The sales and sales development world has evolved since I was cold-calling, outbound prospecting and selling for technology companies. Mundane, menial sales and sales development tasks today can be replaced or improved, in some cases, by innovation, technological advances, and AI.
Here is an example of how email transformed workplace efficiency:
Before the fax machine and email, the process for sales and sales development to invite customers to an event was to phone or mail them a physical invitation.
First, decide which customers will receive an invitation. Then, have each sales professional write an invitation to their customer and deliver it to the customer. Fax and email significantly improved this process, procedure, and workplace productivity, enhancing efficiency for sales representatives (although I am still a proponent of handwritten invitations in certain instances).
Will AI Build a Sales Pipeline for Sales and Sales Development
AI can automate tasks today, but a sales representative’s human relationships with customers are vital to build a sales pipeline.
In the example above, the criteria for selecting which customers receive an invitation must be sound before the sales representative can determine who to invite to the event. A well-defined process will evaluate customer invites, invitation message content and customer invitation delivery.
Before delivering the invitation, the sales representative must consider the customer invite list. While assembling and sending the invitation can be automated today, a salesperson’s discretion is still essential in formulating the customer invite list and is also needed to build a sales pipeline.
Automation After Process/Procedure Improvement
Here is an example: What if a firm wanted to host an “intimate gathering” for “key decision makers” in their “growth” customer accounts?
What if the executive host defines “intimate gathering” as 100 customer guests, “key decision makers”, those included in past customer purchases, and “growth”, having additional requirements for future products and services? Although these guidelines can help salespeople determine which customers to invite, ambiguity and gray areas will be involved in the salesperson’s customer selection process.
What if the number of customer invites exceeded the limit? Who will the sales representatives decide to invite?
One hundred fifty customers are on the list, but only 100 can attend the ‘intimate gathering.’ There is a restriction on the number of attendees to keep it an ‘intimate gathering.’
In either case, what if the invitation process was automated using email or AI even.
Consider This
In this scenario, the executive committee wants to invite one hundred customers, but salespeople selected one hundred fifty invites. Questions remain.
How do you determine which one hundred customers receive an invitation?
What if an AI workflow rule were to select the one hundred customers, who would receive an invitation?
Where would one write the rule?
Who should your salespeople invite to the ” intimate gathering”?
Do the sales and sales development representatives require discretion in determining which customers can come?
The answer is yes. The company must establish customer invite criteria, document sales development processes and procedures, and salespeople must invite customers. Still, in some cases, the selection process may be subject to the discretion of sales representatives.
Even with process, procedure, and criteria, dilemmas require human intervention. How are these situations resolved if AI automates the entire customer invite process? If the customer invite process is 100 percent AI automated without human oversight, inaccurate customer selection or omission from the customer invite list could affect revenue and sales outcomes in select situations.
Only a human, the salesperson, can determine which customers will be invited to the event if a unique invite situation arises.
AI and Technology Tools Lack Human Emotion Today
Although future applications of AI for sales development are unknown, will AI agents feel human emotion one day with the advent of Agentic AI for reasoning?
It once seemed far-fetched that fax and email would revolutionize efficiency in the workplace. Will AI agents one day master interactions with actual humans on an emotional level?
Human Emotion is Vital for Relationships Building
For example, I remember a sales situation early in my career where a prospect was adamant about a start date that was challenging for my company to accommodate. The prospect was reasonable on all aspects during the sales negotiation but was adamant about this date. I had built a strong working relationship with this prospect so I was perplexed why this start date was so important.
We went to lunch and I uncovered that she had a previous poor experience with an implementation and wanted to allot enough time for adjustments. I assured her the start date we originally proposed allowed for adjustments in our experience.
I had her talk with two customers about their implementation experience. She was assured we would meet her implementation date based on our proposed start date after speaking with our customers. We kept our originally proposed start date which she was comfortable with and the implementation was a success.
To build and maintain genuine human relationships, sales representatives must be empathetic and understand, listen and comprehend what they hear from prospects and customers and ignite the desire to take action and change how they do things today.
All of these attributes are human conditions. Without them, how do you build a relationship, engage in meaningful conversations and establish a trusting and significant relationship with someone, why would they buy from you?
Social skills and feelings you share for or with another human today are unique encounters between humans.
Two Examples : Will AI Replace a Human?
1.) Your customer has a baby. Who calls her to congratulate her?
2.) Your prospect’s dad passes away. Who goes to the service?
In conclusion, artificial intelligence and technological advances are good for society. It will transform sales and sales development and revenue and sales generation today by helping to automate menial, mundane tasks. It is progress and allows all to be more productive and efficient. Time will tell how advanced AI will become and which tasks it will automate, aiding workers, executives, etc. Perhaps one day, but at the moment humans still have the upper hand when it comes to empathy.
Until then, I think it necessary to recap this:
1.) AI can automate menial, mundane tasks, but human sales emotions are vital to building meaningful customer relationships and building a sales pipeline to increase revenue and sales.
2.) Defining, reviewing and testing processes or procedures before automating is essential to realize revenue and sales gains from the use of AI.
3.) AI for sales development is evolving quickly. Stay tuned as we see how artificial intelligence unfolds and affects our daily lives.
For a fresh perspective on modern prospecting, schedule a free 30 minute consultation with Elisa.
Elisa Ciarametaro, Principal at Exceed Sales, Inc., offers sound sales suggestions that make an impactful difference and better sales outcomes to individual contributors, managers, and executives in sales, sales development, marketing, and customer service. To learn more about Elisa Ciarametaro get more information at www.exceedsales.com and Exceed Sales Inc., sign up for our newsletter, call Elisa at 917 653 0125, email elisac@exceedsales.com or follow her on LinkedIn.