Leveraging AI for the Asphalt Industry Still Requires a Personal Relationship
BY Ed Wallace and Sandy Lender
Know when to use AI versus common sense: We still need relationships in the asphalt business
Many in the asphalt industry have been looking for more ways to leverage the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. From estimating to scheduling to plant operations to stockpile inventory and more, there are more uses coming online for asphalt professionals each week.
One area we can’t overlook is sales. Whether your title includes the word, you’re part of an industry that’s “selling” a resilient and sustainable product to agencies and taxpayers alike, and AI can help us do that more confidently and without losing the in-the-field relationships we still need to nurture.
When I thought about this topic and the content that I should use to write this article with my friend Sandy Lender, a story about my wife’s Jeep® Wrangler came to mind. Here’s how it went.
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AI Versus the Eye Test
Laurie Wallace was driving home one day when her Jeep stalled in the middle of an intersection. The note on the dash suggested to go someplace safe and restart the engine. How can you do that when the vehicle is stalled? So, she restarted in the middle of the intersection and drove to our local dealer. At the dealership, she asked them to check the battery, but the young service rep suggested it was likely in need of a software upgrade. He “plugged in it” and the Jeep started.
The next day, the same thing happened at a different intersection. She followed the dashboard instruction, restarted, and drove the Jeep back to our dealer. She again asked if they should check the battery, but the same service rep said, “We’ll just plug it in.” This time, AI said that a new circuit or something was needed. They made the repair, and she brought the Jeep home.
The next day, Laurie went to start the car in our garage, and it did not start. I called AAA and the first thing the driver asked was, “Did anybody look at the battery?” He lifted the hood and, sure enough, the battery was corroded. He ultimately towed the Jeep to the dealer, and the service manager apologized, said Laurie was right all along, and provided us with a new battery at no cost.
Humans Selling with AI Authenticity
And that leads us to the paradox that Sandy and I are wrestling with in this article: When to AI and when to shake hands? That is the question. It’s especially relevant in the construction industry, which, in Del Keffer’s words, “is a high contact sport. People meet over the hoods of their work trucks.”
Keffer is the vice president and general manager for the Wisconsin division of Roland Machinery Company. He’s been handling heavy equipment sales plus the management of sales teams for five decades. What he sees with the arrival of AI in the industry is a technology that’s leveling the playing field.
“AI is the CliffsNotes version of life itself,” Keffer said. “When we were in school, all we wanted was the answer so we could take the test. And that’s what AI is doing today…It’s making people lazy.”
That laziness, or CliffsNotes shortcut, is creeping into the sales experience. “You no longer have to study a spec sheet when you’re selling a piece of equipment,” Keffer said. At first blush, that sounds like the salesperson could save time by letting an AI scour the spec sheet and deliver an answer for a client. “Yet some of these spec sheets are really detailed, and those details are teaching you things.”
Keffer offered the example of an excavator, but we can easily see how this applies to right-sizing a wheel loader for the asphalt plant or selecting a tracked versus wheeled paver for mainline paving. He shared, when you study the spec sheet, seeking something specific like dig depth, your mind will pick out the dig depth you seek, but your mind is also “looking” at other information along the way. You’re also noticing things like swing speed and so on.
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The sad thing is, if the salesperson is using AI to teach himself the top 10 bullet points from the spec sheet that he thinks a customer’s going to ask about, he or she isn’t gathering the information around those 10 bullet points.
“The customer is asking for a reason,” Keffer said. “He’s not asking just to know the knowledge. He’s asking [because] he knows how that’s going to be used.”
If the salesperson doesn’t take the time to investigate it all, learning what makes up the whole machine, he or she will be less effective in the eyes of the customer. He or she damages the personal relationship with the customer by damaging his or her credibility and authenticity.
That authenticity is about more than taking time to read a spec sheet, of course. The salesperson is showing the customer that he or she can assimilate and verify data, but also cares about solving the pain points of the person who will be using the data.
“Authenticity is when you have a guy who can feel your emotion,” Keffer said. “A guy who can feel your passion, a guy who can feel your pain. So, authenticity is huge. It’s eye to eye, belly to belly communication.”
