“Will AI replace sales jobs?” I think 90% of people get this prediction wrong. They either declare "people will always buy from people," or they say AI will replace selling roles, wholesale. Both are wrong. Here’s my take (and the three roles that will be gone):
First, there are two types of sales roles:
Value communicators:
gather (basic) info from the buyer
communicate what their product does
coordinate logistics i.e. scheduling meetings
Value creators:
coach the buyer through a winding process
crystallize messy business problems
offer a valuable “point of view”
The first group will be out of a job.
The second group, won’t.
Here’s what that means in every day language:
1. Inbound SDRs.
I predict this role will go away. The entire job is a filtering and scheduling job. Leads come in. Do they fit ICP? Check. Do they fit qual criteria? Check. Schedule ‘em. This is a better job for AI, which never sleeps, never calls in sick, never lets leads fall through the cracks. Jobs like this are a waste of human potential. Sure, guy in the comments, there are exceptions. That's true for everything.
2. Highly transactional AEs.
The AEs that sell to a single decision maker and offer a product that can be demo’d in 15 minutes flat? Likely gone (or severely reduced). There’s not enough value for an AE to offer in these basic transactions. Buyers would rather avoid the hassle, watch a demo video, and sign up with a card.
3. Under-performers of every kind.
The tolerance for underperforming or lazy salespeople will reach an all time low. Against the backdrop of AI-led buying processes, buyers will have an even greater distaste for bad sales experiences. As will leaders.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE:
I predict the qualify of sales skills for AEs will drop when all of this happens.
Why?
There will be fewer entry-level roles to incubate sales skillsets.
Today, Sr. SDRs get promoted to transactional AE.
If there are fewer transactional AE roles, then SDRs will be making a bigger jump to a more senior AE role.
A jump they aren't ready for.
Either that, are recruiting seasoned salespeople from other industries will be a far more common practice than it is today.
The staunchness of "you don't have SaaS experience" will give way.
Anyway.
That's my take.
I hate making predictions.
Frankly, because I'm usually wrong (so is everyone who makes predictions; they just don't like to admit it! :)
So feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments.
14 окт 2024
