October 14, 2025 • 17 mins
The AI Tipping Point – How to Use AI in Sales Without Losing the Human Touch
In this thought-provoking episode of Smart Business Growth, Nicky dives deep into one of the most critical conversations leaders and sales professionals need to have right now — the role of AI in modern sales.
After an unexpectedly delightful interaction with an AI receptionist named Sadie, Nicky explores what that experience reveals about how AI is being used — and misused — in the sales process.
This episode tackles:
- The two dangerous camps businesses fall into: avoidance or overuse
- What HubSpot’s latest data reveals about how sales teams are using AI (and where they’re falling short)
- Why trust is the true currency in sales — and how over-automating could be costing you more than time
- Practical ways to integrate AI tools like ChatGPT, Gong, and HubSpot without losing your voice or connection
- The critical difference between AI as a tool vs AI as a crutch
Nicky shares a grounded, leadership-first perspective on how to find the middle ground — where speed meets strategy, and where human judgement turns AI into an asset.
A must-listen for any business owner, sales leader or team navigating this fast-evolving space.
Learn more about Nicky at nickymiklos.com
Grab The Growth Code™ here!
Get your a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life at www.healthyhustle.com.au
Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com
Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hello, you gorgeous human.
(00:28):
Thank you so much for joiningme on this week's episode of
Smart Business Growth.
And I really want to talk todayabout AI and the future of
sales.
Now, I don't know if this hashappened to you, but last week I
made a phone call to arestaurant.
I wanted to see if it was dogfriendly, so I could bring my
old boy Eddie along.
Actually, if you've watched theYouTube videos, then you might
(00:48):
sometimes see Eddie walking inand out in the background.
Anyway, I made this phone call.
I wanted to see if it was dogfriendly.
And what was really interestingis, I mean, it wasn't a human
that answered.
It was Sadie, the AIreceptionist.
Now, that in itself is not thatinteresting.
We do live in 2025.
You know, we're going to comeacross this.
But what actually really tookme back was that normally in
(01:12):
this kind of interaction, it'sfrustrating.
I um don't get the answers thatI need.
I have to hit a hundreddifferent buttons, or it just
doesn't feel like a very goodexperience or interaction.
But in this instance, itactually, really was.
Sadie sounded so friendly.
At first, I had to double take.
I second guessed if I actuallyheard her right when she
(01:34):
answered the phone.
And she answered the phone,introducing herself as this is
Sadie, your AI receptionist, andasking how she could help.
So I actually found myselfreally answering the questions
or asking my question in a veryfriendly, courteous tone, almost
just in case it was a real lifehuman.
But what it actually made methink, you know, I'd really been
(01:55):
pondering and percolating andmarinating and all the things on
the AI and future of salestopic point of view.
And I actually was in themiddle of writing an article,
which I'll link in the bottom ofthis podcast episode as well.
But it really made me thinkabout the fact that, you know,
we need to be able to embraceAI, obviously.
Like there's so manyconversations now about how are
(02:17):
we embracing AI in a reallyresourceful way in our business.
And I want to go a bit deeperas well to look at not just in
our business, but from a salespoint of view, but also how
important it is to use AI well.
That interaction, typically, ifthere was some kind of tech or
AI in the past, it hasn'tusually been the best
experience.
(02:38):
But in this instance, I wasblown away at how the connection
still felt like it was there.
I felt like I was taken careof.
And there were many reasons forthat.
Not only was it efficient,effective, but also how she
sounded and how she interactedwith me.
And so when I think about Sadieand the AI receptionist, and I
think about AI and embracing itin our sales process, it really
(03:01):
gets me thinking about how I'mseeing clients and businesses
embracing or avoiding itcurrently in market.
Because there's two key campsthat I witness.
One is ignore, avoid.
And it's not even avoid orignore from a place of ignorance
in that, you know, businesses,you might know if you relate to
(03:21):
that, it might be that you knowthat it's important, but you
just don't have the time to getyour head around it.
