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Sales Weekly Roundup: AI, Generation-C & Killer LinkedIn Profiles

Sales for Life Admin
Sales for Life Admin

Welcome to your sales weekly roundup. This week we’ve got some powerful content on the rise of AI in sales and what that means for management, the death of millennials (metaphorically) and rise of generation C and LinkedIn profiles that are so amazing they might be scaring your employers. Enjoy. And as always, if you have something to contribute please comment below.

#AI Will Reinvent Sales… and Sales Professionals

Jill Rowley published this post earlier in the week, highlighting the how the rise of AI is beginning to threaten many salespeople’s jobs — such as the useless Hertz rental car agent.

Some critics, as Rowley outlines, predict as many as 85% of sales activities have the potential to be automated with today’s technology. According to HBR, this includes “gathering customer or product information to determine customer needs, processing sales or other transactions, taking product orders from customers, and preparing sales or other contracts.”

For salespeople to secure their job value, Rowley urges salespeople to guide high value interactions (a consultative approach), rather than high friction, low value interactions (order takers, navigators, explainters). If you want to know more about which three main seller archetypes will take the hardest hit in the U.S. check out this infographic.

Should Your Employer Fear Your Killer LinkedIn Profile?

In an age where many salespeople have mastered the art of a powerful profile, the folks over at Carpe Diem Consulting dismantle the top 4 concerns and antidotes to the question: can a top salesperson create a personal brand so strong that it’s actually a threat to their employer?

Millennials Are Dead. Long Live Generation C.

CEO of Hootsuite Ryan Holmes makes the argument for a shift in thinking: away from demographic segmentation and more towards psychographic, behavioural driven ones. In talking about the qualities people usually use to describe millennials he says:

“But here’s the thing. These traits aren’t unique to Millennials and never have been. You don’t have to be born from 1980-2000 to live on your iPhone or embrace social media. And young people aren’t the only ones who seek out purpose in your career, not just a paycheck, or who want to make a difference.”

Holmes then dives into the history of Gen C, or the “Connected Consumer,” their qualities (“Gen C isn’t an age group at all; it’s a mindset), how they interact with the world, etc.

This article is worth a read for anyone who values and targets the modern consumer.

So basically, all of us.

How Artificial Intelligence Will Redefine Management

As the title outlines, this piece talks about how managers can leverage the soon-to-be influx of AI to work more efficiently. Based on findings from a recent report by Accenture, the authors go through five key practises that successful managers will need to master to reinforce their value in the age of the robot: leaving administration to AI, focusing on judgement work, treating AI machines as “colleagues,” working more like designers, and developing their social skills and networks.

Current and up-and-coming sales managers, this one’s for you.

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