First, let’s define artificial intelligence or AI, as it is commonly referred to.

It’s

“the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages”.

Think about that for a moment.

How does AI already impact what you do?

More precisely, in what specific parts of your life would you find it difficult to perform your normal activities without AI? You get up in the morning. The house is already warm. Why? Because you programmed the heat to come on an hour before your alarm clock went off. You put your breakfast in the microwave, press a few buttons, and then hit Start. How did that appliance know at what power it should excite the molecules in the food and when to stop doing so?

You got in your car this morning. When you turned the key, the engine started, and all manner of lights came on for a moment on the dashboard – air bag, handbrake, BlueTooth, and clock.

And what about your phone. Suppose we took it away from you for a day, or forever?

You are already affected by AI in ways that you probably never thought of.

Programming. Fundamentally, there’s nothing mysterious or even difficult about computer programming.  The languages are complicated and there’s a lot to remember; but when you reduce it to it’s bare minimum, there are really only a couple of things that are going on. At its most basic – machine language – there are two commands. Just two. They are represented by a one and a zero. And from those two numbers, AI does everything.

There are only a couple of different types of activities.

One is a list of instructions.  Do this, then do this, then do this, etc. The computer “knows” because of the language the code is written in that when it finishes one command, it should then go to the next one.

The second type is what we call an if/then instruction.  If A happens, then do X; if B happens, then do Y. It’s this second type of instruction that gives AI some of its power. For example, a programme can sort through a mass of consumer data, and then organise it into groups of people according to their buying behaviour. You’ve probably experienced the results of this.

Let’s say that you’ve been searching on Google for reviews on digital pianos. Then you decide to check your favourite online news channel. You’ll see adverts about the very pianos that you were looking at. How does this website know that you were thinking about buying a digital piano?  It’s because the databases about people like you are bought and sold by those who want to sell you something.

If you’ve ever searched on Amazon for anything, you’ve probably noticed that you started receiving emails from them suggesting that you “treat yourself” to something that’s on your Wish List. That’s AI. The only people who search for something on Amazon are those who are thinking about buying something.

Now when you, as a salesperson, use AI, your programme is doing more or less the same thing. It’s taking a lot of information about your prospects and organising it into groups that share similar characteristics. By doing this, it is able to prioritise your list of prospects so that you can approach the ones where you are most likely to get a sale first.

In other words, it stops you from thinking that it’s a “numbers’ game”. In a numbers’ game, you assume that for every 100 people you contact, for example, a certain number of them will buy. Those are the odds, and it’s backed up by your experience.

AI makes it so that instead of you using your intuition to identify who to call on first, it analyses the data and tells you who they are. There’s bound to be some overlap between what you think and what it thinks, but unless you have a really good reason to disagree, you probably ought to trust the programme. If the information you’ve given it is accurate and the programme is dependable, then you can be confident that its decisions

will be dispassionate.

Emotion gets in the way of logic.

You depend on that to make a sale, but you are just as susceptible to it as those who are unaware. Overconfidence can do that to you. The risk, of course, is that you could be gradually “programmed” over time to rely only on what you’re told, and ignore your “gut” entirely. In time, it could mean that the “powers that be” like some great wizard will prescribe your behaviour. Logan’s Run is a movie about a society where that has happened.

AI predicts need

AI also helps you to predict what your customers will want and when they’ll be interested in that new product. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink!, talks about how big data is used to predict what people will buy on the basis of what they have bought. For instance, women who are pregnant will buy certain things in each of their trimesters.

When a company sees them buy a few items in one category, then they can be pretty sure that in a few months time, they will want to buy other items in the same category. On that basis, they will then provide coupons for those products and insert them into the supplemental sections of the newspaper they get. Of course, those coupons will be mixed in with other things.

Consumers would probably start a riot if they thought that companies knew their deepest secrets. That said, AI can give you the same kind of information about your prospects and customers; and as long as people don’t think that you’re listening to their private conversations, they’ll probably be grateful for the purchase suggestions that you make.

In some US supermarkets, coupons for own brand goods are printed on the back of the paper receipts. The products suggested are based on the ones you bought on your current trip. It’s amazing that this technique isn’t used in the UK.

What could you print on the back of your till receipts?

Social proof

In the world of sales, there is a phenomenon called “social proof”.  If you’re interested in an item, but aren’t sure if you should get it, then you’ll be more likely to buy it if you know that a friend of yours has already bought the same thing. Maybe you’ve noticed that when you were looking at an item online, that periodically a message will pop up to say that someone in this city or that one had just bought it.

Those messages are social proof.

They demonstrate that other people have overcome their reservations and are spending their money on that item. Those messages also create urgency. They give you that little bit of anxiety that makes you think that if you don’t jump in and buy right then, then they will run out of them. Now you’re dealing with an item that not only everyone wants, but that also might be scarce.

Fear of AI

Some consumers are becoming quite afraid of the capabilities of AI. Of course, they haven’t realised the extent to which it has been used in the past.  It’s only recently that they’ve gotten a glimpse into just how much it has been able to ascertain about them. In other words, AI has approached their privacy “red line”.

No busywork

AI will remove busywork. That means that the bar on jobs will continually be raised. Of course, this isn’t new. Assembly lines replaced manual labour a long time ago. But AI has gone further.

When you phone a company and you’re greeted with a voice that asks you to enter, for example, your account number, you may have noticed that the voice that reads it back to you is a little stilted.  Even the pitch of the voice is different for each number. That’s AI.

Before AI, you would have spoken to a human being the entire time. Now you have to use “coded language” to bypass AI in order to get to a real person. AI will eliminate much of the repetitive, mundane work involved in sales and give you more time to spend building relationships with customers and prospects. And the people who make the most sales in the future will be those who can use their data the most effectively. AI will give them that edge.

Another way of looking at this is to say that the longer you fight against using it, the more you will risk losing sales.  That’s because your competitors will be far less timid.

Sales manager

Your job as a sales’ manager will change because of AI. Data will be your friend. You’ll need to know how to use software that analyses the information you gather.  You’ll need to know what data to look at and why, and it may be different for every salesperson you manage.

You’ll have to learn how to do some coding so that you can tweak the capabilities of the software you use. There’s a lot of “open source” software available for free online.  With a little programming, you can tailor it for your needs.

AI has been with us for decades, but computer power has increased exponentially. There is so much more that can be done with it than most people ever imagined, and we’re still only at the beginning. So, imagine what sales and selling would look like in a perfect world, and then use AI to make it happen.

If you want to consider the future of selling in your business contact us here