Will AI Replace Sales Reps?
I’m cutting right to the chase today with a simple Y-E-S.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace 300 million jobs. And that’s not just me blowing smoke. That’s from the latest Goldman Sachs’ report about the large effects of AI on jobs, economic growth, and the landscape of AI.
AI is affecting every industry, from coding to the current writer’s strike for television and film. This is why last week, I shared how it’s affecting copywriters and key takeaways to future-proof yourself.
So, now that you’ve refreshed your memory and realized that AI isn’t going away…Let’s look at how AI is going to affect sales reps and the sales industry and what you, a hard-working, dedicated, and passionate sales professional can do about it.
What is Generative AI?
First things first, we need to know what we’re dealing with In order to use it for our benefit.
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that has the ability to produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data. Often, it starts with a prompt in the form of text, images, videos, design, or any input that the AI system can process.
AI uses these inputs to identify the patterns and structures and output new and original content by leveraging different learning approaches. Examples of generative AI include ChatGPT, DALL-E, Bard, and Deepmind.
AI’s Effect on Sales Reps
Now that you’ve got an understanding of what we’re dealing with, it’s time to hone in on what it means for us sales reps.
By and large, sales reps have typically never been fast adopters of technology. And it’s not because we don’t see the value in it. It’s because we’ve stayed focused on building relationships, helping the customer gain insights and clarity on the best path to take, and solving complex problems. All admirable and effective pursuits.
However, our use of generative AI needs to be the exception to this rule for you and your sales team. The thing we use to break the technology latent pattern. Here’s how.
How You Can Use AI to Enhance Sales
In addition to our impactful human interactions, sales work requires a ton of administrative work like account research, drafting emails, and scheduling email sequences for routine interactions with customers. The list goes on and on…
It’s why companies like Microsoft and Salesforce have rolled out their own, sales-focused versions of generative AI tools to speed up these processes. Time is money and generative AI is bridging that gap and replacing highly talented sales professionals along the way.
Thankfully, for you and me, that’s not the case. Or, it won’t be if you follow my advice.
Three Ways to Make Yourself Irreplaceable Against AI
Reversing administrative creep
With the increasing use of sales technology and the growth in selling complexity, our days as sales reps feel consumed by administrative work. Where is the time to connect and build relationships when we have more data to enter and reports to review?
I’ll give you a hint…generative AI. I’m using ChatGPT to write my follow-up emails and my emails for scheduling quarterly business reviews. Essentially, if there’s an email to write where I need to make a request, you can bet I’m using ChatGPT.
But, don’t worry. I’m not letting generative AI do all the work. I make sure to review it, clean it up, and add that personal, tough-love touch you expect. Be sure you’re adding your own special flavor when using this tool.
2. Generating sales campaigns
Our job as sales reps is to bring a solution to solve a client’s problem. Or, solutions for their problems. Meaning we need to dig deeper into the customer’s own needs and even use these offerings for other customers and clients.
I’m using generative AI here too and dare I say, it’s been fun seeing how using it has positively elevated my own sales game.
Instead of writing sales campaigns from scratch, I’ll start with a ChatGPPT prompt and expand on it, thus improving the recommendations and bringing my buyer in to be part of the dialogue through its conversational user interface.
3. Nurturing client relationships
Sales is all about relationships. In order to build, maintain, and grow them, you need to put in the time and energy to get to know and understand your client and their needs.
Generative AI helps you nurture client relationships by helping with account research, analyzing buyer persona information, and interpreting sentiments and context behind a client's email.
If you’re leveraging ChatGPT or other generative AI tools in these three ways, you’re moving in the right direction. If not, then you better get with the program and start immediately. There’s still time.
Why Does Using Generative AI Matter?
Now that I’ve explained the what and the how. We’re closing out with the why. Why generative AI matters to sales reps far and wide and for you individually.
Most sales professionals will fail because they don’t think generative AI will impact them. The good ole Dunning Krueger effect.
As a refresher or for those who don’t know, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias whereby people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge.
The question, ‘Will AI replace sales reps?’ isn’t a matter of if anymore. It’s a matter of when and it all depends on what you do to make yourself indispensable. It means learning how to use the tools to your advantage.
Don’t fall victim. Work smarter, not harder. Step up or you will be replaced.
What’s Next?
Need help or just more support learning how to make generative AI work for you instead of against you?
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