Sales: It's the Journey that Gets You to the Destination.... and doe AI really help?

I was reminded of this quote yesterday whilst at an event.

I remember when I read this a few years ago on Pinterest it struck me as being so obvious, so why don't we all practise it?

It's like that other wonderful sales quote, "Sell an experience, not a product".

But what does it all mean?

Customers go online or to shop to find a product in response to a need. Sometimes that product need is easy to fix, but not always.

For instance, you want to find an implement for eating soup - well a soup spoon is pretty much the tool for the job.

But what if you need to buy a television, a car, an oven or a house? There are more variables that go into the search for these items. This is when helping the customer to find what they are looking for and listening to their requirements and needs really helps to sell your product and organisation. Reeling off information on the latest and most expensive television or car in the range just because you know the patter or you have been told to upsell usually ends in the customer running for the nearest exit!

By listening to the customer, finding out what they need and helping to solve their problem, will gain you a new customer, or a more loyal customer. And why is this important? I am sure you have competitors who would love to take your customers, but most importantly, authentic and honest sales help a business in the key goal of customer acquisition: a customer for life.

Why is this important? Because acquiring customers costs seven times more than retaining customers!

An example of helpful sales to the importance of life time value is shown here: my father buying his first German car, one that he had been wanting and looking at for a long time: his dream car. He spent months visiting the sales house, going over all the options until he finally bought it. I thought at the time the staff had the patience of a saint, but their patience won out. I remember someone saying at the time that they would see my father as a potential life time customer, and that it was not just about one sale. The help they gave him over the months was important to support the lifetime customer and important for my father. They were right: he has since bought a number of German cars (the same brand) - only from them - over the years.

I was thinking about helpful and engaging bespoke sales in the age of AI. At work we were talking about AI removing the passion and engagement from narrative and content - a key part of the marketing arsenal. Stories matter because they are human, shaped by lived experience. AI, by design, draws from patterns and set information. While this can produce polished and coherent writing, it can also lead to a kind of robotic-ness with our writing and story telling which is not bespoke or helpful! When many people rely on similar tools trained on the same data, there is a risk that our narrative and stories and marketing promotions begin to repeat each other, losing the distinctiveness that makes them memorable, authentic and engaging. This is why helpful selling is key. From a human that understands the power of listening and engaging in a distinct way. AI and processes have their place but in the end, it’s not perfection that makes a story credible and powerful, its the human behind it.

So it is important to help the customer find the perfect product or answer to their problem however long it takes and however bespoke their needs are. AI cannot help with that as we are all different.

It is not a sale. It is providing help or an experience. People love helpful people. People warm to help to solve their issues and queries. People warm to authenticity and engaging, credible and heart warming / real narrative and information. It stands to reason that helping someone with their query, solving a problem, all the while creating a relationship and an experience, will end up in a sale. Now AI certainly can't do that!