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Ted McKenna

Ted McKenna is a co-founder and CEO of SellingInnovations and is one of the world’s leading experts in sales, business development, and customer experience. A co-author of the bestselling book The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision and the upcoming book The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently (April 2025), Ted’s research frequently appears in the pages of Harvard Business Review. He is also a founding partner of DCM Insights, a company that uses data and research-backed frameworks to help professional services firms improve business development. An experienced business leader—having held numerous executive positions in product, strategy, research, advisory, and enablement for Tethr, Russell Reynolds Associates, and CEB (now, a part of Gartner)—Ted is an expert in analyzing behaviors and applying analytics in various forms of content, products, and services. As part of a large-scale study of 2.5 million sales calls, Ted worked on mining unstructured conversational data using advanced data science and leading AI/ML tools to build models, scores, and behavioral frameworks (the most well-known model is the Tethr Effort Index). Previous roles called for deploying syndicated research methods to mine more structured sources such as surveys, diagnostics, demographics, and jobs data (including research contained within the bestselling book, The Challenger Sale). Ted holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Iowa and resides with his family in the Chicago, Illinois area.

Why Selling AI is Harder Than You Think

Why Selling AI is Harder Than You Think

Posted by | Oct 24, 2024 | , |

Here’s a story we hear some form of on a weekly basis these days:

A sales organization launches a new AI-powered technology to much fanfare and acclaim. Buyers are eager to learn, explore, book a visit and, after a short conversation, jump at the chance to see demonstrations of its capabilities. The seller—ecstatic at the palpable excitement and desire the buyer has arrived at largely on their own—quickly brings their subject matter expert in for the next visit. After what feels like the best demo they’ve ever witnessed, with the buyer asking detailed questions, the rep forecasts the deal to close soon.

But then the next week that same prospect requests another demo, only this time with other technical folks on their side. And yet another, only this time to pressure test your models. And then they start asking about a free trial or for a proof of concept. And then…crickets. Buyer goes cold or, even worse, totally dark. Can’t even get a reply to an email. Months of work and consideration goes down the drain.

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