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How to Use an AI Application to Actually Solve a Real – and Huge – Sales Problem

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I got an email this week that made me sit up straight.

A territory manager at a scientific equipment manufacturer read my article on aggressive transparency as a competitive weapon – you know, the one where I argue that publishing your pricing openly makes competitors look like they’re hiding something. He asked a hell of a good question: “How would we show pricing to customers when our equipment can vary by thousands of dollars for small accessories, and we have so many configurations it would be impossible to create a pricing list for every one?” In the past, I would have told him that aggressive transparency has its limits. That some businesses are just too complex for public pricing. But I had a lightbulb moment. This isn’t a limitation of transparency. This is the perfect application for AI – and it could change everything about how complex B2B sales actually work.

The Pricing Problem Most B2B Companies Actually Face

Here’s the thing. A lot of B2B companies – maybe most – have genuinely complex pricing. Not “we want to hide our pricing” complex. Actually complex.

You’ve got custom configurations, variable components, different installation requirements, regional factors, volume considerations, and integration with existing systems. There are a thousand legitimate variables that make “here’s our price” impossible to answer without knowing the specifics of what the customer actually needs.

So what happens? The salesperson says “let me get back to you with a quote.” They go back to the office – or the Batcave, as I like to call it – spend hours building a proposal, send it over, and then wait. Maybe the buyer has follow-up questions. Maybe they want to see what it costs if they change one component. Back to the Batcave.

The whole process takes days or weeks. The buyer can’t comparison shop efficiently. The salesperson can’t adjust on the fly during the conversation. And both sides are frustrated.  I’ve been that salesperson, and I’ve been that frustrated.

The traditional “solution” has been to either simplify your offering (which might kill your competitive advantage), accept that you can’t be transparent (which kills trust), or create massive pricing matrices that nobody can actually use. None of those are good options.

What If AI Could Configure and Quote in Real Time?

Here’s what hit me when I read that email.

What if you built an AI configurator – using Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever tool works best for your business – that had all your pricing variables loaded into it? Not as a replacement for your salespeople, but as a tool for them.

Picture this: The salesperson is on a call with a prospect. The prospect describes what they need. The salesperson opens the AI app on their phone (or laptop, or tablet), inputs the variables as the prospect is talking, and gets an accurate quote right there during the conversation.

“Okay, so you need the Model X with the enhanced sensor package, configured for a high-temperature environment, with installation in your Denver facility. Let me check that for you.” Ten seconds later: “That configuration runs $47,300, and we can have it installed within six weeks.”

No going to the Batcave. No “let me get back to you.” No waiting three days for a proposal that might be obsolete by the time it arrives because the prospect’s requirements changed during a meeting you weren’t in. Quote and propose on the spot.

“How Much?” “This Is How Much.”

I’ve been saying for twenty-two years that when a customer asks “how much?” it’s a buying sign. And the best response is simply: “This is how much.”

Not “Well, let me tell you about all the value you’re getting first.” Not “It depends on several factors, let me explain.” Not “Great question – we should schedule a follow-up call to go over pricing.” Just: “This is how much.”

When salespeople use lots of words in between – attempting to ‘build value’ before quoting price – it tells the customer that the salesperson is afraid of their price. And that fear invites negotiation.

For years, the objection I’ve heard is: “But Troy, we can’t quote price on the spot. It’s too complex.”

Now it doesn’t have to be.

An AI configurator doesn’t just solve the complexity problem. It actually discourages negotiation in a way that benefits both sides. When you quote on the spot, the customer sees that you’re not sitting down with your boss trying to figure out “how much we can get them to pay.” It feels cut and dried. Transparent. Fair.

And here’s what most salespeople don’t realize: most people don’t like to negotiate. Millennials and Gen Z – who now represent 71% of B2B buyers – like it even less. They want clear, upfront pricing. They want to make informed decisions without playing games.

When you can say “this is how much” immediately, you’re giving them exactly what they want. And you’re differentiating yourself from every competitor who’s still making them wait.

