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May 20, 2024
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Sales & Marketing Technology Sales training Artificial Intelligence Endless Customers Podcast
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This transcript was generated by AI and has not been checked for accuracy.
Chris
0:00:00
AI is here and quite frankly, it's here to help. So today, we're going to talk through some of the ways
that I've seen AI help, some of the ways that I think can help you. Let's dive in.
Alex
0:00:11
Welcome back to Endless Customers.
Alex
0:00:22
My name is Alex Winter. I'm here today with Chris Duprey, our Head Coach, Chief Customer Officer.
Chris, welcome back to the show.
Chris
0:00:28
Thanks, man.
Alex
0:00:30
Thanks for being here. I love chatting with you. We got a really cool topic today. We're talking about
sales. You're a sales expert. You coach and train a lot of companies on sales
Alex
0:00:37
and how to integrate sales and marketing, but I really wanna focus on artificial intelligence, and I
know we talk about it a lot here at Impact and a lot as a company, but specifically I wanna get into
how AI can help sales folks.
Alex
0:00:50
So like what tools they can be using and what mentality shift they need to make so that they can do their job better, faster, stronger, all those things.
Chris
0:00:59
Yeah, yeah.
Chris
0:01:01
So it's, I mean, as we talk about AI and as I go around and speak to CEOs around North America
about artificial intelligence, the sales side is definitely one of the sides where AI is at a point where it
can be really, really helpful if sales folks are proactive
Chris
0:01:24
in their approach to trying to figure things out.
Chris
0:01:27
Right?
Chris
0:01:27
Yeah. So, this goes from anything from call recordings and getting all of the important data from a call transcribed, summarized, action items called out so that you just have all that stuff in one spot.
So there's tools like that that are just great. And then there's tools that you can have inside of a virtual meeting that are going to tell you things like,
0:02:07
you're using too many filler words, you're speaking too fast, you're using your hands way too much.
All of those things are again like tools that are trained with AI that work through it that can be in-call
and post-call, giving us just areas where we can train on and grow it.
Chris
0:02:28
Right?
Alex
0:02:28
That's really cool.
Chris
0:02:29
Yeah.
Chris
0:02:29
And then there's the next wave of like, what can we do with AI? So it's funny, Alex, you were actually
with me, Alex, and we were with a company who responds to a ton of requests for proposal, right?
And the typical process this organization goes through is they get an RFP, bunch of people read
through it, they then go produce a response, and if they get selected, they then have to go and
interview, and it's maybe a 40-minute presentation on their end and
Chris
0:03:12
20 minutes of questions or something like that. I'm sure that there are many of you that are listening that go through some version of that. As we talked through, how can you leverage AI? Well, why couldn't we have AI review the RFP? Pull out the key things, ask it for what, after reviewing it, what are the key drivers? Then we go answer it. Then we put our
answer into that same conversation and say, how well did we address the RFP?
Chris
0:03:49
Right?
Chris
0:03:50
See how that went. And that's great. And if you do just that, you're probably gonna be really good. But let's go to the next level. We've done all of that, and now we ask our AI, if you were on the selection committee conducting the interviews based on this RFP, and based on the response, what questions would you have for ABC Corp? Because that then allows you the opportunity to role play how you're going to present.
Chris
0:04:29
And it might ask you questions that you were planning on based on the way in which you
responded. Right? It's fascinating. Yeah. And listen, I'd love to say that like, I just thought, but it's
like anything else with the AI, Like, you know, if you're in that situation, well, reviewing RFP by
yourself is painful and you miss stuff.
Chris
0:04:50
Writing the response, you likely use some language that is internal to the company and not, everybody's going to understand. You probably didn't fully answer the thing. And what's really cool is
that AI tool, it's like we like to say it impact that assistant that provides insights can give us an unbiased view of what we submitted. And that's the key.
0:05:25
Right.
Chris
0:05:25
And this isn't, and you don't have to have some advanced AI knowledge to do what we just talked about. This is so doable in chat, GBT four.
Alex
0:05:33
Right.
Chris
0:05:33
20 bucks a month.
Alex
0:05:37
Right.
Chris
0:05:38
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris
0:05:38
So true.
