Traditional, Human-only sales teams often miss opportunities due to our own bias and background, keeping us in a “cultural comfort zone”. Our sales intuition and personal familiarity served us in the past, but the world moves too quickly, change is too rapid, for success in today’s markets. By leveraging AI to see the things we cannot, leaders can move from fearful guesswork to confident Human connection. The AI-powered Sales can lead to growth opportunities and hyper-localized marketing pilots.
Using AI for sales means going from guesswork to guided predictions in a more systematic and organized way. In an organization large enough to have a sales team, this is a very Human a game of volume and endurance. Sales teams ask themselves, “As a Human, what would trigger me to buy?” rather than coldly looking at where the data leads or focusing on new markets that the Human sales professional is not personally familiar with and would never dare enter.
Traditional, Human-only sales teams waste a lot of time pursuing leads that go nowhere, just because it’s the way “it’s supposed to work”; set up expensive booths in conference halls in cities far away where they sell to people just like themselves. They might have learned this tactic during their MBA, or this approach might have worked in the past, but today’s world is too fast, and market change is too rapid, for this to work now.
Imagine “Luminous”, a fictitious high-end candle and home fragrance manufacturer based in a sleek, suburban office park outside a bustling city. Their talented, but limited, all-white Human sales team does well by staying within their comfort zone; focusing on B2B, traditional big-box retailers and boutique gift shops in familiar neighborhoods that they themselves might linger in on a Sunday afternoon with a nice Matcha latte. But just a few kilometers up the road lies a vibrant and growing, underserved Hindu population.
As Diwali, the Festival of Lights, approaches, the chance to sell small, high-quality candles (upmarket Diyas) is unseen by Luminous and other similar manufacturers. Even if they would recognize the opportunity, they wouldn’t even consider pursuing it, feeling like outsiders. The risk of doing it wrong, mispronouncing terms, accidentally offending or appropriating a culture they don’t understand would feel like a minefield. Human bias, in this example, is an opportunity cost.
The AI-Powered Luminous team would start with a campaign of deep listen and raw data analysis and of both ancient and modern sensibilities of the event, history, meaning, purpose, aesthetic, colors and patterns of the tradition. This type of data, built on social sentiment, historical religious texts and local trends, is wildly unstructured; no Human team on earth could digest in time for a seasonal launch.
But it’s just pattern recognition, exactly what a trained AI mind is designed to do. The study might reveal scents of sandalwood or jasmine, colors of Bordeaux and gold, and pitch a sub-brand and product design radiating the feeling of prosperity and light.
A-B testing becomes A-Z testing, as each corner of the market can be Human-tested on the ground, down to the individual if needed. The team would train a “Sensibility Coach” to educate the team in key etiquette points for targeted meetings or sales events in the community, allowing them to avoid the mines and connect with confidence.
Fed by a mix of ancient religious context and modern consumer data, the team would receive guidance on themes, wording and positioning that radiate respect, warmth and understanding. Pilot results are gathered and analyzed to develop proof of concept, leading to rollouts at scale. Multimodal AI Creatives spit out engaging collateral in multiple languages (Hindi, Gujarati, English) that use accurate, festive greetings and imagery so the brand is right at home.
In the end, AI-Powered sales isn’t about replacing the Human connection, it’s just the opposite. It’s about seeing common ground that is invisible to the naked eye, linking buyers to markets and seeing opportunity that only powerful pattern recognition can reveal. Just like modern telescopes map the universe not in visible light, but infrared and radio waves, in wavelengths missed by the Human eye; AI can see patterns in behavioral data we cannot. AI can support us with the rest, educating us where our own limited knowledge and experience fall short.
Need help with AI Integration?
Reach out to me for advice – I have a few nice tricks up my sleeve to help guide you on your way, as well as a few “insiders’ links” I can share to get you that free trial version you need to get started.
No eyeballs to read or watch? Just listen.
Working Humans is a bi-monthly podcast focusing on the AI and Human connection at work. Available on Apple and Spotify.
About Fiona Passantino
Fiona helps empower working Humans with AI integration, leadership and communication. Maximizing connection, engagement and creativity for more joy and inspiration into the workplace. A passionate keynote speaker, trainer, facilitator and coach, she is a prolific content producer, host of the podcast “Working Humans” and award-winning author of the “Comic Books for Executives” series. Her latest book is “The AI-Powered Professional”.