Don’t Just Get Faster With AI, Get Better

By now, pretty much everyone knows that you can automate a lot of tasks with AI and speed up others. Salespeople can outsource writing emails, summarizing calls, analyzing data, and preparing reports. AI bots can manage incoming chats and help prospects access information.

And because parts of the sales job is now much faster, many companies choose to cut their staff to cut costs and increase profits.

I think that’s a mistake, especially in complex B2B sales. Anybody can automate more and cut staff. And when anybody can do it, it quickly becomes a race to the bottom instead of a point of differentiation. Companies that want to actually get ahead of the movement, instead of just keeping pace, should consider another option:

Redeploying human resources to become better at their work, rather than simply faster.

While competitors become more automated and less human, your sales team can stand out by becoming more automated… and more human. More skilled. More capable. More collaborative. And more successful.

Here’s your complex B2B sales team’s blueprint:

1. Become A Decision-Making Catalyst

One thing humans still do better than AI is drive change. AI technology (so far) is designed to be responsive, not proactive. Many chat engines are very good at validating what you are already doing. Very few know how to motivate a group of stakeholders to make significant, real-world changes.

Most humans are naturally resistant to change, even good change. In complex B2B sales, one of the key roles a successful salesperson plays is nudging buyers out of inertia and into action. To stand out in this automated world, your salespeople need to become the people who surface problems and potential futures, who connect the dots and help multiple stakeholders develop a shared mental model. Their presence in a decision-making process should far exceed that of an order taker, and become that of a catalyst for positive change.

2. Build A Stronger Mindset

Your beliefs about yourself and the world heavily impact the outcomes you experience. In complex sales, salespeople with supportive internal beliefs are consistently more successful. If you believe that nobody wants to hear from you, that you’re a bother, and that you don’t deserve to make a lot of money, then you won’t pick up the phone, you won’t engage in the kind of conversations that lead to sales, and you won’t do what it takes to make the money you think you don’t deserve.

On the other hand, when you believe that your services are valuable, that people are glad to hear from you, and that you deserve to thrive, you will become more capable of fulfilling your own prophecy.

A friend of mine uses her AI chatbot to challenge her negative assumptions about herself and asks it to prompt her with questions that help her reflect on her positive qualities instead. This is helping her build confidence in herself, which is having profound impacts on her ability to thrive.

While this work may seem soft or fluffy in the rough world of sales, the truth is that improving these deep-seated beliefs is a “cheat code” for wildly improved outcomes.

3. Develop Domain Knowledge

While tools like Claude and other AI platforms can write code, replace repetitive tasks, and analyze data, they still need a human to provide the domain knowledge. Claude can code an app that enables my brother to have the right dental drills on hand when he needs them, but only my brother knows what he needs, how to get it, who needs to be involved, and what the traditional obstacles to success have been.

In this automated AI world, salespeople (still) need to help stakeholders connect the dots.

While you’re automating emails and reports, teach your salespeople to use the freed-up time to develop stronger domain knowledge about your company and the industries you serve. AI chatbots can be a great companion for this, helping summarize general information and rounding up primary sources to read for deeper knowledge.

4. Develop Your Thinking Skills

The winning sales team isn’t just the one with the best technologies. It’s the one that can understand the complexity facing their buyers. This means understanding: The customer’s business, their competitors, their customers, the departments within their business, the relationships among the people who influence the decision, the systems within the company, the problems the individual stakeholders are experiencing, their desires and goals, how the needs of the individual stakeholders interact… and so much more.

Then, somehow, through all that knowledge, salespeople have to help the entire buying organization develop a shared mental model and prioritize taking action on it.

To do all that, a salesperson needs far more than just a cool sales methodology. They need to know how to structure their thinking so that they can make sense of the full picture and help the customer make the purchasing decision.

Instead of sending more emails and logging more activities, in the age of AI, salespeople can be redeployed to learn these skills. To study concepts like DSRP, practice tools like zoom in/zoom out, and master them so that they become valuable decision-making partners for your customers.

5. Become a Master at the Craft

One thing most salespeople don’t do often enough is practice their skills. You can train your AI on your process and methodology, and then have your salespeople develop mastery by practicing with their AI companions. Because it never gets tired of repetition and never judges you, AI is a great partner in role-play to develop conversational skills and is also terrific at helping salespeople discover what they need to know and learn to improve their performance.

The time-saving benefits of AI are profound and can be profoundly profitable for the companies that utilize them. But even more profound are the many ways that AI can free your people to become more valuable, more powerful, and more successful.

How are you using AI to help your teams achieve mastery?