Nick Powills: Robots are Coming to Take Your Sales Job

Good morning Mr. or Mrs. Director of Sales – be afraid, be very afraid. Robots and artificial intelligence are coming to take your job. Both want to swat you into an early retirement. They want you to take all of that time you have invested into what you call a career and have it be deleted. They don’t have emotions. They are 100 percent data and responsive based.

But, it’s not too late. You have an opportunity, right now, to find your why and deliver a value that is far stronger than a robot selling to your end target.

Why?

Because of something I believe is much more powerful than AI and robots: People.

Brands don’t sell brands, people do.

Do wining and dining disappear? Do perceptions change? Does responsive debate or advice go away? Perhaps one could argue that it could be challenged, but completely removed? For now, I doubt it.

But, you can’t simply rest on your laurels – you have to go to work. You have to differentiate yourself. You have to learn to work with data – leverage it for better answers.

Personas, costs per deal, look-a-like audiences, retargeting to a closer match – all of these actions, while backed by technology – are all winnable areas for humans. Humans, as it stands, can still be the strategist. Computer learning or robots can certainly close gaps in widget making, but it can’t (for now) figure out the emotional side. It doesn’t ask life questions or help you figure out what equals happiness.

Should business, in general, be afraid of the future of automation and robotics? No. Should business, in general, start thinking about how it can leverage both to drive business? Absolutely.

When innovation is on the horizon, people and businesses have an opportunity to adapt. Unfortunately, far too often, they wait too long – ahem, Blockbuster. When you wait too long to adjust, you lose. Period. The end.

For our companies, No Limit Agency* and 1851 Franchise, we are choosing to challenge the future by never suggesting that because this was the way we did things, we will continue to only do things this way. I for one am excited about what’s coming, as it should motivate solutions and efficiencies in just about every aspect of life. With less time going against garbage, we, as a human race, may have a chance to live more effective lives.