Black Lake CEO’s strategy to sell AI solutions to factories: turn to food couriers

Black Lake CEO Zhou Yuxiang hires food delivery workers as salespeople to sell AI automation solutions to family-run factories in China, a strategy that has helped the company serve 35,000 factory clients, 95% of which are SMEs, and become mainland China's top provider of cloud-based production management software, according to the International Data Corporation.

Black Lake CEO’s strategy to sell AI solutions to factories: turn to food couriers Tech company founder Zhou Yuxiang sits down with the South China Morning Post for his first interview with a Hong Kong media outlet artificial intelligence AI https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article automation solutions to millions of family-run factories across China, he came up with an unconventional strategy: hiring food delivery workers to make sales. His entire sales team, hired from various industrial cities, survived a gruelling five-day boot camp on articulating how AI can solve specific manufacturing pain points. “They are very street-smart,” the 36-year-old said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post. “Good college graduates are often thin-skinned. They linger in front of a factory and can’t get in. “But for food delivery guys, they just give a cigarette to the security guard and get in … They can also bypass guard dogs, or find a back door to get into a factory to meet the owner because they deliver food.” With a sales force of more than 420 delivery workers, Black Lake, established in 2016, has grown to serve 35,000 factory clients, 95 per cent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs . The International Data Corporation also ranks it as mainland China’s top provider of cloud-based production management software.