The word “synergy” gets thrown around a lot in the business world. Within a company, it often signals the alignment of resources across business units and departments. Synergy takes the additive property a step further to create a gestalt - a German word meaning a sum greater than the sum of its parts.
Product dev teams are the poster child of synergistic effort. Incorporating specialists from each department and function, the team pieces together the complete picture needed to take a product from ideation to launch. Each individual acting alone wouldn’t be able to see farther than their expertise, but together they build on each other's core competencies to flesh out a holistic product plan.
In the same vein, humans and artificial intelligence can amplify each other's skills to shape more impactful business processes. Synergy is the name of the game, especially when it comes to B2B sales.
As with any major technological disruption, there is resistance at first. From Gutenberg’s printing press to the invention of the computer, people understandably feared what they did not know. But we live in the 21st century, a period that has already seen exponential technological advancement. As society progresses, it will not be AI that endangers workers’ prospects, but ultimately their own fear and mistrust of it.
AI automates tasks, cuts workloads down, and performs certain actions objectively better than a human being could. We know this. No one is attempting to compete with a CPU when it comes to data processing and analysis.
Why, then, do salespeople fear being made obsolete?
While technology has competitive advantages, we must remember that humans do, too! When it comes to selling a product, computers alone cannot uncover new customer needs or communicate benefits and solutions tailored to them. AI struggles to do what comes to most salespeople quite naturally - forming a personal connection and making a person feel at ease. A sale is an emotional decision at its core, no matter how much the buyer crunches the numbers. A customer ultimately buys something because they feel good about making the purchase.
This highlights the fact that there is an immutable difference in the way humans and AI operate. AI will never be responsible for making complex enterprise purchases - which means that AI can never fully take the place of a person (even the highly mythologized sentient AI of the future, courtesy of sci-fi movies).
And building long term relationships cannot be achieved with an automated personalized email or AI-generated meeting summary. It's done by breaking bread together, remembering birthdays, exchanging personal anecdotes, celebrating wins, offering support, and empathizing with both the customer and the company.
Here's the real question salespeople need to be asking themselves: How do I sell smarter?
The answer: by developing a synergy between human and AI complements, a dynamic and interactive relationship that maximizes each party’s strengths.
In the immediate future of B2B Sales, AI should function as a complement, a companion, or even a buddy - NOT a replacement. Now more than ever, there is a demand for intentionally crafted software solutions that seek to empower the human rather than automate them away.
Let your AI aid you with the routine and mundane. It relishes busy work! AI can remind and nudge you to take care of the little things, offloading tasks that have to get done by someone and freeing up your brain space.
Think of salespeople as their wonderful, charming selves, just armed with AI body armor. It's still Tony Stark inside the Iron Man suit, and arguably, he’s the more valuable component. But now, he can take on any obstacle because he is more proactive, insightful, and empowered. Iron Man doesn’t chase down the team for data, spend hours on meeting prep, or schedule follow-ups; Jarvis has his back.
This superhero of a salesperson can now focus more acutely on keeping a meaningful cadence of contact, fostering deeper and more personal relationships, and becoming more insightful and knowledgeable about their clients and their industry.
As is the case in most business industries, AI power users will dominate the sales games. But that is by no means a replacement for thorough training and mastery of the trade.
Muscles atrophy when they are not used. Skills are the same way. As sales reps begin to outsource work to their AI complements, it is critical that they continue to refine and improve their own competencies. Everyday, AI is pushing the limits of its capabilities - humans must be doing the same in their respective areas. For example, AI cannot do the hard work of building grit and resilience for you. That comes through a) experiencing rejection firsthand and b) developing your own process for dealing with rejection and moving forward.
The future of sales synergy points to the emergence of the consultative seller, or pseudo-consultant salesperson, that provides value in personalized solutions and new insights. AI can tell, but salespeople must show - that is, be able to paint a picture that resonates with the customer’s situation.
The irony of AI is that by automating the mechanical aspects of the job, it has forced salespeople to be more human than ever. The technology that was feared to replace human connection has instead created an imperative for deeper empathy, intuition, and nuanced understanding.
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