There's no capacity becauseyou're really stuck in the
day-to-day chaos of thebusiness.
So it could be that that isdriving the lack of time,
capacity, headspace that'sactually driving the behavior of
ignoring or avoiding embracingAI in sales or in your business.
(03:44):
Or it could be fear orconfusion or overwhelm around, I
just don't even know where tostart.
And hopefully it's notavoidance because you're trying
to avoid it, because this is notjust the future state of
business, this is actually thecurrent state of business, and
we have to remember that.
But that's one key camp that Isee avoidance and ignoring that
it's actually there.
(04:04):
And it can be a really valuabletool.
The other camp that I see isoveruse.
So there's sales teams,salespeople, business owners,
leaders that are really actuallyembracing it, but they're
overusing it.
So it doesn't have that humanconnection like the experience
that I had with Sadie.
So we can really go from oneextreme to the other.
(04:25):
And as leaders, we need to bereally aware of not falling into
either of those camps.
There's a middle ground.
And the middle ground is wherethe magic happens.
And the middle ground isabsolutely the future of AI and
using it successfully in yourbusiness and for your sales
today and every day goingforward.
And that's what I want to talkabout today is what does that
(04:47):
middle ground look like?
Because the middle ground isusing AI as a tool, but not
relying on it as a crutch.
Now, HubSpot recently releasedsome survey results.
It's the HubSpot 2025 SalesTrends Report.
And it actually shows that 8%of sales reps don't use AI at
(05:08):
all.
So that's only 8% aren't usingAI.
It also showed that 32% ofsales reps say that leveraging
AI is one of their biggestchallenges in the sales process.
So what does this tell us?
It tells us that 92% ofsalespeople are using AI, but
how well are they using it?
(05:29):
And we know that 32% of salesreps say that leveraging and
using AI is actually a reallybig challenge in their sales
process.
So if you're using it, good onyou, like massive props for
that.
And then we have to startlooking at the quality of how
we're using it.
It also tells us that there'sstill plenty of room for growth
in how we're building ourrelationship with AI and
(05:51):
integrating it into the way thatwe sell.
And what I mean by building ourrelationship with AI as
leaders, we need to look at myopen and embracing it, am I
ignoring and avoiding it becauseI'm too busy, too overwhelmed,
or just don't want to deal?
Or am I overusing it?
You know, where do I sit?
What is my relationship?
That's what I want you to thinkabout.
(06:12):
Because how you view and youembrace and you use AI will
absolutely have a ripple effectonto your team.
Now you might also be dealingwith your boss or leader, or
maybe you're not the businessowner, and the business owner
may sit in either camp as well.
So, you know, that's somethingthat you then have to manage and
manage those expectations,whether it's up, across, or
(06:34):
down.
So first get really clear onwhat is your relationship with
AI.
How do you feel about it, inother words, what are your
thoughts on it?
And then look at how am Iactually utilizing it?
How am I integrating it intothe day-to-day?
Now, what's also reallyinteresting is that this HubSpot
report, the same report, 2025sales trends, um, showed that
(06:54):
74% of salespeople say that AItools have made buyer research
easier, putting more pressure onthe salespeople to deliver
value.
Let me repeat that.
74% of salespeople say that AItools have made buyer research
easier, putting more pressure onthem to deliver value.
What that is basically sayingis that there's so much
(07:15):
information and resourcesavailable that the buyer, your
customer, your client, yourbuyer has a lot of information
when they're coming to you, whenthey're coming to your
salespeople.
So they already are probably inawareness and consideration and
moving into decision phase,which means that no longer is it
(07:35):
enough for you and yoursalespeople just to offer a
smile, a discount, shake hands,and then we're done.
There's a lot more pressure onsalespeople to deliver value in
a different way to perhaps inthe past.
And so with all of this inmind, it really serves us well
to consider what actually is ourrole as salespeople in this
modern-day landscape of sales?