Alex
0:05:39
And that's just the jump in here. The fascinating part was so I'm watching you give this presentation
to this company. It was really cool to be in the room because what happened in the room, it was
almost like you had to be there. But I was watching these people having these light bulb moments.
You're presenting these different A.I. tools and organically out of seeing some of these tools, they
were getting these ideas and they were like, well, this would really help with our fees.
Alex
0:06:00
And it led us down this road. That's really, really interesting. And I think there's so many
opportunities with AI that can help in this way that we just haven't even discovered yet. And we still
are uncovering as we're starting to use it more and more.
Chris
0:06:15
Yeah. So it's like this, you know, this idea that once you become aware of something, you then have
a choice to either do something with that awareness or to knowingly not
Alex
0:06:30
Right once you know right yeah once you know if you don't do anything with it then you're choosing not to do something with it right correct correct correct and you know if we use that organization as an example or some of these vistage groups that I go to Most people come in uneducated or undereducated on what's out there for AI, right? They automatically think chat GPT, or they think AI is cheating or gonna harm them, right?
0:07:04
Very true, yeah.
0:07:05
And the key is just, they just need to see it. And they just need to play with it.
0:07:17
And they need to have it. That was the shift that happened in the room. I watched that happen. You
went into starting that conversation and that presentation with a few people being afraid. And almost
kind of giving you a hard time of like,
0:07:29
hey, we're concerned about this and we're worried about safety with this and about cheating or
copying or whatever you want to call it. And I feel like within 20 minutes, it wasn't even 20 minutes.
You already had them intrigued and their fear had turned more
0:07:42
into intrigue and more into like, oh, we, we had a misconception of what this really was or what this
really is.
0:07:48
Yeah.
0:07:48
Because it's change brother. Like everything else changed. Right.
Chris
0:07:51
And so sales professionals today, you know, most of them think they're doing really well. I don't want
to change the thing that they're doing. And then there's the top 5% that are the ones making all the
money that are on top of everything
Chris
0:08:12
and they're doing all these things.
Alex
0:08:13
Right? And they're fully embracing the change, yeah.
Chris
0:08:15
Fully embracing the change, they want more training, they want more tools to use, ways to go. And
so the thing is, is like that RFP example is an example. But let's say you just want to learn
something about an organization you haven't done any real research yet.
Chris
0:08:36
There are tools out there that can create a video about anything by putting in the web address and
asking it a couple of questions to show you in a video form. We did that in that workshop too.
Alex
0:08:49
Yeah, you did a really cool demo. What was the name of that tool? I forget. Do you remember it?
0:08:54
InVideo.
Alex
0:08:55
InVideo, okay.
Chris
0:08:57
Yeah, listen, I have a free subscription to it, but I haven't paid for it. So you get stock imagery, but it
literally, you use it just like ChatGPT. Type in the URL and say, make me a video about this
organization, highlighting things that they care about. And granted, it's just looking at what the company said
publicly, right?
Alex
0:09:22
On their website. On their website, exactly, yeah.
Chris
0:09:24
But you still get a sense of that organization without having to spend all that time reading through
everything.
Chris
0:09:31
Yeah.
Chris
0:09:32
Right? So it's not, you use it to not prepare. It's like, no, it's part of your preparation.
Alex
0:09:37
Mm-hmm.
Alex
0:09:38
It was also fascinating because you ran this demo in real time in front of this group and they
watched the video that they spit out. So you used their website as the example. It scrubbed their
whole copy on their website.
Alex
0:09:49
It created this video. I think we did like a 60 second video and we watched it. And they weren't just
impressed. They also organically started to go like, wow, we really need to update the copy on our
site. And that doesn't actually represent who we are and it started all these conversations where like maybe they're too close to it so they to get that
unbiased perspective.
Chris
0:10:12
I mean so I know we're talking about sales but I did the exact same thing with a client that thinks that they need to change
some of their messaging. Okay. The video showed them that they talk a ton about the things they
wanted to change their message to. So it was like, so do you need to, or are you already, the world
already sees you as this.
Chris
0:10:35
Right?
Chris
0:10:36
That was a good, that was a good one to go through.
Alex
0:10:39
Yeah. Cause that happens too, where sometimes people think they need to make a change
because that's what they perceive to be the reality. And in reality, it's not always the case.
