Are we becoming better at using AI — or simply
better at collecting AI tools?
I spend a lot of my time speaking and training
around AI, sales and LinkedIn, and I've noticed something interesting.
People love discovering new tools.
ChatGPT. Gemini. Claude. Grok. DeepSeek.
Perplexity. Clay. Apollo. HeyGen. Gamma. Beautiful.ai. ElevenLabs.
Another one launches and suddenly we're
signing up for another free trial and trying to remember which email address we
used.
At some point, you have to ask:
Is any of this actually helping us sell?
That's why I've changed the way I think about
AI.
I'm becoming much less interested in
individual tools and much more interested in the journey.
Start with
the sales problem
Suppose I want to win a new client.
I could use LinkedIn and Apollo to
identify the right people.
Then Perplexity, Grok or Gemini could
help me understand the company, market and what is happening around them.
I could take that information into ChatGPT,
Claude or DeepSeek and ask the AI to challenge my thinking, identify
potential problems and prepare intelligent questions.
If I need more information about the prospect,
Clay can enrich it.
Now I have something worth saying.
That's when the creative tools become useful.
I could turn the idea into a presentation with
Gamma or Beautiful.ai, create supporting graphics in Canva,
produce a personalised video with HeyGen, or potentially use ElevenLabs
where voice makes sense.
Suddenly we're not talking about AI tools
anymore.
We're talking about a sales system.
And that's a much more interesting
conversation.
But there's
a catch
The more AI can do, the more important I think
the human becomes.
AI can research somebody before I meet them.
It can't build the relationship for me.
AI can suggest five brilliant questions.
It can't look across the table and realise
that question number three has just made the customer uncomfortable.
AI can draft a follow-up email in seconds.
It doesn't know whether I should pick up the
phone instead.
AI can create a beautiful sales presentation.
It doesn't know when I should close the laptop
and simply listen.
Those are human skills.
And they're becoming more valuable, not less.
Don't ask
which AI is best
I'm also increasingly convinced that we're
asking the wrong question.
People ask me whether ChatGPT is better than
Gemini.
Or Claude.
Or Grok.
Or DeepSeek.
My answer?
For what?
Try giving the same genuine business problem
to several of them.
Don't ask five AIs five different questions.
Give them exactly the same problem.
Then compare their thinking.
You may be surprised.
Take the strongest ideas, challenge the weak
ones and add something none of those systems possesses:
Your experience.
That's
where I think sales is heading
The winners won't necessarily be the companies
with the most AI.
And they certainly won't be the salespeople
with the most subscriptions.
The winners will be the people who understand
where AI can remove friction, where it can improve decisions and where it
should get out of the way.
My rule is becoming very simple:
Automate the admin.
Accelerate the thinking.
Protect the relationship.
Because the objective isn't to use more AI.
The objective is to spend less time doing
things machines can do so we have more time doing the things humans do
brilliantly.
Where in your sales process could AI save you
the most time without damaging the human relationship?
#ArtificialIntelligence #AISales #Sales
#LinkedIn #SalesLeadership #Marketing #ChatGPT #FutureOfSales
I deliver keynotes,
training and consulting on AI, sales and LinkedIn.
Let’s
talk — frankfurness.com
email frank@frankfurness.com
call
UK 07711672888
USA
407558 9714
