At Being Guided I have been focused on applying technology to increase sales effectiveness for the past 25 years. At the core of this work is designing and delivering Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for the high-value, high-touch sell, business and consumer.

As AI emerges, this post focuses on how a new Generative Demand System from Sprouts.ai¹ can deliver immediate value to market-facing teams, at the earliest stages in Go-To-Market initiatives. Think of Demand Creation Selling as a sales method for the high-value, high-touch sell.

Demand Creation Selling is the opposite of Demand Fulfilment Selling: proactive, not reactive; and, ideal for innovators, where buyers cannot know all and specify requirements in an arm's length Request For Proposal (RFP). This approach is all about Mutual Value Discovery.

Where Sprouts.ai fits as a data enrichment solution as a Generative Demand System, I will be updating this post soon to talk about the evolution of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems that embrace the concept of buyers joining sellers in what might be better described as a Customer Collaboration Platform. This is where UnifiedCRM⁴ is a great challenger!

UnifiedCRM.ai positions itself as an AI-first collaborative CRM that merges buyer enablement and sales enablement inside the CRM itself. This is bringing buyers directly into branded, shared workspaces so complex, multithreaded deals can progress faster and with greater transparency.

So UnifiedCRM becomes a single-platform consolidation for visibility and speed: Instead of stitching together a CRM, separate sales rooms, chat, video, and file tools, it centralises people, tools, and data. This removes syncing friction, reduce costs and provide 360° analytics.

However, long before a sales professional gets to engage with a real buyer, there is always the big challenge of identifying buyers who are actually in the market to buy, albeit they may have a clear idea about their problem but may have a less than clear understanding of the solution.

The first stage in Demand Creation Selling is Identify, followed by Connect, Engage and Convert.

Data Discovery may be divided into two categories: Public Data; and, Private Data. Sprouts.ai have launched a Generative Demand System that enriches data deeper and further, accessing over 20 trusted, GDPR-compliant Data Sources.

The Sprouts.ai modules are:

• Discover Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): AI-driven Analysis and Targeted Account List building.
• Enrich Database: curate Contact/Account Enrichment from 20+ top Data Sources.
• Identify Intent Signals: AI Intent Mapping to target Ready-to-Convert Accounts.
• Automated Outreach: Multi-Channel Campaigns across email, LinkedIn and phone.
• Predict Purchase Patterns: Machine Learning and Lead Scoring.

Buying Intent is central to the success of Sproats.ai, where AI Signals and Intent Topics are key to generating quality sales leads. One way to characterize Buying Intent is for AI to recognise what psychologists call a Need For Cognition (NFC)⁴.

High-NFC Prospects show intent by seeking, consuming, and acting on substantive, diagnostic information (e.g., technical docs, ROI models). Their 'Intent Expression' is argument-led.

Low-NFC Prospects show intent through responsiveness to credible cues and frictionless paths (trusted brands, testimonials, peers using it, quick wins). Their 'Intent Expression' is cue-led.

The high-value, high-touch sell is a human process that is enhanced by AI but ultimately, it is inherently a question of 'people buying people'. Think of this as a progressive conversation between buyer and seller that goes through four things: Receptivity; Rapport; Trust; and, Truth.

In the first step it's Receptivity: often from a cold start, as Sprouts.ai lead generation, this is where a 'Pierce Point' message has to cut through to get the buyer's attention. If the value proposition in is genuinely innovative then it is unlikely that the buyer can understand its value from afar by adopting an arm's length approach to procurement via a Request For Proposal (RFP).

When the problem-solution is a complex mapping, the buyer does not know all and relies on more than AI-powered online research to determine the solution to the problem. The sellside are required to educate the buyside.

If the Pierce Point message makes sense to the buyer as a potential solution to a compelling problem, what follows is a need for the seller to offer a 'Proof Point' validation of the solution as a credible option. This requires human Receptivity between buyer and seller to become Rapport. Then at this point, we have genuine, meaningful Engagement between buyer and seller.

Therefore, whilst AI drives an automated process through Identify, Connect, Engage and Convert steps, in a high-value sell it is the high-touch of humans that matter too. This is where the next generation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have a key role to play.

As you can see in my Digital Innovation post, the ability to generate Receptivity, Rapport, and Trust between all stakeholders also requires Reflection. Over time, Trust is build between buyer and seller if Rapport is underpinned by a quantification of the solution.

Design Thinking focuses on Empathizing as its first and most important stage in building Rapport and Trust with all stakeholders on ther buyside and the sellside. Value Engineering² provides a Proof Point as a solid Return On Investment ROI) argument that becomes the Truth.

As illustrated above, Demand Creation Selling enables Buyside Forecasting. Simply put, this means that the two values crucial to sales forecasts in a CRM system: Opportunity Amount; and, Close Date - are submitted by both buyer and seller, as collaborative CRM Users.

The key to Demand Creation Selling in a high-value, high-touch sell is the digital engagement between buyer and seller, where Design Thinking and Value Engineering come together with Reflection to go on a positive journey to maximise Receptivity, Rapport, Trust and Truth.

All of this starts with AI-powered lead generation and the four steps of Identify, Connect, Engage and Convert. Here the third and fourth steps are enriched by Intent Signals tested through Design Thinking and Value Engineering as human interactions.

Underpinning Demand Creation Selling as a sales method is a combination of the Generative Demand (eg. Sprouts.ai) and Collaborative CRM (eg. UnifiedCRM), as described briefly above.

References

1. Sprouts.ai. (2025). Retrieved October 14, 2025.
   https://sprouts.ai
2. The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. (2004) Stanford d.school. https://dschool.stanford.edu/about
3. Miles, L.D. (1947). The Lawrence D. Miles Value Engineering Reference Center Collection.
   https://minds.wiscon.edu/handle/1793/301
4. Haugtvedt, C. P., Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1992). Need for cognition and advertising: Understanding the role of personality variables in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 1(3), 239–260. Retrieved from richardepetty.com
   https://richardepetty.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1992-jcp-haugtvedt-petty-cacioppo.pdf)
5. UnifiedCRM. (2025). UnifiedCRM.ai: Collaborative CRM & sales engagement platform. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
   https://www.unifiedcrm.ai/