AI DOESN’T MAKE MESSAGES GENERIC. WE DO.

I analysed 25 start-ups, 25 mid-sized tech firms, 25 enterprise software companies and 25 IT services firms to see how tech companies explain who they are, what they do and why they matter? What I found was that tech companies suffer from ‘sameness’. Is this a problem? And if so, should you do something about it in an era where AI slop is turning ‘sameness’ into commercial risk. I invite you to read my analysis and download the research report, access below.

The Executive Voice

Change Initiatives: A Graveyard of False Starts

A false start is when your people fail to fully adopt a new system or way of working. Instead of achieving momentum, “the effort stalls, fades, then fails.”

There are many reasons why change initiatives fail inside tech companies that need to evolve their product / solution set or change business direction. Key is a lack of clear communication that impedes the development of a shared understanding of why this change is needed.

Change needs to be clearly justified by one or a combination of three drivers:

1. Increasing value
2. Reducing cost
3. Meeting safety, security or compliance requirements

If we don’t ‘present’ a case for change that’s stronger than doing nothing, there’s no urgency for people to act. Also, when communicating change, it’s important to contextualise the reason(s) in terms of market timing, growth ambitions, competitive pressures, and so on.

How to Avoid a False Start

Ask the right questions before a change initiative starts: Bring together people who support and oppose the change and ask: “Do we really need to change, or should we do nothing?” The answer might not be obvious. Perhaps doing nothing really is the better option. Or perhaps “wait and see” is really “wait and sink.”

Equip, Empower and Listen: When it comes to the team leading the change, it’s important to support them with the right messaging to influence others. Also, listen to their feedback, as change is an experiment and adjustments will need to be made.

Communicate early wins to bring others on board: once a change is implemented, people start looking for evidence that it’s working or not. It’s important to show the progress, communicate it consistently, and celebrate milestones along the way.

Key points are summarised from this HBR article which also talks about other reasons why change initiatives stall and fail.

Win Over Procurement by Respecting Their Role

Often derisively labelled the ‘sales prevention department’, procurement can instead play a positive role in the tender process.

I’ve worked with many smart and experienced strategic sellers who nevertheless loathe procurement, and avoid them because they view them as mere box-tickers or commercial blockers.

An attitude like this, whether warranted or not, doesn’t help you win a deal. It’s best to view procurement as a key decision-maker who needs to be feted and fed throughout a sales and pursuit process.

Why is Procurement Often Difficult to Deal With?

They know more about you than you imagine, and their organisation depends on them to make the best decision. The reality is that in complex B2B tech deals, procurement plays an important role because it’s the team that has likely conducted the market analysis and been asked to analyse the value and risk of a tech implementation project.

They’re also tough to deal with because they’re often adept at sourcing and negotiation and have extensive experience in contracting and developing supplier relationships. Contrary to popular belief, they’re not just there to get the lowest possible price.

If your deal structure is shabbily constructed, your solution story and pricing are shallow, unclear or dubious, their job is to show you the door. And that’s fair. It’s their responsibility to protect their organisation, not play nice with you; otherwise, their job is on the line.

Procurement is most often the most painful to deal with if you begin a relationship with them at the point of signing a deal. This naturally causes friction. Which is why it’s imperative to build a relationship long before negotiations.

What is Procurement Looking For?

At the start of a pursuit or part of your bid process, it’s important to carefully consider who is involved in procurement, what commercial and contractual issues cause delays and what procurement needs from you.

Depending on the tech investment, this might be:

Your executive sponsor may be buying the outcome. Procurement must also buy the conditions under which you’ll deliver it.

Tech sellers should therefore provide a clear commercial case, rather than leaving it to procurement to wade through their 70- 150-page tender response to extract it.

While you should cultivate relationships with the CEO, CFO, CIO, or COO, you also need to get close and personal with procurement instead of cynically moaning, “procurement is where deals go to die”.

The three biggest stories in tech this week, and what they mean.

AI Becomes a Geopolitical Weapon

Europe is confronting its dependence on American AI after US restrictions limited foreign access to advanced Anthropic models, prompting a G7 debate over trusted partners, sovereignty, and continued global technological reliance.

