ChatGPT is a large language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI – the GPT stands for ‘Generative Pre-trained Transformer'. It is trained on large datasets of code and internet information. ChatGPT interacts in a conversational way, the dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge, and reject inappropriate requests. It is capable of responding to questions and composing written content such as, articles, social media posts, essays, code and emails – it is similar to the automated chat services found on customer service websites.
ChatGPT has soared to popularity in recent months, with its versatile capabilities – from learning anew language, scripting social media posts, planning and writing content, designing games, summarising research / case notes, writing code, to acting as your very own virtual assistant, the tool is almost anything you imagine it to be. And, unlike other chatbots, ChatGPT can remember various questions, so you can pick up where you left off in a more fluid manner.
So, how does this make your life as a sales professional easier? It can be used for a variety of purposes; lead generation, lead qualification, customer service, content creation, research, and training to name but a few.
ChatGPT serves as a fantastic research tool, and we know how big of a role this plays in a sales role. The AI tool can help sales in providing a holistic view of a target persona, within a target industry – at greater speed than you doing it manually. This is an excellent feature for those new to a company. It helps you to gain a better understanding of who you’re selling to and what they care about, as well as the market they’re operating in.
You can ask questions like:
1. What are the top three things [job title] cares about?
2. What are some common personality traits of [job title]?
3. What are the top trends in [industry]
4. What companies are top players in [industry]
It is important to note that you can’t ask ChatGPT for information about the company you are trying to sell to, as it is only trained on information up to 2021 – any updates to a company since then won’t be captured. But, it’s not all a loss. You can input a company’s website URL and ask for a summary of what they do - as long as the link is publicly available.
Whilst on the topic of research, ChatGPT can provide quick competitive research. Ever been on a sales call and a prospect brings up a competitor you haven’t heard of? You’ve not got time to review the entire competitor website or figure out the selling solutions they offer, but you want a high level understanding for your sales call, ChatGPT can provide this.
Ask questions like:
1. What does [competitor website] do?
2. What individual selling solution do they sell?
Using ChatGPT as a research tool is a great way to begin integrating it into your sales process.
In the fast-paced world of sales, any opportunity to effectively save time is going to make your life easier. By automating certain parts of your sales process, ChatGPT can save you and the rest of your sales team a significant amount of time. Delegating routine tasks like lead qualification, product education, email writing and research to the AI tool, frees up more time for you to focus on what is important, and what humans do best - building your network and nurturing strong relationships, understanding body language and tone of voice and adding personalised touches to your outreach. All of which require emotional intelligence to be truly effective, something ChatGPT is not capable of.
You can also ask it to summarise your notes from a sales call, or even the call transcript itself –giving you a clear summary, next steps and actions, it essentially acts as your own virtual assistant. Excellent, I know!
ChatGPT can be used to support sales professionals, those being onboarded, or those that just need are fresher with real-time coaching and training. Whether it is a quick fix for definitions, more in-depth product/service knowledge, or you’re just after more personalised feedback and training, ChatGPT can provide that. It can offer you ways for you to improve your sales calls, emails, recommend new sales techniques, and suggest areas to improve as well as providing recommendations on content to support those improvements. It can work as simple as you providing it with your problem and asking for a solution – you can also tell it your preferred method of learning (podcasts, videos, text) in your prompts to encourage different outputs that work for you.
Although ChatGPT is an incredibly intelligent tool, it is important to note its limitations. It cannot substitute the valuable abilities of sales representatives – including relationship building and strategic thinking. The human element in the sales process is imperative for building trust and developing relationships with customers. Although ChatGPT is a great tool for writing your content, it’s crucial to adapt the output - don’t just copy & paste, edit and personalise. Whilst ChatGPT does give closely accurate responses, it can only pull data from the internet up to 2021, meaning you won’t always be able to get an up-to-date response, important to note if you’re using it for a market analysis.
In short, ChatGPT is powerful, it can help sales professionals accelerate growth, revenue and ultimately gain greater insight into what’s working in their sales process, and why.
ChatGPT works most effectively with high quality inputs, it is essential you add enough detail that it can fully answer the question, here are some tips you can make use of:
1. Be clear and specific
2. Provide context
3. Use the right language and terminology
4. Be concise
5. Provide examples
6. Test and adjust
Looking to tackle a business challenge? Develop and evolve employees? Enhance performance across the board? Find out more about our sales training and manager coaching courses.
Want to take advantage of the Apprenticeship Levy, or simply foster the next generation of talent? You’ll need to ensure that the curriculum is tailored to your needs and aligned with your values.
Want to find out more? Whether it’s about a specific programme, apprenticeship standard or just about us and how we work, our team is always on hand to help. Simply get in touch using the button below and we will endeavour to answer your questions.
