Hi,

Last year, AI got its breakthrough. It astonished many of us and made us dream about the future of sales.

The sales leaders we talked to these days are all asking us the same question: what do we need? Because we really want to leverage AI in our sales. I’ll give you the answers in this email.

Right now, looking at the sales tech landscape, every tool developer is incorporating AI, if they haven’t already. Over the last few months, we’ve been testing a lot of these tools. And to put it mildly: the AI components are exaggerated. AI sounds captivating, but in the land of tech, the hype is a real thing.

These AI components in tools are either limited or not that good yet. There are two main reasons for it.

• AI is not a registered term, and nobody is checking if it’s true. So even if there is AI in a tool, it still doesn’t mean it’s up to par.
• The prompts they are using are based on current practices in sales and with that the same as everybody is doing. Not helping you to do better.

Does that mean AI is not for sales yet? No!

There are many tasks in sales that benefit massively from the AI technology that’s available now. This is my list of favorites:

• Writing:
  Salespeople perform a lot of written communication and not all of them excel at it. Writing tools for emails and offers are fully available and perform very well. ChatGPT does it well, but Microsoft and the better CRMs are up to par too. Instruct your team to start with crafting their own and have the tools check it, instead of the other way around.
• Strategic thinking:
  AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard can help you uncover what’s missing in deals or how to approach new leads. Before you start prompting, think of what’s relevant in your business and what qualifying methods are suiting for your situation. This will make the prompts way more specific. You still really need to guide the tools.
• Notes and summaries:
  Most of the meeting tools have recording functions right now. The audio can be used to create transcripts and summaries. Some languages are not fully covered in the more general tools like Microsoft, Zoom and Google but should come soon. If you want to do better, have a look at Salesnote. This tool does not only help with the transcription, it also pushes it into CRM and helps to fill the right fields in that CRM.
• Reporting:
  HubSpot was one of the first with ChatSpot to create instant reports based on your CRM data. The declarative approach that AI brings makes it so much easier to analyze data in your CRM. Many more CRMs are now following. For simpler analyses, this is doing quite well.

But autonomous is a long way ahead of us.

The holy grail of automation for sales is autonomous work. Things like prospecting or crafting proposals done completely without human intervention. I see a lot of people chatter about their autonomous lead gen tools, but I haven’t seen any tool that can do that for more complex B2B products and services.

It will take quite some time for tools to be good at this. I know we are all looking for that silver bullet but since we haven’t been able to craft the perfect recipe that works for every sales team, those tools can’t be invented either. The one thing to keep in mind within the overwhelming force of the hype: if you want these tools to deliver incredible results, you are the one that needs to put the gold in. It will take another two to three years for autonomous tasks to be done at the level you desire.

Even though the biggest advancements AI will bring us, are still ahead of us, no need to sit back. In every task in the sales process there are smart tools that will speed up your sales teams and with that their results. AI will be incorporated in those tools in the coming years, if they haven’t already, and with every month of progress, more value will come.

Because the hype is good for one thing: the fight between the software developers is on and you are the one profiting from it.

These are the posts Hanneke published on LinkedIn that are worth to check out:

Essential tools

In every part of the funnel. In this post you’ll read about the 6 essential tools in every part of the funnel. And yes, CRM covers some, but not all! Read it here!

9 Automations

We always implement. An overview of the 9 most used simple automations we always implement at our clients. From setting the data right to automated renewal deals. All done in less than 10 minutes each. Read it now.

I never thought I would venture into starting a newsletter, especially since LinkedIn has been doing it so well for many years. However, lately, I have become unsure about relying solely on LinkedIn.

There is a significant need for nuanced discussions on several topics, particularly in the field of sales technology. Unfortunately, conveying detailed insights in this area has proven to be quite challenging.

It made me leap into the world of newsletters, using the few I read every month as an example. You now read our very first. Every end of the month, you’ll get a deep dive on a topic I think matters to sales bosses.

I hope it helps you in your endeavors to more revenue intake. If you don’t want to receive this newsletter, below you can unsubscribe. I truly hope you don’t :-).