(07:56):
Because it really has evolvedover the years, and arguably
it's evolved even more in thelast few years than ever.
A quick interruption to thispodcast episode.
I'm really curious, do you wantto close more sales in less
time?
If the answer is yes, which Ihope that it is, then you need
to get your hands on the growthcode.
It is going to give you threeproven frameworks and tools that
(08:20):
will help future-proof yourbusiness and scale with clarity.
All you have to do is head downto the show notes and click the
link below.
So let's talk about the dangerzone of utilizing AI.
The danger zone, as I mentionedbefore, we can overuse it.
By overusing it, what thatactually means is that you would
(08:42):
have seen this.
I'm sure you would have seenthis.
Tell me, reach out to me andgive me your examples of this.
Generic LinkedIn messages.
Oh, and really, really longones.
Even commenting on socials,like generic.
What about the overuse ofdashes?
You know, that just drives mecrazy.
Proposals, again, that lookreally generic, scripts that
that really screamauto-generated.
(09:04):
So initially they might savetime, but at the end of the day,
they're actually going to costyou something much, much bigger.
And that cost is trust.
So we want to make sure thatyou're not actually risking
trust.
Trust is at an all-time low.
And everything we do in termsof our interactions for sales,
business growth, serving clientsand customers, trust needs to
(09:27):
be at the forefront.
And so the danger zone is whenwe don't intentionally,
deliberately, and consciouslyuse AI, it can absolutely break
that trust.
When your outreach, forexample, feels really generic,
when your nurturing feels reallygeneric, when it feels like
anybody in the world could haveactually said or done that, then
(09:48):
you don't actually just riskbeing ignored.
You risk damaging your brand.
And so this is a reallyimportant message and danger
zone and conversation for you tohave with your sales teams.
So how do we get it right?
We know that there's twodifferent camps that we fall
into ignore, avoid, or overuse.
We know the danger zone is thatwe overuse it in a very
generic, robotic way, not likeSadie, but we also know that if
(10:12):
we don't use it at all, there'sa danger zone and a risk of
being left behind.
And so when it comes down tohow to use AI in your sales
process or sales aspects of yourbusiness, there's something
really important to keep inmind, which is critical thinking
and human judgment has to be apart of every step.
You know, for example, if youuse Chat GBT or a version of,
(10:34):
then we don't just put a coupleof words in for the brief and
then it spits out whatever we'veasked it for, whether it's a
sales script or content or anemail and then paste it in and
send it off to the client.
We have to bring criticalthinking, human judgment into
how we're briefing it and theninto how we adapt it once it
comes out.
So based on things that I'mseeing in market and a little
(10:56):
bit of research, I have my ownchat bot, of course, set up and
highly recommend it, dependingon your role as a sales leader
business owner.
Highly recommend it.
But here's some interestingways that you can be using it.
Now we can break this out intotwo key categories.
We've got Chat GPT style,generative AI.
So things like OpenAI, Gemini,Claude.
(11:17):
I don't personally use those.
I use ChatGPT, but I know a lotof people out there do.
They're mostly being used forthings like drafting and
proofing emails, proposals.
There's amazing tools out thereto create proposals.
I think gamma is a reallypopular one.
Drafting LinkedIn posts orsocial content.
Now, again, if you're using itfor any of these things, you
(11:39):
have to be really switched onaround what is the brief that
you're giving, and then how areyou adapting and tweaking it
when it comes out the other endbefore you put it in that email,
send off that proposal, do thatLinkedIn post.
It is so critical.
We are absolutely trained nowto pick up on what is
generically auto-generated andcreated to the point that it
(12:02):
actually serves us sometimes tomake things look a little bit
clunky.
You know, maybe there's a spacethat's missing or an extra
space or an uppercase instead ofa lowercase.
Maybe not so much as far asspelling errors, if that's going
to affect your brand.
