ChatGPT is taking the world by storm. We could give you a little introduction, or we could ask it to introduce itself and show you what we’re talking about (and why some people fear for what will happen to their jobs over the next few years):
“I am ChatGPT, a large language generation model developed by OpenAI. I am trained on a massive amount of text data and can generate text in a variety of styles and formats such as story-telling, poetry, articles and more. I can answer questions, write essays, summarize articles, translate text, and more. I am designed to assist users with a wide range of natural language processing (NLP) tasks, and can be used in a variety of applications such as chatbots, language translation, and content generation. My capabilities are expanding day by day due to the continuous development and refinement by OpenAI.”
In 2016, when Justin Shriber, the VP of Marketing at LinkedIn Sales Solutions, was asked about the future role of A.I. in sales, he could not have predicted a technological breakthrough on the level of ChatGPT. But even though ChatGPT is turning heads across the world, there are good reasons, according to Shriber, that your job in sales is safe (at least for now). And there’s also evidence that rather than replacing salespeople, ChatGPT will actually make their jobs easier.
Here are some ways ChatGPT can help people in the sales industry in their day-to-day tasks:
- Email and message generation: generate personalized and compelling emails and messages to prospects.
- Script generation: generate scripts for sales calls, product demos, and presentations, ensuring that key points are covered to help sales professionals to stay on-message during important conversations.
- Lead generation: generate lists of leads and potential customers based on certain demographics, industries, or other criteria. A.I. can also analyze all of your interactions with a customer and tell you how and when to take your “next best action.”
- Sales forecasting: Analyze data and make predictions about sales trends, customer behavior, and market conditions.
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): generate a list of frequently asked questions and corresponding answers that can be used to improve customer service and support.
- Customer Service: Generate automated responses to common customer inquiries, allowing you to focus on more complex customer interactions
We should clarify that ChatGPT generated that list, but it’s a robot, so it can’t be biased, right?!
In his article, Shriber emphasized that “great sales professionals can read the room, connect the dots, and make sense of the intangibles that make each deal unique.” Making deals still requires a human touch - not just of contextual reasoning and analysis but of empathy and emotion. Especially in high stakes, six-figure deals, buyers need to trust their sellers and have an established relationship that has ideally been nurtured and developed. (ChatGPT will be the first to admit that it cannot feel human emotions.)
“While A.I.'s ability to interpret language and emotion will definitely improve,” Shriber said, “it's unlikely it will ever fully replace the human ability to connect and build trust.”
So you can breathe a sigh of relief that your sales job is safe from the cold robot claws of the future. And the next time you click the “I am not a robot” captcha online, take a moment to feel some gratitude.
