Have you ever thought about using ChatGPT to level up your sales team? If not, you probably should be. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are taking the world by storm. Currently, the market for this technology is growing at an incredible rate, set to hit a value of $667.96 billion by 2030.
The reason for this astronomical growth is simple, ChatGPT and similar tools deliver incredible benefits to businesses. Using ChatGPT for sales could be one of the easiest ways to improve the productivity and efficiency of your sales professionals, and streamline your sales process.
What’s more, because the platform is so easy to use, it’s incredibly simple to embed the tool into your sales strategy, with minimal training.
Here’s what you need to know about using ChatGPT for sales.
What is ChatGPT? An Introduction
Before we start exploring how ChatGPT can improve your sales process and empower your sales representatives, it’s worth defining what it actually is. ChatGPT is a cutting edge AI language model, that uses natural language processing to respond to prompts with human language.
The solution is trained on billions of data points, and can rapidly generate all kinds of content with minimal input. You can use ChatGPT to create poems, write articles, or even generate email responses in your brand’s tone of voice in a matter of seconds.
Already, countless companies are using the system for a range of use cases. Marketing teams use ChatGPT to create social media posts and blog outlines. Coders and develops use the tool to test their programs, and sales teams can use ChatGPT to boost their sales results.
The Benefits of ChatGPT for Sales
As one of the most advanced AI tools on the market, ChatGPT is proving to be a valuable resource for sales teams. Studies have shown the app significantly improves workplace productivity and efficiency, decreasing the time it takes people to complete tasks by 40%.
With ChatGPT, sales teams can simplify and streamline a range of tasks, from creating scripts to follow when selling a product or service over the phone, to generating emails and outreach content. The solution can also help with market research, developing your sales strategy, or defining customer pain points. Perhaps the biggest benefit of the solution is the time savings it offers.
Rather than spending hours writing emails and creating content, sellers can use ChatGPT to eliminate repetitive tasks, so they have more time to focus on each potential customer. Plus, the solution can enhance each seller’s creativity, with inspirational information, data-driven insights, and guidance when they need it most.
Ways to Build ChatGPT into your Sales Process
Many people still think of ChatGPT as a tool used to generate text. While it can certainly help in that area, creating content for a blog post, social media message, or email, it can also support a variety of other sales strategies. Here are some of the ways you can build ChatGPT into your sales process.
1. Use it for market research
Studies show that Sales reps spend around 9.3% of their time just researching prospects. ChatGPT can offer a much faster insight into your target audience. You can identify a target persona by asking questions like “What are the three things [job title] values most?” or “How does [job title] measure success?” You can even drill down further into trends and opportunities.
For instance, you could ask ChatGPT, “How would I sell [solution] to job title? What should I focus on?” or “What are the top trends in [industry] right now?” ChatGPT can even give you an insight into your competitors, by evaluating the major names in your market.
The latest (paid) version of ChatGPT can even browse the internet, and use information from your own website to formulate responses to questions.
2. Create better seller profiles
In many sales landscapes, the reputation of your salespeople on social media makes a huge difference to your chances of success. If your sales reps are having a hard time cultivating a strong personal brand, integrating ChatGPT into the mix could help.
You can ask ChatGPT to create a list of topics consumers are talking about on social media in your industry, so your sales reps can create social posts that resonate with the latest trends. You can also ask ChatGPT to re-write blogs and articles into social media snippets.
Sellers can even use the system to create social media profiles, following best-practice guidelines for channels like LinkedIn.
3. Generate outreach messaging
Connecting with prospects is one of the most important parts of any seller’s role. However, it’s also one of the most time-consuming sales processes out there. HubSpot says salespeople spend around 21% of their time writing emails – almost a quarter of their day.
While it’s important for follow-up emails with prospects to be personalized, salespeople can create unique cold outreach messages with ChatGPT they can use multiple times. For instance, you could provide a link to a prospects LinkedIn page to ChatGPT if you’re using the paid version, and ask them to write an email mentioning something that happened recently in their career.
