As sellers, it’s a well-known lesson, fondly remembered through Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” but is correctly credited to a hero of mine – Zig Ziglar, who used it to test the sales skills of his students.
At Nucleus Selling, we have taught a machine how to sell a pen, and this is a significant breakthrough, but why? It’s not as simple as asking ChatGPT to ‘sell me the pen’; this prompt will just create an imaginary scenario where you need a pen – this is not reality, it’s not selling a pen, it’s giving you an illustration of why someone might need a pen.
And we are not cheating here with our claim, we have taught our AI to sell a pen. We’re not talking about “transaction selling” where a scripted bot will guide a consumer through a complicated online purchase.
That is not selling, that is guided buying. No – we have taught our AI how to sell a pen.
So how do you sell a pen?
The first step is essential in any sale : what are you actually selling? (not how it works because that comes later – after all, who buys a pen because of how it works?) What matters is what the pen does, and this is what we need to teach the machine first – the capabilities of the ‘product/solution’, in this case, a pen.
This is where it gets interesting because how I use a pen and what it does for me will be different from how you use a pen and what it does for you. Same goes for your prospects with your solutions.
A good seller understands this and will learn what their prospect needs from a pen. This discussion will unlock the true value of the pen to that prospect; based on what a pen allows THEM to accomplish.
And, of course, this perspective on using a pen will vary, depending on their role, organisation, priorities, challenge, and needs.
And, of course, this perspective on using a pen will vary, depending on their role, organisation, priorities, challenge, and needs.
From capabilities to values
This is what we have taught our AI to understand, and the result is that it now knows how to sell a pen to anyone! It has learnt that it must determine the value of the capabilities of the pen for a given potential prospect, in a potential role, in a potential organisation, with potential challenges, priorities and timelines.
In other words, we have taught our AI to determine value for a given product (not just pens) for different prospects, in roles in different scenarios. As the focus of the pen’s capability changes, so does the value, and so does the language.
There is no single scenario, no single AI prompt, no shortcuts here, because different prospects, in different roles, at different companies will describe their needs and wants in different ways.
Tuning into your prospects needs
So, we next had to teach our AI to understand the different language and tone of the prospect, because your prospects do not use your language to describe their needs.
We call this language “signals”, and in simple terms our AI learns what “signals” to look for, relative to the product it has learnt about, in different scenarios, roles, and needs.
We are not talking about the generic “signals” data that is available today, so called “intent” or “trigger” data that offers the seller nothing more than poor correlations of “what” a prospect is doing – not WHY they are doing it. Remember that this same data is sold to everyone else (including your competitors) and is why it is completely ignorant about you, your product, or even your prospect.
Our signals are far more useful to the seller and more relevant to the prospect. They indicate prospect needs, challenges, and priorities set in the context of the capabilities and values of your solution. These signals vary depending on their roles, organisations, markets, and what they seek to achieve.
In other words, our AI tunes into these signals, aligning the capabilities of a pen (or any product in your portfolio) with the prospect’s specific context. Our focus is on outlining WHY someone is going to need your solution (or pen) and therefore how to engage with each given prospect in a way that makes sense for that prospect.
Precision guided
Providing such precision intelligence enables us to bring a different approach to the sales world, where it isn’t about reaching the most people; it’s about reaching the right people.
This precision in identifying and understanding the prospect’s context leads to more meaningful and successful engagements, that transforms from selling a product to solving specific pain points.
Our AI has learned to identify these pain points, address them directly and help guide a conversation with a given prospect about solving their problems.
Of course, we do not intend to sell pens anytime soon, but knowing how we could sell them can be applied to anything else – after all, if you have taught the machine how to go through these steps, it can work out how to do this for any product.
Including yours.
Next Steps
As we get nearer to launch, I will explain further what we do with these signals – and how we use the power of our AI to (a) identify your best prospects and (b) know what you should discuss with them.
Stay tuned for more updates on our journey on transforming sales by following us here or on LinkedIn.
Lee Fisher
CEO and Founder, Nucleus