Nearly every major software platform in the world has added AI tools to their arsenal over the past two years. Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe: The largest software companies have almost all jumped on the generative AI bandwagon.
Here at Membrain, we’re taking a more measured approach.
If you’ve been following my blog, you know that we have certainly been paying attention to the phenomenon and its impact on the sales industry. I’ve written about what AI is, what it means for the sales profession, great ways to use it (and terrible ways, too), what it can and can’t do for sales, and how we use generative AI inside our organization to help us be more efficient and effective.
You also know that I’m as impressed as anyone with some of the capabilities of generative AI and its potential to change the landscape of complex sales.
So you may be wondering why we haven’t joined the legions of software companies and launched our own AI suite. Well, here’s why.
- It’s Not Free or Even Cheap
In the flurry of excitement over the potential of AI and the wide availability of free tools like Chat-GPT and Google’s AI assistants, it can be easy to overlook the fact that AI is not a free resource. It requires massive processing power, which equates to resources that nobody is giving away without expectation of return.
In the software world, this means that beyond basic generative language models of AI, most AI upgrades like Gemini for Google Workspace and Einstein for Salesforce come with massive price bumps. To add Gemini to your Google Workspace, for instance, you’ll spend more than twice as much per seat than if you use the non-AI-enabled version. Microsoft is the same. And the Salesforce profit model for AI is as complicated as the rest of its pricing model, but rest assured they’re not giving their premium tools away for free.
Of course, if the product is twice as valuable, then it makes sense for it to be twice as expensive. But we don’t believe it is. At least not yet.
- Everyone Is Rushing In Because It’s Cool and Fun: But Is It Actually Valuable in Every Context?
I certainly believe that generative AI is valuable and, in many ways, a game-changer for the technical world. It would be hard to argue that it’s not.
The question is whether having it integrated into every single platform provides enough value to justify the cost. At this juncture, I do not believe that it does. For Membrain, rushing to launch an AI tool just so we can say we have it is the wrong move.
Membrain builds tools and workflows that help you build structure to support your sales strategy and create positive behavior change on your sales teams, which, in turn, drives revenue growth. We are founded on the principle that sales is a skilled profession that requires skilled professionals, as well as an art and a science that requires structured yet flexible processes tied to intelligent strategy.
Some of the big names in sales software are encouraging organizations to overcome their strategic and human problems by throwing AI at a wall and hoping it will fix everything. But if there’s one thing that generative AI has been proven to be particularly terrible at, it’s strategy.
At Membrain, we’re not about throwing technology at a wall and hoping it’ll fix things. We’re not about adding more complexity to your Frankenstack or more chaos to your point pollution.
We’re about creating a structured, disciplined approach to How You Sell and implementing it across your sales teams to drive real, measurable, sustainable growth.
Of course, you may still want to use generative AI to summarize content, generate ideas, and perform other tasks that it’s good at. But those tools already exist in the tools you use to create content. You don’t need to pay extra to have the same tools duplicated inside of Membrain as well. (That said, there are solid, more unique use cases for AI inside of Membrain that we are working on for the future).
- Our Customer Support Will Always Be Focused on the Customer
Finally, I want to talk about the way we interact with our customers. One thing most major software platforms have done is implement AI chatbots for their customer support. In some cases, they’ve even fired most of their customer support teams in favor of AI (remember: AI is not free, but it is much cheaper than humans).
Membrain has not done that. Believe it or not, we still have actual humans answering your questions and providing support to customers. When you contact Membrain, you speak with a real human with real access to resources to answer your real questions.
If you’ve ever been stuck in a loop of useless responses or an endless tree of useless options while you grew more and more frustrated, you’ll appreciate our approach. Furthermore, we believe in helping our customers find strategic solutions to their problems. And when it comes to strategy, AI is the last thing you want to rely on.
The bottom line? We care about our customers’ success, and that’s why we have chosen a measured approach to developing our technology rather than rushing to throw AI at you.
What do you think? Do you wish we’d join the fray asap? What would you want AI to do for you inside Membrain?