What’s Really Being Communicated
AI isn’t just a productivity platform. It’s strategic infrastructure that governments can restrict, forcing global businesses to reconsider their dependence on it, and the promises they make to customers and employees.

Meta’s AI Transformation Hits Employee Morale

Meta’s technology chief admitted employee morale is near its lowest ever after mass layoffs and forced transfers into AI work, including tasks some employees reportedly consider repetitive and soul-destroying.

What’s really being communicated?
Leaders are selling AI transformation as an exciting reinvention, while many employees experience disruption, surveillance, and diminished agency. The widening gap between corporate ambition and human reality is chipping away at trust.

AI’s Costs Are Catching Up With It’s Promises

Companies are abandoning all-you-can-eat AI as volatile token bills rise replacing leader boards and tokenmaxxing with usage caps, departmental budgets and tighter controls that may create new inequalities between teams internally.

What’s really being communicated?
The AI conversation is moving from enthusiastic adoption to financial accountability. Leaders now want to see where AI is genuinely delivering on productivity, revenue or lasting strategic value.

Phrase of the Week

AI Rationing: Limiting employees’ access to models, tokens or computing power because demand and costs have outpaced budgets.

When audiences know exactly what you’re going to say, they stop listening before you say it.

People in tech talk the same way. Every industry is like this. While there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with structuring an argument in a linear fashion or using jargon and familiar turns of phrase, they can become overly familiar and audiences either switch off, or pay only half attention.

For crucial or high-stakes communications such as when you need to implement an internal change initiative or deliver a presentation to decision-makers on a multi-million-dollar deal, it pays to think about how to subvert your audience's expectations as this will grab their attention, and have them listening hard.

Examples include:

To make it real, here are some scenarios and examples of how to subvert your audience’s expectations.

Use candour strategically

Say what they expect you to deny, or not admit to:

Town hall
Expected: It’s been another solid quarter.”
Unexpected: “There are a couple of things we’ve made harder than they needed to be.”

Investor event
Expected: “We’re well positioned to capture the opportunity ahead.”
Unexpected: “Here’s the assumption in our strategy that concerns us the most.”

Tender Presentation
Expected: “Thank you for the opportunity to present our solution.”
Unexpected: “You’ve already read our solution. Today, we want to focus on the two decisions that will determine whether it works.”

Start by answering their burning question

Begin with what the audience is privately wondering, especially what they’re worried about.

Town hall
“What does this strategy mean for my team, my workload and my job?”

Investor event
“What could stop this growth plan from working?”

Tender presentation
“Why should we believe your delivery will be any different from every other supplier’s?”

Don’t wait for your audience to ask that question later or walk away doubtful of you because it’s never answered. Surprise them by answering it upfront.

Break the usual presentation format

The surprise comes from changing the normal presentation sequence.

Town hall
Begin with employee Q & A, not the CEO and executive team updates.

Investor event
Begin with the biggest strategic risk, then explain how the company is managing it.

Tender presentation
Don’t spend the first 10 minutes introducing your company, the agenda and your team. Begin with a decision scenario, an implementation problem, a buyer dilemma, or, without so much as a, “Hi Everyone, I’m so and so”, immediately launch into a seemingly random story that in two minutes directly links to the value of your solution.

Change the experience, change the result

The goal is to replace the familiar, conventional or standard routine with something the audience finds more truthful, useful or impossible to ignore.

Next time you have an important presentation, spend time thinking through what’s predictable about your message. Then flip the script to get the attention and result you want.

AI DOESN’T MAKE MESSAGES GENERIC. WE DO.

I analysed 25 start-ups, 25 mid-sized tech firms, 25 enterprise software companies and 25 IT services firms to see how tech companies explain who they are, what they do and why they matter? What I found was that tech companies suffer from ‘sameness’. Is this a problem? And if so, should you do something about it in an era where AI slop is turning ‘sameness’ into commercial risk. I invite you to read my analysis and download the research report, access below.

If this helped you think differently about communication, forward this newsletter to someone who leads, sells or explains complex ideas in tech.