Turning AI from a Buzzword into a Sales Advantage

0:06Casper Guldager:Welcome back to the Mastering Sales and Negotiations podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Massey. Now, this week on the podcast, we were joined by Casper Guldager, who shared some very real insights on why AI adoption in sales so often stalls and what leaders can do differently. We talked about the importance of leaders going first, using AI themselves, and setting the tone for how it should support the sales team day to day. Today, I'm joined by Robin Hoyle to unpack the key takeaways from that conversation, including why AI should help salespeople do more of what they love and less of what they don't, by taking care of the admin, prep, and process-heavy tasks.

0:47Casper Guldager:Why Robin, you may ask. Well, he's a well-known voice in the L &D space, a global conference speaker, author of two books on learning culture, and a former sales director who's been on the front line himself. In short, he knows his stuff. So let's get into it.

1:08Casper Guldager:That was a very positive conversation around AI. One of the most we've ever had, I think.

1:13Robin Hoyle:I think so. No, I think it's really great that somebody sees all of these possibilities and can explain what they might be. And is really very positive about it and the fact that you can do this. I felt really quite motivated after that. Absolutely. I think I need to go out and do some stuff. Excellent. Well, one of the big things was that you've got to practice with it. You've got to just practice, practice, practice and see what it can do. I think that experimentation and I think people have been nervous of it and we know, we've seen all of the information. Am I allowed to use this? Am I allowed to put this information into it?

1:41Robin Hoyle:is this okay? What about the rules that were not allowed to share this or allowed to share this? And what about security? And what about personal information? All of those things. And that is something to consider, isn't it? You can't negate that. Absolutely, it's all there. It all has to be thought through and there has to be a level of governance in place. We get all of that. but there's it's not really kind of resolved for a lot of people they've heard about that in the early days and then they've gone oh not for me a bit worried about that yeah and that level of anxiety fear plus some of the stuff that that casper was talking about early on in that conversation which is about that natural resistance you know oh he got something wrong once and we've seen this endlessly with things that are technology based we've seen people saying oh oh, yes, but it's not as good as that.

2:37Robin Hoyle:It's not as good as that. Eventually it gets adopted and everybody gets on with it. But I think AI is at that tipping point now where it is going to get adopted much more than it was. People who have not touched it are going to have an opportunity to use it. And I think for me that mantra of experiment, experiment, experiment, try stuff out, have a play, and organisations that make space and time for people to do that, I think will really gain massive benefit. Absolutely. And it's the space and time thing that is key, isn't it? Because he was saying that if AI adoption, particularly in commercial teams, is fundamentally a sales leader issue, then that really has got to work, hasn't it?

3:20They've really got to make that time and space for it.

3:22Robin Hoyle:And I think if they've done it themselves, and that was the key point to think that Casper was saying there, which is that the AI adoption by leadership teams trickles down through the organisation. The more that you are not only using it, but seem to be using it, then influences what people further down the organization do. I thought it's 110.10 thing was a great idea. 100 % of the leadership team using AI and then 10 % of influencers or 10 % of the organization being builders. I thought that was absolutely fantastic. So that idea of we have learned from our experience and we want you to learn from your experience too.

4:00Robin Hoyle:I mean, you and I have spoken about this many times before, but that idea of mandating thou shalt use this AI in this way just doesn't work. And giving people the space to say, actually, what would I like to improve my life with? How would I like to be able to do my job more easily, more quickly, more effectively? And really engage people in that conversation. It does pay dividends. It sort of leans into what we see with the coaching, the sort of coaching conversations that need to happen. It's a similar sort of idea, isn't it? Absolutely it is. You know, we tell people constantly, we tell salespeople, plan what to ask, not what to tell.

4:42Robin Hoyle:What do we tell coaches to do? Plan what to ask, not what to tell. You know, it's that idea of there is a consistency across this. And similarly with things like the adoption of these tools, the ability that this technology provides people with is have a play. have an experiment find out what it does make sure you ask some questions don't worry about making mistakes it's all fine we've got this closed environment nothing's going to leak out fill your boots and also if your manifesto is i'm going to make sure that this does more of what i want it i want to do in my life as in just not just your job but in your life generally what a what a what a great premise to sort of play around with some ai absolutely absolutely there's a when chat gpt first went absolutely uh mega in in back in 2023 when when it was launched in that november and sam altman was there and everybody was talking about it there's a great quote and i can't for the life we find out who said it first so apologies for not attributing this but they said i want ai to wash the dishes and clean the house so that i can write poetry and make art.

5:49Robin Hoyle:I do not want AI to write poetry and make art. So I'm reduced to washing the dishes and cleaning the house. And that's the same thing within our business lives. We want to be able to clear up some of the bureaucracy that we don't like, some of the admin we don't like, some of the stuff that we need to do. And I think this is a really important issue with that stakeholder analysis tool that we're talking about. We need to be prepared to go deeper now because other people will be also using AI to find out more information, to be better prepared, to get ready for those meetings. And that time with the client, really maximizing and optimizing that because you've done your prep.

6:29Yeah.

6:30Robin Hoyle:And how many times do we tell people to do that? Well, now you've got all these tools that can help you to go further, to do it better and for it not to be a real slog. And that I think is an important lesson from that session. Absolutely. Thanks, Robin. You're welcome. Cheers. Thank you.