Chris
0:10:48
Right. Which, so again, which goes back to something that Bob had sort of, you know, noted, which
was like, yes, we know AI stands for artificial intelligence. But he said, but it also stands for
assistance and insights. And I think a lot of people understand it as the assistant. It can help you
write an email. It can help you write this.
Chris
0:11:04
It can help you with an image. It can blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the thing that I find the most
valuable for sales folks are the insights it can provide because it's coming from an un... So let me
rephrase this. AI has its own biases built into it that were trained into it. What it doesn't have is the
biases that you as a seller or marketer or owner of your organization has. So each one of us,
when we're selling our product, look at it with a lens. AI doesn't have that same lens, so it can give
you better questions to ask. It can help set you up better. It can do all these different things.
Chris
0:11:55
So as we think about it, we can sit here and go through tool after tool, but that's not the real
important thing. The real important thing for sales pros to go is, are you using AI at all in your
day-to-day? There's going to be a whole group of people that are not.
Chris
0:12:17
So I would challenge you to just start doing that.
0:12:19
Just try it. Just give it a try. Try experimenting. There's nothing wrong with that.
Chris
0:12:25
Right. It could be as simple as using it to record calls and get your notes. It could be looking at a call
transcript, asking it questions to have a little role play. It could be using it to do research before a
meeting. It could be helping you write emails.
Chris
0:12:45
But if you're not engaging with it, you're likely going to get left behind because the people that are
engaging with it are going to be able to do more in the same amount of time. Yeah, and so Chris,
this is a great segue too because I want to also bring us back to the sales folks and how they can use these tools to improve
their professional selves, but also how they can improve the client experience overall. So can we
talk a little bit about that?
Chris
0:13:13
Yeah.
Chris
0:13:13
Yeah. So, sales folks, you might hate me for this for a second, but sales people are not the best
listeners in a sales call, right? Like it's a skill that everybody needs, but a lot of us just struggle with it.
Chris
0:13:30
Yeah.
Chris
So let's use an assistant to help us guide us through it. But with several tools, whether it's, you
know, Papa's got us in a way. But with several tools, whether it's, you know, Gong, Horus, Fellow,
Otter, Fathom, all these fireflies, all these AI bots that pop up and sit in our virtual meeting, we can then go ask them, hey, what were the three major concerns
that the buyer talked about? What was the biggest thing that the buyer spent time talking to us
about? And we can get those types of answers, and then we can craft our next email, our next communication with them in a way to show them, A,
that we were listening, B, that we know that this thing's important, and so we want to continue to
educate them with it, right? So, enter assignment selling, but instead of just sending the normal thing you send at this point, you're also bringing the conversation that you had to life by continuing that out.
Chris
0:14:46
Yeah.
Chris
0:14:47
Right? Yeah. it is a really good use of those tools to be able to go find out what that, what was that,
what was that overall summary? What was that big thing that you feel like they needed more
answers on, right? These are things that three years ago we couldn't really get, right?
Chris
0:15:10
We might have had the video recording, we might have had a transcript, but we're either watching
the call to like put it all together or read the transcript try to put it all together. Now the AI can do that
for us and it really supercharges us to know all the different elements, pain points, hesitations,
potential objections, all this stuff that helps us formulate next communication, and get ready for the
next call.
Alex
0:15:40
Right, and that's key. You wanna come correct to the next call, and you wanna be able to get ahead
of those fears, worries, doubts, concerns, and all the things that we talk about when it comes to
assignment selling. But on the professional side, right, there's a couple tools that I was fascinated with during this presentation that you gave that were like,
it reviews your calls not just for summaries, but it reviews your calls to like, for filler words, or for
different things that you may, like, and to me that was crazy. I would love to watch myself back and see how many times like I say, I'm in a video or
ways that I can improve so that I, I continually look more professional and more buttoned up when
I'm in front of these types of people.
Alex
0:16:16
Yeah.
Chris
0:16:17
A bunch of tools, but there's two that I really, really recommend. called Virtual Sapiens. And it sits in your meeting and will tell you, get closer, your head framing's not right, you're saying I'm too much, and it'll give you a report on body language and on some of that stuff, like how to help you communicate. That's amazing, wow. There's another tool called Udly.
Alex
0:16:43
Yeah.
