Race to Replace

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. Scrolling through the news, LinkedIn, social media, you can’t avoid it. Yet there is this race to replace people with AI functions, especially sales reps. Or so it seems.

Except AI and machine learning aren’t something new, they’ve been here for years. ChatGPT just happened to rekindle everyone’s interest because it could do way cooler tricks than Siri.

As cool as those tricks are, it’s not going to replace your sales teams, so easy there, turbo CRO.

This is fueled by the age old methodology of hiring and firing your way to a good team. Need more sales? Hire more reps. Raise quotas and hope they hit. Buy another sales tool. But make your reps more efficient? Preposterous!

We sellers, and those who support us, are caught in the middle. Many companies are holding off on hiring or reducing head count because of the uncertain future AI could bring.

What can I, a humble sales enjoyer do?

In the past, sales reps were often bogged down by repetitive tasks like researching accounts, reading reports, and sending out email templates. But AI can automate these tasks, freeing up reps to focus on more strategic activities like building relationships and closing deals.

For example, AI can be used to:

• Identify and qualify leads: AI can analyze data to identify potential leads that are a good fit for your product or service. This can save reps a lot of time that would otherwise be spent cold calling or emailing unqualified leads. Take a list of your accounts and drop them into ChatGPT and ask it to rate them based on your ideal customer profile.

• Prep for calls/meetings: AI can tell you about recent events in a business. What a new persona added at the last minute cares about, what positions in the company best align with your solution and more. Best of all, you can use this on the fly. Imagine when it works well enough to be your own personal Jarvis listening to calls? It’s coming sooner than we think.

• Send personalized emails: AI can generate personalized email templates that are tailored to each individual recipient. This can help reps build rapport with their prospects and increase the chances of getting a response. But please, don’t get lazy with this. Enhance and augment your outreach. Don’t turn ChatGPT into your copy paste machine. You’ll only prove those consultants right, you know the ones claiming you can be replace by a robot already?

• Research accounts: AI can gather information about your accounts, such as their website traffic, social media activity, and customer reviews. This information can help reps understand their accounts better and tailor their sales pitches accordingly. A 10-K, for example, can be a tedious and lengthy read. Using a tool like Bard or ChatGPT can help you look for specific info or help build a POV based on what you services you offer or sell.

Of course, AI is not a replacement for human sales reps. AI can't replace the human touch that is essential for building relationships and closing business. But AI can be a powerful tool that can help sales reps be more efficient and effective. After all, people still buy from people.

If you're looking for ways to improve your sales team's performance, I encourage you to consider using AI. It's a powerful tool that can help you save time, improve your results, and reach your goals.

Here are some tips for using AI in sales:

• Start small: Don't try to implement AI all at once. Start by automating a few simple tasks and see how it goes.

• Be specific: When you're using AI to automate tasks, be as specific as possible. The more specific you are, the better the results will be.

• Adjust: As you use AI, monitor the results and make adjustments as needed. A/B testing with your messaging can help in a major way. This will help you get the most out of AI.

This is that moment of “you need to know how to do long division. You won’t have a calculator in your pocket.”

Use AI to enhance and augment your efforts if you aren’t already. If you’re not, get started before your competition does

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