AI Is Your MVP Part 3: From Tool to Infrastructure – How Builders Train and Deploy AI Without Chaos
Part 3 of a 3-Part Series:
Let’s go back to the Nordstrom story from Part 1 one more time. That associate didn’t just wake up one day naturally brilliant at fit, product pairing, and follow-up. She was trained. Coached. Supported. Held to a standard. That’s the part many builders miss with AI. They introduce a tool. They do not deploy a system. There’s a difference. This rule applies to any technology you roll out from a new CRM to a new ERP system.
Individual experimentation with AI is interesting. Organizational deployment is transformational.
And leadership determines which one happens. (Say it louder for the people in the back!)
First: What AI-Powered Does Not Mean
Let’s face it, the early technology adopters on your sales team are ALREADY using AI to automate repetitive tasks and enhance written and verbal communication. Don’t you want them to use it correctly? Effectively? Most people equate impersonal, spammy messages with AI use. It does not have to be that way. In fact, your communication can be more personalized, timely, and efficient with proper, trained, and coached AI use.
From my IBS seminar, one of the most important slides was this:
- AI-powered does not mean shortcut.
- It does not mean lazy.
- It does not mean generic, spammy, robotic, or over-automated.
- It does not mean unchecked or tone-deaf.
- AI is not a substitute for your instincts, judgment, experience, intuition, creativity, or heart.
Salespeople must remain accountable for producing highly personalized, timely communication. That does not change because they used ChatGPT.
AI improves speed and clarity. It does not make decisions. When leadership makes this distinction clear upfront, resistance drops dramatically. Because most pushback isn’t about technology.
It’s about fear of losing humanity. And in the modern era, we should fear that. AI without HI (Human Intelligence) is worthless.
Managers Own the Standard
One slide from the IBS program tends to get quiet, but strong reactions: “If a salesperson touches, creates, sends, posts, or shares it, a sales manager now owns the standard.”
That includes AI-assisted communication. If AI is being used, leadership must define:
- Tone expectations
- Personalization standards
- Editing requirements
- Compliance guardrails
- When AI is appropriate and when it is not
If you don’t define, train, and coach to these standards, when AI is used incorrectly, leadership is going to look at YOU, the sales manager, because you own the standard.
How do you convince senior leadership to support AI adoption? Show them how it is possible to protect the brand and reduce the risk of misuse with the following talking points:
- Consistency, not experimentation
- Risk reduction
- Standardized best practices
- Low cost, high upside
- Senior leadership listens.
The 90-Day Rollout That Prevents Chaos
Most builders make one of two mistakes when rolling out new technology, whether it is a new CRM or AI:
- They ignore it completely.
- They hand it to the team and say, “Go figure it out.”
Neither works. In my seminar, I outline a simple phased rollout.
First 30 Days – Normalize with three easy steps:
- Choose one AI tool.
- Complete setup.
- Complete practice exercises.
Progress over perfection is rewarded in public, ideally at your weekly sales meeting. Include a cash SPIFF (Sales Performance Incentive Fund) with the public compliment. Also, model using AI in your role as a sales manager to improve your sales management communications, meeting agendas, talking points, and slide decks. When you use it, that’s when your team knows you are serious about everyone buying in and using the tool (this applies to any tech, not just AI tools). The goal for the first 30 days is psychological safety.
Days 31–60: Improve Quality
- Review AI-assisted messages.
- You coach tone.
- You edit for clarity.
- You reinforce personalization.
- Define and teach the standards for usage.
This is where standards are refined. Huge bonus: by coaching AI tone, clarity, and personalization, your sales leaders’ overall communication skills improve. They will learn how to write faster, on brand, and more persuasively. They will learn what makes an informational and compelling voicemail message, and how to write social posts that convert to calls. One of the biggest misunderstandings or myths about AI is that it makes you lazy and causes you to lose important writing and speaking skills we learned in higher education. In my experience, the exact opposite is true. I am a better writer and communicator as I’ve learned from AI.
When defining standards for usage, consider these:
- Which communications must be AI-assisted before sending
- How personalization must be added before delivery
- What tone and clarity standards look like
- How CRM notes are structured and entered
- What response-time benchmarks are non-negotiable
Days 61–90: Build Consistency
- Standardize habits.
- Reduce friction.
- Make AI routine.
- Hold salespeople accountable to the standards and use expectations.
By this stage, AI should no longer feel like a “new tool.” It should feel like part of the workflow. This is where managers shift from encouragement to expectation.
- AI-assisted follow-up is no longer optional.
- CRM summaries are no longer handwritten and inconsistent.
- Templates are no longer scattered across personal folders.
This is also the stage where friction gets removed. If sales counselors are toggling between five tools, simplify. If prompts are inconsistent, create shared starting frameworks.
If adoption is uneven, pair early adopters with hesitant teammates. The goal is muscle memory. Just like driving, what once felt clumsy now becomes automatic. Your team doesn’t “remember to use AI.” They simply work within the system that includes it. And that is the turning point.
Now, AI is not an experiment. It is infrastructure. It is embedded in expectations, coaching, communication standards, and leadership oversight. And once it reaches that point, it stops being disruptive and starts being decisive.
AI Practice Drill
90-Day Deployment Map
Identify one primary AI tool your team will standardize around.
Prompt AI: “Help me create a 90-day AI adoption rollout plan for a team of New Home Sales Counselors. Include a 30-day normalize phase, a 30-day quality coaching phase, and a 30-day consistency phase. Include manager checkpoints.”
Adjust the plan to reflect your brand standards and risk policies.
Present the finalized plan at your next sales meeting.
This shifts AI from optional curiosity to a structured leadership strategy.
Did you know that FANtastic Selling 3.0 has a whopping 58 ChatGPT Practice Drills specific to new home sales?
Final Thread
The Nordstrom associate did not feel technological. She felt attentive. That attentiveness was supported by systems, standards, and leadership. If AI is your MVP, leadership decides whether it plays pickup ball… or championship-level strategy.
When you train it, coach it, and deploy it intentionally, AI does not weaken communication. It strengthens it.
And that’s not just efficient. That’s FANtastic.
Categorised in: Artificial Intelligence (AI), FANtastic Selling Book, FANtastic Selling Tips, Home Builder Marketing & Sales, International Builders' Show
