#1185 AI is Ready…Are You?

I am doing a training module for a sales team this coming week.

There are skills I can teach, like listening. No one ever listened to themselves out of a sale, have they?

I can teach them to hear beyond what is said, like word choices and volumes.

I’ll go over tone and pace and teach a bit of matching and mirroring.

They’ll learn how to open up a reluctant speaker and how to make a great first impression, and I’ll teach them about body positioning and eye contact.

They can learn about what someone’s feet say and draw conclusions from self-soothing touches and color changes.

Human beings are designed to communicate in person. Studies show that over 60% of our message is delivered by body language. We’re not talking crossed arms here; we are talking about the dozens of cues you unconsciously pick up on during a face-to-face encounter.

The problem, going back to the training, is that none of this applies to text or email. In addition, having artificial intelligence take over your written correspondence is about ten minutes from reality.

Your company will have AI learn your email style and automate that and many other processes. And it will do it better than you.

I’ve said it hundreds of times and will continue as long as I can still get on my soapbox.

  IF YOU WANT TO THRIVE IN THE AGE OF AI, YOU’VE GOT TO GET GREAT AT THE ONE THING AI WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO: HUMAN TO HUMAN COMMUNICATION.

As we progress with machine learning and applications, AI will increasingly perform tasks humans used to perform. Which means that not only will human-to-human contact be the best place to distinguish yourself, it will also be in rare air.  If most of what is done is done by machines, that means that the competition in human-to-human space will be great.  Will you?

The best plow horses were well-fed, shod, and housed. But once John Deere came along, they were dog food.

Separate yourself. Use technology to scour the world for people who need what you offer, meet them mano a mano, and be the difference maker in your business.