You could also create more basic emails with prompts like: “Write an email for a [job title] in the [industry] introducing [your company] and [your product]. Draw attention to [benefits] and how the solution can solve [pain point].”
4. Explore lead qualifying questions
Lead generation is just one part of the sales journeys, professionals also need to be able to qualify their leads when they get a response to a cold email or call. ChatGPT can help sales reps come up with questions that determine whether a prospect is a good fit for your team.
For instance, you can use prompts like. “Our company is [description], we want to sell our solution to [target audience]. What questions should we be asking to see if a prospect is a good fit for our solution?”
ChatGPT should create a list of questions, and you can dig deeper by asking questions like, “What additional questions can we ask about [topic]?”
5. Use ChatGPT for sales training
ChatGPT can also be an excellent tool for training sales teams, if you want to give them access to some role playing experiences. Although it’s not quite intuitive as bringing teams together for a full simulation, ChatGPT can act as a prospect for your sellers.
Simply start the conversation by telling ChatGPT what your company is, and what your solution does for prospects. Then, ask the bot what kind of questions it would have if it was your prospect. Once ChatGPT gives you a list of questions, dive deeper.
Create an answer to the question, and ask ChatGPT what further questions the prospect might have after you give that answer. This is a great way to get new salespeople thinking about the kind of objections they’ll need to handle, and the conversations they’ll be having.
6. Save time summarizing notes
Notes are often an important component of any sales meeting. They ensure you can personalize future conversations and follow-up messages when reaching out to prospects. Plus, they give your teams extra insights into what might make a lead valuable for your company.
However, writing extensive notes can often take a lot of time. ChatGPT can help with this, by summarizing your transcriptions of calls into simple snippets or bullet points. All you need to do is record the call, transcribe it, and feed ChatGPT the script.
Then, ask the bot to summarize the transcript, giving you a list of the most important topics covered.
Tips for Using ChatGPT to Level Up your Sales Team
Using ChatGPT in your sales process is an excellent way to save reps time, and increase productivity. However, while the solution is pretty easy to use, it takes some practice to make the most of the AI.
One thing to keep in mind is that ChatGPT works best when it’s leveraged to enhance and optimize your sales team, not replace them for crucial creative work. As powerful as the solution is, it’s not as intuitive or creative as a salesperson. When using ChatGPT to level up your sales team, remember to:
- Have clear goals in mind: Before you start doing anything with ChatGPT, have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Are you creating cold email content, trying to plan a script for a sales call, or just experimenting for training purposes?
- Provide plenty of data: ChatGPT prompts should be simple, but packed with useful information. Make sure you tell the bot everything it needs to know about your company, solution, and your target audience, so it can craft relevant responses.
- Consider upgrading: While the free version of ChatGPT is useful, it can’t browse the internet, and it does have some out-of-date features. If you’re going to be using the tool consistently for sales, consider upgrading to the paid version.
- Fine tune responses: Don’t expect the first response you get from ChatGPT to be perfect. Edit any emails or content the system creates to ensure it matches your company’s tone of voice, and fits with your go-to-market strategy.
- Experiment: Sometimes, the best way to get your head around new technology is to play with. Experiment with different prompt structures and ideas, and dive into what ChatGPT can really do. Encourage your team to share their results with their colleagues.
Next-Level Sales with Generative AI
Using ChatGPT to level up your sales team can be an excellent way to increase revenue, improve the efficiency and productivity of your reps, and save your teams some crucial time. While it’s not perfect, ChatGPT represents an excellent opportunity to augment lead generation and sales efforts.
Just remember, it’s important to ensure AI is supporting your sales team, not replacing them. You still need the valuable input only your professionals can offer.
If you need another way to level up your sales team, consider joining HSE today. With gamified training experiences and industry insights, you’ll take your teams’ performance to new heights.
