Newsflash: Artificial intelligence and a bot will not take your sales job from you, unless you let it.
Sales is the “art of selling.” It always has been and it always will be for one very simple reason — sales is about a transaction between two human beings. You’re reading this post as a human and newsflash — I wrote it! This blog post was not written by “Watson.”
In my book “High-Profit Prospecting,” I go deep into the subject of how our own mind and attitude drive not only the results we achieve in prospecting, but also what we achieve in sales overall.
Call me skeptical, but I suspect my dog will have far more personality for many years to come than any form of artificial intelligence. Despite the level of personality my dog Kramer has, I don’t see him ever being smart enough to buy anything. The most advanced selling skills he’s come up with is the art of begging for food. I admit he’s pretty good at that, but it still falls far short of a typical buying/selling transaction.
Every day I get at least one email or call from a salesperson touting the latest sales automation tool on the market and how this is the tool that will revolutionize sales. Call me a skeptic, but the tool might be great but thinking it’s going to revolutionize sales is a stretch.
The most successful salespeople in any industry are those who allow their personality to come through. They allow themselves to be seen as a human being with whom the customer can discuss things. They’re far more than an on-line chat board or an FAQ section on a website. Salespeople are humans just as customers are humans, and it’s amazing what can happen when they engage in conversation.
More than ever the marketplace is begging for customer interaction. When you bring it to your prospects and customers alike, you’re fulfilling a huge void. I count it a pleasure to interact with prospects and customers. For me it puts gas in my engine that allows me to go even faster.
What will you do today to step up your interaction? If artificial intelligence winds up taking your job someday, it will only be due to your own failure in embracing the customer at a level sufficient enough to make an impact.
Copyright 2017, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
One Response
All we need to do to see the future of selling is to look at Amazon or Elon Musk and TESLA. Let’s take a quick look at Tesla. Tesla doesn’t sell its vehicles it enables the buyer to creates the ideal auto via online portal where the interaction is with Tesla technology vs. the traditional auto salesperson.
The art of selling everything is changing thanks to Amazon & Tesla. Every forward looking salesperson should be thinking self disruption versus waiting to be disrupted. #Digital #Darwinism #Taoso