Articles

AI is everywhere in sales today. From tools that can take the legwork out of research to those that can give you actionable insights into buyer behaviour and relationships to those that can literally coach you through customer calls, it might seem like the future of sales is just a big robot. But the reality is that people still buy from people, not bots, and a sales rep’s personality is a big part of the customer’s decision-making process.

That’s why authenticity is important in sales and why sales pros will remain relevant even as AI becomes more and more prevalent. Authentic sales pros - people that have integrity and a real personality will always remain important to sales success.  Here’s why we believe that authentic sales pros will remain relevant in a world dominated by AI.

The Human Touch

At the end of the day, success in sales is often down to your ability to connect with your prospects and customers and build rapport. It’s one of the reasons why active listening is an essential selling tool: you need to be able to understand your prospects, their likes, dislikes and business pain, before you can build a relationship. Of course, AI is helpful. The use of technology to trawl through the web to research your prospects and their needs can save a lot of time and is incredibly useful. But nothing can beat the ability to notice a customer’s change in tone that signals you’ve hit on something important, or their body language shifting signalling that you’ve gone down the wrong route. The human touch gives you the opportunity to build a long-standing relationship based on trust, one that will help you keep their business for years to come.

Authenticity is Integral

While the world might not yet be dominated by AI, today we do live in a world dominated by fake news and alternative facts. Trust is key when it comes to sales but many people today are distrustful of what they read online. Therefore, to make a sale, it’s not good enough to simply have a bot that answers questions when a customer visits a website. You also need to have a living sales rep, one who has integrity and authenticity, in order for customers to trust them and become repeat customers. This isn’t something that’s going to change. In fact, as AI becomes more and more widespread, so too will the desire to speak to someone real, someone who has opinions that can be relied upon and who is more than 'salesy' cliches.

The relationship between sales and AI is only going to become closer as sales teams integrate more and more AI-powered tools. But rather than replacing the need for sales reps, with an increasing prevalence of AI in day to day life, customers will find it all the more important to connect to a human and that’s why authentic sales pros will remain relevant in a future world dominated by AI.