But, you know, when it whenthere's a little human error
element in it, then our braingoes, okay, maybe a human wrote
this.
So it's just something to thinkabout.
(12:23):
The other ways that we usethese types of generative AI
could be things likebrainstorming objection
responses.
I love, I was on a Redditthread and I was reading through
this Reddit thread or channel.
I'm not usually on Reddit,that's a Jules thing, but she
showed me and I was looking intohow are people using Chat GPT
(12:43):
as an example for their salesprocess.
Now people are actually usingit to workshop objection
responses.
Now that there's the voiceoption available, I don't mean
like why not?
Again, we've got to think aboutwhat is the brief and what's
the quality of the output.
But as a sales leader, if I hada direct team, I absolutely
would get them set up onsomething similar to or
(13:04):
equivalent of ChatGPT wherethere's voice.
And you can actually brief indifferent scenarios.
You can get them to do verbalrole plays with Chat GPT.
I call mine Chatty Kathy.
And then you can even get atranscript.
So you can then, as the leader,go back and audit or have a
look at how they respond to thatobjection.
So I think there's a lot ofpotential around exploring and
(13:27):
getting curious around this.
Okay, so other ways that peopleuse generative AI.
Researching prospects andmarkets is a great one.
Summarizing calls and meetings.
I mean, we see that a lot,transcripts.
And again, I mentioned creatingpitched X presentation slides.
Always remember that thequality needs to be
double-checked.
Amazing friend of mine, DonnaMcGeorge, who is an incredible
author and side note, she's justlaunched a book called Red
(13:49):
Brick Thinking.
Go out there and get it if youhaven't already.
She also wrote a book calledChatGPT Revolution.
And I love her uh descriptionbecause she says that it's like
a hungover intern.
They're really great for allthe ways that I just suggested
you can use them, but you can'trely on her or him or them for
quality.
So you've got to double checkeverything that they do.
(14:11):
Now, the other way that a lotof businesses are using AI are
specialized sales AI platforms.
So things that are built intoCRMs or they're standalone tools
like Gong, Outreach, HubSpot,Salesforce, Epstein.
There's so many different toolsout there.
So these are these are beingused for things like lead
scoring and prioritization,understanding the quality of
(14:34):
leads as they move through yourworkforce, workflow or sales
flow, conversation intelligence.
So looking at analyzing callmeetings.
I guess that's a different wayof doing what I talked about
with the live role plays,forecasting and pipeline
insights, guided selling promptsand workflow automations.
These are the classicchecklists to think what camp am
(14:56):
I in?
Am I avoiding it?
How could I start using it?
Just start using it for thingslike your proposals, your
presentation, asking questions,and then build on that.
How else can I really implementthis?
So think about it like thisChat GPT or the equivalent is
your hungover assistant orhungover intern.
Really good for content, forresearch, for drafts, for ideas,
(15:17):
for boosting differentthoughts.
Whereas sales AI platforms,they're your specialists.
So they're thinking good forthings like CRM data, your
pipeline forecasting, and reallyspecific analytics.
Now remember, this is a veryhigh-level overview of how you
can be using it to really embedand integrate into your sales
(15:38):
process.
So I really want to remind youthat the middle ground is where
the magic happens.
We can't deny that AI will giveus speed access to more
information than we've ever hadbefore.
But it is the humans, it is thepeople that give perspective
and meaning.
And the business, yourbusiness, really needs to learn
how to harness both because it'sthe businesses who find that
(16:01):
middle ground that willabsolutely lead the market.
The businesses that win will bethe ones who don't ignore or
avoid AI or be the ones thatover-outsource.
You know, you don't want tooutsource your voice entirely
without intention.
So what do you need to do tofind that middle ground?
How can you get creative aroundhow you're applying AI?
(16:23):
So your action from today'spodcast is to really get clear
and identify what camp do I siton?
Am I in camp ignore and avoid?
