What Salespeople Get Wrong About Using GenAI

Sellers should be using it as a coaching and learning aid — not just a shortcut to writing a great hook.

December 07, 2023

Marcos Osorio/Stocksy

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Discussion of generative AI has maintained a fever pitch since OpenAI released ChatGPT-3.5 in late 2022. Many leaders’ instinct is to provide direction and codification when trying to drive adoption of new tools. This is particularly true in sales, a function rooted in processes, playbooks, scripts, and templates. However, driving adoption of generative AI as a new way of working — leading sellers toward creative use of generative AI, and helping them to use it as a coaching and learning aid — requires a very different approach. The author offers four steps to get you started.

The salesperson did everything right. In fact, they did it better than they ever had before. They researched the challenges within the customer’s organization. They made the perfect connection to their value proposition. They learned all about the customer’s business dynamics, their key people, and pressing industry trends. All this work was tied into a highly contextual and targeted outreach. Best of all, the seller did very little work, instead spending a short amount of time on ChatGPT and inserting some of the learnings into their organization’s AI-assisted outreach engine.

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Bryan Kurey is the Senior Vice President of Research at SBI Growth Advisory.

RM

Ray Makela is the Managing Director and leader of sales training at Sales Readiness Group, now an SBI Growth Advisory company.

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New!

HBR Learning

Marketing Essentials Course

Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Marketing Essentials. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

Learn how to communicate with your customers—strategically.

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