The 4 P’s are Now the 4 E’s. How does AI Impact the 4E’s in B2B Sales?
By Michael J Griffin
Mike’s Note: I originally wrote about the 4E’s in a blog in 2014. Here is my updated insights based on what I am learning from AI.
Way back in 1960, Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 P’s of marketing. You all know them from your marketing class at college:
Product
Place
Price
Promotion
Well, how times have changed. With the rise of the global internet and AI, the buyer has become the information king or queen. Ogilvy, the global advertising firm, has morphed the 4 P’s into the 4 E’s because of these changes that technology has brought to customers in the global marketplace. The four E’s are even more relevant today.
Product to.......Experience
Place to............Everyplace
Price to............Exchange
Promotion to Evangelism
AI adoption in buying behaviors have caused B2B customers to adapt the same characteristics of B2C customer. As I reflected on this, I began to visualize how this AI shift is accelerating B2B customers to the 4 E’s and how it is affecting B2B sales productivity.
Here is an overview how AI has accelerated this shift from the 4 P's to the 4 E's:
Product to Experience: AI personalization engines (like recommendation systems) turn static products into adaptive, emotionally resonant experiences at scale.
Price to Exchange: Predictive analytics let brands demonstrate and customize value dynamically rather than focusing on features and fixing prices.
Place to Everyplace: AI enables omnichannel presence, "intercepting" customers wherever they research or shop, rather than controlling distribution. Landing on the first Google page is short circuited.
Promotion to Evangelism: instead of broadcasting messages, AI helps identify and amplify genuine customer advocates, since audiences increasingly distrust AI-generated promotional content and reward authentic, shareable stories instead.
Now let’s gain insight on how this AI generated shift reshapes B2B sales:
Buyers arrive pre-educated. With AI research tools handling early-stage discovery and investigation, B2B customers often complete 60-70% of their journey before ever talking to a salesperson. This kills the traditional "gatekeeper" salesperson who controlled information flow (old Promotion/Place model). Now the customer is the king or queen of information, value and solutions.
Product to Experience: Salespeople sell less on spec sheets and more on how smoothly the buying and onboarding experience feels. Reps become “experience our value” orchestrators — coordinating demos, trials, and support rather than pitching features. They must create collaborative experiences that resonate value to each member of the buying committee. These experiences must build trust.
Price to Exchange: Negotiation shifts from fixed pricing to demonstrating value exchange (ROI, outcomes, partnership terms). AI helps here by providing insights that support tailored, impactful narratives focused on the customer's needs and emotional drivers — when the sales conversation resonates deeply focusing on problem solving and value, price becomes less central to the conversation. I see many B2B salespeople are hobbled because they have not learned to be a collaborative businessperson that can discuss and demonstrate ROI and long term value to higher levels of the customer organization.
Place to Everyplace: Salespeople must show up wherever buying committees are researching — LinkedIn, AI chat interfaces, review sites — not just via outbound calls. This means more content-driven selling and less cold outreach. Customers can search the world to compare your products and services to those of competitors you may never interact with! The flip side of this is B2B salespeople must also be fluent in AI prompts to research the customer, their markets, their problems.
Promotion to Evangelism: The salesperson’s job shifts from persuading with features to enabling internal champions who sell on the company's behalf inside their own organization (critical in B2B's multi-stakeholder deals). A B2B salesperson cannot just lean on the past reputation of their product or the superior features that have propelled their organization to become world class. Companies who refuse to make this culture change from a “feature leaning rep” to becoming a trusted, creative, problem-solving advisor will lose significant market share. This have been amplified by the Chinese high quality, lower price products and services that are knocking many “feature leaning” salespeople off their feet losing what seemed to be long term lucrative accounts.
Net effect on the role of a B2B salesperson: AI doesn't replace the salesperson — it handles the manual, repetitive work so reps can focus on relationships, nuanced conversations, and the human trust-building that actually drives deals forward. More organizations are also deploying AI agents alongside sales teams specifically to improve the customer experience, meaning reps increasingly manage AI-assisted workflows rather than doing all the prospecting themselves. The salesperson becomes less an information broker and more a trusted business advisor, key account strategist, and buying committee relationship architect with judgment, empathy, and complex problem-solving as the durable differentiators AI can't replicate. AI therefore can help salespeople hasten buying cycles and get the salesperson focused on selling value and trusting relationships.
