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Phase 2: Commercial AI for Growth

Goal: Turn AI literacy into commercial results — faster qualification, sharper account strategy, and stronger negotiation preparation across global industrial deals.

AttributeDetail
Duration8 weeks
Time commitment6-10 hours/week
Cost$0 core path (paid programs optional)
Capstone deliverableAI-Enhanced Strategic Account Playbook + a working Negotiation Prep Copilot prompt pack
Career signal"Uses AI to drive pipeline velocity and win rate" — directly tied to revenue

Why This Phase Matters (Market Alignment)​

This is where AI touches the P&L. For a business development leader, the durable advantage isn't knowing AI exists — it's operationalizing it into account strategy, qualification, and negotiation. These are the outcomes that show up on a résumé as revenue impact, and they map to VP/SVP Business Development, Chief Commercial Officer, and Growth Strategy roles.

Learning Objectives​

  1. Build repeatable AI-assisted workflows for account planning and qualification
  2. Engineer reliable prompt systems for executive briefings and deal prep
  3. Use AI to analyze proposals, pricing trade-offs, and competitive positioning
  4. Extract commercial signals from unstructured market/customer data
  5. Design human-in-the-loop checkpoints so AI never makes the high-stakes call alone

Week-by-Week Structure​

Week 7 — Prompt Systems for Commercial Work​

  • Learn: Google Prompting Essentials — advanced techniques (chaining, meta-prompting)
  • Learn: Anthropic Academy — prompt engineering for real work
  • Do: Build a reusable prompt template for a "strategic account one-pager"

Week 8 — AI-Assisted Account Intelligence​

  • Learn: Wharton — AI for Business, AI in People Management / Marketing modules (free audit)
  • Do: Produce AI-drafted account hypotheses for 3 Tier-1 accounts; validate each against what you actually know

Week 9 — Opportunity Qualification at Scale​

  • Do: Design an AI-supported triage workflow to score and prioritize dormant opportunities (fit, timing, value, access)
  • Do: Build a bilingual (EN/ES) re-engagement message framework

Week 10 — Proposal & Pricing Analysis​

  • Do: Use AI to stress-test a proposal: generate objections, competitor counters, and pricing trade-off scenarios
  • Do: Create a "deal risk checklist" the AI populates from your notes

Week 11 — Market & Customer Signal Extraction​

  • Do: Summarize industry reports and earnings/news into a customer's strategic priorities (tie to their AI/ESG/cost agenda)
  • Reference: industrial AI context (McKinsey, Accenture "From Explore to Ore")

Week 12 — The Negotiation Prep Copilot​

  • Do: Build a prompt pack that prepares you for a negotiation: BATNA analysis, concession ladder, stakeholder map, and objection handling
  • Do: Add a human-in-the-loop rule set (what AI drafts vs. what only you decide)

Week 13 — Industry Grounding: AI in Mining & Heavy Industry​

  • Learn: Review verified industry sources (McKinsey mining AI, GlobalData AI-in-mining, Accenture exploration)
  • Do: Map how your customers' AI-driven cost/safety/sustainability agendas change what they buy — and reframe your value proposition around it

Week 14 — Capstone Assembly​

  • Do: Assemble the Strategic Account Playbook and finalize the Negotiation Prep Copilot (see below)

Capstone Deliverables​

1. AI-Enhanced Strategic Account Playbook​

  • Account intelligence template (stakeholders, priorities, risk posture)
  • AI-generated hypotheses + human validation section
  • Executive-influence map and engagement plan
  • Reusable prompt library embedded in the playbook

2. Negotiation Prep Copilot (Prompt Pack)​

  • BATNA / concession-ladder generator
  • Objection-and-counter simulator
  • Multi-jurisdiction issue flags (commercial/legal/operational)
  • Explicit human-in-the-loop guardrails

Industry Grounding — AI in Mining & Industrial B2B​

  • ~90% of mining companies have adopted AI in some form, but few have scaled — a first-mover advantage for suppliers who speak the language.
  • Commercially relevant themes: predictive maintenance, autonomous operations, mineral targeting/exploration, ESG reporting.
  • Use these to frame supplier value against the customer's cost, safety, and sustainability agenda.

Sources cited in Sources & Verification.

Skills → Market Keywords​

AI-Driven Pipeline Management · Prompt Engineering for Business · AI Sales Enablement · Negotiation Strategy · Account-Based Growth · Commercial Analytics

Phase 2 Checkpoint (Gate to Phase 3)​

  • A working prompt library you use weekly
  • Completed Strategic Account Playbook for at least one Tier-1 account
  • Negotiation Prep Copilot tested on a real (or realistic) deal
  • Documented human-in-the-loop rules for high-stakes decisions