For sales leaders planning a kickoff
A sales kickoff speaker who sends your reps home with AI that's already working.
One keynote that makes the case, and a build session where every rep hires a first Digital Crew member for a job in their own week. Built around your CRM, your products and the AI tool you already pay for.
Digital Wichita Day · Wichita, KS
02 · The work, walked
A rep's week, the way it actually runs.
Ask a sales leader where the selling time goes and you get the same list in a different order. When Nevco Sports brought Mike to its national sales meeting, the reps' list looked like this: meeting notes that had to become Salesforce records, school board minutes to scan for bond approvals, equipment questions to answer in the middle of a call, follow-ups that had to sound like a person wrote them, and RFPs to read for the one clause that stalls an approval. That's Admin Drag, and every rep carries a version of it.
Each item on that list became a crew member the reps built in the room. You can see all nine on their workshop page. Every crew member got a rep who owns its output. And one thing never went to any of them: price. Margin calls stay with the rep and the sales leader.
Walkdown · A rep's week · LOG 04-2026
A rep's week in seven steps: a customer meeting kept by the rep; notes turned into a CRM record by a Scribe the rep owns; bond approvals found by a Scout the sales leader owns; spec answers during calls from a Coach the rep owns; follow-ups drafted by a Scribe in the rep's voice; tomorrow's call list ranked by a Coach the sales manager owns; and price and margin, which never go to the crew.
03 · Two ways to run it
Two ways to put it on your agenda.
Both are built for your team: your CRM, your products, the objections your buyers actually raise.
The keynote
One hour that changes what the room thinks AI is for.
The case for redesigning the work before buying more tools, told through your reps' week. It fits the opening morning or the slot after the numbers. Modern Litho booked the keynote for its national sales meeting.
Keynote plus build session
Reps leave with a crew member already working.
The keynote, then a hands-on build where every rep hires a first crew member for one job in their own week, inside the AI tool your company already licenses. Nevco's build session ran four hours.
Not sure which
Send the agenda first.
Tell Mike what the kickoff has to do and how much time it has. He'll say which format fits, including when the answer is the shorter one.
04 · Why build in the room
Nobody rises to the occasion. They fall back on what they practiced.
During the Apollo 11 descent, the guidance computer threw a 1202 alarm minutes from the surface. The call fell to Steve Bales, the 26-year-old Guidance Officer. He called GO, and the landing went on. What most people don't know is that weeks earlier, the Simulation Supervisor had thrown a program alarm at that same team in a training run. They blew it and aborted a landing they should have saved. Bales went back and wrote the rules for which alarms were survivable. When the real one fired, he wasn't guessing.
A keynote gives your reps the case. A build session gives them the sim. In one virtual session with a sales and service team of about 56 people, a survey beforehand named their biggest time sinks: reporting first, email second. In the build, four groups went after their own versions. One mapped a plan for connecting their CRM and reporting. One designed an onboarding form that would stop customer data being keyed in by hand. One worked out how to route incoming quote requests to the right team by keyword. One built an assistant for drafting replies in long executive email threads. Every group left with something they could test the next week.
That's the difference your reps feel in March. They've already met the problem once, with help in the room.
05 · Proof
What sales leaders said afterward.
Our sales team left that session having built their first agents and with a clear understanding of how AI tools can eliminate the daily administrative drag that keeps great salespeople from doing what they do best: selling.
Kenneth Turner · Director of Sales, Nevco Sports
He connected the dots between technology and day-to-day sales execution in a way that truly resonated.
Mark Gerling · Vice President of Sales, Modern Litho
06 · Questions
What sales leaders ask first.
Nevco's keynote ran an hour and its build session four hours. Both are shaped to your agenda, and the keynote works on its own.
No. The build starts from one job every rep does each week, so first-timers and power users work side by side and each leaves with something that fits where they are.
The ones you already pay for. Nevco built in Microsoft Copilot; other teams work in ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. The method doesn't change with the tool.
Yes. The 56-person build session above ran over video, with breakout groups and report-outs at the end.
Most kickoffs run in January and February, and their agendas get set in the fall. If your date is set, check availability. If it isn't, a short call will tell you which format fits.
Every rep leaves with what they built and the prompts to rebuild it. Teams that want to go further bring Mike back for the next step. For Nevco, that's deepening AI in its CRM and daily sales workflows.
07 · Meet Mike
Practitioner, not futurist.
Mike Allton runs his own business on a Digital Crew and hosts The AI Hat Podcast. He helps sales teams clear the Admin Drag burying their best people by redesigning the work first, so governed AI crew members take the busywork and reps get back to selling. More on the talks on the speaking page.
T-minus · Kickoff season
Your kickoff agenda is getting set now.
Most kickoffs land in January and February, and the agenda is decided in the fall. If you want your reps to walk out with something already working, check the calendar while the slot is still open.
Running a small firm rather than a sales floor? The free AI Opportunity Score shows what your team's admin is costing.