Welcome to Season 3 of 10/10 GTM: The Podcast for Revenue Leaders!
Our guest for Episode 76 is Mike Murchison, the CEO and Co-founder of Ada, an AI customer service platform dedicated to making customer service extraordinary for everyone. He brings more than a decade of experience to the conversation.
In this episode, Ross and Mike discuss how to navigate buying and selling AI by understanding the problem you’re trying to solve.
Listen to the episode here, and get the key takeaways from our conversation below.
Start by Understanding the Problem You’re Trying to Solve
Before you can successfully implement an AI tool, you need to understand what problem you’re trying to solve.
“At Ada, we started in the customer service departments as agents. We manually responded to thousands of customer service inquiries as agents for seven different companies that hired us. And we learned how painful, costly, and poor the experience is at scale with the conventional approach,” says Mike. “There’s a lot of AI hype right now. But a lot of the AI being purchased is low quality revenue because people don’t know why they’re buying the software and they don’t know what problem it’s solving. And I think that the best sellers understand that and they actually think of AI as a dirty word when they initially communicate with their prospect and guide them through the buying process.”
By focusing on real-world issues and solutions, you avoid the trap of buying AI “just because.” Instead, you target specific, relevant use cases that will help you increase efficiency and reduce manual labor.
Getting in Deep with Customers & Illustrating AI’s Value
“We try to create an archetypal example of what it means to really understand your customer. At Ada, this means after the first call, the prospect is generally sharing something that they’re optimistic and excited about the next step. They share things like, ‘Wow, I’m so impressed that you’ve shown up so prepared for this call. I actually didn’t know some of these things about my business. It’s very illuminating to understand how your business can help and is aligned to our strategic direction as a company. I’ve rarely spoken to a seller who took the time to understand our company’s mission. It feels like you were at our company town hall last week,”’ explains Mike.
This kind of feedback highlights the power of genuine curiosity and preparation. But how do you operationalize that? Sales enablement, especially with today’s AI tools, is simpler than ever. The real challenge lies in creating a culture of understanding and demonstrating excellence so that this approach happens consistently across your team.
When you’re selling an AI-native solution, it also helps to recognize and address the very real fears buyers have. AI is everywhere: There’s a flood of AI startups, plus AI initiatives often come from the top (board-level or CEO directives) so there’s intense pressure to deliver. There’s also existential worry about what AI might mean for someone’s role and sense of identity. As a seller, you build credibility by acknowledging these concerns and showing you’ve helped others navigate them before.
Guiding Customers Through the Best-Fit Opportunities
Successful AI implementation isn’t just about technology, it’s about charting a clear path for customers to reach their goals. Mike describes a three-part framework Ada follows to make sure its solutions deliver real value:
- Express empathy for the company mission
- Explain how your technology will accelerate their progress against that mission
- Give them a map to get there
The “map” acts as a guide to get from point A to B and so on. It illustrates a step-by-step process for how customers will move from their current state to the desired outcome. Along the way, each stage should offer measurable, incremental gains that underscore the solution’s value.
“The map is key,” explains Mike. “What I’ve learned over the years is that the speed at which you can go through these milestones is the way that you add velocity to your sales cycle.”
But AI is fast-moving, and it’s not uncommon for the lines between pre- and post-sales to blur. The best sellers are the ones who can guide buyers through this evolving landscape while setting honest expectations along the way — and remaining transparent about what’s changing and why.
“In the AI world, the reality is that things are changing so quickly that the playbook is probably going to change,” says Mike. “You’ve got to guide people through what works today, while also being open and transparent that it may (and likely will) evolve.”
By offering empathy, clarity, and a road map that adapts as AI evolves, you give customers the confidence they need to embrace AI while helping them solve real problems along the way.
About Mike
Mike Murchison is CEO of Ada, the world’s leading customer service AI platform. A serial entrepreneur focused on using AI to transform the conversation between businesses and their customers, he champions the Canadian innovation ecosystem at home and abroad.
A Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, Mike has also been recognized by EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year program and Goldman Sachs’ Builders and Innovators Summit. When he’s not imagining the future of customer support, you can find him reading, cooking, or training for an ultra-marathon.
To learn more about Mike or connect with him directly, follow him on LinkedIn.