Am I in camp overuse?
Or am I already playing in themiddle ground?
Go back and listen to thatchecklist of how you can be
using AI in your sales processand pick one thing that you can
(16:43):
start to embed.
The other thing I would say isbring your sales team on board
for the ride.
Make sure you have theconversation with them.
How do they feel about it?
What camp do they sit in?
And what are they currentlydoing?
And how can you find the 1% tokeep growing and moving in the
right direction?
To really find that middleground so you can future proof
your business alongside AI.
(17:06):
Have fun with it, take itlightly.
I'd love to hear how you go,and I'll see you in the next
episode.
Hello, you gorgeous human.
(00:28):
Thank you so much for joiningme on this week's episode of
Smart Business Growth.
And I really want to talk todayabout AI and the future of
sales.
Now, I don't know if this hashappened to you, but last week I
made a phone call to arestaurant.
I wanted to see if it was dogfriendly, so I could bring my
old boy Eddie along.
Actually, if you've watched theYouTube videos, then you might
(00:48):
sometimes see Eddie walking inand out in the background.
Anyway, I made this phone call.
I wanted to see if it was dogfriendly.
And what was really interestingis, I mean, it wasn't a human
that answered.
It was Sadie, the AIreceptionist.
Now, that in itself is not thatinteresting.
We do live in 2025.
You know, we're going to comeacross this.
But what actually really tookme back was that normally in
(01:12):
this kind of interaction, it'sfrustrating.
I um don't get the answers thatI need.
I have to hit a hundreddifferent buttons, or it just
doesn't feel like a very goodexperience or interaction.
But in this instance, itactually, really was.
Sadie sounded so friendly.
At first, I had to double take.
I second guessed if I actuallyheard her right when she
(01:34):
answered the phone.
And she answered the phone,introducing herself as this is
Sadie, your AI receptionist, andasking how she could help.
So I actually found myselfreally answering the questions
or asking my question in a veryfriendly, courteous tone, almost
just in case it was a real lifehuman.
But what it actually made methink, you know, I'd really been
(01:55):
pondering and percolating andmarinating and all the things on
the AI and future of salestopic point of view.
And I actually was in themiddle of writing an article,
which I'll link in the bottom ofthis podcast episode as well.
But it really made me thinkabout the fact that, you know,
we need to be able to embraceAI, obviously.
Like there's so manyconversations now about how are
(02:17):
we embracing AI in a reallyresourceful way in our business.
And I want to go a bit deeperas well to look at not just in
our business, but from a salespoint of view, but also how
important it is to use AI well.
That interaction, typically, ifthere was some kind of tech or
AI in the past, it hasn'tusually been the best
experience.
(02:38):
But in this instance, I wasblown away at how the connection
still felt like it was there.
I felt like I was taken careof.
And there were many reasons forthat.
Not only was it efficient,effective, but also how she
sounded and how she interactedwith me.
And so when I think about Sadieand the AI receptionist, and I
think about AI and embracing itin our sales process, it really
(03:01):
gets me thinking about how I'mseeing clients and businesses
embracing or avoiding itcurrently in market.
Because there's two key campsthat I witness.
One is ignore, avoid.
And it's not even avoid orignore from a place of ignorance
in that, you know, businesses,you might know if you relate to
(03:21):
that, it might be that you knowthat it's important, but you
just don't have the time to getyour head around it.
There's no capacity becauseyou're really stuck in the
day-to-day chaos of thebusiness.
So it could be that that isdriving the lack of time,
capacity, headspace that'sactually driving the behavior of
ignoring or avoiding embracingAI in sales or in your business.
(03:44):
Or it could be fear orconfusion or overwhelm around, I
just don't even know where tostart.
And hopefully it's notavoidance because you're trying
to avoid it, because this is notjust the future state of
business, this is actually thecurrent state of business, and
we have to remember that.
But that's one key camp that Isee avoidance and ignoring that
it's actually there.
