We live in a time of truly unprecedented change,
and the data shows that the rate of change
is actually increasing, like up, up, up.
And there's no more daunting technology
to sales than artificial intelligence.
Is it good for sales?
Is it bad?
What does it mean for me?
The answers to these questions are obviously
pretty complicated and not entirely straightforward,
but what I can say with total confidence is that there
will be some people who will benefit greatly,
and then there will be others who will just be dead.
And the data suggests that artificial intelligence
will actually start to make a big impact
on sales and selling in just a few years.
But actually, it's already here,
and it's already making changes.
Do you want to get in on the winning side of these changes?
I've spoken to some of the world leading experts
in this topic, and I want to share with you
how you can use these changes that are going to happen
one way or another to your advantage.
In this video, I'm going to show you how artificial
intelligence is changing sales and selling right now.
Check it out.
Number one, we now know what really works.
There are a number of companies that are already utilizing
artificial intelligence to analyze sales data.
I mean, this is mind blowing changes,
and one company that's really leading
that charge is a company called Gong.io.
And they are using artificial intelligence
to analyze millions and millions of sales conversations,
then running it through the artificial intelligence
algorithms and basically pulling out specific conclusions
on what's actually working versus what isn't working.
What's amazing about this is that this is literally
the first time in history that we're starting
to be able to know what really does work
in selling situations versus what doesn't.
For so many years, it was much more anecdotal
and much more I would maybe observe people.
But now because of the actual data from what these companies
are doing, we really know what works.
I'll give you a couple of examples
of what really is working.
The first is business related questions.
What the data now shows is that
the sales people that are at the top performers
most likely to close business, they're asking
about twice as many business related questions.
So that means they're asking about 10 or so
business related questions of their prospects,
big picture questions, each hour,
whereas average and underperforming reps
are asking really about half of that
at six or so at the most per every hour.
So what do we take from that?
Start to really ask, and this is something
that we've been talking about for so long,
but it's so powerful that we really know
that this is working, is asking questions
that are really those big picture questions,
something that might sound like, George, tell me,
what are you really looking to accomplish this year?
From a high level perspective,
what are your top three objectives?
The other big piece of information that we've pulled
from these companies being able to really analyze
this data is the attention that we pay
to the talk versus listen ratio.
And what we now know is that top salespeople
are doing a lot more listening
than average and bottom performing sales people.
Now, I've been telling people for years
you need to be listening more,
but now is the first time in history
that I actually have truly conclusive data
that this is absolutely what you must be doing,
and it's really exciting.
The more listening you're doing
of your prospects, the better.
The last piece that's really also quite interesting
is something that we didn't really know or expect was
the number of conversation switches in a conversation.
What was discovered is that top performing sales reps
are really having far more conversation switches
with the prospect where it's more of a back and forth
than average and bottom performing reps.
Average and bottom performing reps
are doing a lot more talking for a long period of time,
therefore there's not as many conversation switches.
So be sure that you don't just drone
on and on and on in your selling situations.
Instead, be sure that even when
you're presenting your solution,
you're bringing them back into the conversation throughout.
All of these ideas are now completely backed
by data as a result of having artificial intelligence,
really, really cool stuff that is going
to change the way you're able to sell.
Change number two is that the bottom
of our profession is dead.
This is true, this is unavoidable,
it's sad, but there's not really much that we can do
to help those people who are really
at the bottom of the selling profession.
The only thing that I can encourage them
to do is to get out of that bottom
of the profession and work their way up.
You know, people who are just telemarketing
and pitching these dinky little offerings
are just going to be gone if they aren't already.
You know, there was a time when someone could make
a pretty solid living just being a telemarketer,
but there's already technology being built
that is going to completely replace
all of that low lever telemarketing.
In fact, you probably get calls from machines all the time.
That technology is going to improve dramatically
over just the next couple of years.
Now, this isn't to say that cold calling is entirely dead,
because cold calling to high level prospects
is absolutely still something that works all the time.
But the low level, particularly
consumer telemarketing, is kind of a goner.
And there are going to be very few people who are going
to be in sales earning, let's say, $40,000 a year.
You're either going to be making
hundreds of thousands of dollars at the really high end,
or you won't be in sales at all.
That's to some degree your choice.
Which side of the spectrum are you going to be on?
Are you going to be the type of person
that's going to arm yourself and prepare yourself
for some of these changes that are coming?
Number three, if you only communicate value,
the machines are coming.
Now, this isn't to alarm people,
because there's a solution to this,
but if all you do in sales is pitch
how great your product is, then you're going to be dead,
because a machine can do that better and for far less.
Already, we see in selling today that marketing automation
is taking a pretty big slice out of a part of selling
that traditionally was done by people.
And no longer do we need a human being to do that,
because there's a machine that can already do it.
But AI is only going to increase
and make that shift more dramatic than it already is.
You know, it's like my friend at Gong.io,
Chris Orlob, recently told me.
Just communicating value is going to be,
really it's going to be the job of marketing and automation.
If all you're doing is talking about
how great your offering is, that's not gonna last.
Great sales people are going to be the people
who create value in their conversations.
They're going to build real and meaningful relationships.
And those people who do go beyond
just communicating value and actually
create value, those folks are gonna thrive.
And so I hope that you choose to be one of those people,
and that actually leads to my last point,
which is number four, that value creators
are going to be irreplaceable in this changing economy.
Creating value requires that you have
a deep and meaningful conversation with a prospect.
It requires that you use social intelligence
and humanity to create a trusting bond
that will prompt your prospects and clients
to share what they actually care about.
You know, people who have the ability to connect
with others, to have meaningful business conversations,
are going to thrive, because no machine can replace that.
At least for a very, very long time,
and hopefully none of us are around by that time.
But in order to thrive over the next, let's say, 30 years,
position yourself to be a value creator,
someone who really is having deep
and powerful conversations with human beings.
Use your humanity to help others understand their challenges
and to accomplish their most pressing goals.
If you can do that, then you are absolutely going
to crush it, and no machine is
going to be able to replace you
or those types of powerful interactions that you're having.
So there is how artificial intelligence
is changing sales and selling right now.
And if you enjoyed this video,
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