This Changes the Sales Conversation

Think about what this does for the sales conversation.

For the buyer, they can actually explore options in real time. “What if we went with the standard sensor package instead of enhanced?” “What if we delayed installation until next quarter?” “What about if we ordered two units instead of one?” Each question gets answered immediately, which means they can actually make an informed decision during the conversation instead of playing email tag for two weeks.

For the salesperson, you’re not leaving the conversation to build a proposal. You’re having an actual consultative conversation where you can test different configurations, show value trade-offs, and help the buyer understand what they actually need – all while the buyer is engaged and focused. You’re solving problems together instead of throwing proposals over the wall.  And you’re setting a standard that your competitors can’t match while truly earning your spot in the Buyer’s Journey.

For aggressive transparency, you can actually put this configurator on your website. Public-facing. “Configure your solution and see pricing instantly.” That’s aggressive transparency for complex B2B products. Nobody else in your market is doing that. And if your competitors complain that “our pricing is too complex for that,” you can just point to your website and say “ours is too – and we figured it out.”

Yes, But What About…

I know what you’re thinking.

“Troy, that sounds great, but what about all the variables we can’t predict?”

Fair question. And the answer is: you build in ranges for the things you can’t quote precisely, and you make those contingencies explicit.

“The equipment itself is $47,300. Installation will depend on your facility’s electrical configuration, which we’ll need to assess on-site. Based on typical installations, that runs between $8,000 and $12,000. If there are any unusual requirements, we’ll quote those separately before we start work.”

See? Still transparent. Still immediate. Still way better than “we’ll get back to you with a full proposal in a week.”

“But what if the AI makes a mistake?”

Then you test it. Extensively. Before you let salespeople use it with customers, and definitely before you put it on your website. You run hundreds of scenarios. You compare the AI quotes to what your pricing team would build manually. You refine the prompts and the data until it’s reliable. This isn’t “throw AI at the problem and hope.” This is “use AI to solve a specific business problem that humans are currently solving slowly and expensively.”

“Won’t this replace our salespeople?”

No. It replaces the part of their job that sucks – going back to the office to build proposals that the buyer isn’t even sure they want yet. It gives them back time to actually sell. To ask better questions. To understand what the buyer actually needs. To build relationships.

The salespeople who are afraid this will replace them are the same ones who think their job is being the gatekeeper of information. They’re already being replaced – by buyers who would rather research online than talk to someone who won’t give them straight answers. The salespeople who see this as a tool to make them more effective? They’re going to dominate their markets.

This Is New Ground for Everyone, Including Me

This is genuinely new territory. Not just for that equipment manufacturer who emailed me, but for most B2B companies with complex pricing. For me. For the companies I work with. But that’s what makes it exciting.

The companies that figure this out first – that build AI configurators that actually work, that train their salespeople to use them effectively, that maybe even put them on their websites for prospects to use – those companies are going to have a massive competitive advantage. Not because they have better AI, but because they’ve solved the tension between complexity and transparency that their competitors are still using as an excuse to hide pricing.

Start Out By Thinking About Your Variables

If you sell anything with complex, variable pricing, start thinking about this now.

What are all the variables that go into your pricing? Can you list them? Can you define how they interact with each other? Can you build decision trees that handle the most common scenarios?

If you can answer those questions, you can build an AI configurator. Maybe not today. Maybe not next month. But sooner than you think.

And when you do, you’re not just implementing a cool AI tool. You’re changing how your entire market thinks about transparency, speed, and what buyers should expect from salespeople. The competitors who are still making buyers wait three days for a quote are going to look like they’re operating in a different century. Because they are.

Navigating the AI Future in Sales – It’s Not Easy

I’ve written before that AI isn’t everything, and ignoring it is just as dumb. This is what I mean.

AI doesn’t replace sales fundamentals. It doesn’t replace genuine discovery. It doesn’t replace relationship-building or consultative selling. But it can absolutely replace the parts of the sales process that are slow, manual, and frustrating for everyone involved.

