#014: Cyborg sales is here

Read time: 4 minutes

Welcome to the Succession newsletter where you will improve your life science sales skills in 5 minutes per week. If you’re new here, subscribe below.

AI is coming for our jobs.

Or not…

The phrase I prefer is, “AI will not take your job, but someone using use AI will!”

Six months ago, the extent of my artistic skill was limited to drawing a stick figure (and, to be honest, not much has changed), but through knowing what tools to use and how to prompt them, I can now create the image above in 60 seconds. That's not all — I can edit videos, craft targeted campaigns, and generate messaging that resonates with my ideal customer profile, all before I sit down for lunch.

This is possible by staying up to date with the newest tech. However, the later you start this process and if you don't have tech-savvy friends to geek out with (thanks Paul Avery and Harrison Waid), it can be a little overwhelming and tough to navigate.

Why should you spend your time learning AI?

AI is moving so fast. There is something new coming out every day. If you’re “in the know” there will be short windows of time you can take advantage of what’s possible before other rep figures it out.

Think about previous technologies & channels that have gotten overused.

• You used to be excited when you got emails

• Phone calls used to be picked up

• Direct mail was awesome (still kinda is)

• LinkedIn is overloaded with bad messages

If you were an early adopter of these channels and tools before they became saturated, you could benefit greatly.

We’re at a similar tipping point with AI.

Those that take advantage of AI will have a superior advantage over those that don’t. They’ll get 5x more done every day. Maybe not right away, but, the skills and experience they get using AI now will continue to compound.

78% of salespeople agree AI can help them focus on the most critical aspects of their role

So what’s holding you back?

Here are the hesitations we hear about integrating AI into your daily workflow:

• Education: It takes time to understand and use the tools effectively

• Expensive: Not many tools are free and the best versions are always paid

• Indecision: Which tool is the right one for the task I need it for?

• Security: Can I share private details or sensitive data?

• Creativity: the possibilities are endless. How do I know what will work?

• Experimenting: It takes time to experiment and learn what’s possible

We’re here to help you stay up to date on the latest and greatest.

Based on popular requests, we’ve added a new AI section to the newsletter. Each week we’ll share a tool, prompt, or use case to help you use AI more efficiently.

This week we had a live event on the “Impact of AI in Sales”. The conversation and questions were great. Everyone came away learning something new.

You can watch the recording inside the community.

We created an AI channel to help everyone stay up to date on the latest tools, best practices, and use cases.

There are so many different tools coming on the market and they all serve different purposes.

We are building a cheat sheet on the top tools and use cases. We’ll be sharing it in the community this week. So keep your eyes open for it.

In the meantime, here is the setup we use at Succession to save ourselves countless hours every week.

• ChatGPT plus: General queries and questions such as brainstorming, image creation, account research, persona messaging, industry trends, and more…

• Prospecting GPT: Custom-built GPT that writes prospecting emails based on emails that have proven to get replies.

• Clay: Combine 50+ data providers, real-time scraping, account research, and AI to send 1-1 personalized campaigns.

• Canva: Design and edit visuals that we use for social or in the community.

• HeyGen: AI-generated videos.

• Descript: AI-powered video and audio editing software we use for the podcast (first episodes dropping soon!).

The future of AI in sales

It’s fun to think about how all these tools will be used in the future and then back into some use cases that can be applied today.

Here are some fun ones to think about.

• Log into your CRM and you have a list of the top actions to take for prospecting and deal follow-up. All emails are pre-populated as drafts for you to approve or edit. In a few clicks, all your outbound and follow-up is complete. If you think this is crazy, I saw a demo of this just the other day!

• Before a call with a new prospect, you get an automated report of their role, persona, company research, talking points, value props and more… You can read through it in 5 min to prep you before every discovery call. If you think this is crazy, we’re working on building this right now as a custom GPT.

• Create personalized 1:1 outbound prospecting emails at scale. What!? That sentence doesn’t even make sense. It’s contradictory. How can you do real personalization at scale? Tools like clay.com are already making this possible.

• How about personalized 1:1 video messages at scale? Yup, also possible with tools like heygen.com.

If you take anything away from this newsletter, you need to get started experimenting with these tools. Tinker around with different ideas to get a feel for what’s possible. Figure out what workflows you can automate or augment.

Everyone now has the tools to be an inventor. You can invent new solutions to any problem you come across.

Your creativity is the only bottleneck. The more you understand what is possible, the more creative solutions you can invent.

Arjunsinh Harer posted an extremely well-thought-out prompt into the community this week. You can download the pdf of the prompt below.

1. Join the Community: The #1 community and training platform for growth-minded life science sales reps who want to improve their skills, exceed their quota and take the next step in their career.

2. Live Workshops: We’re now hosting live virtual interactive workshops for teams across a range of topics. Inquire for availability.

3. Strategy Call: In a 30-minute call we will assess your company’s current situation and identify growth opportunities.

4. Uncover Your Sales Blindspots: You know your sales team can do better but you're not sure where to start. This 20-question assessment is your path to clarity.