The Problem With Magic

Last week, my colleague, David Yockelson, shared a post that talked about the need to sell outcomes when the technology has become too complex to explain. He also commented on my post about what I considered to be a dated view of business vs. technical buyer. In the comment, David said (among other things),

The pitch MUST be about value and outcomes, because neither the sellers, savvy as they may be, nor the buyers (biz or tech) will be able to describe how the magic happens....

And while I agree with much of his sentiments, I am not sure about the magic part. Here's why:

Magic is great until it doesn't work. When that happens, you get disillusioned quickly. And that is one of the risks with the GenAI explosion.

As I shared recently, I think you can categorize buying organizations into 4 quadrants based on risk tolerance and tech decision making maturity.

The orgs that have high risk tolerance and good maturity will likely have some folks who do understand how the AI magic happens. If your sales team (maybe not sellers) can't talk to the details, this group is likely to ignore you and go to someone who can.

Those with lower risk tolerance but high maturity also have good technical chops, but a "magic" story may work for them as long as you have lots of case studies and dive into details of what it will really take to get value. You may not have to explain all the nuances of how the tech works, but you have to talk about what it takes to win.

Then you have the highly risk tolerant and less mature organizations. These folks will believe in magic (they are a small group), but are ripe candidates for being disillusioned because they don't spend enough time understanding what it takes to be successful. A magic story may seem fine, but it increases risk of failure for both sides.

Finally, you have those that are not very risk tolerant and immature. They are largely doubters and pessimists. Things like ChatGPT seem great to them, but if things go wrong, they will likely quit trying. These folks want things to be easy and magic can feel easy, but if it breaks down, ugh.

A key point in David's comment is really about not just saying its magical and leaving it at that, but really painting a picture of how value can be achieved and sustained. For many, you don't have to explain in detail how the technology works. But you do need to help them understand what it takes for the magic to happen --what they need to do and what you need to do.

Deep exploration of the path to value remains the under utilized asset for buyers and sellers alike. That is what makes magic real.