This is the third episode of AI and Sales Brief, a new sub-brand of the Sales Game Changers Podcast.
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Today’s show featured an interview with AI expert Zeev Wexler, CEO at Wexler, and sales expert Tom Snyder, Founder of Funnel Clarity.
Find Zeev on LinkedIn. Find Tom on LinkedIn.
ZEEV’S TIP: “AI is not only a virtual coach. It is baked into the process. When you make something easier and better for a salesperson, adoption happens.”
TOM’S TIP: “For at least the past 70 years, companies have struggled to adopt best practices and move from exposure or training to habit and mastery. Now, with AI, you can create what is essentially a full-time, never-sleeping, always-ready, always-helping coach.”
THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE
Fred Diamond: I am excited to be joined by sales experts Tom Snyder from Funnel Clarity and Zeev Wexler. You may recognize them both, as they have been frequent guests on the Sales Game Changers Podcast. Each week, we focus on a sales challenge and talk about how AI can help solve it.
The question we are going to tackle this week is one you have both raised before: AI solves the biggest problem sales organizations face when trying to adopt best practices. Tom, what does that mean?
Tom Snyder: For at least the past 70 years, companies have struggled to adopt best practices and move from exposure or training to habit and mastery. That is not because people are necessarily resistant. It is because of how the human brain works.
For an adult to adopt a new behavior, it takes much more than simple exposure, no matter how much that person wants to do it. Adoption requires leaders, managers, and enablement teams to spend time and energy reinforcing the behavior. Because those people already have a lot to do, that reinforcement often gets shortchanged or ignored.
Now, with AI, you can create what is essentially a full-time, never-sleeping, always-ready, always-helping coach. It becomes a virtual digital coach for each individual and each manager. That removes much of the friction from adoption. As Zeev will describe, AI can amplify that even further with all the other capabilities it provides.
This is magic, and I wish people understood that I am not simply trying to sell something. I have been in this industry for 30 years, and there has never been a tectonic moment like this. What Zeev can bring to the table is absolute magic in terms of accelerating sales performance, from onboarding a new person to changing the behaviors of a veteran salesperson who resists everything because old habits are blended into the nature of the job. It is not seen as an independent activity.
Zeev, I hope I have not muddied the waters too much, but this is really where the magic is.
Zeev Wexler: You never do, Tom, and thank you.
In sports, when a team goes through pressure, it does not matter how much coaching they have received. In the moment, people tend to revert to what they habitually do. AI can do even more than what my brilliant colleague just described. It is not only a virtual coach; it is baked into the processes.
AI can make it easier for salespeople to follow best practices throughout the entire process, from prospecting to preparation, the sale itself, and follow-up. The best practices are built into the workflow, so it becomes easier for the salesperson to do the right thing. It flows inside the process and becomes part of everything they do.
It is not just an AI or digital coach telling them, ‘You should do this.’ It is built into the process. When you make something easier and better for a salesperson, adoption happens. If you tell them, ‘This will help, but you need to do A, B, and C,’ and it is not the way they are used to working, they will naturally push back. But when you bring it into the process, it is right there. It is easier, faster, quicker, and more cost-effective.
That makes it much easier for salesforces to adopt AI and use artificial intelligence the right way. I have said this to you many times, Fred: AI works on what worked before AI. If a process worked before, AI can supercharge that process. If you can make it easier, faster, and smoother for the salesperson, then magic can happen. Salespeople can sell more, prospect more, prepare better, follow up better, and ultimately close more sales.
When you build these AI processes, all of the brilliant scientific facts that Tom brings in are already included. Everything happens through the process the salesperson is using, and it is easier than the process was before. It is simply much better. I hope that makes sense.
Tom Snyder: Can I amplify that? Because that was excellent.
Let us take a real-world example. One of the things we teach falls under the rubric of opportunity management. That is just the title. The centerpiece is a process we call the Strategic Opportunity Plan. It asks the seller to organize different pieces of information: Who is making the decision? What role are they playing? What are they trying to fix, accomplish, or avoid? What criteria matter to them?
As that landscape emerges, each time you acquire information, you are able to create more precise next-best actions. Those actions help you either close the business quickly or get it out of the funnel.
Isn’t that exactly what you mean by a process? Isn’t that exactly what you are talking about? This is what makes me so excited. To expect a salesperson to do what I just described as a separate tool is unrealistic. When they do it, they discover it is unbelievable. But now, with AI, it is simple, easy, and frictionless. I am telling you, Zeev, you are a wizard.
Zeev Wexler: Thank you, my friend. This is very important.
A lot of people push back on AI and say, ‘AI makes us stop thinking. It makes us less smart.’ This is the opposite. AI will ask you the right questions. It will push back if you are not giving the correct answers. It will give you data that it can fetch online in seconds and say, ‘I think this is incorrect because this is what your client is saying.’
All of this is built in, and it is as easy as answering the questions. If you do not answer them the way you should, which many salespeople do not, then there is constructive pushback. Now you have the right next move. You are thinking more clearly about what your client wants. The process is better, the result is better, and there is less friction. It is quicker and better.
Fred Diamond: Absolutely.
Gentlemen, one of the things the IEPS is most proud of is our Selling Essentials Marketplace. We have hand-selected best-of-breed partners in sales performance improvement. We brought together Funnel Clarity and Zeev’s company to produce an AI for sales solution. Anyone can reach out to me, Tom, or Zeev to learn more.
Tom, can you give us a brief look at what that solution looks like?
Tom Snyder: Yes. This is what Zeev and I are really excited about. We have recognized that together, we are more than the sum of the parts. There is great amplification on both sides.
This is not simply a matter of bolting AI onto some best practice from Funnel Clarity. This is about weaving these threads into a beautiful tapestry of performance. It makes everything about AI adoption, AI clarity, and sales performance excellence more frictionless, easier, and more supportive.
It significantly amplifies what sales professionals are expected to do. I will leave it at that.
Fred Diamond: Absolutely. It is a great solution, and I am very excited to bring it to the marketplace. Reach out to me, Fred Diamond, Tom Snyder, or Zeev Wexler.
Once again, every Monday morning, we tackle a sales challenge on the AI and Sales Brief Podcast, a sub-brand of the Sales Game Changers Podcast.