TECHNOLOGY
AI as Coach:
Human-Led Sales Performance Improvement BHAKTI VITHALANI
AI has triggered a pace of change that can feel overwhelming. In fact, 49% of companies cite “keeping up with innovation” as their greatest threat, according to IDC. However, AI also presents sellers with an unprecedented opportunity to rapidly respond, adapt, and fast-track growth.
“AI-powered humans” might sound like an oxymoron. Solving for people is not in vogue. We see agents for everything cropping up daily – particularly for sales. The professional sales community has therefore viewed AI with some trepidation, feeling it could replace or eliminate some human-powered sales activity. But “humans versus agents” is a false choice. Would you rather get surgery by a human, an agent, or a human with an agent?
THE BUSINESS CASE FOR AI- POWERED SELLERS There’s a strong case for an “AI with sellers” paradigm, not an “AI or sell- ers” paradigm. First and foremost,
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trust remains important – so people matter. Gartner, Edelman, and Salesforce have all published find- ings showing that trust is a top factor in vendor selection – often more important than product features or even price.
Also, buyer complexity is rising.
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), the number of B2B buyers per purchase has grown from 5.4 to 6.8 in recent years. Similarly, solution complexity is growing. An Accenture survey found that 86% of participants agreed that – as the world moves toward solution- based offerings – partner-to-partner collaboration becomes increasingly vital. Furthermore, 57% of these
partners believe that the primary benefit of such collaborations is the ability to create more complete solutions that effectively meet customer needs.
IT STARTS WITH THE SELLER AI is not a threat to salespeople because, when harnessed, it can reimagine outdated models. The big- gest opportunity lies in transforming the conventional approach to how we activate and engage salespeople, which tends to be a factory-style, one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, AI can handle the complexity of hyper- personalization to build a tailored on-ramp to next moves for each salesperson. It’s like a personalized CrossFit program for sales. This is a clear departure from what technology has meant for sellers. Conventional tools have focused on tracking and auditing. They rein- force activities rather than build new behaviors and drive results. They speak to vagaries, such as “in the flow of work,” rather than support precise go-to-market moments. Now, with AI, we can empower salespeople with the support and agency they need to do the job. AI means we can engage the right seller at the right time for the right opportunity. AI can scale rather than displace sellers with superpowers.
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