If You’re a Sales Rep, Listen to This Before It’s Too Late

0:00John Barrows:I think AI is going to make the good sales reps great, great sales reps incredible, and average sales reps are relevant. I mean, again, let's pick apart the roles, right? Inbound SDRs, cut it out. I'm sorry if you're an inbound SDR right now, please level up immediately. Start figuring out full cycle sales because you are irrelevant, period. And I don't mean to be too harsh about that, but I do. because I've witnessed it way too many times where I'm on somebody's website, I'm banging out with an AI chat bot who's answering every question I could possibly imagine. As soon as I raise my hand to say I'm interested in something, I get the exact information I need that brings me and helps qualify me all the way through so I can then talk to somebody who knows what they're talking about.

0:46John Barrows:So like an inbound SDR that is, oh, I saw you downloaded the white paper. I'd like to talk to you about your 2026 priorities and how we can help you achieve your goals. And that email goes out a week after I sent in my inbound lead, like a yada mind, right? So that role is gone. Outbound SDRs, I think those are the ones that have to level up quick to get to full cycle sales because I think we're headed back to full cycle sales across the board. I think outbound SDR work is more marketing at this point. It's about touch points and intent and insights and then feeding back to full cycle sales reps.

1:20John Barrows:and then full cycle sales reps, I think need to, you know, I used to think that full cycle sales reps didn't need to have really that much product knowledge, right? Because, you know, they just need to be the quarterback, right? To pull the right pieces in place and organize. I actually disagree now. I think the full cycle sales, I think sales reps now have to go deeper in product knowledge because they have to add value as soon as the conversation hits, because the client is going to be so much more educated now. You know, we've all heard the stat that by the time somebody comes to us, they're already 60 to 70 % of the way through the sales process, right?

1:50John Barrows:Well, first of all, that stat has been way overused, right? And it's been applied to everything across the board. That was inbound. So I can understand that. Like when somebody raises their hand and says, okay, I want to talk about this. Yeah, they've done their research. We have to meet them where they are. Now, actually, I think it's applicable across the board, outbound including. Because say I co-call you, right? And you happen to pick up the phone, I say something that's somewhat interesting and we schedule a call. Ideally, I want to add value on that conversation right there, but let's just play the game and say, I wait another couple of days to schedule a call with you.

2:23Within five minutes before our phone conversation, I can jump on chat TPT or any of the AI tools and be like, all right, tell me about this company. What is it all about? How does this fit into my 12 to 20? Should I even be paying attention to this? And I can educate myself so much in such a short period of time that when I get on the phone with a sales rep, if that sales rep isn't bringing value to me, this conversation is irrelevant. it. And so I think they need to use AI. I think the best sales reps right now are learning how to use AI to augment, but not automate. You know, everybody's chasing like the challenge I see with AI, a lot of them, but is we've gone from a search engine to an answer engine.

3:04When I say that, you know, Google, right? Like we used to have to Google something or whatever. And, you know, we could all argue that Google kind of gave us whatever it felt like giving us, but at least there was a perception of choice, right? So we kind of had to use some critical thinking to sift through that information and say, okay, here's my truth. Let's go with that. Whereas now you go into AI and it just gives you the answer. And that answer can't be true. It can't be accurate. I mean, the number one source of AI still, I think is Reddit for crying out loud. So it's like, but the problem is it gives you the answer.

3:37And for those of us that are curious, that are interested had a business acumen. It's actually a superpower because it's like, tell me more about that. Where'd you get that? Give me a different perspective here. Why is that important? Like if you do that now, it's like my education, my business acumen goes to the roof because I can quickly find information and challenge it and whatever. But for the vast majority of us in society, but I'll pick on sales reps, I'm lazy as shit. So they're going to take whatever answer AI

4:07John Barrows:gives it, copy, paste it into an email, into a conversation, into a call script. And at that level, I just don't fundamentally understand what the point of the human is in that equation. So I think the best reps will be even better. They'll be even more valuable. They'll make even more money, right? Because they're going to be able to use this to help clients buy. The average reps are going to use it to automate their sequences, to write better emails, to come up with a perfect script or a template to use and those reps are gone.