An effective sales organization is one that uses its resources to build capacity, not just efficiency. In a world where technology is hurtling forward at lightning speed, advances in AI technology have the potential to transform how sales teams operate and to increase capacity in ways that were previously impossible even to imagine.
But only if you know how to use it well.
“Most people aren’t fully utilizing AI’s potential,” says Jeremy Utley, in this brief video about how Stanford teaches AI-powered creativity. The difference is in how we approach it. In my mind, that difference is not just in how we engineer prompts, but in how we THINK about our mission and how we structure our thinking about how we use AI.
You’ve seen me write about a lot of ways that sales organizations are approaching AI, what AI can’t do, and what we are asking of it that is impossible. What I want to talk about today is the transformative powers that AI CAN give us, and how we make that happen.
Generative AI is incredibly good at surfacing information and ideas from vast amounts of data. Many versions of it will even cite sources so you can fact-check the information it provides. Sophisticated AI attempts to judge the quality and trustworthiness of sources it pulls from, increasing its usefulness as a research and information-gathering tool.
All of these capabilities have obvious applications in the sales world. It’s easier than ever to search for information about a company, collate data about stakeholders, surface insights about industries. It can also generate hundreds of ideas about how you might approach a buyer, as well as compose emails to stay in touch, move a conversation forward, or reach hundreds or thousands of potential buyers at once.
Almost anyone can do this with AI now, and at a very low cost.
And there is the crux. If it’s that useful and everyone is using it, then you must use it, too. But that is table stakes. To differentiate your use from that of others, you must structure your thinking to create more value for your teams and your buyers.
Generative AI will answer any question you ask of it, with broad-reaching informational capacity. But the usefulness of those answers is determined by the value of the questions we ask. Knowing what kind of questions to ask enables us to meaningfully collaborate with AI.
When your teams speak with buyers, their ability to ask thoughtful, provocative questions is what identifies them as trusted partners rather than merely vendors. When your managers coach your team members, it’s the probing, insightful questions they ask that matter most, not the quick answers they already know.
To differentiate your AI use, you must structure your thinking to create more value for your buyers.
Likewise, when we are building organizational capacity and improving the effectiveness of our sales team, we need AI. But not just AI: We need the right questions, and the right questions come from structured thinking.
Structured thinking is the ability to organize information to reach deeper understanding, achieve insights, and make better decisions. Cabrera Lab offers a simple, powerful systems thinking theory that can help sales teams organize themselves and their thinking to make better use of AI, called DSRP.
DSRP gives you and your teams the tools you need to build a competitive edge by truly understanding your market, your industry, your buyers in aggregate, and also each individual buyer and stakeholder within your buyer organizations.
With your thinking structured in this way, AI then becomes a tool that augments your team’s brain, serves up the information and answers you need, and automates tasks in a way that is effective, targeted, strategic, and gets the job done.
Membrain’s Insight Engine is being built on structured data, systems thinking, and AI to augment you and your team’s ability to think strategically. It supports structured thinking and intelligent insight-building. It fosters shared learning environments across silos to help your teams do a better job of aligning their thinking and their approach. We’re excited to be building this capability for you to help you tap the potential of AI in a way that will truly support your organization’s growth.
In complex sales, your ability to think WITH AI, and not just abdicate your thinking TO AI may be the difference between incremental, haphazard change… and real improvements. Instead of adding more chaos to your Frankenstack, structured thinking will enable you to collaborate with AI in a productive manner that can lead to a substantial competitive edge.
George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.
Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn
From north to south, east to west, Membrain has thousands of happy clients all over the world.
