Evaluate & Enable: Why AI agents are a leadership decision
The E in REVAGO stands for Evaluate & Enable. Why you, as leadership, need to decide on goals, mandate and accountability for AI agents in sales – and why you still do not have to run the agents day to day.
It is a familiar pattern: AI agents start out in IT or in a single department. Someone builds a prototype, the demo impresses – and then not much happens. The pilot stays a pilot because nobody with decision-making authority has defined what the system should achieve, how far it may act and who answers for it.
We are convinced that agents meant to secure and grow revenue belong on the leadership agenda. That is why the E in REVAGO stands for two tasks that go hand in hand: Evaluate and Enable.
What “a leadership decision” means – and what it does not
It does not mean that you will now steer agents in day-to-day business, click approvals or write prompts. It means that you, as leadership, decide on the framework in which agents and people work:
- The operating model: How should go-to-market and sales work once processes are designed from the desired result for agents and people with a human in the loop?
- The goals: Which revenue should be protected, which should be grown – and with what priority?
- The mandate: What remit do agents and people receive, with which scope for action and which decision rights?
- The framework of accountability: Who is responsible for what, where do people step in, when is something escalated?
No IT department and no service provider can answer these questions on your behalf. Day-to-day execution, by contrast, sits with the operational roles – at your company, at REVAGO or across both, depending on the engagement.
Evaluate: Where agents can secure and grow revenue
Not every process is suited to agents, and not every suitable process is worth it. Before anything is built, three questions take centre stage:
1. Where does revenue come from today – and where is it left on the table? The view goes beyond new business: Do existing customers buy again? Is the potential in current relationships being used? Are there dormant customers nobody contacts any more? Opportunities often sit at inconspicuous handovers – between enquiry and first meeting, between quote and follow-up, between the last order and the next need. Our use cases structure this into repeat business, customer expansion, customer reactivation and customer acquisition.
2. Which tasks are recurring, rule-based or time-critical? Agents can take the load off where people hit limits because of volume, routine or response time – for example when analysing customer data, preparing outreach or following up.
3. How big is the potential lever on revenue? An agent that saves time is helpful. An agent that makes sure, at a decisive point, that customers buy again or are won for the first time changes the business. Priorities are set by economic impact, not technical feasibility.
Evaluation also includes an honest question of fit: Does an AI-first operating model suit your company – and does REVAGO?
Enable: Equipping you to set the framework
Agents act on behalf of your company – depending on the task, they prepare, recommend, act with approval or act autonomously within defined limits. That raises questions only you, as leadership, can answer:
- How much autonomy is appropriate for which task, and where is a human decision needed?
- Which risks are acceptable – legal, reputational, financial?
- Who is accountable when a result is wrong?
- How do you know whether the system is working – and when to adjust or stop it?
That is why AI-first coaching for you, as leadership, is an integral part of our approach. It is not traditional consulting in which we set your goals. The goals come from your company. The coaching brings wishes, priorities and decisions that need to be made into view. Afterwards, you know how to approach agentic sales – AI agents in sales – and how to decide on it.
Phase 0: standalone, open-ended, a prerequisite
Evaluate & Enable takes place in phase 0. This coaching can be booked on its own and is a prerequisite for any ongoing REVAGO engagement. It is open-ended: concluding that your company does not need REVAGO, or that REVAGO is not the right fit, is a legitimate outcome.
If you decide to go further with REVAGO, the goals, mandate and framework of accountability are settled. On that basis, your functional leads and REVAGO shape the engagement in concrete terms. REVAGO then develops and integrates the system and takes over its technical operation. You will find more about the process on our services page, and answers about phase 0 and fees in the FAQ.
Why this step must not be skipped
It is tempting to start building straight away. The technology is available, and first results seem within quick reach. But without a clear evaluation and without your decisions, you end up with isolated solutions that nobody owns and nobody scales – and that do little to protect and grow revenue.
We coach you – that is the first part of what we promise, and it is no accident that it comes before building your agents and running your system.
The next article covers the V in REVAGO: Value – how to make the value of agents measurable. If you want to find out whether phase 0 is the right next step for your company, take the short assessment. A REVAGO coach then discusses your answers and your situation with you in a personal conversation. For an individual enquiry about terms, please get in touch via our contact page.