Will AI Replace Sales Development? No… But It Will Give Us Superpowers

One thing I love about sales is how passionate people are for their teams, professions, and where the industry is headed. This passion and vigor has been my fuel for the last 30 years in sales and I don’t expect that gas tank to run out any time soon. 

Strengthening my point about passion, last week, Gabe Larsen shared a video about the possibility of AI replacing Sales Development. Then, Ben Sardella added his two cents writing a post and a firestorm of comments, likes and shares ensued.

These are two people that I respect, both for their character and professional accomplishments. Gabe has an uncanny ability to drive the social dialogue around sales and Ben has been a longtime pioneer in sales innovation, helping us all get better at our jobs.

In the debate of AI/Automation and Sales Development, Gabe essentially says, “not a chance” and that AI will better enable reps instead of eliminate them. Ben wrote, “the truth lies somewhere in the middle” and proceeds to talk about the many flaws of today’s SDR model. Both made strong and compelling arguments that couldn’t be more relevant to the millions of hard working sales reps all over the world.

I started in copier sales for Xerox over three decades ago and was given a pager (think of it as version 1.0 of text messaging), a territory (3 zip codes in Southern California), and a gas card. From there it was sink or swim and I had figure out how to survive fast. The rate of technological advancement today is tenfold what it was even a decade ago. So, being able to say what Sales Development will look like in the future is almost impossible. On the other hand, I can say this: actual human beings will be vital to Sales Development for a very long time, and it’s certain that AI will play a role in their success.

The crux of both Gabe and Ben’s posts centered around the human element of connection AND the help of technologies such as chatbots, automated assistants, and AI-driven SDRs. We can use this combination to become snipers instead of shooting scattershot, freeing our valuable human resources to focus on the most meaningful activities.

Almost three years ago, I wrote an article introducing Account Based Sales Development, then another article reflecting how that methodology helped bring Cloudera to its IPO. If people’s argument is that in order for Sales Development to survive, we need to have the right conversations with the right people at the right time, then look no further than ABSD. It is your key to success now and will be for the foreseeable future.

While ABSD is massively powerful, it’s important to note that you are inherently putting more resources behind fewer accounts. This approach is counterintuitive to what the majority of us were trained on but if done right, your team will see significant results.

A few years ago my cofounder, Karan Singh, and I started SalesSource - a sales consulting firm. Our mission is to help companies design and build ABSD in order for them to see significant growth in revenue. We’ve had the honor of working with some of tech’s brightest sales leaders to help them build more pipeline of qualified prospects by using these principles.

At SalesSource we view AI as a solution to minimizing the tradeoff between resources and efficiency in order to use ABSD at optimal levels. We need to put our valuable people on the best fit accounts with the highest potential and service the long tail of your market with AI assistants to share content, educate on solutions, and qualify non-TAM (Target Addressable Market) accounts.

We Need Saving From Ourselves

Ben did a brilliant job of using data from The Bridge Group’s Sales Development 2018 Report to strengthen his point and I will do the same. In my opinion, there is compelling data showing that we are relying too much on AI and automation. This trend is leading us to execute watered down campaigns with frustrating results. We’re spending too much time on people that matter less and too little time on people that should matter more.

Buyers have fundamentally changed. They’re more reluctant to get on the phone, need more lead time in educating themselves before connecting with sales, and they expect you to know them better than ever before.

There are three compelling points in the report that apply directly to the AI and Sales Development debate:

1) QCs per Day - In 2014, the average rep was having 8 quality conversations per day. That number went down to 5.8 in 2016 then down to 5.1 in 2018. That’s almost a 10% decrease every two years.

Despite the endless selection of technology available, SDRs today are working harder than ever to have a conversation with a prospect where they can identify at least one piece of qualifying information. What’s even more depressing is when you think about what percentage of those 5.1 conversations are actually qualified candidates. If your team is still using the “spray and pray” approach, you’re dead in the water.

2) Attempts Over Time - Longer sequences are required to make contact:

• 2010 - 4.7 attempts
• 2012 - 5.6 attempts
• 2014 - 7.3 attempts
• 2016 - 8.2 attempts
• 2018 - 9.1 attempts

At this rate, we may reach double digits for the first time by this year. How many of those attempts per prospect can be eliminated? How specific were you able to identify your TAM? With the right strategy, you can hover back around that 2010 attempt number and use your technology to have more quality conversations instead finding as many people as possible, qualified or unqualified.

3) Monthly Spend on Technologies Per SDR - Here in the Valley, companies can easily spend over $1,000 per month per rep on tech tools. According to the report, whether it be a “High-Growth” company or not, sales teams typically average 4 tech tools. An interesting point is that “High-Growth” companies are 15% more likely to invest in more advanced tech tools.

The most common non-AI tools we’ve seen across companies that connect into your CRM are: Outreach.io/SalesLoft, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, DiscoverOrg and LeanData. These are cornerstone tools that create a solid foundation for the majority of companies.

If you’re part of those 15% of companies that are more likely to spend on more advanced tools, choose wisely. It’s much easier to choose a tech tool than it is to implement it in your existing system in order to truly help your reps. AI tools are not designed to solve your problems. Instead, they are designed to help focus on what matters most.

There are newer players in the field that are taking AI to the next level to better equip SDRs. Tools such as Nudge.ai, People.ai, Gong.io/Chorus and Conversica are helping teams identify target personas and even identify active buying signals that come from them at target accounts.

You may be a sales leader that currently feels frustrated by your team results and the stats above only add fuel to the fire. If that’s the case, It’s time to redesign your approach - it’s time for ABSD.

AI’s Got Nothin’ On Us

The companies my team at SalesSource work with today are highly motivated to produce better results. They do this by being open-minded, humble, and having a “willing to do anything” attitude. I am witnessing our industry improve (albeit slowly) in key areas such as diversity and inclusion, training, operations, and strategy to name a few.

Last year David Dulany at his annual Tenbound SDR Conference predicted that we will see the role of the CSDO (Chief Sales Development Officer) emerge. If I were the CEO of a SaaS company with a product that has an ASP of $20K+ and a Sales Cycle of more than 1 month, I myself would hire a CSDO and pair them with a Revenue Operations specialist (SOPS & MOPS combined) and blow the demandgen door wide open with this lethal combination. 

I am an optimist at heart and I feel good about the future of Sales Development, but say that with hesitancy. In my opinion, today, we’re at a critical inflection point in the world of Sales Development and those of us whom are helping to define the function and role need to continue this dialogue and put forth learnings and best practices that allow for all companies to take advantage of the power of Sales Development.

In the next five to ten years, we will either see a renaissance where creativity, value, and personalization is the new norm with the help of data and automation. Or, we’ll choose to ignore what’s right in front of us and continue executing blind campaigns that our bosses trained us on because their bosses trained them and so on. If we go down the second path, AI wins and we lose.

The optimist in me predicts the first path.