Fire was a technological advance. Can you imagine preparing a wedding for 150 guests without using it? The wheel was a technological advance. Can you envision moving those 150 plates without a wheel somewhere in the operation? My point is that technology has always been in place and the point of it is to make our lives and jobs easier. Around 2000 there was the "dot com" boom and it forced us all to create websites and upgrade our telecommunications infrastructure. Today we have a new technology on the block, and it can appear unsettling, but the excessive adoption of it has actually leveled the playing field for the reluctant adopters. Let me explain.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is limited in its capacity to produce human thoughts, actions and reactions. On the one hand this is obvious but on the other, we have a generation of users–the same ones who have grown with the iPhone–who have almost wholly relinquished their creativity to the ttech bot. I can remember a commercial a couple of years ago where the children were saying the bots could do their homework faster with the increased gig speed. Well, that thought has permeated the workforce as well.
We see team members lean on the chat feature rather than learn the skill or write an email themselves. Again, the bots are great in their rightful place, but by first recognizing the shift in the landscape and then adjusting our game plan we can stand out in a sea of sameness with just a few tweaks.
First, remember that people buy from people they know, like, and trust. There is a fundamental human connection, a rapport that must be established before we earn the right to ask for the business. If most of our competitors are relying on the bots to craft their emails or scripts, our prospects will (and have already) develop an eye to identify the bots and that will lead to those emails being filed…trash or spam.
The solution is to take the time to identify who you are speaking to and what is important to them. Then write in your own voice. Actually, don’t write, converse. Writer's block is far more common than talker’s block. If you are in the business of relationship sales, and if you are beginning with the end in mind, your prospects should ultimately become friendly. So, operate from that space. Don’t be cringy but treat humans like humans. Find a way you can help them with a real problem. Be genuine, and voila, your messages will not be filed as spam or trash. Your relationships will become long-lasting and profitable.
The AI cannot operate from that space. Which is why the writing patterns are the same and they use keywords that identify their inhumanity: for example, delve is not a word that anyone typically uses, but the bots do.
It bears repeating that people buy from people they know, like, and trust. And yes, the pandemic years taught us how to operate with the minimum amount of human interaction (Doordash, remote work, Zoom, Carvana, etc) but it also created a real deep craving for human interaction.
There were quite a few events as soon as the social ban was lifted. COVID-19 outbreaks continue to happen, but you can’t have an outbreak without people coming together. The truth of the matter is we now crave human interaction. So, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, “Don’t throw away your shot”. Be real, don’t trust the bots to do the job you were born to do. And when you lean into your gifts, you win.
