Ali Chavin from Outreach discusses how AI tools help salespeople work smarter while keeping humans in control. Sellers recognize AI is changing their work but worry about hallucinations and bias. Outreach's new report shows trust and relationship-building still matter most in complex deals.
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Hi, my name is Gerhard Schwartner and welcome to Selling Power tv. Today we have a special guest joining us from Dreamforce in San Francisco, Ali Chavin. Welcome, Ali.
Hi. It is so great to be here.
So you're the senior vice president of outreach and you have a big boost there. What is your objective?
One is of course bringing outreach to the market, introducing people to the brand, to our products and services, and through that, helping every salesperson become the best seller that they can be. But what I think of my job, especially right now at Dreamforce and at this, you know, really juncture of where we are with sales and AI is helping sellers realize how AI can improve their lives and also importantly not to be afraid of it, that they're not going anywhere. And outreach is really trying to show with data how this is going to happen, why to embrace it, and again, why not to fear it.
Tell us a little bit about the survey you recently did for the profession of selling.
So in our 2024 state of sales execution report, we really want to get a sense of how is the market feeling about SDRS and the role of AI. And what we found was fascinating. People understand there needs to be a change, that AI is going to change how we do things, but not fully understanding yet how, when and where.
That reminds me of what Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, said recently, that over the next 24 months, every single business process will change and transform because of AI.
When people say it's going to transform, for whatever reason, I think we just put out there, transform and take your jobs. But I think what we're not talking about as much is one, how transformation is going to make people better at their jobs. But also how are we upskilling people? How are we enabling them to do it? Well, because AI without guardrails, AI without being used, doesn't get you very far. The guardrails that we're putting on is that by preventing hallucinations, we've made it a very limited range of content that it can draw from. So, so for example, if we want the AI to create a follow up email, we've made it really strict so that the AI is only taking what's in the call and not adding new things. However, this is where the human element still comes in. We're still going to want you to read it. And also just having really, really smart people on the team who understand where AI tends to hallucinate more.
What you are discussing at Dreamforce and what you're hearing and what I'm hearing is that AI needs to be at the center of every strategy, at the center of it.
But I think for very small transactions, you know, if I'm going to buy socks online, I don't need to talk to a human or even, you know, small B2B purchases. I can just read the website. But I'm never as a buyer going to want to make a big important investment decision without talking to a human. What AI is going to be able to do is make the SDR so much more efficient and AI is going to be able to tell them everything that's happening in the company, their hiring trends, and actually end up being like, hey, here's really knowing what a person's problem is and really being able to actually help that.
What about hiring? I just saw a demo yesterday where you have a reasonably looking bot asking candidates questions and give them a rating so that companies can accelerate hiring.
Personally have a lot of concerns there that the bots are going to have the same inherent biases that we as humans have. That's why I think, you know, we're going to need to make sure that we don't rely on AI to replace all of the human interactions. And as our world gets more and more AI, more and more chatbody those human relationships and actually showing up and developing those relationships is going to be more important than it ever was.
Selling is a transfer of energy. And when it's face to face, it's 100%. When it's over Zoom, it's maybe 60%. When it's over the phone, maybe it's just 30%.
There's just an immediate trust. And, you know, if I think about some of the technology experiences that I've had buying, I think perhaps the best one I ever had is that she showed up in person, came in with smoothies for all of us. And, you know, it got to the point where, you know, during the sale, it was very complicated. We were texting. I even remember one day I had forgotten my phone in my apartment and I had missed a text from hers. And I remember emailing her, like, if I'm not responding to my text, it's because I forgot my phone in the apartment. I didn't want you to think that I was ignoring you. We had developed that relationship over time. And, you know, whenever I move to a new company, she's the first one I call.
Circling back to your survey, a lot of people would like to know how can they get more details?
So coming to our website is a great way. And another way is LinkedIn. We share a ton on there. We call them coffee reads. Something entertaining and educational to read while you have your morning coffee. We have a lot of fun with videos and short form content like that.
Ali, thank you so much for taking time out of Dreamforce and for doing this interview. I think you an amazing leader and a lot of marketing leaders could learn from you a thing or two.
