We all know that AI is evolving at breakneck speed. If you’re not on the train, you risk being left behind… and that’s especially true for salespeople.
Thankfully, it doesn’t take a Master’s in Computer Science to leverage AI in your day-to-day. Anyone can use these tools. And if you spend your days prospecting and cold calling, then today’s training is perfectly suited to you.
After all, sales is all about connecting with prospects, building trust, overcoming objections, communicating value, and ultimately building pipeline. And in 2024 we have a little tool right in our pockets that can help us master these things.
I’m going to share specific and practical ways to use AI in your day-to-day sales operations. Let’s get right to it.
Sales Tip: Pick up your smartphone. Go to your app store. Download ChatGPT app (it’s free). Click the headphone icon. And start using the new ChatGPT voice feature today.
Tools to Use
There are various AI tools at your fingertips. I recommend ChatGPT 4-o. It’s the latest (as of May ‘24) and it has a voice function, so you can have a full-blown sales conversation with the AI. You can also use Google’s Gemini or Perplexity.ai, which are other options I highly recommend.
How It Works
Instead of talking at you, how about I show you step-by-step? Let’s hop on ChatGPT 4-o. Keep in mind this can all be done using the new voice feature. Today we’re going to do some role-playing to learn how to overcome objections on the fly.
Note that CTO (me) is actually ChatGPT. You’ll get the idea as we go along…
If you’re not sure how to open your calls (the first ten seconds matter!), be sure to read this post. Also keep in mind that this isn’t exactly what I’d say on a call. I have my own proprietary approaches and methodologies, which I teach in my sales training courses. Below is a more generalized lead-in to get us started.
The main idea here is to keep the conversation going. Don’t push when your prospect is pulling. You have to remain positive and disarm them by talking about things like goals, visions, dreams.
By asking poignant questions, I can start to see the prospect’s main challenges and pain points. Then I can paint a picture where those pain points are completely fixed. Don’t sell features and benefits of your product, sell the transformation that can take place after purchase.
Now keep in mind that at the beginning of this sales conversations I had told ChatGPT this (below) so that it’s extra hard for me to schedule this meeting.
And it’s really making me earn my lunch here. At this point, I would just continue the conversation, bringing it back around to the prospect’s pain points, trying to truly understand their challenges and vision, and build trust and rapport. In some instances I won’t push for the meeting and instead loop back around in a couple of months. But we’re not ready to admit defeat just yet. So… where do we go from here?
If you get stuck, just ask ChatGPT how to move forward! I show you here what that can look like…
Aha! These are really sound options.
We can show how our product or service is different/better than their current team. We can offer a no-risk trial to get them used to our stellar service and outcomes. We can leverage testimonials, or just continue digging deeper with probing questions. All great options. Here’s how it says we can move the conversation forward…
Hopefully you’re starting to see just how useful ChatGPT can be when it comes to role playing and sales training in general.
And there’s no need to be afraid of it — I’m talking to it casually, not worrying at all about finding the perfect prompts. This isn’t your late 90’s internet technology here. This is 22nd century tech (even though we’re still in the 21st century). It’s that good. And it’s free. So there’s no reason why every salesperson isn’t leveraging it to get ahead.
The Benefits of Using AI for Sales Role Play
As you can see above, there are lots of reasons to use AI for sales role play. For instance, you get:
- Personalized feedback
- Customize for specific industries and roles
- Extremely efficient
- The AI doesn’t grow tired like people do / can practice anytime
- Can help your team scale training
- Practice overcoming objections and dealing with difficult situations
Final Words
Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be role playing with your colleagues and other sales professionals. You absolutely should. AI isn’t a replacement for the human touch, but it is there to supplement your efforts in a big way.
You can also use ChatGPT to ask straightahead questions, like “I want to improve my cold calling skills. What are 5 ways I can do that?” or “Can you help me find new techniques to ask for the sale without being too pushy?” It knows all of the answers. Of course, it doesn’t know them perfectly. You have to gut-check the AI with your common sense. But sure enough, it’s there to help you turbo-charge your existing efforts.
So get out there and use it! ChatGPT and other AI can help you master your sales skills and truly level up this year.
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso