Stefanie Boyer, Ph.D., professor of Marketing, tapped into the power of artificial intelligence for the app she co-founded, RNMKRS (pronounced “rainmakers”), which helps new and established sales professionals perfect their conversational approach with role-playing.

Below, Boyer discusses the development, and power, of RNMKRS:

What prompted you to launch RNMKRS? 
“I want to teach my students how to be great sellers. To sell, you need to be able to have great conversations. You must ask the right questions, listen, dig deep, and understand and help the customer. But I didn’t have enough time to watch all the practice role-plays I had assigned my students and give them the in-depth quality feedback they needed to be successful. 

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“Luckily, I met Scott Randall, who has been a game developer since the early ’90s. He designed a tool called the interpersonal communication engine that allows you to have a dialogue with the program. The best use for this technology is in sales because you have a huge chunk of the workforce not getting enough training or feedback — and then they become desperate and become bad sellers. We launched RNMKRS in 2019 to enable people to train and get feedback, no matter where they are in the world or in their career.” 

How does the AI-driven training work? 
“There’s a typical rubric you follow if you’re going to have a good conversation. In the college sales program, we adopt the same rubric with five phases, which is what the bot uses, as well. The students practice and get feedback immediately, allowing them to continue to train over and over again.

“This is not pitch practice; you don’t just memorize a script and deliver it. It’s practicing the art of the conversation. As students get better, the program gets more challenging, and the bot gets harder. It keeps the students engaged.

“My students do not like role-playing. It can be nerve-racking, especially if you’re role-playing with your boss, which makes it difficult to get the right kind of training and practice. With the bots, people can practice on their own. There are data analytics that are baked into the technology and the feedback that students are getting, so they can keep getting better"