Here's a practical three point playbook for each of the E’s:
Experience
Map the AI-influenced buyer journey — identify where prospects are likely using AI to research before ever contacting you, and make sure your content shows up accurately in those answers. This will require even greater collaboration between your sales force and marketing department.
Personalize every touchpoint using intent data (from tools like Salesforce Einstein or Klaviyo) so the first live interaction feels like a continuation of a conversation, not a cold start. This also means the salesperson must be really prepared to discuss business problems with the customer. You may only get one chance to be invited back.
Remove friction in the customer buying process itself — fast, clear proposals, self-serve trial access, responsive follow-up — since buyers now benchmark you against competitor convenience, acting like B2C customers.
Exchange
Lead with outcome-based value narratives, not just spec sheets — use AI-generated account insights to quantify ROI and value beyond lower price in the prospect's own language before discussing price.
Use predictive analytics to time the value conversation — engage when data shows buying intent is highest, so the exchange conversation feels earned, not pushed.
Offer flexible, value-aligned deal structures (usage-based pricing, pilot-to-scale terms) instead of static price lists, since AI-informed buyers expect pricing tied to demonstrated value.
Everyplace
Maintain a strong, accurate presence on the platforms AI models pull from — LinkedIn, review sites, your own site — so you're visible in AI-assisted research, not just human search. You may need help here to get you and your product into AI search results.
Practice omnichannel "interception" — show up via the channel the buyer prefers at the moment intent signals spike, rather than waiting for inbound. Keep active in your market via social media, networking events. Be proactive, not inbound reactive. This also goes for protecting your current lucrative accounts.
Equip your salespeople with mobile/async tool kits so they can respond to buying-committee questions, problems and issues in real time, wherever the deal conversation is happening.
Evangelism
Identify and cultivate internal champions early — give them the material (ROI decks, case studies) they need to sell on your behalf inside their own organization. Help them!!!!
Turn customer proof into shareable assets — authentic testimonials and stories that outperform anything AI-generated, since buyers can spot generic content. Create stories of customer success to share.
Ask for referrals and reviews systematically post-close, treating advocacy as a deliberate stage of the sales process rather than an afterthought.
The New 5th E – EDUCATE!
AI absorbs the research, admin, and data-crunching work, freeing the rep to spend more time on trust-building, judgment calls, and human relationship management — the parts of B2B buying and selling AI can't replicate. This is true for both the B2B customer and salesperson. Both must be fluent in how to use AI to drive meaningful, productive solutions that lead to customer success. This leads me to the “5th E” or Educate!
Educate!
Adapting the accelerating changes AI brings to sales and sales coaching means is a crucial culture change process. Your sales organization and sale teams must adapt and change as customers are changing fast. Salespeople who still desire to only be a “feature leaning” salesperson will hurt revenue and damage or weaken customer loyalty and relationships. Deadly!
Consultative Value Focused Selling Skills are still crucial to train and reinforce based on the rationale mentioned above. Keep up product and solution knowledge training to drive problem solving and salespeople creativity to solve customer business issues, but, more so train to improve the salesperson to become a business consultant that can build relationships and experiences for each unique member of the buying committees they deal with. We employ the combination of our ELAvate sales skill workshops with Salesably skill reinforcement and coaching.
Select and hire (or promote) salespeople and sales managers who truly have an evangelism attitude who believe in your organization and solutions with a desire to be a curious servant sales leader in every interaction with your customers. Remember a salesperson role is to lead customers to Win3 outcomes that move the sales forward: a win for the customer/buying committee, a win for your organization and a win for the salesperson.
Whew! AI is forcing us change our sales culture to adapt quicker and faster! I hope this blog has helped you in leading your salespeople and customers to mutual success!
Michael J Griffin
CEO and Founder of ELAvate
Global Sales Productivity Consultant
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
+65-91194008 (WhatsApp)