consultant who has the current state of the range at hand is not less needed - they are able to advise on the things where today they say "let me check and call you back". That is usually the first thing the client notices, and the first thing the consultant notices too.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Supporting a consultant's access to product information is not a high-risk use. The obligations concern transparency - a client who is talking to a person is talking to a person, and it stays that way.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How many times a day does your team pause a conversation to look something up?
We will show you what a client conversation looks like when the facts about the product are at hand and the consultant can get on with advising.