WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF SELLING?
by: Troy Harrison
The sales profession is facing an entirely new type of competition. Whether it will be a game-changer is yet to be seen.
The topic of the LinkedIn poll was, “Can salespeople be replaced by AI in five years?” My instinctive reaction was probably the same as yours – “Of course not.” Then, I did a little thinking before I answered. And I realized that, yes, a lot of salespeople could be replaced by AI – not in five years, but RIGHT NOW. That’s because their skills aren’t really any better than your basic chatbot – and therein lies a problem for those of us who care deeply about the role of the professional salesperson.
Let’s be clear. I believe that there are things that skilled, engaged, professional salespeople can do that AI cannot and probably will not ever be able to do. But for this article, I wanted a more expert opinion. I decided to interview the most prominent current expert on AI about this very topic. I interviewed ChatGPT. That’s right – I interviewed AI about AI. Here’s a highlight from that interview:
Me: “Will AI be able to replace most salespeople in the future?”
ChatGPT: ”While AI technologies like ChatGPT have shown tremendous advancements in recent years and can perform many tasks with impressive accuracy, it cannot completely replace the role of a salesperson. There are several reasons why ChatGPT cannot replace salespeople:
- Personalization: Salespeople build relationships with their customers through personalized interactions that require a high level of emotional intelligence and human connection. AI technologies lack empathy, intuition, and emotional intelligence needed for human interactions.
- Complex sales processes: Some sales processes require a high degree of complexity and nuance that ChatGPT cannot handle. Salespeople can provide specialized knowledge, solve complex problems, and negotiate terms with customers.
- Trust and rapport building: Salespeople establish trust with customers over time through their interactions and relationship-building skills, which is essential to close sales. Building trust takes time and a deeper understanding of the customer's needs, which ChatGPT may not be able to provide.
In summary, ChatGPT can be used as a support tool for salespeople by providing relevant information, data, and customer insights. However, AI cannot replace the human-to-human connection that is necessary in sales interactions.”
Whew. Well, even ChatGPT thinks it can’t replace salespeople. So all is well, right?
Wrong.
Look at all of the things that ChatGPT says that salespeople do: “Build relationships with their customers through personalized interactions that require a high level of emotional intelligence and human connection, provide specialized knowledge, solve complex problems, establish trust with customers over time,” etc. Here’s the problem. An awful lot of today’s salespeople don’t do that. They go through the motions, they make some sales calls, and they put in some numbers. The level of engagement described by my “expert” is the level of skill that top salespeople show. That’s 20% or less of this profession.
The implication is that a large number of salespeople can be replaced by AI. Imagine an AI bot that dials a prospect, engages in a voice to voice conversation using prospecting and sales best practices, and even sets appointments. Heck, take it a step further and imagine it doing so in the same voice as the real salesperson who would handle the live appointment. Or how about an AI bot that sets Zoom sales appointments and then carries them out in a hologram? This kind of thing would have been science fiction five years ago – now it’s a coming reality. The tech to do the phone prospecting is almost here now – AI can have conversations through chatbots. Text to voice tech is here. And you can even train that tech to use your voice, or a voice similar enough that few people could detect it.
So what does all this mean for you?
It means that it’s time to up your game in every respect. If you’re a principal or a manager, ask yourself if your salespeople are exhibiting personalization, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, and trust-building on a day to day basis. If not, find ways to train them to do so.
It means that if you’re a salesperson, you have some work to do. Here’s a quick bullet-point list of what salespeople should be doing in order to move into the future of selling:
- Personalize your encounters. One size fits all sales calls don’t work anymore, if they ever did, and neither do canned presentations. Personalization means knowing your customer better by asking better and more questions, and then using the info you have discovered to solve problems – not just pushing whatever you can.
- Tune in to your customers. After asking a great question, it’s time to listen. Really listen and tune in to the words coming from the customer – they’re important. Watch their LinkedIn profiles for clues as to their viewpoints and priorities.
- Live empathy. Notice I didn’t say “show” empathy – that is inauthentic. I mean live Work on your ability to put yourself on the other side of the desk (mentally, you don’t want a lawsuit), and see things from the customer’s point of view. Facing the same situations, what would you do? How would you react or feel? That’s empathy.
- Focus on the Buyer’s Journey. In sales, we are trained to think about the “sales process” – projecting what we want onto the customer. It’s time to flip that script. Instead, think about the journey the buyer takes to reach a purchase, and what that buyer wants at each stage (this is part of living empathy).
- Use tech to its max. Competing with tech means using tech. The battle over CRM is over. It’s a good thing. Embrace it and use it. Use reviews of your customers’ businesses to learn more about them and find opportunities. Even using ChatGPT as a research tool is completely fair. It’s a tool – use it to be the best salesperson you can be.
Make no mistake about my outlook. A great salesperson will always be better than AI. A good salesperson will always be at least as good as great AI. I’m a 100% passionate advocate for personal selling by human beings to human customers. And just as I’m challenging you to up your game, I’m challenging myself to up mine. This space, in coming issues, will help us both to do just that.
Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!”, “The Pocket Sales Manager,” and a Speaker, Consultant, and Sales Navigator. He helps companies build more profitable and productive sales forces. To schedule a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review, call 913-645-3603 or e-mail Troy@TroyHarrison.com.