(04:04):
And it can be a really valuabletool.
The other camp that I see isoveruse.
So there's sales teams,salespeople, business owners,
leaders that are really actuallyembracing it, but they're
overusing it.
So it doesn't have that humanconnection like the experience
that I had with Sadie.
So we can really go from oneextreme to the other.
(04:25):
And as leaders, we need to bereally aware of not falling into
either of those camps.
There's a middle ground.
And the middle ground is wherethe magic happens.
And the middle ground isabsolutely the future of AI and
using it successfully in yourbusiness and for your sales
today and every day goingforward.
And that's what I want to talkabout today is what does that
(04:47):
middle ground look like?
Because the middle ground isusing AI as a tool, but not
relying on it as a crutch.
Now, HubSpot recently releasedsome survey results.
It's the HubSpot 2025 SalesTrends Report.
And it actually shows that 8%of sales reps don't use AI at
(05:08):
all.
So that's only 8% aren't usingAI.
It also showed that 32% ofsales reps say that leveraging
AI is one of their biggestchallenges in the sales process.
So what does this tell us?
It tells us that 92% ofsalespeople are using AI, but
how well are they using it?
(05:29):
And we know that 32% of salesreps say that leveraging and
using AI is actually a reallybig challenge in their sales
process.
So if you're using it, good onyou, like massive props for
that.
And then we have to startlooking at the quality of how
we're using it.
It also tells us that there'sstill plenty of room for growth
in how we're building ourrelationship with AI and
(05:51):
integrating it into the way thatwe sell.
And what I mean by building ourrelationship with AI as
leaders, we need to look at myopen and embracing it, am I
ignoring and avoiding it becauseI'm too busy, too overwhelmed,
or just don't want to deal?
Or am I overusing it?
You know, where do I sit?
What is my relationship?
That's what I want you to thinkabout.
(06:12):
Because how you view and youembrace and you use AI will
absolutely have a ripple effectonto your team.
Now you might also be dealingwith your boss or leader, or
maybe you're not the businessowner, and the business owner
may sit in either camp as well.
So, you know, that's somethingthat you then have to manage and
manage those expectations,whether it's up, across, or
(06:34):
down.
So first get really clear onwhat is your relationship with
AI.
How do you feel about it, inother words, what are your
thoughts on it?
And then look at how am Iactually utilizing it?
How am I integrating it intothe day-to-day?
Now, what's also reallyinteresting is that this HubSpot
report, the same report, 2025sales trends, um, showed that
(06:54):
74% of salespeople say that AItools have made buyer research
easier, putting more pressure onthe salespeople to deliver
value.
Let me repeat that.
74% of salespeople say that AItools have made buyer research
easier, putting more pressure onthem to deliver value.
What that is basically sayingis that there's so much
(07:15):
information and resourcesavailable that the buyer, your
customer, your client, yourbuyer has a lot of information
when they're coming to you, whenthey're coming to your
salespeople.
So they already are probably inawareness and consideration and
moving into decision phase,which means that no longer is it
(07:35):
enough for you and yoursalespeople just to offer a
smile, a discount, shake hands,and then we're done.
There's a lot more pressure onsalespeople to deliver value in
a different way to perhaps inthe past.
And so with all of this inmind, it really serves us well
to consider what actually is ourrole as salespeople in this
modern-day landscape of sales?
(07:56):
Because it really has evolvedover the years, and arguably
it's evolved even more in thelast few years than ever.
A quick interruption to thispodcast episode.
I'm really curious, do you wantto close more sales in less
time?
If the answer is yes, which Ihope that it is, then you need
to get your hands on the growthcode.
It is going to give you threeproven frameworks and tools that
(08:20):
will help future-proof yourbusiness and scale with clarity.
All you have to do is head downto the show notes and click the
link below.
So let's talk about the dangerzone of utilizing AI.
The danger zone, as I mentionedbefore, we can overuse it.
