Weekly Alluviance #143: Agency - The #1 Skill AI Can't Touch

alexkremer8
Oct 28
2 min read

Your weekly dose of Alluviance!

In a world where AI can do more and more every day, one thing that is increasingly going to stand out is agency.

And rather than break down the definition of agency and debate why this may be one of the most important skills, I'd rather jump right into a framework that makes this real.

Let's put agency on a scale of 1 - 5. Most sellers live at Level 3. The elite live at Level 5. In this example, our customer's main problem is that user churn is too high.

The Framework for High Agency Sales Professionals

Level 1: The Repeater"I hear you. High churn is a problem."

Level 2: The Diagnostician"I see you have a churn problem. I've looked at your process, and it seems like your onboarding is the weak link."

Level 3: The Pitcher"You have an onboarding problem. Here are three ways my product can fix it." (This is where 90% of sales calls live and die).

Level 4: The Partner"You have an onboarding problem. I've listened to your constraints, and I believe the highest-leverage first step is to fix the initial user tutorial. Here’s a one-page plan of how we could tackle that together."

Level 5: The Owner"You have an onboarding problem. I took the liberty of mocking up what that new tutorial could look like for one of your key user personas. I also ran it by our head of customer success to pressure test it. Let's walk through it. I think we found something."

AI will get very good, very fast, at Levels 1, 2, and 3.

But it will struggle to unlock Level 5.

It can't take true ownership. It can't put itself in the customer's shoes with genuine empathy. It can't feel the burning need to deliver a solution, not just a sales pitch.

This is the domain of the high-agency sales professional.

The reps who win in the next decade won't be the ones who can recite a script the best or adopt the latest AI tools the fastest. They'll be the ones who can take ownership of their customer's problems the deepest.

AI can be a great Pitcher. It will struggle to be an Owner.

Your job isn't just to get the sale. It's to earn the right to solve the problem.

Go earn it.

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