Let’s start with the most important stats:
- 75% of professionals are already using AI.
- This is a new trend, as 46% of professionals started using it less than six months ago.
- 79% of leaders agree that their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, but 60% of leaders worry their organization lacks a plan and vision to implement AI.
All according to a new "AI at Work" report from Microsoft and LinkedIn.
What does this mean to sales leaders? A few things:
- Most of your salespeople are already using AI. Many are scared to admit it—more on that in a second.
- Don’t have the perfect recipe for AI? You aren’t alone. Almost no one does, and claims to the contrary should be met with skepticism. This is a time of experimentation and uncertainty.
- Your buyers want help with this. Badly.
What should you do in response? A few things:
Set the ground rules for what is and isn’t acceptable with AI.
Many professionals – including the salespeople on your team – are using AI but are afraid to admit it. Overall, 52% of people who use AI at work are reluctant to admit using it for their most important tasks, and 53% of AI users worry it makes them look replaceable.
You should encourage your salespeople to use AI. The quicker they learn how it best fits in their workflow, the more productive they’ll be.
But, to give them that freedom to experiment, you need to define what isn’t allowed. For example, are you okay with AI writing your salespeople’s outreach? How about customer emails? Are there certain lines you don’t want to be crossed?
You don’t need to have a fully baked out AI strategy; almost no one does. But, you should have a perspective on how you want your sales team to use AI. With that in place, people can confidently begin experimenting without shame.
And that brings us to the next point.
Encourage experimentation, and scale what does work.
Do you know what makes a power user of AI? Unsurprisingly, the biggest predictor is using AI often, according to the LinkedIn and Microsoft report.
Once you set the ground rules for how you want your sellers to use AI, it’s time to unleash them and open up the dialogue. What’s working? What’s not?
Encourage your field to share their wins and losses. From that, you can scale the winning best practices, while revising your ground rules based on what isn’t working.
Where are fellow sales leaders encouraging their team to experiment? Through our How I Sell series, we asked a few, and what we heard most was: meeting preparation and automating repetitive tasks.
“In my experience, preparing for the call is half the battle,” Intel GM Abdul Jarrar told us. “Imagine what technology can do in terms of getting you prepared in a much shorter time and in a more effective way, so you can really understand what's top of mind with your customer.”
“In the near term, AI is revolutionizing sales efficiency and effectiveness,” HubSpot Chief of Sales Chrisstian Kinnear said. “On the efficiency front, AI streamlines administrative tasks, freeing up valuable time for sellers. Meanwhile, AI empowers sellers with intelligent insights, enabling them to prospect and manage deals more effectively.”
Which tasks can AI automate for your sales team? How can it help them prepare for meetings? Those are two easy places to get started.
Bigger point – don’t wait. Encourage your team to dive in now.
“I see it as an on-demand thought partner that’s going to foundationally change how we solve problems," Skaled Consulting CEO Jake Dunlap said. "And that’s where the haves and have-nots are going to start to really pop up; with the haves being the people who retrain their brain to start using it in how they approach their work."
Your buyers really, really want help here, so lean in if you can.
Go back to the stat that 79% of business leaders know that AI is critical but 60% don’t feel confident in their current strategy.
This is an opportunity, as nothing is more universally top of mind for leaders everywhere right now than determining an AI strategy.
How does your solution help? Do your reps have an AI narrative? Can they speak to how your product is being transformed by AI?
The better your team can tell that story, the more influence they’ll build in the organizations they are selling into.
Bottom line, this is an uncertain time. AI will have a profound effect on our world not matched since the adoption of the Internet. How the world will change, exactly, is anybody's guess.
It’s okay for you not to have all of the answers. In fact, being too sure here will likely cause you to miss out on opportunities.
Instead, it’s a time of transformation. Yes, set ground rules, but encourage experimentation, which will lead to transformation.
The best advice comes from LinkedIn COO Dan Shapero: “The people who learn and take some bumps and bruises today will be the ones who win tomorrow.”
Learn more about Sales Navigator’s first AI feature, Account IQ. Or check out this blog featuring 12 quotes on how AI will transform sales.
Topics: Sales strategy
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