Sell & Grow
Commercial Path
Identify opportunities, engineer value and lead complex AIDC business.
How the path progresses
For sales professionals, business developers, account managers, channel teams and commercial leaders.
- Certified AIDC Professional The same foundation both paths begin from. If you already hold it, you never buy it again.
- Sales Specialist Discover · Qualify · Position · Value · Propose · Advance
- Commercial Expert Strategise · Engineer Value · Orchestrate · Negotiate · Close · Grow
Where this path leads
Typical roles on this path.
- AIDC Sales Executive
- Business Development Manager
- Account Manager
- Channel Manager
- Enterprise Sales Manager
- Commercial Director
What is actually taught
Each credential page lists its modules in full.
TRACE — our own commercial methodology
“Trace the opportunity before you architect the solution.” Taught at both levels. Built rather than licensed: a vendor-neutral credential cannot rest on somebody else’s branded method.
Auto DigitID framework
TRACE
“Trace the opportunity before you architect the solution.”
A vendor-neutral methodology for discovering and developing AIDC opportunities.
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Trigger
What created the need?
Something changed. A regulation, an audit, a growth plan, a failure, a new site, a customer demand. An opportunity with no trigger is usually a conversation, not a deal.
Regulation · Audit finding · Growth or expansion · Operational failure · Customer or partner demand · Technology end-of-life
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Reality
What does the operation look like today?
The actual workflow, systems and technology estate — not the one on the process map.
Organisation · Operation · Workflow · Systems · Technology estate · Current process
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Actors
Who owns, influences and decides?
Who matters, and are they aligned? An opportunity with no economic buyer is a project nobody has funded.
Operational owner · Technical owner · Economic buyer · Procurement · Compliance · Executive sponsor · Users · Blockers · Budget · Strategic alignment
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Consequence
What does the problem cost?
What it costs today and what changes if nothing is done. This is what separates a complaint from a business problem.
Error · Labour · Delay · Downtime · Risk · Lost revenue · Compliance exposure · Lost visibility
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Economic Path
What justifies change, and how does it advance?
The measurable gain, the capability required to achieve it, and the route from interest to outcome.
Current to desired state · Measurable gain · Capability required · Business case · Decision process · Technical validation · Procurement · Pilot · Approval · Deployment · Next action
State the capability, not the product
Not “The customer needs RFID.”
But “The customer needs automatic identification of pallet movements without individual manual scans.”
The first sentence is a product conclusion reached before the question was asked. The second is a capability — and only then is it worth asking whether RFID is the right answer, or whether barcode, vision or RTLS fits better.
Built rather than licensed. A vendor-neutral credential cannot be constructed on a third-party branded methodology, and a framework you own is one you can teach, publish and assess against without permission.
TRACE Opportunity Score
Score each of the five 0–5. Twenty-five is the maximum.
| Score | Signal | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 20–25 | Strong trace | Advance aggressively. |
| 15–19 | Developing trace | Advance with identified gaps. |
| 10–14 | Weak trace | Develop before committing resources. |
| Under 10 | No trace | Disqualify or nurture. |
These thresholds are a working model. These thresholds are a working model, mapped by proportion from the framework document's six-element draft. They are not empirically established figures and must be validated during curriculum development rather than taught as fact.
Industry and vertical training
SS04 is about a fifth of Sales Specialist. Each industry answers the same fifteen questions, so the method transfers.
SS04.1
Logistics, Warehousing & 3PL
Inbound, receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, packing, staging, loading, delivery and returns. WMS, ERP, TMS, YMS.
SS04.2
Retail & Distribution
Replenishment, shrinkage, POS scanning, apparel RFID, omnichannel fulfilment and stock accuracy.
SS04.3
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Patient, medication, specimen, blood, laboratory, pharmacy, medical device, asset, staff, consumable and cold chain.
SS04.4
Manufacturing & Industrial Automation
WIP tracking, traceability, genealogy, quality, tooling, maintenance and finished-goods identification.
SS04.5
Courier, Express & Postal
Collection, sortation, hub scanning, line haul, last mile and proof of delivery.
SS04.6
Government & Public Sector
Asset registers, national programmes, identity, revenue protection and public procurement.
SS04.7
Banking & Financial Services
Branch and cash-in-transit assets, document tracking, IT asset management and secure custody.
SS04.8
Energy, Utilities, Oil & Gas
Field assets, inspection rounds, metering, safety compliance and remote site visibility.
SS04.9
Transport, Ports & Aviation
Container and unit-load identification, gate operations, baggage, ground handling and yard visibility.
SS04.10
Hospitality & Events
Access, accreditation, asset and linen tracking, and stock control across venues.
SS04.11
Agriculture, Food & FMCG
Farm-to-fork traceability, batch and lot control, cold chain and GS1 identification.
SS04.12
Cross-Vertical Opportunity Lab
Applying the canvas to an unfamiliar industry, which is what the job actually requires.
The Vertical Opportunity Canvas — the fifteen questions
- How does this industry operate?
- Where does visibility break?
- Who buys, and who influences?
- What should I sell or position?
- What should I NOT sell?
Five of the fifteen questions every vertical answers. The full canvas is taught in SS04 and applied to all twelve industries.
How you are assessed
Sales Specialist
Five assessed components, weighted. A knowledge exam alone would not evidence commercial competence.
| Knowledge exam | 30% |
|---|---|
| Discovery and qualification case | 20% |
| Value and ROI exercise | 20% |
| Solution positioning case | 15% |
| Commercial proposal | 15% |
Commercial Expert
Three stages, deliberately harder than Level 2.
- Stage 1. Knowledge assessment
- Stage 2. Complex opportunity case: opportunity strategy, stakeholder map, solution hypothesis, value case, commercial strategy, risk register and executive proposal
- Stage 3. Panel defence, 30–45 minutes. The panel plays CFO, CIO, Operations Director and Procurement
What it costs
Standard rates. Every other rate is on the pricing page.
Sales Specialist and Commercial Expert are planned: not on sale yet; rates and bundles are published when each opens. Professional is open now.
Adding the other path
Already certified on the other path? You never buy Professional twice, and the credential-holder rate applies at your equivalent level or above.
The credentials are not interchangeable: a commercial credential never confers a technical role title.