Complex pricing configuration is one of those parts. If you’re in a business where “let me get back to you with a quote” is a regular part of your sales vocabulary, you should be thinking about this.

Because somewhere, one of your competitors is. And when they launch their configurator – whether it’s internal for their sales team or public-facing on their website – every conversation you have afterward is going to start with “Well, your competitor showed me pricing immediately…”

You can either be the company that figures this out first, or the company that’s scrambling to catch up.

I know which one I’d rather be.

AI Isn’t Everything – And Ignoring It Is Just as Dumb

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I had a presentation last week that didn’t go like I wanted it to. Not because the content was bad – the concepts are solid and the program works and usually helps a lot of people in the room. But because I was in a room where people had decided that if I wasn’t talking about AI in every sentence, I wasn’t worth listening to.

Twenty minutes into a two-hour program, two people literally told me they were tuning me out because I wasn’t incorporating AI into everything I was discussing. Never mind that the program was about fundamental sales principles, sales organization methodology, and sales strategy. Never mind that they’d booked me knowing exactly what I was teaching. Never mind that their own self-analysis scores showed they had serious fundamental problems to address.

They wanted AI. Everything AI. AI as the answer to every question, the solution to every problem, the future of every business function.

And here’s what made it even crazier: Last year, I worked with a different group where the leader banned me from talking about AI at all. AI was the boogeyman. The thing that was going to destroy jobs, eliminate human connection, and ruin everything good about business.

Both approaches are wrong. And if you’re in either camp, you’re losing real money and real competitive advantage.

The AI-Is-Everything Crowd

By now, you probably know how I think. AI is a powerful tool. I use it constantly. Claude and Perplexity have revolutionized how I do research, prepare for client meetings, and develop content. I’ve written about how salespeople should use AI to research prospects, competitors, and their own companies. I’m not anti-AI.  I think AI is a productivity tool, a force multiplier, and a field-leveler between small companies and big ones.

But AI isn’t magic. And it’s not a substitute for knowing what you’re doing.

The group I presented to last week had fundamental sales problems. I’d opened the session with a diagnostic assessment – a simple 9-question health check that scores companies on their sales fundamentals out of 45 points. The best score in the room was 29. The worst was 16. To put that in perspective, anything below 30 indicates significant gaps in sales process, accountability, training, pipeline management, and basic business development discipline.

These companies needed to fix fundamentals. But they didn’t want to hear about fundamentals. They wanted to hear about AI.

No amount of AI is going to fix those problems. AI can make a good sales process more efficient. It can’t create a sales process where none exists. It can help salespeople research faster. It can’t teach them how to ask good questions or conduct thorough Investigation. It can automate follow-up sequences. It can’t build genuine customer relationships.

But they didn’t want to hear that, because AI is hip and trendy. Because talking about AI makes them feel like they’re on the cutting edge. Because it’s more comfortable to focus on shiny new tools than to confront the reality that their basics are broken. And because talking about the basics meant they would have had to make themselves vulnerable.

Here’s the truth – if your sales fundamentals are weak, AI will just help you fail faster and at greater scale. You’ll send more bad emails. You’ll research more prospects you’re not equipped to serve. You’ll automate more processes that don’t work.

Unless your business is actually building AI, developing AI-driven technology, or constructing data centers for AI infrastructure (one guy in the room was building data centers – and he was one of the most engaged participants), AI should not be everything. It should be a tool that enhances what you’re already doing well.

The AI-Is-The-Boogeyman Crowd

On the other end of the spectrum are the leaders who won’t let anyone mention AI. Who think it’s a fad. Who believe that “real salespeople” don’t need technology. Who are convinced that AI is going to eliminate the human element from business relationships.

This is just as wrong, and just as costly.

AI has already changed how buyers research vendors, how they make decisions, and what they expect from salespeople. Your prospects are using AI to research you before they ever take your call. They’re using it to compare alternatives, analyze reviews, and pull together information from multiple sources.

