A friend spent four months and real money putting AI into her business. Good tools, the expensive ones. Last Tuesday she called to say it was confidently wrong about everything and she was about to rip the whole thing out. So I asked her one question. When your AI says this customer, where does it look? Long pause. That is the whole problem, and it has nothing to do with the model she picked. Your AI is not failing because it is not smart enough. It is failing because you handed a brilliant new hire a filing cabinet full of sticky notes and asked it to run your business. This is a build episode. No guest, no theory. I give away the eleven fields that make a business legible to a machine, all of them, on the air, with nothing to sign up for. I also tell the story of the day I found out that I did not have a book of business. I had a book of business in my head. And I say the part that is harder to say: the people who are worst at this are usually your best people, and telling them to be more organized is the wrong move. The Eleven Fields 1. Identity. Who they are, plus one identifier that never changes. Not their name. A record number. 2. Reach. How to contact them, and specifically which channel they actually answer. 3. Permission. What you are allowed to send them, on which channel, and when they told you that. 4. Source. How they found you. Not a guess. 5. Need. What they actually want, in their words, not in your product names. 6. Owner. One human being's name. Not a team. 7. Last. What actually happened the last time, and the date. A sentence, not a status. 8. Next. The next action, and the date it is due. 9. Timing. The one date when this person is actually buyable. A policy expiration, a contract end, a lease, a budget cycle. 10. Value. What they are worth, or what you expect them to be worth. 11. Proof. Where the documents live. Attached to the record, not in somebody's email. The rule that goes with them, and it is harder than the list: every interaction resolves back to a record. If it happened and it is not attached to a record, it did not happen, because in six months there will be no difference between the two. --- Q: What customer data does a small business need to capture for AI to be useful?A: Eleven fields, held in one canonical record that every person and every tool reads from. Identity, meaning who they are plus a permanent identifier that is not their name. Reach, the channel they actually answer rather than the threenumbers you have. Permission, what you may send them, where, and when they said so. Source, how they found you, not a guess. Need, what they want in their words rather than your product names. Owner, one human being rather than ateam. Last, what actually happened last time as a sentence and a date, not a status. Next, the next action and its due date. Timing, the one date when this person is genuinely buyable, such as a policy expiration, contract end, lease or budget cycle. Value, what they are worth or expected to be worth. Proof, where the documents actually live. One rule goes with the eleven and matters more than any of them: every interaction resolves back to a record, because in six months there is no difference between something that was not written down and something that did not happen. Ready to Take Action? Website and IMPACT:https://smallbusinessbigai.com/ MUSIC & SOUND CREDITS Music: "I Am with You" by Dream Cave; Epidemic Sound via iStock.com License ID: d483d505-8bd8-4b73-988f-298 Sound Effects: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/
