Sales 2.0

Relationships will be critical in the AI age

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Sales is not getting any easier. Buyers have become even better at screening out salespeople.

When the Internet arrived, buyers’ need to speak to a salesperson to get basic information was eliminated. Buyers could go online and get all the information they needed.

About a decade ago, certain subject matter experts came up with a solution to this problem. The solution was do more. If buyers were not inviting salespeople in, the best response was to ask to be invited in more often. Many salespeople becoming mass email marketers.

Buyers adapted to this onslaught of email with improved “defenses”. Email metrics have dropped dramatically over the last ten years. The most important metric, actual responses and people wanting to talk to you, is now super low for most cold emails.

Today we are in the age of generative AI. This new technology allows us to create content at a huge scale. Some people see this as a new way for salespeople to generate even more outbound email (and social media messages). I predict buyers will react with their own AI defenses to this fresh tsunami of unwanted outreach. What should you do then if you want to sell your stuff in the age of AI?

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Getting to know your customer (AI version)

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It’s critical to know your customer. What do they care about? What’s on their top 5 list? What do they do about fixing those things? What alternatives do they have?
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One thing that bugs me is that 90% of the articles on this topic tell you to “look at your current customers and look for patterns amongst them, then use this information to figure out what your future customers will look like”.

OK, so this makes a bunch of sense…unless you are startup (or entering a completely new market.)
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If you’re just starting, you don’t have any customers!

You cannot analyze any patterns amongst zero customers. Even when you have a few customers, how do you find meaningful patterns amongst so few data points?

As the fog starts to clear on what generative AI can do, one of the things that is starting to stand out is using it to brainstorm. Getting to know your customer is a good application for generative AI systems in my estimation. When you are starting from scratch you can lean on AI to get your creative juices flowing.

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Off-Road vs On-Road Prospecting

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Prospecting is hard. There’s no need to make it even harder.

I’ve run dozens of experiments over the years on how to get through the door and start working with a new account. In every experiment, I’ve found that the number one factor that influences a successful outcome has been a human relationship.

The smartest piece of content has never beaten a warm introduction from another person. In my own experiments, I’ve found a referral of any kind (not necessarily from a client) to be 3.25 times more effective than a cold approach (based on time spent–it’s even more effective in terms of conversion rates.)

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Will you trust “her”?

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“Her” is a 2013 film about a lonely writer named Theodore Twombly, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, who develops a romantic relationship with an AI on his phone named Samantha, (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). The film predates the “coming out” of ChatGPT by a decade but surfaces some of the behavior that apparently is already happening on certain online dating sites.

In our more mundane, but still relationship-centric, world of sales, how far will buyers go with replacing relationships with humans with relationships with AI? My guess, for the foreseeable future, is not that far—at least when it comes to large purchases.

I believe AI will play the role of sales assistant not sales lead when it comes to important buying decisions.

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AI-Powered Selling and the Social Graph

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In the near future, savvy salespeople are going to greatly enhance their sales by leveraging AI. One of the mechanisms for this improvement will be leveraging the “social graph” more effectively.

It’s always been true that a referral beats any other lead, with referrals converting to customers 50% of the time, according to Joanne Black. AI will help us use our “social graph” to find referrals without spending too much time on research. Up to this point, this kind of research has generally been too time-consuming for the average salesperson.

The best tool today for this research is LinkedIn. LinkedIn can show us who knows who. Unfortunately, this connection data is not reliable, with the system showing people knowing many more people than they actually do in “real life”. In my research, I find that less than half the connections someone has on Linkedin are people they really know.

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AI In Sales: Disrupting traditional sales models

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This is the fifth in a series of interviews I am conducting with subject matter experts and practitioners in the sales profession. I am examining where we are today with AI in sales and where we are going.

This interview is with Scott Ingram. Scott is the Founder of Sales Success Media and hosts the Sales Success Stories and Daily Sales Tips podcasts.

Here’s a summary of our conversation and below this summary is the full transcript of our interview.

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