There are these moments in a restaurant when it’s so busy you feel you can’t breathe and you’re so overwhelmed it feels everything is in fast forward.
That’s how I feel right now.
I thought I would be able to focus full-time on the World Artificial Intelligence Agent Registry, but then…finances changed that plan. I’ve had to pivot and really put my all into getting some new clients.
Is Business Development Hard? Yes…It Is.
I’ve been busting my ass for so many weeks trying to make Pixel Creative work that I’ve even forgotten to update this site.
Here’s a bit about what’s going on.
As you know, AI dominates the discussion in every aspect of my business and industry.
I’d venture to say it’s the dominant topic in every business and every industry right now.
So, I came up with what I call an AI search Readiness Audit.
The AI-Readiness Search Audit
This audit evaluates a person’s profiles or an entire companies presence across the internet, and delivers a score and diagnosis telling you:
- How well you show up in AI search
- What you need to do to show up in AI search
And then I provide a roadmap for you to better prepare for AI search.
It’s my opinion that 90% to 99% of websites are unprepared for true AI search Readiness.
Why You Must Be Ready for AI-Generated Search
AI searches the entire web for any mention of your presence.
So you must have a robust brand built out across several channels, platforms and areas to ensure AI views your as the best answer to a user’s question.
Now, there are a lot of good things about this.
First, it essentially levels the playing field and destroys search engine rankings. So search engine optimization sort of goes away.
I say “sort of” because the technical aspects of search engine optimization are still there.
You still need a healthy and structurally sound website before AI is going to consider your content. And technical SEO ensures your site meets these requirements.
But once you have the SEO foundation laid, it becomes a content strategy.
You need to build out a really robust content strategy with the goal of increasing your brand awareness, and growing your brand.
Then, you need to spread your brand presence across the internet.
But keep in mind, these days, the internet is every type of media:
- Databases
- Social media profiles
- Video platforms
- Podcasting platforms
- Social media
So the days of when you could silo each of those services is sort of going away. You can’t choose one and stick with it and not be on the other. Now. You really need to concentrate on all of them.
There will still be marketing pros who disagree, and I see their point because you can’t be everywhere at once, right?
But the sad fact is: You need to be.
The AI-Generated Content Backlash
One interesting thing I’m seeing is a backlash on AI generated content.
Businesses (and pretty much everyone) thought AI generated content was going to be a game changer.
But we’re finding out AI generated content has major flaws: It’s not so good at connecting with human emotions, and we are increasingly able to spot generated content from a mile away.
If you’ll recall, earlier on my blog, I did mention human content writing is still undervalued.
You can use AI generated content at the top of the marketing funnel, but as you get lower, you still need a human writer because right now, only humans are capable of making a human to human connection.
We’ve all seen enough science fiction to believe this will change, but who knows how long that will take.
So you can use AI to generate billions of pages of content, but unless you’re making that connection at the bottom of the funnel, and creating a transaction, you’re not really growing your business through sales and revenue.
So, that brings us back to this vicious circle where we have a bunch of people using AI to generate a bunch of b*******…
…but the only way to keep up with them is to use AI yourself to generate content for yourself.
The problem there is, you have to decide whether you’re OK diluting your brand voice, or go for a quality content which is inevitably slower to produce because it’s less manufactured.
One caveat is, from all intents and purposes, AI-search is preferring high quality content, whether its written or edited by a human.
You have to have a human-in-the-loop.
Preparing My Sales Toolkit for the Audits
So, over the last few weeks, have been preparing my website and a sales toolkit to really push these AI-Search Readiness Audits.
It’s a never-ending process.
I’m still dipping my toes in the waters of business development and the sales process. I feel I’m getting a better grasp of it, but fuck it’s so new to me.
I mean, I’ve written sales content for years; I’ve even written pieces for a sales toolkit, but I’ve never actually used the sales tools.
Let me tell you something, it’s much different when you’re in front of someone and presenting it. You really have to be comfortable talking about it, and know it well enough to apply it’s features to any situation…
So a lot of quick thinking is involved, too.
Much respect to those salesmen that I say I hate engaging with.
Header Here?
I do learn something everyday, though.
For instance, I never really thought about how robust a sales kit you need to truly create sales.
Every time I think I’m catching up, I find out there’s something else I don’t have in the sales toolkit.
You pretty much need something for every situation, every type of client, and every objection they may throw up.
So I’m building that out of, on top of doing daily outreach out on LinkedIn and other platforms to try to generate sales.
One of the worst things about my business development is I don’t have the finances to buy the entire tech stack right now.
To really create a sales flow, you need something to help you bring in leads, verify the leads, create the tools, and then store the information.
SaaS companies have gotten smart and now charge for each step in that ecosystem.
So I’m doing it manually.
The Competition Looms
But there are other companies on my heels who have are developing their own version of the AI search Readiness audit.
And they’re doing outreach at a bigger scale than I am. So, they have a better chance of reaching curious customers because they’re generating more awareness about their audits.
It’s a tough game.
One of my other big problems is, I thought that when I get face-to-face with someone, I’m was pretty good at winning their trust and confidence.
But the truth is, thinking back, that might not be the case.
For some reason, I seem to have a lot of trouble getting that to say yes. So I really need to work on that.
And Uncertainty Looms, As Well
Underneath all of that, The Alexander Group’s contract is up. August is their last month, and I don’t have replacement.
In fact, things didn’t seem to end well, so I’m unsure I’ll ever get referrals from them, either.
I’m hoping I won’t have to go back into the workforce. I’ll be scrambling every morning and figure something out.
To top that all off, I have all these personal passion projects that I’ve been working on. Things like my YouTube channel and some side hustles I thought I could make some money like on.
I’ll have to put those aside for now.
Deven Bhagwandin 