9 Points in the Sales Process You Should Use ChatGPT
Jake Dunlap
“There is a lot of noise around AI. What we’ve distilled down, are the nine core areas in the process that your organization should actually care about.”
When entering a room, or virtual room, of sales leaders these past few months, I’d ask these two questions. The first is, “A show of hands, how many of you think your salespeople are using ChatGPT every day?” Every hand will raise. Then I’d ask, “How many of you have a strategy for how your team is using ChatGPT?” Every hand goes down.
I continue to talk about this topic because it is essential to the future of sales and is shaping what sales will look like in the years to come.
Right now, if we’re talking trends, the space is saturated with how to use ChatGPT for sales, but leaders want to know how will ChatGPT and AI move the needle for their business.
It’s not enough for the team to be dabbling with ChatGPT and AI, all at different frequencies and with different levels of proficiency. We have to implement an organizational strategy.
Implementing these nine core areas I cover in these two live sessions will increase productivity for Sales Development, Sales, and Customer Success by 20-30%.
It’s the next big thing since sales engagement platforms, but if you’ve been following along, it’s much more than automation or doing this or that “at scale.” ChatGPT and AI improve productivity for the organization, increase sales skills, and enhance the customer experience.
There is a lot of noise around AI. What we’ve distilled down are the nine core areas in the process that your organization should actually care about.
(Part 1) Points 1-4, Sales Development & Sales
Skip ahead to:
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- 4:00 – There is a lot of noise around AI. What we’ve tried to distill down to its core are the areas in the process that you should actually care about.
- 6:55 – Point number one. SDR research on a company or industry. If you want to book more meetings, this is the most impactful way to amplify your research.
- 8:47 – The quality of the prompt determines the quality of the response. Don’t just try to research the company and what they do. Dig deeper to the next level, and the next level, and the next.
- 12:11 – Point number two. After you’ve done your prep and research, then have it write messages for you. Your current messaging produced from ChatGPT isn’t good because you don’t go deep enough on the prompts. You have to go deep into the industry, company, and buyer persona you’re targeting.
- 13:50 – Detail in equals detail out. And keep your threads clean. Imagine you’re talking to the smartest child on the planet Earth.
- 15:31 – Point number three. Follow-up is another underutilized use case. I love ChatGPT for next steps and action plans.
- 17:26 – Point number four. This is my first AE touchpoint. Number four here is advanced, later-stage deal prep. Many reps will prepare heavily for the first meeting but then stop.
- 19:44 – I want you all to think about role-playing when it comes to advanced prep. For example, Marketing typically has this objection in this meeting, and I’m struggling to get them to let me meet with the CFO specifically. How can I rework this agenda or talk track so that the logical talk track is so that they want me to meet with the CFO?
(Part 2) Points 5-9, Sales & Customer Success
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- 4:51 – Point number five. Building credibility. After a while, you become the expert on selling into specific industries, but with a new industry or specific niche, use ChatGPT to become an expert faster.
- 6:54 – Point number six. Problem-solution mapping. After you have a first meeting with a prospect and you understand their challenges, use ChatGPT to explain your solution in their language.
- 9.13- Point number seven. Objection handling. Not dissimilar to other use cases. Use is to role-play objections. Inquire about objections. Makeup objections for difficult prospects to have your answers prepared.
- 11:30 – For those of you who weren’t following along. Points 1-3 are for generating new meetings. 4-7 focus on the sales process. 8-9 will be on customer success.
- 11:55 – Point number eight. Customer engagement communication. You get a new customer. You’re getting into a new industry. You’re looking for different ways to build rapport.
- 13:15 – We do this stuff somewhat intuitively, but the real area of opportunity here is how do we use this to increase the quality of conversation we’re having with customers. A lot of the tactics I’ve talked about, we use variations of them throughout different steps of the process.
- 14:06 – Point number nine. How I would think about this is getting up to speed on the customer. You have anecdotal notes, but there are more ways to pull out important information with AI.
- 19:09 – Q&A.
How to Use ChatGPT for Sales: 9 Points in the Process
A lot of the scenarios and points in the process I talk about in these sessions salespeople do somewhat intuitively. But the real area of opportunity here is how we use ChatGPT to increase the quality of conversation we’re having with customers.
That’s why you’ll notice that in a few areas, I’m using variations of tactics throughout the nine core steps of the process.
How to Use ChatGPT for Lead Generation
#1 Preparation – From initial meetings to personalized demos.
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- Use cases: Company, Individual, Quality of Conversation
#2 Messaging – Create personalized inbound and outbound messaging in half the time.
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- Use cases: Persona, Industry, Tone
#3 Follow-Up – Send follow-up emails or videos with targeted action plans built from your last call.
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- Use cases: Next Action Steps, Call Transcripts, Value-Oriented Follow-Ups
Lead Generation Example
Scenario: SDR looking to research a specific company and industry to gain insights and identify the best person to reach out to with a cold call or cold email.
How to Use ChatGPT in the Sales Funnel
#4 Advanced, Later Stage Deal Prep – Build off initial meetings to create personalized touchpoints during sales calls.
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- Use cases: Company, Individual, Discovery Call Follow-Up
#5 Building Credibility – Be the expert every time you start a conversation with your warm leads.
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- Use cases: Knowledge Mastery, Value Demonstration, Relationship Building
#6 Problem Solution – Prepare for any conversation by identifying common problems and their potential solutions.
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- Use cases: Custom Pain Points, Industry Challenges, Gap in Current Solutions.
#7 Proactive Objection Handling – Get ahead of possible objections and be ready to address them confidently.
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- Use cases: Common Objections, Prospect-Specific, Value-Oriented Follow-Ups
Sales Funnel Example
Scenario: AE wants to send a follow-up email after finishing a discovery call with a prospect.
Closing the Deal Example
Scenario: The AE is looking to set up a new client for success with an implementation expert or a customer success manager.
How to Use ChatGPT for Customer Success
#8 Customer Engagement Communication – Make every customer feel like they are the only one to help prevent churn.
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- Use cases: Preferred Channels, Building Rapport, Clear Communication
#9 Get Up to Speed – Make the transition from buyer to customer faster and more personalized.
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- Use cases: Onboarding Sessions, Training Materials, Issue Resolution