The Biggest AI Mistake I See Salespeople Making

 

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