Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an exciting, time-saving development. It’s also making selling online and offline more challenging than ever before.
We are bombarded with sales messages that mostly clutter our existence. Since AI accelerates the message-creation process, it is making this situation worse.
We are in an age where consumers have become jaded and skeptical. “Yeah, I’ve heard it all before. Most of the time when I buy stuff I’m disappointed.”
In a seminar on Successful Selling, sales and marketing teacher Dan Kennedy used the analogy of the annual Thanksgiving Peanuts comic strip. Lucy entices Charlie Brown to try one more time to kick a football while she holds it for him. Charlie Brown decides to give Lucy another chance. He runs to kick the football and kicks! Lucy pulls the ball away (again!), so Charlie Brown goes flying and lands flat on his back. Lucy compliments Charlie Brown on his remarkable faith in human nature as she walks away.
When prospective customers see or hear a sales message, THEY SEE LUCY!!!
Today, more than any time that I remember, we have been repeatedly disappointed by our representatives in government who have, generously speaking, exaggerated the truth. (Flat out lied!!) This makes us even more jaded for sales messages.
We see “fake” AI-generated videos on social media. Headlines mislead us about the content of videos and articles. It’s hard to tell whether a video or photo is authentic or not. I’ve seen demonstrations of AI video applications where a man’s appearance, clothing and voice was “magically” changed to a beautiful woman.
Who can you trust?
The traditional way to become trusted was to give your credentials. How many years have you been in business? What certifications do you have? Do you have a professional license?
Today, these are table stakes. The minimum requirements for consideration.
Most prospective customers don’t really care about these or make a decision based on them. They care about RESULTS. “What can you do for me?”
In order to be effective, Credibility has to be joined with Believability. “Do I believe you?”
Demonstrating a product or service in action helps to build believability. It’s a demonstration of results. Back in the 1950s, the classic example was a Timex watch television commercial where a Timex watch was attached to the bow of a speed boat. After driving the speed boat through rough water, the watch was examined and it worked perfectly. Timex watches “take a licking and keep on ticking!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVatUaplyVU
Today, this demonstration could be easily “faked” with AI. (It’s illegal. Will they be caught by an emasculated, business-friendly, Trump FTC?) Be sure your demonstrations can be reproduced by your customers with your product or service.
A great way to build Believability is testimonials. (“I don’t believe you, but I believe them.”) Ideally, a testimonial would come from the prospective customer’s best friend. Realistically, try to find people who fit the profile of your ideal customer. (People who prospective customers believe are like themselves) The more information you provide that shows this is a “real” person, such as photo, video, occupation, city, state, etc., the more Believable and valuable the testimonial will be. Testimonials should include customers who were skeptical about objections prospective customers are likely to have, and found the product or service didn’t have the problem they feared. A Believable ad or sales presentation could be constructed almost exclusively of objection-answering testimonials.
Our country has become celebrity-centered. When I was growing up in the 1960s, celebrities hardly appeared in television news programs. Today, it seems like half the news is stories about celebrities. I don’t know about you, but my Instagram account mostly consists of posts about celebrities. Entire programs, like Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, are devoted to celebrities. Celebrity hosts of talk shows, like Drew Barrymore and Kelly Clarkson, move a lot of merchandise with their endorsements. George Clooney took part ownership of Nescafe’ in 2013 and is the celebrity spokesperson for that brand.
Even small business owners can use local sports and other celebrities to promote their products, including using their “voices” for videos, commercials, infomercials, and sales letters for modest fees.
Small business owners can also take steps to make themselves celebrities. They can write books, write newsletters, write articles, have video podcasts, be video podcast guests, make speeches, and/or be interviewed for newspaper and magazine articles. I had a public access television show for eight years and posted the episodes on YouTube for modest investments to record the shows. The guests were unpaid volunteers promoting their own businesses. In the process, I “borrowed” some of their authority. Cal Worthington made himself a celebrity by appearing in commercials for his auto dealerships with “my dog, Spot!” (“Spot” could actually be an elephant, a cat, or anything except a dog.)
The first transaction is a test by the customer. Will you “pull the football away”? When you perform on your promises and deliver results again and again, you build your Believability with your customers and in your community. Jan Carlzon, former chief executive officer of SAS group (airlines), called these encounters of employees with customers “Moments of Truth”.
As sales trainer Zig Ziglar said in Secrets of Closing the Sale, “People don’t buy based on what you tell them or what you show them. They buy based on what you tell them and what you show them THAT THEY BELIEVE.” They will tend to believe when you believe in your product or service yourself with sincere conviction. “Believers are closers.” “Selling is a transference of feeling.”
AI is software. It has no convictions. It has no feelings to transfer. It can’t believe. AI by itself can’t sell. AI can be used as a tool by an individual with conviction who understands salesmanship to produce their messages faster and frequently.