Sales 2.0

AI Oil

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Data has been called the “new oil” because of its value to today’s computer systems. When it comes to AI, data is critical. AI needs huge amounts of data for training.

Essentially ChatGPT is now giving us access to a portion of the knowledge out there on the Internet (which is a lot—at least 1,200 petabytes.)

For many of us our focus over the last several months has been how to develop the best prompts to get the best responses from ChatGPT. Prompts have been getting longer and more complex, some of them essentially turning into a form of computer programming language. “Experts” are designing prompts that squeeze just a little bit more out of ChatGPT each time by “talking to it” in a way that makes it work more effectively (or just harder.)

Here’s my forecast though: Prompt engineering will not be enough to give any business a lasting competitive edge.

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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: Freeing up sellers to be more human

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This is number 9 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 Miro Putkonen and Anton Dobrzhanskiy of Epicbrief. Epicbrief’s mission is to make human work in sales more meaningful and valuable. Here’s a summary of our conversation and below this summary is the full transcript of our interview.

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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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AI In Sales: Mind the Gap!

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This is the fourth 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 David Kreiger. David is the President of SalesRoads, an award-winning B2B sales outsourcing firm providing appointment setting and lead generation services.

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

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