Chris
0:16:44
And I'm messing around with, I'm working with a team at Udely right now on this, but they do the
same thing, sit in the meeting, or you can upload recordings. And it does, it looks for certain things.
Filler words, pacing, do you repeat things? It'll even rephrase, so it looks for conciseness.
Chris
0:17:05
And then they have added features for role-playing it for conciseness. And then they have added
features for role-playing and some of these other pieces involved in all of them. But if your
organization isn't doing that, or let's say that you're recording your calls but nothing's really
happening with them, these are the types of tools that really can take it to the next level so that you can either coach your team or take it on yourself and just coach
yourself by looking at what somebody else is seeing.
Alex
0:17:43
Yeah, totally.
Chris
0:17:44
As they watch your call.
Alex
0:17:45
I think it removes the excuse too of like, I don't have time to watch game tape. I don't have time to
watch all this recording. Because it does take time to do that. So to have some of these tools to
summarize it or to give you the TLDR that you need, it takes that excuse out that's like, I don't have time for it. And it gives you the key things that can
help you improve and can help you be better and come correct on your next calls.
Chris
0:18:05
And listen, there's a thousand different use cases and a thousand different tools. I think the big thing
that the sales profession has to get it passed is we've got to experiment with AI. And I think actually,
I think the sales profession is pretty good at experimenting from time to time, but it's got to start
looking at how can I optimize my day so I can sell? Like, because you want to be selling more and doing less
administrative or mundane tasks. Yes, that's the dream right there.
Alex
0:18:41
Right, and the thing is, is that now, things that used to take a long time, you likely can have AI help you. You still have to learn the stuff,
you still have to understand it, read it, watch it, do whatever. But the idea is that you might not need to spend as much time trying to find all this stuff.
Alex
0:19:03
Yeah, and for sales folks that are based on, you know, metrics about numbers and that's their
performance, the more efficiencies you can create to get more stuff done, I don't see why you
wouldn't wanna do that and why you wouldn't wanna bring that into your day to day.
Chris
0:19:17
Yeah, yeah, and we're in this era of whatever you think you'd want an AI to do,
it likely is being thought about or can't do it already. Like this is a mindset that I've got. And it's just,
okay, well, what are the things that I need help with as a seller? I take very loose notes, so I need a
note taker. I need summarizations. I need it to pull out my takeaways and my action items.
Chris
0:19:42
I need to be able to go back to review it or summarize it. I need help drafting some emails
sometimes. You know, I have had to use AI to help translate stuff because I talked to a French-first
organization and I wanted to meet them where they were at. So, you know, video avatar of me
speaking French, I don't speak French, but I spoke French in this video, right? And now totally told
me it was an avatar, but I was able to meet them where they were at three years ago. If I had tried to say all the things I
said in French, I mean, I would have been reading some translated, something was sounded
horrible. Right. And your accent wouldn't have been at maybe as good as the AI had done.
Alex
0:20:44
And I, yeah. And I saw this video and I know you and it was hard to tell that it wasn't you. I was
was just in French and it was really good French and I speak French
Alex
0:21:03
so it was crazy to see that. But I also think it was fascinating, you told the clients ahead of time, like
hey I use this AI tool to do this to meet you where they are but what was the reaction when they got
a video from you
Alex
0:21:15
that was in fluent French?
Chris
0:21:17
Oh, they all thought I spoke French.
Chris
0:21:18
Yeah.
Chris
0:21:19
Like, they all thought I spoke French, right? And so it's a funny story for us to tell about an
experience that I used. But some of you sell in many languages.
Chris
0:21:30
Right.
Chris
0:21:31
Right, or you have employees in many different countries.
Alex
0:21:33
Countries all over the world.
Chris
0:21:35
AI now removes these barriers to speech.
Alex
0:21:39
Yeah, which is really amazing.
Chris
0:21:41
So there's all these things. But again, everything comes down to we have to be educated, or it's not
going to do anything. We've got to get educated. We have to experiment. And experiment is
different than just going all in on this and thinking it's the only way to do it. Like, you have to look at what you do and say, what could be
optimized if I had some assistance? What could help me do my job better? Create a hypothesis and
go test it. Did it in fact help me sell better?
