AI Didn’t Fix Their Pipeline. A Better Sales Methodology Did.

A room full of members walked into a workshop in Sundance, Utah last month. They weren’t there to learn about AI. They were there to fix their pipelines.

These weren’t founders sitting on the sidelines. They were pioneers. Members of Collective 54 who had already committed to becoming Era 3 AI firms. They didn’t need convincing. They didn’t need a hype session. They wanted help getting started and getting it right.

By the end of the workshop, every person in that room had a lightbulb moment. But it wasn’t about the technology. It was about what the technology made possible.

They had a sales methodology breakthrough. AI just happened to be what powered it.

The Real Problem No One’s Talking About

There’s a lot of noise right now about AI. Every conference. Every podcast. Every LinkedIn post. Founders are being told they need an AI strategy or they’ll be left behind.

But here’s the thing:

Nobody wakes up saying “I need to adopt AI.” They wake up saying “I need to hit my number.”

The real problem most founders are trying to solve is straightforward. How do I put more qualified leads into my pipeline? How do I improve my win rate? How do I achieve or exceed my revenue target?

That’s not an AI problem. That’s a sales methodology problem. And until you frame it that way, you’ll stay stuck.

Why AI Still Feels Like a Mountain

For the average founder, AI feels big. Too complex. Too expensive. Too risky. There’s a sense that you need a dedicated team, a six-figure budget, and a PhD to make it work.

So most founders do nothing. They watch from the sidelines. They attend a webinar or two. Maybe they experiment with ChatGPT for an email draft. But they never connect it to a real business problem.

The pioneers at Sundance proved that’s not how it works. They didn’t start with the tech. They started with the problem. And that made all the difference.

Start With the Problem, Not the Tech

The founders in that room came in with a clear goal: fill the pipeline with real leads and close more of them. Two problems. One outcome. Hit or exceed the revenue target.

When you start there, AI stops being abstract. It becomes a tool. A means to an end. And the surprising part? The tools that solve these problems already exist. They’re off the shelf. They’re within a boutique’s budget. You don’t need to build anything from scratch.

The founders at Sundance didn’t become AI engineers. They applied available technology to a proven sales methodology. That’s it. And the results were immediate.

What This Means for You

You don’t need to become an AI expert. You don’t need a chief AI officer or a transformation roadmap. You need to pick one problem that’s costing you revenue and find a tool that helps you solve it.

Start here:

What is the one challenge that, if solved, would have the biggest impact on your business? Is it lead generation? Is it win rate? Is it something else entirely?

Now ask: is there a tool that already exists that could help me solve this faster, better, or cheaper than I’m doing it today?

The answer, almost certainly, is yes. And it’s probably more affordable and accessible than you think.

The Bottom Line

The firms pulling ahead right now aren’t the ones with the most sophisticated AI strategy. They’re the ones who identified the problem costing them money, found the right tool, and got to work.

Stop overthinking it. Pick the problem. Take full advantage of the tools that are now available to you. They’re better, faster, and cheaper than anything we’ve had before.

And if you need help thinking through how to do that, Collective 54 is here for you.