Not every asphalt professional is a natural when it comes to sales or projecting authenticity. Not only are we selling and trading equipment, as Keffer discussed, but we’re also “selling” a product to materials engineers, “selling” our industry to entice a new workforce, “selling” pavement maintenance methods to residential property managers, and so on. Keffer explained that the sales conversation requires you to speak clearly and concisely to communicate truths, fears, goals and passions, to establish trust. If you aren’t already an expert with that communication, AI can step in to help with the training.
AI As a Training Partner
Even in the construction industry, sales training can get assistance from AI. We sought help from Lynn DiBonaventura, learning and development expert with certifications in AI, to share foundational steps to use AI as a sales rep’s business partner. She began by suggesting we can use AI as a personal tool or as a coach. The coaching stood out considering Keffer’s concerns about remaining authentic. Either way, learning to prompt AI is the key to success, according to DiBonaventura.
“Prompting is just the way that you talk to the AI engine to get the most accurate response,” she said. “The whole interface of AI is based on getting it to [act] as a thought partner, not just give you an answer.”
You want the AI to help you think clearly, DiBonaventura explained, but you must use the right prompts for that result. When prompting an AI correctly, one result is that you can use it to train a salesperson in conducting better sales calls. Keep in mind, if your sales team members are unable to learn from other humans, you may have bigger problems than “how to sell” your product, but companies can now consider using AI as a tool when travel to sales conferences is not manageable.
During the discussion, DiBonaventura shared that the AI could not only handle the back-and-forth sales meeting conversation, but could then offer tips and guidance for improving the conversation, improving the call to action, improving follow-up, and so on. She shared that role-playing with the AI is one way to treat it as a training partner. Again, prompting it correctly is the key to success.
There are four essential steps to preparing a prompt for ChatGPT and DiBonaventura outlines those here.
- Tell ChatGPT what role it will play. Whether that’s the role of a chef when asking for a chicken salad recipe or the role of a property manager when asking it to train a salesperson, you tell the AI what role it will play.
- Provide context for a scenario.
- State the goal that you, as the user, wish to achieve.
- State the task that you wish for the AI to perform.
Check out the sidebar at the bottom of this article to see a detailed example of using this prompt method to facilitate a training session in ChatGPT.
DiBonaventura joined Keffer in stressing the importance of keeping business relationships authentic while leveraging the use of AI. She lists “technology enablement” as a foundational step in that leverage.
“AI in sales isn’t about replacing people,” she shared. Instead, adding this technology should be about streamlining everyone’s efforts. When automation takes care of forecasting, lead scoring, and other repetitive tasks, sales reps can focus on building authentic relationships, she explained. “The key is communication and integration: making sure teams understand what’s changing and how AI fits naturally into their workflow.
“Ultimately, the goal is a human–AI partnership where technology empowers people, people trust technology, and both evolve together,” she continued. “That’s when sales performance moves from reactive to predictive, and organizations see real cultural transformation, not just technological change.”
In conclusion, after speaking with Keffer and DiBonaventura, and our own experiences and research to date, we have the following takeaways for this phase of AI’s impact on the sales side of the asphalt industry:
- Salespeople within the asphalt industry and without, can use AI as a business partner and training tool
- Members of the asphalt industry must strike a balance between “meeting over the hood of an F150” and never leaving the computer screen
- We must continue to humanize every interaction, whether it originates from AI or with a handshake
- The key to getting the best results out of the AI “partnership” is learning the nuanced art of prompting
“The advice for AsphaltPro’s audience is that everyone, no matter what your age, no matter what your experience with computers, no matter what you do, you have to learn the basic prompting to engage with AI appropriately,” DiBonaventura said. “That is the first step for anybody. Now, some people will go faster, some people will fumble around with it, but that example that we did [see sidebar] is the baseline for anybody.”
As the AI revolution continues, regardless of technological upheaval, the only thing that cannot be commoditized or digitized is the sales rep’s relationships. Relationships will continue to have a rhythm and soul that technology will never be able to replicate, and we can only hope that salespersons, mechanics at the local car dealership, materials specifiers at the DOT, inspectors on our projects, and others in our industry will continue to meet over the hood of the work truck to develop human connection. That authenticity is up to each one of us to maintain.
Ed Wallace is the managing director at AchieveNEXT and a regular speaker at World of Asphalt. His most recent #1 best seller is “The Relationship Engine.”
