Nobody likes the word “disappearing,” especially if you’re on a sales team. Now that AI is front and center in every business, “disappearing” no longer has to be the case. In my opinion, AI is not the future of sales. AI is the filter deciding whether your sales team even gets a seat at the table.
AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Co-Pilot, Claude, and others are working with sales teams, buyers, and sellers across every industry. They shape conversations, surface answers, and narrow choices. If your brand is not part of these conversations, you have a problem, because invisibility in an AI-focused business environment means your sales team is losing opportunities to gain market share and deals.
Let’s face it, that’s the hard reality.
AI has quietly moved from “interesting experiment” to the gatekeeper of your buyers’ attention. Sales reps and leaders who understand this shift will own the next decade. Those who don’t integrate it will find themselves working twice as hard as their competition and still watch their own brand’s influence disappear. Folks, you don’t want this.
Outworking and Outsmarting the Competition
Traditional selling used to mean outworking and outsmarting the competition, with better timing, more calls, more emails, more events, more meetings, and faster response times, and more expertise. Today, buyers are overwhelmed, and throwing more at them only adds to the noise.
AI flips the scenario completely. Instead of 10 links on Google or a dozen email pitches, buyers now see a handful of answers shaped by algorithms. They’re getting answers faster and making buying decisions armed with information quicker than ever. That means sales is not just about showing up, it’s about showing up where AI says you belong, because that’s where your customers are.
If you are not training your team to create content with and through specific prompts, and understanding how to attack and address every angle of your sales ecosystem through ChatGPT, or other AI tools, your competitors will be the ones buyers see and engage with, not you. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, it doesn’t matter, the approaches using AI are very similar. Understanding how to create and use AI-driven sales workflows are critical in 2025.
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The Real ROI of AI in Sales
Too many leaders still think of AI as just a time saver because it writes better emails. (yawn). If that’s you… you better read on. Yes, efficiency matters, but the bigger win is effectiveness. AI doesn’t just make you faster, it makes you sharper, it makes you better at your craft, more timely, provides a deeper understanding, and helps you with any question or challenge you have. In fact, just this week I came up with over 162 use cases for sales and marketing teams… and I’m just getting started.
Here are a few tips:
- Prospecting that hits the mark: AI qualifies leads by analyzing company data, intent signals, and industry movement.
- Tells you the “Why?” This is one of my favorites. Once you’ve received a lot of great information from AI, you want to know the “why?” Ask, and you’ll get it.
- Outreach that resonates: AI helps tailor messages to a buyer’s specific problem, not a generic pain point. You can even get both if you ask.
- Follow-through that closes deals: AI prompts next-best actions, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Many salespeople stop when the challenge gets tough.
Minutes saved are nice. Deals won are better.
Let’s Be Clear About AI – ROI
Here’s my take on how AI and ROI work together. AI delivers ROI when it stops being an experiment and starts solving the messy, everyday problems that cost time and money. You may not have thought about ROI for your AI initiatives. I have. AI-ROI does have teeth… and you need to understand how to translate AI into ROI to get widespread user adoption.
10 tips to help you start thinking about how to translate AI into ROI.
- ROI is measurable.
- ROI is unlocked when strategy is clear
- ROI must be tied to real use-cases.
- ROI is powered by data.
- ROI is unlocked when processes are cleaned up and automated.
- ROI is realized in months, not years.
- ROI is both time saved and revenue gained.
- ROI increases as adoption scales across teams.
- ROI becomes predictable when linked to business outcomes.
- ROI metrics should guide you, not control your outcomes.
Where Does AI Deliver Quick Sales Wins?
I see sales teams create immediate traction when they plug AI into core workflows. If you’re in sales, try these this week:
- Prospecting and research: Be prepared so you walk into calls and meetings already knowing the buyer’s world. You should not have any doubts.
- What I like to do: In your next ChatGPT chat thread or Project, add context about your next meeting, and ask questions you don’t know the answer to. Within 60 seconds you’ll be more equipped.
