At this point, if you haven’t heard of ChatGPT, or GPT-4, then you’ve been living under a rock.
But what IS ChatGPT? And how can you use it to increase sales?
First, ChatGPT is a “Large Language Model” produced by OpenAI capable of producing text-based answers almost instantly to the questions or prompts you give it. Think Google but much smarter, and far more personalized.
Now is ChatGPT capable of closing deals for you? Not quite. But it can help to turbo-charge your current sales efforts.
But it does have its limitations (as we’ll see today!).
So let’s get right into it.
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3 ways to use ChatGPT to help improve sales in your org (and two ways NOT to use it).
1. Market Research
You can do quite a bit of market and industry research with GPT-4. Here, have a look…
We could ask the AI to dig even deeper on the global market, segment it based on geography, dive deeper into sectors, etc. But this snapshot of the industry is a good start.
Now let’s see who some of the main players are and who we might want to pitch our product or service to…
Note that we can be incredibly specific with GPT-4 prompts. In fact, the quality of answers we’re given is very much dependent on how specific our prompts are, so keep that in mind.
Now that we know who the big fish are, we can get more information about each company if we want. (I actually wasn’t unaware that McKinsey does more than twice the revenue of Deloitte – see I learned something!).
2. Light Prospecting
I say this with a huge grain of salt – ChatGPT can help you with some light prospecting in a pinch.
Look – this is no replacement for LinkedIn Sales Nav or ZoomInfo. It’s not the main tool you should use to find prospects.
But remember, ChatGPT is trained on countless data sets and other information throughout the expansive web… and it knows a thing or two. So it never hurts to try!
With that in mind, I dug a little further on Bain…
And just like that… we hit a brick wall. While GPT-4 offers limited results when it comes to prospecting, you better believe GPT-5 or some future version will offer this at the drop of a hat. CMOs, CTOs, SVPs, you name it.
Of course you can get all this information in your lead-finder sales software of choice, but it doesn’t give it to you in a conversation like ChatGPT does!
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3. Idea Generation – Sales Contest Ideas
This is one of my favorite ways to use GPT-4. If you’re trying to come up with ideas but feel stuck, just ask the AI and you might be surprised by what you get.
While some of the ideas are admittedly pretty cringy, a couple aren’t bad at all. In fact, I could see using #3 and #5 below in my office to motivate my sales team.
The main idea here is to use ChatGPT as a thought-starter or brainstorming partner. Instead of thinking for hours or days to come up with a sales contest, AI can do it in just seconds. Not bad.
And if you want ideas on sales tactics or marketing, just give it a prompt.
A quick pro tip: I always ask for bulleted lists, numbered lists, tables, etc. This makes the content super-easy to read and digest.
Again, you won’t like everything GPT-4 comes up with, but at least it gets the creative juices flowing.
At worst, they are ideas to build on. At best, you got the idea you were looking for.
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Do NOT Use ChatGPT for Sales Scripts
ChatGPT and sales scripts don’t mix (yet). Same goes for copywriting and content writing. Even with ultra-specific prompts you’ll get pretty generic responses that are basically unusable.
ChatGPT sells like a parody of a sales person, because it simply doesn’t know how to a) build rapport, b) identify pain points, c) frame the offer as the solution, or any of the nuanced sales tactics that real humans know and understand.
Here’s one quick example of a generic sales script genereated by GPT-4 …
Same goes for content writing and copywriting. The point of real human communications — whether in speech or writing — is to authentically connect with other humans. AI robots don’t have that capacity, so we have to come to terms with these limitations. Don’t try to force a square peg into a round hole by attempting to get ChatGPT to do things it wasn’t designed to do. Remember, it was designed to be a helpful personal assistant — it wasn’t designed to run the many different facets of your business or sales organization.
OK, with that disclaimer out of the way, here’s one last way ChatGPT can help you – in a more personal way…
ChatGPT, Get Me Out of a Tight Spot!
So there you have it – some of the best ways (and worst ways) to use ChatGPT to help you win at sales.
Take these ideas and build off of them. And remember, it pays to be an early-adopter of technology.
Just be discerning of HOW to implement that technology in your business, and to what extent. Strike the right balance, and you stand to win BIG.
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso