What Sales Pros Told Me They Want from AI (pleasantly surprising)

Last week I asked sales pros like you four simple questions about how they're using AI.

I expected the answers to revolve around writing emails, creating scripts, and finding more leads.

They didn't.

After reading every response, asking follow up questions with most of them, one theme kept appearing.

Salespeople don't want AI to replace selling.

They want AI to help them become better salespeople.

The biggest time drains?

Research.

Finding the right contact.

Preparing for calls.

Sorting through too much information.

The biggest frustrations?

Generic answers.

AI agreeing with everything… even when it turns out you are wrong.

Too much information and not enough relevance. (It does tend to like to listen to itself talk, doesn’t it? Like many humans, anyway …)

Not knowing what's actually important.

And the biggest opportunity?

Almost everyone wanted AI to help them think better before a conversation, not simply generate more content.

One response summed it up perfectly:

Love that one! I couldn't agree more.

That shouldn’t be a shocker, right? I first heard that in college when we had to take a Cobol programming class in business school. (That was before PC’s.)

But most people ask AI to do work.

Very few ask it to help them think.

Here's a simple example.

Instead of asking, or telling ChatGPT to just “Research this company and tell me what you find.”

Try asking:

"Help me determine whether I have a legitimate reason to call this person."

I tried that recently.

¹One part of the response surprised me:

"Based on the available information, there is no compelling reason to call today. Reaching out now would likely sound like every other vendor."

I loved that answer.

Not because it told me to call.

Because it told me not to.

Too often, AI tries to be helpful by answering the question you ask, instead of helping you think of a better one.

What we really need is something that helps us make better decisions.

Here are three quick ways to improve your own AI results:

You'll usually spend less time reading and more time thinking.

That's where better sales conversations begin. And, quality conversations are what we want to become better at, right?

I'm still going through all of the responses, and there are some fascinating patterns emerging. They're also helping shape something I'm working on that I believe will help sales professionals become better prepared, ask better questions, and have better conversations, and be more efficient. I'll share more about that in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you.

What's one thing AI has genuinely helped you do better, and what's one thing it still doesn't do very well?

I read and reply to every one personally.

Finish the week strong, and have a great weekend!