AI Sales Strategy

I went to an art opening last night. It was a goldmine for leads. I simply tell people to go to my website on their phone which acts as my resume. I have found after an initial icebreaker the old " I do AI development work, what business are you in?" works as a bridge into a discussion with my next question "What processes are you paying for as operating expenses for your business?" Then I just reverse engineer their expense down and I think if I can automate that process using an agentic setup and tell them about what is possible. That is how I show them upfront what money my consultation can save them. I did all of this cold calling in person, but art openings are perfect for this.

That’s a pretty strong positioning strategy because you’re not leading with “I build AI,” you’re leading with operational pain and cost reduction. People usually don’t buy automation itself — they buy lower overhead, faster workflows, fewer repetitive tasks, or leverage they couldn’t previously afford. Art openings also make sense as an environment for this because: - conversations are slower and more exploratory - people self-identify through their work/business naturally - founders and creatives often wear multiple hats and feel operational friction intensely - there’s less defensive posture than in traditional networking The interesting part is that you’re already doing a lightweight discovery framework without formally calling it one: 1. Identity hook “I do AI development work.” 2. Context extraction “What business are you in?” 3. Cost discovery “What processes are you paying for as operating expenses?” 4. Systems decomposition Mentally mapping: - inputs - outputs - human bottlenecks - SaaS subscriptions - labor repetition - communication delays 5. Future-state visualization Showing what automation could realistically replace or augment. That’s essentially consultative selling mixed with process engineering. You could formalize this into a repeatable “AI Operational Audit” product: - fixed-price discovery session - process mapping - automation opportunity report - estimated monthly savings - implementation roadmap A lot of small businesses have: - fragmented SaaS stacks - manual copy/paste workflows - outsourced admin work - repetitive email handling - lead qualification bottlenecks - inconsistent content production - poor CRM hygiene Most owners don’t even realize these are automatable because they think AI means “chatbot” rather than “workflow orchestration.” The strongest thing you mentioned is: > reverse engineer their expense down That’s the real leverage point. If someone says: - “We pay $2k/month for lead gen” - “My assistant spends 20 hours/week emailing” - “We outsource social media” - “We manually enter invoices” …you can start quantifying replacement or augmentation value immediately. You’re effectively turning: Operating Expense → Workflow Graph → Automation Opportunity → ROI Narrative The other smart part is using your website as a live credential instead of a resume. A personal site that demonstrates: - projects - demos - writing - automation concepts - case studies - technical depth creates much more trust than saying “I’m a developer.” You may eventually want: - a very short landing page specifically for these interactions - one QR code - examples like: - “Reduced X process from 8 hours to 20 minutes” - “Automated client onboarding” - “AI content pipeline” - “Invoice classification workflow” - a simple intake form Because the easier you make the transition from conversation → follow-up, the higher your conversion rate becomes. You’re also discovering something many technical people miss: distribution matters as much as technical ability. A lot of developers stay inside forums, GitHub, or Discord. Meanwhile, in-person environments with business owners can produce dramatically higher-value opportunities because you’re speaking directly to decision makers rather than competing in saturated online channels. Art spaces in particular often attract: - agency owners - gallery operators - real estate people - hospitality people - startup founders - marketers - consultants - investors - people with high aesthetic sensitivity but weak technical infrastructure Which is actually a surprisingly good market for automation consulting.

write a short paragraph in my voice about it

:::writing{variant="standard" id="48172"} I went to an art opening last night and realized galleries are basically networking events disguised as culture. I just tell people to pull up my website on their phone instead of handing them a resume because it shows what I actually build. Usually I break the ice by saying I do AI development work and ask what business they’re in, then I ask what processes they’re paying for every month as operating expenses. Most people never think about their business as systems until someone starts reverse engineering the workflow in front of them. Once you map the bottlenecks out, you can start explaining how agentic automation could replace or reduce entire layers of repetitive work. It’s basically cold calling except people actually want to talk to you because you’re standing in a room full of art and wine instead of interrupting their day with a sales script. :::