5 Proven Strategies for Sales Leaders to Embrace AI
How AI is Shaping the Future of Sales Special Edition
The special edition provides insights and strategies to empower sales professionals to embrace the transformative impact of AI on sales and sales training. It includes articles contributed by Julie Thomas, president and CEO of ValueSelling Associates and author of the award-winning book, The Power of ValueSelling: The Gold Standard To Drive Revenue and Create Customers for Life, and ValueSelling Associates Managing Partners Natalie Pitchford, Liz Roche, Candice October and Chad Sanderson.
5 Strategies for Sales Leaders to Embrace AI
1. Leverage AI to Enhance Effectiveness, Not Replace Human Connection
Use AI tools not just for efficiency (like automating emails) but to enhance effectiveness by providing real-time insights, targeted sales coaching, and personalized learning experiences. While AI can serve as a powerful tool to streamline processes and provide real-time coaching, the human touch remains essential for building trust and credibility, and fostering long-term customer relationships.
-- Julie Thomas, President and CEO, ValueSelling Associates
2. Build Trust Through Authenticity and Empathy to Connect with Executive Buyers
As sellers are engaged later and later in the buyer journey, the value they bring must be laser-focused and deeply personal. When technology seems to dominate, salespeople can build the human connection by taking time to understand both the buyer's business challenges and their personal stakes. This approach transforms your role from a vendor to a trusted partner. Buyers are more likely to engage with sales professionals who demonstrate genuine care for their challenges and goals rather than simply pushing a product or service.
-- Natalie Pitchford, Managing Partner, ValueSelling Associates
3. Drive Go-To-Market Alignment with AI-Driven Buyer Personas
Use AI-driven personas to create dynamic, simplified tools that guide sales reps during real-world interactions, instead of lengthy reports containing complex buyer persona data. An AI-driven persona is a virtual avatar created from real-world data about your ideal customer profiles (the companies you want to target), buyer personas (representations of individuals within those companies) and prospects. Salespeople can interact with them in real time to uncover blind spots, increase knowledge and refine messaging.
--Liz Roche, Managing Partner, ValueSelling Associates
4. Balance Data-Driven Insights with Emotional Intelligence
Use AI insights to identify performance gaps or challenges within your sales team, and address these issues in a way that resonates with them. Leadership isn't about delivering data-it's about using the data AI provides to facilitate coaching conversations that create a connection and drive growth. Empathetic feedback encourages reps to improve without feeling criticized, increasing confidence and morale. And, approaching issues with understanding allows leaders to identify and solve root causes, leading to long-term improvements in performance.
-- Candice October, Managing Partner, ValueSelling Associates
5. Prioritize a Growth Mindset and Curiosity When Hiring
Future B2B sales success in an AI-driven world requires intellectual curiosity and a willingness to not always have the right answer, but to be agile and continually evolve and grow. Continuous learning and adaptability, especially in leveraging AI and other emerging technologies, should factor into hiring decisions above industry experience. With AI driving new insights, it's critical to keep learning and evolving, both in using tools and in refining interpersonal skills to engage in genuine conversations.
--Chad Sanderson, Managing Partner, ValueSelling Associates
Download the free PDF of the ValueSelling Associates and Selling Power special edition: "From Efficiency to Empathy: How AI is Shaping the Future of Sales.”
Topics covered include:
- How AI Is Transforming Sales
- Elevating Sales with Authenticity
- How AI-Driven Personas Revolutionize Sales and Marketing Alignment
- Leading with Purpose in the Age of AI
- The Future of B2B Sales: Balancing AI with Human Connection
In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as videos featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by more than 4,500 sales leaders each year.
About ValueSelling Associates, Inc.
ValueSelling Associates is the creator of the ValueSelling Framework®: the sales methodology, training and toolset that aligns your revenue engine with a common language and enables sales professionals to compete on value, not price. Since 1991, ValueSelling has helped hundreds of thousands of sales professionals realize immediate revenue growth and achieve results they never thought possible.
ValueSelling offers bespoke training to FORTUNE 1000, mid-sized, and start-up companies that includes eLearning courses, instructor-led workshops (virtual and in-person), microlearning and on-demand reinforcement in over 17 languages. ValueSelling programs provide globally scalable and sustainable tools, skills, and processes for sales teams, executives, and all customer-facing professionals to effectively engage, qualify, advance, and close more sales with higher margins.
Connect with ValueSelling Associates:
Media contact:Maria Doyle
Doyle Strategic Communications
+1-781-964-3536
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/37006bec-99d5-4b9e-8069-c60bee57a472