If your salespeople aren’t using the same tools, they’re operating at an information disadvantage. They’re going into calls less prepared than their buyers. They’re competing against salespeople who are leveraging AI to research more thoroughly, prepare more effectively, and operate more efficiently.

Ignoring AI because you’re philosophically opposed to it or scared of it is like refusing to use email in 2005 because you preferred phone calls. The technology isn’t going away. Your competitors are using it. Your buyers are using it. Refusing to engage with it doesn’t make you principled – it makes you obsolete.

There’s a Middle Ground, But Navigating It is Hard

Both extremes miss the real issue. AI is a tool. Not a strategy. Not a replacement for fundamentals. Not optional.

A tool.  Just like my favorite 3/8” drive ratchet in my garage.  I reach for it all the time, but it’s my knowledge and hands that guide it.

The right question isn’t “How do we make everything about AI?” or “How do we avoid AI entirely?” The right question is “Where does AI genuinely enhance what we’re already doing well?”

For sales, that means:

  • Using AI to research prospects before calls so salespeople show up informed and relevant
  • Using AI to track competitors and market trends so salespeople understand the landscape
  • Using AI to analyze your own company’s online presence so you know what buyers are seeing
  • Using AI to draft initial outreach that salespeople then customize and personalize
  • Using AI to help salespeople prepare better questions based on what they’ve learned about a prospect

What it doesn’t mean:

  • Replacing genuine discovery conversations with AI-generated scripts
  • Automating relationship-building
  • Using AI to blast out generic messages at scale
  • Letting AI make strategic decisions about which accounts to pursue
  • Assuming AI can fix fundamental problems with sales process, training, or accountability

The fundamentals still matter. Probably more than ever, because AI has raised the bar for what “adequate” looks like. A salesperson using AI poorly is competing against a salesperson using AI well. The one using it well has better research, better preparation, more relevant outreach, and more efficient processes.

But you still need to know how to sell. You still need to understand the Buyer’s Journey. You still need to conduct thorough Investigation. You still need to build genuine relationships.

AI amplifies what you’re already doing. If you’re doing the right things, AI makes you more effective. If you’re doing the wrong things, AI makes you more efficiently wrong.

Why the Middle Ground Is Hard

I think both extremes exist because the middle ground is uncomfortable. It requires nuance. It requires actually understanding both the fundamentals and the tools. It requires making judgment calls about where AI adds value and where it doesn’t.

It’s easier to declare “AI is everything!” and outsource your thinking to the shiny new tool. It’s easier to declare “AI is nothing!” and dismiss the whole thing as a fad.

What’s harder – but necessary – is saying: “AI is a powerful tool that we need to incorporate thoughtfully into solid fundamentals that we’re already executing well.”

That requires admitting you may have fundamentals to fix. It requires learning new tools. It requires constant evaluation of what’s working and what isn’t. It requires intellectual humility about both traditional approaches and new technologies.

Most people don’t want to do that work. They want simple answers. “Use AI for everything” is simple. “Ignore AI completely” is simple.

“Use AI strategically to enhance solid fundamentals” is complicated. But it’s the only approach that actually works.

What This Means for You

If you’re in the “AI is everything” camp, step back. Ask yourself: Are my fundamentals solid? Do my salespeople know how to conduct discovery? Do we have a real sales process? Do we hold people accountable? Do we train consistently?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, fix that first. Then use AI to make those solid fundamentals more efficient.

If you’re in the “AI is the boogeyman” camp, wake up. Your competitors are using these tools. Your buyers are using these tools. You’re operating at a disadvantage, and that disadvantage is growing every day.

Start small. Have your salespeople use AI to research prospects before calls. Use it to monitor competitors. Use it to understand your own online reputation. Learn what it can do well and what it can’t.

And if you’re trying to navigate the middle ground, keep going. It’s hard. It’s nuanced. It requires constant adjustment. But it’s the only sustainable approach to operating in a market where AI exists and fundamentals still matter.

That’s not sexy. That’s not simple. That’s not a soundbite that fits on a LinkedIn post.

But it’s what actually works.