Chris
0:22:16
So take that RFP example. Don't do it with every RFP for the next three months without saying,
what is our close rate? What's our close rate on RFPs? Let's say it's 20 percent. Well, we think if we
prep this way, it can increase to 30 percent. Go test it and see if it did. Test how long did it document. How long
does it take to normally respond? How long did it take when we use this new thing? Did we save
time?
Chris
0:22:55
Again, it's all about how do we create more efficiencies, more capacity, and at the end of the day, be
more successful in whatever metrics success is for our organizations. That's the key to leveraging AI
correctly. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Alex
0:23:11
And the testing thing is a huge piece, and that's a key takeaway for everyone watching and listening.
The testing is the most important and A-B testing, even in the room when you were presenting, they
were like, we should submit an RFP exactly the way you talked about using all these AI tools and
seeing how that works and let's just do one how we've always done it and see which one is better received. So you just want to get more traction and you need to start thinking
almost like with your lab coat on and putting the scientist hat on that's like, hey, we need to compare
and contrast and see how these tools work together so we can have actual data to back up the
experiments we're conducting. Very important.
Chris
0:23:48
100%.
Alex
0:23:49
Very cool. Chris, any closing thoughts before we wrap here on sales folks with artificial intelligence?
Chris
0:23:54
Yeah, just be curious, investigate, figure out what you think you could use some help with. And I can
span that gamut from role play assistance to note taking to email generating, whatever it is. But it's
don't be afraid to test. It's not cheating. It's the same.
Chris
0:24:21
So if you pull out your phone to do math on the spot, that's the same level of support that AI can
provide, right? Like obviously AI is going to give you more than just the answer, but if you're willing
to pull this out to get multiplied, to figure out some quote, to do some math do the same thing with
the AI to help you move the needle forward.
Alex
0:24:51
Well said, Chris, well said. For people who have follow-up questions, Chris is an expert in this. He
can definitely school you on a lot of tools, on a lot of ways that your company, whatever industry
you're in, can help implement and use AI to your advantage. How can they get in touch with you, Chris?
Chris
0:25:06
Yeah, I mean, you just go right through Impacts, talk to a coach. Say you want to talk about AI and
that you saw me talk, or you can find me on LinkedIn.
Alex
0:25:15
Thanks brother, it's great to see you. And for everybody listening and watching, this is Endless
Customers. this is Endless Customers. We'll see you on the next episode.
About This Episode
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the sales industry in profound ways. In this episode, Chris Duprey, IMPACT's Head Coach and Chief Customer Officer, explains how sales professionals can leverage AI tools to level-up their performance and drive better results.
“AI is at a point where it can be really, really helpful if sales folks are proactive in their approach,” Chris says. But only if salespeople are willing to get into the sandbox and start experimenting.
Imagine having an AI assistant in your virtual meetings that provides real-time feedback. Chris mentions tools that can tell you, “you’re using too many filler words, you're speaking too fast, or you're using your hands way too much.” This immediate feedback helps salespeople refine their presentation skills and enhance their communication effectiveness.
Tools like Gong and Otter.ai can also help personalize follow-up communications based on previous interactions. By analyzing call transcripts, AI identifies major concerns and areas of interest, enabling salespeople to tailor their responses more effectively
Chris understands the concerns many have about AI, but he says this often comes from people who’ve never really seen what it can do.
At a recent presentation, Chris saw initial skepticism about AI turn into excitement as attendees began to understand its potential. “Most people come in uneducated or undereducated on what's out there for AI,” he notes. However, once people see the practical applications and benefits, their mindset changes. “It’s about becoming aware and then choosing to leverage that awareness.”
AI can be a powerful ally for sales professionals. It’s not about replacing human interaction but enhancing it with data-driven insights and efficiencies. As Chris puts it, “The more efficiencies you can create, the more successful you will be.”
Connect with Chris Duprey
Chris Duprey is a sought-after speaker and business coach with over two decades of leadership experience.
Get to know Chris through his IMPACT bio page
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
Keep Learning
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Watch: Generative Search: How AI Will Transform Marketing ft. Mike Kaput
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Read: The Sales Problem Everyone Ignores: An Untrained Sales Force
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Free assessment: Score Your Sales Team
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Watch: AI Safety for Teams: Essential Practices for a Secure Workplace
Other Tools Chris Mentioned
Free Assessment:
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