By overusing it, what thatactually means is that you would
(08:42):
have seen this.
I'm sure you would have seenthis.
Tell me, reach out to me andgive me your examples of this.
Generic LinkedIn messages.
Oh, and really, really longones.
Even commenting on socials,like generic.
What about the overuse ofdashes?
You know, that just drives mecrazy.
Proposals, again, that lookreally generic, scripts that
that really screamauto-generated.
(09:04):
So initially they might savetime, but at the end of the day,
they're actually going to costyou something much, much bigger.
And that cost is trust.
So we want to make sure thatyou're not actually risking
trust.
Trust is at an all-time low.
And everything we do in termsof our interactions for sales,
business growth, serving clientsand customers, trust needs to
(09:27):
be at the forefront.
And so the danger zone is whenwe don't intentionally,
deliberately, and consciouslyuse AI, it can absolutely break
that trust.
When your outreach, forexample, feels really generic,
when your nurturing feels reallygeneric, when it feels like
anybody in the world could haveactually said or done that, then
(09:48):
you don't actually just riskbeing ignored.
You risk damaging your brand.
And so this is a reallyimportant message and danger
zone and conversation for you tohave with your sales teams.
So how do we get it right?
We know that there's twodifferent camps that we fall
into ignore, avoid, or overuse.
We know the danger zone is thatwe overuse it in a very
generic, robotic way, not likeSadie, but we also know that if
(10:12):
we don't use it at all, there'sa danger zone and a risk of
being left behind.
And so when it comes down tohow to use AI in your sales
process or sales aspects of yourbusiness, there's something
really important to keep inmind, which is critical thinking
and human judgment has to be apart of every step.
You know, for example, if youuse Chat GBT or a version of,
(10:34):
then we don't just put a coupleof words in for the brief and
then it spits out whatever we'veasked it for, whether it's a
sales script or content or anemail and then paste it in and
send it off to the client.
We have to bring criticalthinking, human judgment into
how we're briefing it and theninto how we adapt it once it
comes out.
So based on things that I'mseeing in market and a little
(10:56):
bit of research, I have my ownchat bot, of course, set up and
highly recommend it, dependingon your role as a sales leader
business owner.
Highly recommend it.
But here's some interestingways that you can be using it.
Now we can break this out intotwo key categories.
We've got Chat GPT style,generative AI.
So things like OpenAI, Gemini,Claude.
(11:17):
I don't personally use those.
I use ChatGPT, but I know a lotof people out there do.
They're mostly being used forthings like drafting and
proofing emails, proposals.
There's amazing tools out thereto create proposals.
I think gamma is a reallypopular one.
Drafting LinkedIn posts orsocial content.
Now, again, if you're using itfor any of these things, you
(11:39):
have to be really switched onaround what is the brief that
you're giving, and then how areyou adapting and tweaking it
when it comes out the other endbefore you put it in that email,
send off that proposal, do thatLinkedIn post.
It is so critical.
We are absolutely trained nowto pick up on what is
generically auto-generated andcreated to the point that it
(12:02):
actually serves us sometimes tomake things look a little bit
clunky.
You know, maybe there's a spacethat's missing or an extra
space or an uppercase instead ofa lowercase.
Maybe not so much as far asspelling errors, if that's going
to affect your brand.
But, you know, when it whenthere's a little human error
element in it, then our braingoes, okay, maybe a human wrote
this.
So it's just something to thinkabout.
(12:23):
The other ways that we usethese types of generative AI
could be things likebrainstorming objection
responses.
I love, I was on a Redditthread and I was reading through
this Reddit thread or channel.
I'm not usually on Reddit,that's a Jules thing, but she
showed me and I was looking intohow are people using Chat GPT
(12:43):
as an example for their salesprocess.
Now people are actually usingit to workshop objection
responses.
Now that there's the voiceoption available, I don't mean
like why not?
