Has AI transformed the world of Marketing in its support of an organization sales’ efforts? I have known @AndyCrestodina for a while now as we are both part of the @econclubchi and have developed a respected professional relationship. Among the social media and marketing thought leaders, Andy shines. I always enjoyed our conversations and his insights into today’s world of messaging and content creation. With the advent of artificial intelligence (#AI) and tools like #ChatGPT, the world of sales support from the marketing departments is rapidly changing. Before I go on, a bit a sales best practices background. 1. Sales, no matter what channel of engagement you consider, is based on a conversation between the selling entity/person (Seller) and the buying organization/individual (Buyer). 2. Accepting this premise, who is talking to whom is paramount. Today, Buyer are in charge. What matters is the buying process thus creating the need for Seller to align their behaviors to it, if they want to successfully close a piece of business. Understanding who the Buyer are, is therefore paramount. Hence creating Buyer’s personas (owned by Marketing to support sales efforts) is more critical today than ever before. 3. The above reality, in the world of sales, calls for the creation of what we have labeled a Target Conversation List, also defined as a Sphere of Influence (identifying and profiling all those Buyer involved in the reviewing and buying committees). 4. Going beyond the obvious, identifying who the Buyer are, is no longer sufficient. A Seller organization needs to take it one step further and preemptively identify (before any calls are made to these identified Buyer) what are each of these Buyer’s goals, needs, or challenges, as to allow a Seller to have more intelligent, qualified, insightful, and effective conversations with the Buyer. More on sales best practices in KeyRoad and my other blogs’ postings on www.keyroad.com. Now back to @AndyCrestodina and his article “How To Create AI Marketing Personas” - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-create-ai-marketing-personas-8-prompts-included-andy-crestodina/. Andy shows how to create Buyer’s personas using ChatGPT and other #AI tools. What I loved about Andy’s article, aside from his insights as to what is to come through the #AI revolution for the marketing and sales functions, is the structure of the #AI output. The headings of these outputs are terrific: Background, Goals, Pain Points, Measurements (values) of both the Goals and the Pains… These headings and their content are the necessary and indispensable background Seller (sales people) need to engage with the Buyer. In my previous years of work as an enabler and transformation agent of/for sales organizations (www.keyroad.com), we spent hours and sometimes days crafting with our clients their Target Conversation List. It always amazed me to discover that most organizations we worked with, prior to working with us, were unable to quickly, simply, and effectively identify who their Buyer were and what their goals, needs, or challenges they have. That reality impacted the abilities of Seller to performed at their best, resulting in missed revenue, slower growth, and less than optimal performance. Now, can any Seller today rely on the Personas created by #AI engines? I agree with @ArdathAlbee thoughts that the answer is NO for today. These artificially created Personas have to be validated with market realities, have to be refined and more specifically profiled before been published and used by Seller. That said, it will get better. It will truly transform and significantly change both the marketing and sales functions, as well as the respective behaviors of each of their professionals. Change is in the air, for sure. Welcome to the #AI revolution, for better or for worse.
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