Jeff Hoffman explains how AI augments sales work without replacing skill. He shares how AI-enabled market research won him a meeting, warns that too much AI-generated outreach erodes email trust, and recommends using AI to coach managers on their coaching.
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Hi, my name is Garrett Schwartner and welcome to Selling Power tv. Today we have a special guest from Boston, Jeff Hoffman. Welcome Jeff.
Thank you, Gerard. It's so great to be with you after all this time.
What interests me today and fascinates me is AI. What's your definition of AI?
Clearly, when we've got that kind of smart tech help that allows us to kind of shortcut elements of our whether it's research or whether it's actually engagement in the sales process, we have really one tool tool that we rely upon as sales professionals. That's our ability to communicate when there are inventions or tools or any kind of things that allow us to get better or stronger or more scalable when it comes to communication. And AI is the biggest element of that over the last couple of years. It's important for us to pay very close attention to it and to figure out where it fits in our. In our case, you have to know how to communicate and sell to use AI appropriately. It's not going to make you a better salesperson on its own and it could actually make you worse.
Give me an example from today this morning. How did you use AI?
We're in the final stages of a head to head competition with a similar vendor in our space for a brand new logo. What makes it challenging is that we're looking to displace of it. AI has been a huge advantage for me and my team in getting up to speed and understanding the market that this prospect lives in. So we were able to go to this meeting this morning. We with a very deep understanding of the things that their CFO cares about, things that I would not have known about if not for AI's ability to give it to me that quickly. And I even got that commentary during the meeting where the CFO we're talking to says I have never heard this analysis before from someone in your space. To which I had to say even your existing vendor who's known you for four years said yeah, even them. So we were able to get a nice leg up in that moment because of research that I didn't have to do. But I was able to treat AI as a teacher and I could be a student to it.
How can sales managers use AI for coaching salespeople?
I liken it when it's, when it's done, not so much for the AI to do the interpretation and the analysis of how the rep is doing in a moment. Whether that's a coaching call or feedback through reporting, I find it has much bigger impact on when you use the AI tools available to give feedback to the manager themselves on their coaching. So imagine instead of taking a recording of a sales call and bringing it through an AI analytic tool to give that feedback to the rep, why not instead give coaching to your rep on how they did on that same call and use the same AI technology to give you, the manager, feedback on how you coach? Because the AI components can do that. And that kind of feedback is worth 10 times more than what it'll say about the rep's ability to sell. What does it say about the manager's ability to lead?
Can you share some examples of AI gone wrong?
When AI is used predominantly to scale to be more efficient but not more effective, then what starts to happen is that our buyer community starts to distrust the very vehicle that they're used to email. When the buyer starts to doubt the credibility or the origination of the email they receive, that's not really from a person, that's from a bot, that's from AI. Once that starts to creep into the mind of the buyer, then the buyer discounts all email as being worthless. And when that happens, then email is now removed from the reps bag of tricks as a way to reach a prospect. So for managers listening, the penalty of playing poorly with AI is the destruction of the vehicle we use.
How do marketers use AI to help customers focus on what's new and exciting, what they need?
The marketers that are seeming to get it right, they really take what AI gives them and bring it down to the surgical micro targeting. Why wouldn't I get this messaging to Jerry, not Jerry, the cto? Like how, how narrow can I get this messaging when I have this kind of data, when I have this kind of tool?
How is AI helping close us?
Closing is a structured way of speaking and AI can teach that. AI can kind of cut through a lot of the noise and the nonsense in so many social media sites and give the patient student rep. The answer is that before AI you couldn't really find. So it helps in the learning of the vocabulary and it helps in the coaching of that vocabulary. Am I getting that right? Have I padded too much in my direct close? Do I have too many options in my choice close to be able to get that feedback loop in so many tools that are available today, many of which are free AI coupled with that video component, you can become an expert closer in a much shorter period of time than you and I could have ever hoped for. We started our career well.
Thank you Jeff. I invite anybody wants to learn more about his company go to sell hoffman.com. you won't regret it.