Again, we've got to think aboutwhat is the brief and what's
the quality of the output.
But as a sales leader, if I hada direct team, I absolutely
would get them set up onsomething similar to or
(13:04):
equivalent of ChatGPT wherethere's voice.
And you can actually brief indifferent scenarios.
You can get them to do verbalrole plays with Chat GPT.
I call mine Chatty Kathy.
And then you can even get atranscript.
So you can then, as the leader,go back and audit or have a
look at how they respond to thatobjection.
So I think there's a lot ofpotential around exploring and
(13:27):
getting curious around this.
Okay, so other ways that peopleuse generative AI.
Researching prospects andmarkets is a great one.
Summarizing calls and meetings.
I mean, we see that a lot,transcripts.
And again, I mentioned creatingpitched X presentation slides.
Always remember that thequality needs to be
double-checked.
Amazing friend of mine, DonnaMcGeorge, who is an incredible
author and side note, she's justlaunched a book called Red
(13:49):
Brick Thinking.
Go out there and get it if youhaven't already.
She also wrote a book calledChatGPT Revolution.
And I love her uh descriptionbecause she says that it's like
a hungover intern.
They're really great for allthe ways that I just suggested
you can use them, but you can'trely on her or him or them for
quality.
So you've got to double checkeverything that they do.
(14:11):
Now, the other way that a lotof businesses are using AI are
specialized sales AI platforms.
So things that are built intoCRMs or they're standalone tools
like Gong, Outreach, HubSpot,Salesforce, Epstein.
There's so many different toolsout there.
So these are these are beingused for things like lead
scoring and prioritization,understanding the quality of
(14:34):
leads as they move through yourworkforce, workflow or sales
flow, conversation intelligence.
So looking at analyzing callmeetings.
I guess that's a different wayof doing what I talked about
with the live role plays,forecasting and pipeline
insights, guided selling promptsand workflow automations.
These are the classicchecklists to think what camp am
(14:56):
I in?
Am I avoiding it?
How could I start using it?
Just start using it for thingslike your proposals, your
presentation, asking questions,and then build on that.
How else can I really implementthis?
So think about it like thisChat GPT or the equivalent is
your hungover assistant orhungover intern.
Really good for content, forresearch, for drafts, for ideas,
(15:17):
for boosting differentthoughts.
Whereas sales AI platforms,they're your specialists.
So they're thinking good forthings like CRM data, your
pipeline forecasting, and reallyspecific analytics.
Now remember, this is a veryhigh-level overview of how you
can be using it to really embedand integrate into your sales
(15:38):
process.
So I really want to remind youthat the middle ground is where
the magic happens.
We can't deny that AI will giveus speed access to more
information than we've ever hadbefore.
But it is the humans, it is thepeople that give perspective
and meaning.
And the business, yourbusiness, really needs to learn
how to harness both because it'sthe businesses who find that
(16:01):
middle ground that willabsolutely lead the market.
The businesses that win will bethe ones who don't ignore or
avoid AI or be the ones thatover-outsource.
You know, you don't want tooutsource your voice entirely
without intention.
So what do you need to do tofind that middle ground?
How can you get creative aroundhow you're applying AI?
(16:23):
So your action from today'spodcast is to really get clear
and identify what camp do I siton?
Am I in camp ignore and avoid?
Am I in camp overuse?
Or am I already playing in themiddle ground?
Go back and listen to thatchecklist of how you can be
using AI in your sales processand pick one thing that you can
(16:43):
start to embed.
The other thing I would say isbring your sales team on board
for the ride.
Make sure you have theconversation with them.
How do they feel about it?
What camp do they sit in?
And what are they currentlydoing?
And how can you find the 1% tokeep growing and moving in the
right direction?
To really find that middleground so you can future proof
your business alongside AI.
(17:06):
Have fun with it, take itlightly.
I'd love to hear how you go,and I'll see you in the next
episode.
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