- Company and product research: AI can break down competitor positioning, pricing, and features in short order, giving sales teams sharper talking points and stronger differentiation. This keeps you one step ahead in every sales conversation.
- What I like to do: Have AI provide me a table with a breakdown of what I want it to compare for me. It’s brilliant!
- Personalization at scale: Generate email sequences that feel handcrafted, and you can build them in no time.
- What I like to do: If you know you’re about to engage in an email or text sequence with a prospect, load in the context of the situation, and ask for a 5-sequence email message you can deliver from #1 to #5. You just may be pleasantly surprised at what you get (Be specific).
- Objection handling: Build libraries of AI-powered responses you can lean on instantly.
- What I like to do: Create your top 10 objections. Load up your context into ChatGPT and ask for 3 different ways to overcome them. And if you don’t know what your objections are, ask ChatGPT: “What are the top 10 objections I will face [input scenario, audience, product, industry, and prospect description]?”
- Sales team coaching: Use AI to analyze emails and pitches so you get feedback in real time. You can even have it analyze your prospect list in your CRM or from a trade show.
- What I like to do: Input the prospect list from the most recent trade show into ChatGPT and ask it to provide a brief email message to all of the contacts. If you provide more context, ChatGPT will give you far better output.
The points above are meant to give you confidence and equip you with tips. AI gives you precision, consistency, and speed that manual methods won’t even come close to matching.
Quick Wins Sales Reps Can Try Today
Don’t overthink this. Test AI in the flow of your work today. These quick wins take minutes and give you leverage instantly, straight from your phone or laptop.
Prospecting Edge
- Sales Rep Prompt: “Give me 3 talking points about [company name], and recent industry news or leadership changes that I can use on a prospect call.”
- Why it Works: You walk into every conversation already speaking their language.
Objection Handling Practice
- Sales Rep Prompt: “Role-play as a skeptical buyer who says my product is too expensive. Push back twice and force me to respond.”
- Why it Works: You get sharper at real objections before you’re live in front of a customer.
Follow-Up
- Sales Rep Prompt: “Write me a concise follow-up email for a VP of Sales who hasn’t responded in 5 days. Keep it professional, respectful, and focused on their business outcomes.”
- Why it Works: Your follow-ups stop sounding like everyone else’s and start sounding like you understand their priorities.
The Hard Truth Leaders Need to Hear
AI is not replacing salespeople; it is replacing salespeople who don’t use AI. This is not a prediction, it’s happening now. Sales leaders who wait for a perfect roadmap are already behind. Competitors who adapt faster are not working harder, they’re working smarter, with AI doing the heavy lifting.
By 2027, 95% of seller research workflows will begin with AI, up from less than 20% in 2024. – Source: Gartner
Where to Begin as a Sales Leader
You don’t need to rip out your tech stack or chase every shiny new tool. Start with the systems you already live in everyday like your CRM and outreach platforms, and then implement AI tools with them.
TIPS:
- Create standard prompts your reps can use for qualifying, personalizing, and following up.
- Train your team to refine/iterate prompts for better output.
- Build a culture where experimenting with AI is expected and wins are shared.
- Educate your team to think: “I can do this with AI”, and make sure they know how to speak the language.
- Each sales team has different approach, target audience and product. Help them understand how to use AI on their phones quickly… (this is one of my favorite things).
The goal when just getting started is to insert AI into daily sales habits, not treat it like a side project.
The Bottom Line
The next quantum leap in sales won’t come from hiring more reps or pushing harder on old, tired tactics. It will come from mastering AI as a core selling skill. Not just with your CRM, but on your smartphone while you’re in the field.
AI is not just reshaping sales teams, it’s deciding who gets found, who gets trusted, who gets to the deal, and who gets left behind.
If you don’t put AI at the heart of your sales process now, your competitors will make sure you never get another seat at the table.
By Scott MacFarland | YourBrandExposed
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Sources
Image generated by Google’s Gemini
