I am 54 years old, 30 years in B2B sales. I tried to build my own AI sales coach. Here is what happened

I am not a developer. I cannot write code.
I am a 54-year-old sales guy from China. 30 years selling industrial automation, robots, precision machinery in China and Japan market.
But last year, I decided to build an AI tool to put all my experience inside.
Not because I think AI is cool. Because I keep watching young sales reps make the same mistakes I already made 25 years ago. And nobody can teach them fast enough.

The real problem in B2B sales

Most sales people talk to wrong person inside client company. They spend 3, 4, 5 months building relationship with someone who cannot make decision.

I see this happen again and again in 30 years.

The decision maker is three levels above. The technical guy they keep meeting, he has no budget authority. No power to say yes. But he is polite, so sales rep keep visiting him, thinking project is progressing.

One day client go silent. Project disappear. Sales rep don't understand why.I understand why. Because I made this mistake too, many times.

My methodology: DDS

I developed something I call DDS — Diagnostic Deal Strategy.

Before selling anything, you need to understand three layers inside client:
• Who make final decision (decision maker)
• Who evaluate your solution technically
• Who actually use your product every day

Most sales people only touch one layer. They think they building relationship. Actually they building false hope.

DDS forces you to ask hard questions early. Is budget approved? Who else involved in this decision? What happen if project delay six months? What decision maker really worried about?

If you cannot answer these questions, you don't really know your deal status.

How I built Cliento

First version was simple. I write system prompt that encode DDS diagnostic logic. When sales engineer describe their situation, AI ask right questions in right sequence. Force them to think clearly about their deal.

Chinese version use DeepSeek API, run on Alibaba Cloud. English version use Claude API, deploy on Vercel. Free to try.

I call it Cliento Sales Advisor.

Important thing I learn: value is not which AI model you use. ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Claude — all can have conversation. The value is structured diagnostic framework inside system prompt. That is what make it different from just asking ChatGPT.

What surprised me most

I thought hard part is technology. It is not.

Hard part is making my own thinking explicit.

After 30 years, many things I do automatically. I don't notice I am doing it. Writing system prompt force me to explain every step. Why I ask this question at this moment? What I listening for in the answer?

That process teach me more about my own methodology than 30 years of doing it.

Current status

English version live: cliento-sales-advisor.vercel.app

GitHub: github.com/andybai2000/Cliento-sales-advisor

I also build full CRM demo with 8 realistic industrial B2B scenarios. Standalone HTML file. For sales teams in manufacturing and automation.

Still figuring out how to measure if AI coach actually improve real sales outcome. Deal cycle in industrial B2B is 6 to 18 months. Feedback loop is very long.

If you have experience building tools that encode domain expert knowledge into AI, I want to hear from you.