🙌 Ready to level up? Let’s go: 3 insights, 2 quotes, 1 tip, and 1 challenge
May 10, 2026 6:10 pm
Happy Sunday
4,800+ leaders across manufacturing, distribution, and technical industries open this each week. You're one of them.
Something has shifted in how customers prepare. The buyer no longer waits for the rep to bring the information. They arrive with it. AI has handed them speed, confidence, and a head start on the conversation.
The problem is that AI answers confidently whether the answer is correct or not. The rep is the one who has to know the difference, and most teams have not been trained to read it in real time.
This week's guest, Lonnie Power, Customer Business Manager at Heilind Electronics, has spent close to three decades inside this industry. He has worked both the supplier side and the distribution side, and his read on where the human role still wins is sharper than most you will hear.
If you lead a technical sales team, a rep firm, or a distribution business, this one will feel familiar fast.
Here are 3 insights, 2 quotes, 1 practical tip, and 1 challenge to take into your week
🔍 Three Insights on Leading Sales in an AI-Informed Market
I. Information Is Everywhere. Coherence Is Not
The rep used to win because they knew the part, the price, the lead time, and the alternative.
That edge is gone.
A buyer can pull a cross reference in two minutes and a competitive datasheet in five. Information has been democratized.
What has not been democratized is coherence. The customer is working across design houses, OEMs, contract manufacturers, fulfillment partners, and suppliers. They are pulling fragments from each. They are still missing a connected story.
That is the work the human still does. Connect the parties. Translate the data. Stay accessible when something breaks.
The rep who delivers information is replaceable. The rep who delivers coherence is the one customers keep.
II. AI Hands You the Answer. Judgment Tells You If It Is Right
Speed has never been higher. A rep can run a cross in two minutes, draft an outreach in thirty seconds, and surface a competitive option before the customer hangs up.
None of that means the answer is correct.
Senior buyers know to check. They have been burned. They have peeled the onion enough times to know what looks right and what is right are not the same thing.
Newer buyers move fast and trust the output. That is where exposure lives.
The leadership job is to coach the question, not just the speed. Where did this answer come from. What is missing. What would make us wrong.
Speed is the entry. Judgment is the differentiator.
III. The One Thing That Does Not Change Is You
Markets change. Tools change. Generations change. Companies restructure. Technologies replace categories.
You do not.
You are the one constant your customers see across every shift. The brand you build inside this industry is the asset that compounds while everything else moves.
The pattern is simple. Show up. Do what you said you would do. Follow through quickly. Do it consistently.
Most people do not. The ones who do become the ones customers reach for first when something hard lands on their desk.
Manage the one thing you control. Everything else is weather.
💬 Two Quotes to Reflect On
“It answers so confidently, doesn't it? Whether that answer is right or not is completely something different.”
– Lonnie Power, Customer Business Manager at Heilind Electronics
“You need to know what to trust. And when to trust.”
– Sannah Vinding, Engineer | Product Marketing Leader | Host of Leadership in Manufacturing
✅ One Actionable Tip For You
Run a 15 Minute AI Gap Debrief With Your Team This Week
Most sales teams have not yet built the muscle to read AI-assisted customer information in real time. The buyer arrives with an answer, and the rep either accepts it or contradicts it without knowing which is correct. That is a coaching gap you can close fast.
- Ask each rep to bring one customer conversation where AI-assisted research shaped the buyer's question
- Identify whether the AI output was correct, partially correct, or wrong
- Name what the rep did with it, and what they should do next time
- Make this a 15 minute weekly cadence, not a one-off training
- Reward the rep who catches the wrong answer first
The shift you will see is a team that competes on judgment, not information. That is the version of the rep customers cannot replace.
🎯 One Challenge For You
Spend a Week Practicing the Brand Habit
Lonnie's most direct line in the episode was about managing the one thing that does not change. You. The brand you build is the asset that compounds across every market shift. Most people talk about it. Few practice it on purpose.
This week, make and keep five small commitments to customers, peers, or your team. Small enough that no one notices if you miss. Big enough that they notice when you deliver.
Then ask yourself:
- Did I follow through on every one of them, or did one slip
- Where did I move slower than I said I would
- Who reached out to me because I was reliable
- What would change if this was how I operated every week
The principle is simple. Reliability is a brand. The people who lead in this industry are the ones whose word still travels.
Markets shift. Tools shift. Generations shift. The leaders who keep moving forward are the ones who stay coachable, stay reliable, and stay close to the customer when the answer is not obvious.
That is what this episode is about.
If there is a leadership topic you want to go deeper on, or someone you think should be on the show, I would love to hear from you.
I am grateful you are part of this community.
Stay curious.
Keep learning.
Sannah
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P.S. Send this one to a sales leader or rep firm principal who is rebuilding how their team operates in an AI-informed market. They will recognize the conversation immediately.