Use AI to Strengthen Your Client Conversations
Are you interested in how AI can enhance your sales conversations? One effective method is to use ChatGPT to build an interactive tool that helps you get ready for customer meetings. All you need is the right prompt. There are four essential steps to working with ChatGPT. In this example, we’ll create an interactive tool using those four steps, but you can use this prompting approach for any objective you have.
Step 1. ROLE: Tell ChatGPT what role it will play.
“Act as a residential property manager who makes decisions for multi-family buildings. I am a salesperson for an asphalt repair company specializing in sealcoating, crack filling, and pavement maintenance.”
Step 2. CONTEXT: Provide detail about the situation (or the client) and yourself.
“From my perspective, the competitor is not doing a good job for the property manager, and my company could, but may be overpriced.”
Step 3. GOAL: Tell ChatGPT what you want to accomplish.
“My goal is to get a meeting with the property manager’s board of directors so I can pitch a five-year pavement preservation program to them.”
Step 4. TASK: Tell ChatGPT exactly what you want it to do and how—be as detailed as possible.
“To help me prepare for the meeting with the PM, create an interactive role play exercise, allowing me to make one decision at a time, while addressing common obstacles the PM may present.”
This prompt creates a simple way to rehearse objection handling, refine your consultative positioning, and prepare for high-stakes conversations with property managers, facility leaders, and community boards. Now let’s look at how it played out with ChatGPT serving as a trainer with this sample excerpt from the simulation.
Round 1—Initial Outreach
PM Response: “Hi, thanks for stopping by. I’ve seen your company’s name before, but to be honest, we already have a vendor we’ve been using for years. They’re not perfect, but they get the job done and the board likes their pricing. What can I help you with today?”
The AI trainer suggested the following…
Your Move: Present your opening statement or question. Choose ONE approach:
1. Value-Focused Approach: Emphasize asset preservation and long-term cost avoidance.
2. Risk-Focused Approach: Highlight the risks of deferred maintenance and inconsistencies.
3. Diagnostic Approach: Ask questions to understand pain points and build credibility.
4. Soft Ask: Position the interaction as advisory, not sales-driven.
Reply with the number of your chosen approach and your statement. I will respond as the PM and introduce a realistic obstacle for you to navigate.
You said: 1
Round 2—Obstacle Introduced
PM Response (Obstacle Introduced—Cost Sensitivity + Loyalty): “Okay, asset preservation sounds good in theory, but I’ll be honest with you — the Board is extremely budget-conscious. They prefer to do the bare minimum each year because it keeps owners happy in the short term.
“Our current vendor is cheap, and while their work isn’t perfect, it’s ‘good enough’ in the Board’s eyes. They don’t really see the value in spending more now to save later.
“So if your pricing is higher — and I’m guessing it probably is — I’m not sure how I could even justify bringing you in for a pitch.”
The AI trainer suggested the following…
Your Move: You need to respond in a way that keeps the conversation moving toward securing a Board meeting. Choose ONE of these strategic responses:
1. ROI Reframe: Shift the conversation from upfront cost to long-term capital protection.
2. Evidence Play: Offer data, benchmarks, or examples showing how cheaper work accelerates deterioration.
3. Low-Risk Intro: Propose a no-commitment assessment or pavement health report.
4. Pilot Project: Suggest a small test section to demonstrate value before a full switch.
5. Board-Focused Leverage: Position the meeting as a way to give the Board a comparison so they can make an informed decision.
Reply with the number and your exact response.
QUICK TIP: If you’d like feedback on your responses, you can add this prompt: “Please analyze the conversation from a coaching perspective, highlighting my strengths and areas where I could improve.”
ChatGPT also lets you revisit and change your answers, so you can experiment with different scenarios and see which approach works best for you.
This exercise shows how AI can help salespeople prepare for client meetings and improve their skills. It enables you to:
- Develop sales abilities more quickly
- Get ready for client meetings more effectively
- Receive instant coaching and feedback
- Practice handling objections and refining your sales approach
- Build strong relationships, even with challenging or loyal clients
Try it yourself: Copy the prompt above, paste it into ChatGPT, and customize it to run your own simulation. Use it before your next client meeting to improve your approach, sharpen your messaging, and boost your credibility with property managers and decision makers.