Beat AI + Special Offer Inside

Welcome to the 164th Floor. Each week I answer reader questions about closing more deals, bigger deals, negotiation. You name it. It's a weekly advice column to help you become the top 1% at sales. Send me your questions (click the link) and I’ll give real-talk advice. On to this week’s question.

At a glance:

• AMA!! Special Offer

• Why I’m not (as) bullish on AI

• What parts of your job should be replaced by AI

• How to avoid being replaced by AI

• Weekly challenge

• Sales pokes

Special offer for 164th Floor Subscribers

You might have seen the announcement this week.

If you haven’t…

Welcome, Rick Roberge to the 164th Floor.

He is one of the most sought after sales coaches in the world.

Is my personal sales coach.

And we are joining forces to train the future 1%.

We opened up 60 free 15-minute time slots in an AMA format.

Schedule a call.

Pick a topic.

Get coached by the both of us.

Schedule your free 15 minutes here

Q: All I ever hear about is AI. It will replace me. If I don’t use it, the reps who use it will replace me. Here’s the question. How do I sell with AI? And How don’t I lose my job to AI?

AI will replace lots of salespeople, as it already has. Think about how many salespeople had amazing sales jobs in the 50s and 60s that no longer exist.

Products that used to require a salesperson:

• Vacuum cleaners

• Knives

• Fuller brush

• Tupperware

• Encyclopedias

• Helm’s Bakery Truck

All gone.

If it hasn’t been sold on Amazon yet, it’s just a matter of time.

If it can’t be sold on Amazon, it’s just a matter of time before some nerd from their mom’s basement will build a robot that looks, sounds, smells, and sells like you.

Today’s newsletter is about not having the margin you create become Bezos’ opportunity.

Not losing to the basement nerd.

By the end of today, you’ll learn three important AI areas:

1. Why I’m not as bullish on AI

2. How to use AI in your job

3. How to avoid being replaced by AI

Why I’m not bullish on AI

AI makes people dumb. It ruins creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, and innovation.

“Chris, you’re out of your mind crazy. AI is changing the future.” is everyone’s response.

Dan Hockenmaier (Chief Strategy Officer @ Faire) illustrated it perfectly.

They never say anything non-consensus, and all of the alpha is in the top right quadrant.

And for sales?

Do you only want to sell like everyone else? What the machine is trained on? How the machine is trained?

I scored in the top 2% of all salespeople worldwide (>2mm) and I don’t sell the way AI tells me to.

AI today is sexy & simple, not sophisticated or savvy.

It lacks the alpha.

It stays beta.

And only replaces those who have no idea how to be in the top right quadrant.

The person doing what’s optimal, but not believed to be right by the public.

That quadrant we'll call...

“Alpha people AI will learn from but always lose to."

Are your strategies consensus? Non-consensus? Wrong? Right?

Parts of your job to replace with AI

What I believe Peter meant by this quote was “Do what only you are uniquely skilled to do that isn’t done simply by a machine”.

Let’s decide what you should do yourself versus outsourcing for your talented AI intern.

Yes, think of AI as an intern.

Mental Model

• What tasks can an intern do for me?

• What SOPs could I input into a machine?

• What requires zero thought other than making the SOP?

This is where you want to use AI.

Use AI to free up time and thinking. Remove $1 and $10 tasks and replace with $1k & $10k work.

Here’s a list of areas where I’m using my AI Intern.

Notice these are “low $ value skills” I can teach someone to do that are timely, tedious, and non-value added.

• Note taking - I use AI to record, transcribe, analyze, and provide an output for calls. It tells me the call's objective, completed tasks, pending tasks, missed questions, and next steps, all automated.

• List Building - Stop googling. Give AI your customer list and intel, then tell it to find look alikes and rank them by revenue, geography etc.

• Research - I prompt AI to analyze a 10-K or article for keywords or relevant parts for my value prop. Be specific with the problems you solve for the customer 10-K provided.

• Other areas to consider:

  • Data entry

  • Predictive analytics

  • Lead scoring

  • Scheduling & Calendar management

  • Pipeline management

  • Trends

Future-proof your career (against AI).

This is about future-proofing yourself against AI and having a top 1% career.

Future-proofing comes down to 3 pillars:

1. Become powerful.

2. Know your industry.

3. Know your role..

Before you say “no kidding, Chris,” read along. It’s not what you think.

Become Powerful

The most popular course at Stanford’s business school is about power and how to become more powerful.

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the teacher.

You don’t need to go to Stanford to learn.

He wrote a book (better called a manual) on the 7 rules to become powerful:

1. Get out of your own way

2. Break the rules

3. Show up in a powerful fashion

4. Create a powerful brand

5. Network relentlessly

6. Use your power

7. Understand that once you have acquired power, what you did to get it will be forgiven, forgotten, or both.

It took him a couple hundred pages to explain it. I won’t try in a short newsletter.

Buy the book here.

Listen to Jeffrey talk about the 7 rules here.

Know your industry

There are only two reasons to pay a salesperson.

1. Selection - Help someone choose between options.

2. Implementation - Help someone implement said purchase.

If you're not involved in the selection or implementation, AI will replace you.

For 99% of your reading of this article, you should focus on the selection process.

Implementation is easier to automate and replace you.

Think robotics and automation.

Is your product easy to select against others? Does it require engineering, thought, or strategy?

If your industry products could be bought on a website, it’s time to find a new industry.

Know your role

At the top of every industry is a salesperson. Yes. The CEO is a salesperson no matter what.

When the Pentagon calls for $10B bids for a defense software, are they calling a quota-carrying-AI-replaceable salesperson?

Nope. CEOs. Board Members. Trusted Advisors.

Movie producers, sports agents, venture capitalists, investment bankers — all sales people.

All salespeople making a very expensive, highly customizable deal.

The easiest way to think about your role and future is a 2×2 matrix.

Customizations versus cost.

The more expensive a product, the better for salespeople, but only with the increased degree of customization. Otherwise,you'ree fighting commoditization.

Movie producers, sports agents, VCs, and investment bankers all sell high ticket items.

What do you notice?

They all require relationships. Connections. A network to work off of.

You enter these industries the same way you win.

Through referrals, trust, and your network.

The only question you have to ask.

Where is your product on this framework?

What products or careers fall in the top right quadrant?

Weekly Challenge

This weekly challenge is important to me.

It’s a lot less about the x’s and o’s of selling. It’s all about setting yourself up for an amazing career. A career that will pay you 7-figures a year for a long time. A career that will create generational wealth for generations you’ll never have met.

Onto the list:

1. Buy 7 rules of power.

2. Open a Google Doc and on the top write “First Name Power Plan”

3. Write out each rule on the Google Doc.

4. Read the first chapter

5. After the first chapter, write out 3 tasks 100% in your control that will have you start living by that rule.

6. Do this for every chapter

7. Read 1 chapter per day.

8. Once finished reading, start a new page in the Google Doc.

9. Title is “My career potential”

10. Write down “my industry”.

    1. Write 5 pros and cons to your industry. How easily disrupted by AI it will be. And how involved in the selection and implementation process you are.

11. Below that, write down “my role.”

    1. Draw the quadrant on the Google Doc.

    2. Put your company in the appropriate quadrant

    3. Pick 5 companies in each quadrant

    4. Ask yourself if you work for a top right-hand quadrant.

    5. If yes, you are done.

    6. If no, write a plan to get an interview in those companies.

Sales pokes

• Interesting comments on what is the likelihood of AI replacing salespeople

• Negotiation scene from Up In The Air

• Are you selling the right prospects?

Until next week..