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5 Steps to Use AI in Sales Without Losing the Human Touch
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I came from energy and industrial manufacturing. But I’ve sold into industries I’m less familiar with: HR companies, virtual assistant companies, HVAC, website design, and business consulting. “That’s where AI became a cheat code. It didn’t magically know the customer. But it helped me rapidly understand what’s happening in their industry right now, the common pain points and trends, and the language buyers actually use when they describe their problems.” AI shortened the learning curve. I still had to decide what mattered.
Other prompts I’ve used with Deep Research: “Prompt 1: “Research [company]. Give me their founding, ownership, locations, service lines, certifications, and estimated headcount using only public sources. Cite each fact.”” Prompt 2: “Build a competitor table for [market]: rating, review count, services offered, and ownership type. Flag PE-backed players.”
That’s the danger zone: when AI sounds certain, but you haven’t verified the facts. “Instead of asking AI to “write the email,” here’s what I actually do:” Step 1 — I write my rough draft first:
Where AI can help without replacing you: prep (likely objections, agenda, questions to ask), after-call recap drafts, risks and next-step options, and tightening your own wording after you’ve written the truth. I’ve used the prompt: ““I’ve got a little more insight here talking to the owner of the company. They are looking to expand more in the commercial space, which leads perfectly into the Flywheel framework because these are relationship driven contracts. I also learned that their primary salesman for this role is leaving the company. I still have a meeting with [company leader] on Monday and I want to prepare some key insights and questions to help me understand their situation and to help them understand how the flywheel system will help them.”” This prompt gave me 5 key topics/questions that I needed to make sure I covered on the call. Which meant I focused our time on their challenges and not my framework, or just basic questions. I was able to tailor the call to the key insights that would help them the most.
“Hi Marcus, Great call today. Wanted to follow up on the service-to-sales handoff issue you mentioned. Your service techs are walking past replacement opportunities every day. We can help capture those signals automatically and route them to your sales team so nothing falls through. Worth a quick 30-min call to map it out?” “Step 2 — I add context and keywords only I know, then ask AI to tighten it:” Prompt: “Here’s my rough draft email. The key context: the customer is an HVAC owner, we talked about his service and sales teams not communicating, and he’s concerned about being too “salesy” with existing customers. His name is Marcus. Tighten this email keep it under 100 words, keep my specific details, and make the ask clearer. Do not add anything I haven’t mentioned.”
In this post, he breaks down a simple rule for using AI in sales without burning trust: “AI drafts. Humans decide. Trust is the asset.” Here’s David.
I came from energy and industrial manufacturing. But I’ve sold into industries I’m less familiar with: HR companies, virtual assistant companies, HVAC, website design, and business consulting. “That’s where AI became a cheat code. It didn’t magically know the customer. But it helped me rapidly understand what’s happening in their industry right now, the common pain points and trends, and the language buyers actually use when they describe their problems.” AI shortened the learning curve. I still had to decide what mattered.
The ICP Research Prompt Sequence: ““I’m going to engage with [customer name] from [company name] on how the Revenue Flywheel System (my framework) could apply to their business. Based on the resources you can pull on their company, what challenges might they be facing? [included company website]”” I ran this sequence on a 65-year-old, highly-rated independent contractor. The research surfaced three things I wouldn’t have found in a 30-minute call: their own customers didn’t know they did plumbing (a cross-sell blind spot), they had no maintenance or membership program (a recurring revenue gap), and an underused referral engine all quantified against industry benchmarks before I walked in the door.
That’s the danger zone: when AI sounds certain, but you haven’t verified the facts. “Instead of asking AI to “write the email,” here’s what I actually do:” Step 1 — I write my rough draft first:
“Hi Marcus, Great call today. Wanted to follow up on the service-to-sales handoff issue you mentioned. Your service techs are walking past replacement opportunities every day. We can help capture those signals automatically and route them to your sales team so nothing falls through. Worth a quick 30-min call to map it out?” “Step 2 — I add context and keywords only I know, then ask AI to tighten it:” Prompt: “Here’s my rough draft email. The key context: the customer is an HVAC owner, we talked about his service and sales teams not communicating, and he’s concerned about being too “salesy” with existing customers. His name is Marcus. Tighten this email keep it under 100 words, keep my specific details, and make the ask clearer. Do not add anything I haven’t mentioned.”
I’ve seen AI Agents conducting interviews. And even when they call the prospect on the wrong day, they continue with the interview. Interviews in my mind are still a human to human interaction. “Where AI can help without replacing you: prep (likely objections, agenda, questions to ask), after-call recap drafts, risks and next-step options, and tightening your own wording after you’ve written the truth.” “I’ve got a little more insight here talking to the owner of the company. They are looking to expand more in the commercial space, which leads perfectly into the Flywheel framework because these are relationship driven contracts. I also learned that their primary salesman for this role is leaving the company. I still have a meeting with [company leader] on Monday and I want to prepare some key insights and questions to help me understand their situation and to help them understand how the flywheel system will help them.”
David is asking a better question: “How do I use AI to remove the admin drag so I can show up more human in the moments that matter?” “AI should help with the notes, the prep, the first draft, and the messy follow-up work. But the judgment still has to come from you.” David Roy writes Eng Sales, a newsletter for technical founders who have become their own first sales rep.
Tools: Notion AI, Granola, Firefly, or your CRM’s built-in transcript. “What I do: Record every customer call with Notion AI. After the call, I get the transcript as well as a summary with action items.” If you just have your transcript use this prompt:
If you can’t write down the steps you take for every deal, AI won’t help you. “Here’s what I want founders to do first: write out the 8–10 steps of your process, then identify which steps are:” Busywork: admin and pattern work (safe to automate)
David is asking a better question: “How do I use AI to remove the admin drag so I can show up more human in the moments that matter?” “AI should help with the notes, the prep, the first draft, and the messy follow-up work. But the judgment still has to come from you.” David Roy writes Eng Sales, a newsletter for technical founders who have become their own first sales rep.
They reference my newsletter, even the number of my subscribers. They mention AI. Sometimes they even name a specific post. “But most of them still do not feel like a human actually read anything.” And maybe that bothers me more because I use AI so much. I know the shape of an AI-assisted message. I can feel when someone asked a tool to “personalize” something without actually doing the thinking underneath it.
AI cannot fix a broken sales system (more on that here) “Sales is about problem solving with another human. You need trust to do that. AI used correctly helps you build trust.” I’ve seen AI destroy trust with a customer, because I was trying to implement AI tools too fast.
Notice what’s missing: nothing here replaces human-to-human engagement. Because sales is just problem solving with another human. AI is great at removing the admin drag. “Before you build a single AI workflow, ask yourself one question:” Do you have a sales process that actually works today?
Do you have a sales process that actually works today? “Not “we follow up when we remember.” A real, repeatable sequence.” If you can’t write down the steps you take for every deal, AI won’t help you.
Of course it doesn’t work. “AI cannot fix a broken sales system (more on that here)” Sales is about problem solving with another human. You need trust to do that. AI used correctly helps you build trust.
Sales is about problem solving with another human. You need trust to do that. AI used correctly helps you build trust. “I’ve seen AI destroy trust with a customer, because I was trying to implement AI tools too fast.” So here’s the mantra I now run my sales process by:
Process hygiene: turn insights into next steps and reminders (busywork) “Notice what’s missing: nothing here replaces human-to-human engagement. Because sales is just problem solving with another human. AI is great at removing the admin drag.” Before you build a single AI workflow, ask yourself one question: