In this episode of SalesTV.live Rosa Yupari, a Fractional CRO and Revenue Architect, will guide us through some traditional sales tactics that might be holding you back and how AI can help you move forward. Sales roles are evolving rapidly; as AI continues to revolutionize sales, some traditional tactics are quickly becoming outdated. We’ll dive into practical strategies for adopting AI without losing the human touch, focusing on how to enhance relationship-building and targeted engagement to close deals faster.

In this episode, we’ll ask:

* What old-school sales tactics should you unlearn and replace with AI?

* How does AI give mid-performing sellers a competitive edge?

* Are hunters and top sales performers at risk of being replaced by AI?

* How can sales teams overcome resistance to AI adoption?

Rosa's hands-on experience in sales leadership and consultancy has given her a unique perspective on the integration of AI in sales. With over 25 years of experience in transforming telecom and SaaS sales teams, Rosa has led B2B industry leaders like 3M, Nokia, and Clearfield. Now she advises companies on embracing AI to enhance their sales methodologies.

Join us to explore the future of sales and how AI can help elevate your team's performance.

This week's Guest was -

• Rosa Yupari, Fractional CRO and Revenue Architect

This week's Host was -

• Rob Durant, Founder of Flywheel Results

This week's Panelist was -

• Adam Gray, Co-founder of DLA Ignite

Transcript of SalesTV.live Mid-Day Edition 2024-10-02

Rob Durant [00:00:00]:

Good afternoon, and good day wherever you may be joining us from. Welcome to another edition of sales TV live. Today, we're unlearning old school hunting techniques and replacing them with AI. We're joined by Rosa Yupari, a fractional CRO and revenue architect. With over 25 years experience in transforming telecom and SaaS teams, Rosa has led b to b industry leaders like 3 m, Nokia, and Clearfield. Her hands on experience in sales leadership and consultancy has given her a unique perspective on the integration of AI in sales. Rosa, welcome.

Rosa Yupari [00:00:46]:

Thank you so much, Rob. Thank you, Adam, for having me here. I am super excited to have this conversation with you both.

Rob Durant [00:00:53]:

Excellent. So are we. Rosa, let's start by having you tell us a little bit more about you, your background, and what led you to where you are today.

Rosa Yupari [00:01:03]:

Oh, I like that. So my background, you know first of all, I am Latina, you know, come from Peru, but I started as an engineer. So that made me a very technical, very logical person. Then I moved into sales, so I had to move a little bit more on the kind of empathetical culture like, you know, talking to people. And then, I think I overdid it and we were talking about that. I became a hunter, but like a true hunter. Right? And I loved it. It was fun.

Rosa Yupari [00:01:33]:

It was going out there and get the kill. But with the hunter came a little bit of the ego because I would win, beat my quotas. Right? And, and the you know, what mattered was results at all cost. So I wanted to get promoted to manager, and I had to pretty much learn a lot of leadership skills. I had to learn about working in teams, which is not typical from a hunter. And, I made it all the way to chief revenue officer, which you know makes me a transform, what I call it you know, a reformed hunter. But now that I'm bringing AI to corporations, I realize I'm encountering a lot of, kind of push back a little bit. But not from the middle performers, but from the hunters.

Rosa Yupari [00:02:31]:

Because, you know, we don't need anything except for our raw hands. And so, it's made me passionate to say that AI starts with a human behavior and not with a tool. And so I I am so thankful that you've given me the opportunity to have that conversation with both of you.

Rob Durant [00:02:52]:

Awesome. Thank you very much for that.

Adam Gray [00:02:54]:

Well, that's that's the right answer, isn't it, Rob? So we can we can just draw it to a close there.

Rob Durant [00:02:58]:

There there we Absolutely. Enjoy it. So, Rosa, I I wanna lay the foundation for today's conversation. What do you mean when you refer to old school sales tactics?

Rosa Yupari [00:03:14]:

Well, the old sales school tactics is one that is driven by gut, by instinct. Alright? We talked about hunters. It's very instinctual. It's I am going to close next month. Why? I don't know. I just know it. I'm gonna do it, And so it's very instinctual. It's very relational.

Rosa Yupari [00:03:33]:

So we bond quickly with our customers, and we do it with the conversation, with the way we approach, with the listening. Right? And all that is the the best part, like, the fantastic part. But then there is the other part where the old school brings, you know what? I don't need any more training. I've been able to be successful since the way the way I am. The other old school is I don't need CRM because listen. I I have it all in my head. I know I know that the customers, I know when they call, you know, very Erin Brockovich. Let me know.

Rosa Yupari [00:04:10]:

I I don't need any paperwork. Right? And then, technology technology is for people that need technology, but we've been able to close without it. Right? And the typical is, I don't need a manager. I don't need technology. I don't need to be writing reports. I'm bringing you results, and that should be enough. And so every old school is bringing results, but not being able to adapt to the new organizations, new technology, new everything. So but it works.

Rosa Yupari [00:04:47]:

So kinda hard to debate with that. Right?

Rob Durant [00:04:50]:

Yeah. Well, that was my next question, really. It works. So why should I replace what's working and instead leverage AI?

Rosa Yupari [00:05:03]:

Right. That is the key question. So one of the things that I learned it was hard for me to answer that question before. But, I started to implement AI techniques in different companies, and I discovered something very interesting Rob, and it was that the ones that adopted AI were able to elevate their sales skills. Right? The middle performers, they kind of what we call I don't know if they're still allowed to be called, but, like, the farmers, the good collaborators, the team players. Right? They, were able to really elevate their skills by using AI because they use the AI to take care of all the minimal tasks that they had to do, and they were able to improve the skills that their hunters have. But here is the key, now the hunters which were top of the line, right, now they're gonna have to compete with this middle of the road players that are using AI to their advantage. And what I'm saying is, if you would only if you would only use AI as a hunter, I think it would be unbeatable.

Rosa Yupari [00:06:21]:

I mean, it's like imagine the lone wolf, not against the machine, but with the machine. I mean, I don't know if you can picture that in your head. It's like, wow. I don't even wanna be in front of that team. Right? And so that is what I say, and they're like, tell me more about that. And so they they finally I feel like I've picked a little bit of an interest on them.

Adam Gray [00:06:46]:

I think what what you said at the beginning of that was really interesting that, you know, I'm I'm a a lone wolf. I'm a hunter. I go out. I'm making my number. What else have you, you know, you can't really criticize that? Well, I'm making my number today. Right. But it's like, what's gonna happen to tomorrow? And and one of the things that I thought, again, was really interesting about what you said was that, AI should be there to support the menial tasks, the tasks that you don't want to do or you don't have time to do or the repetitive tasks. And, certainly, I think that one of the the things that we see, not not necessarily in our work, but when we look out across the marketplace, what we see is that AI is seen as some kind of magic wand that you wave.

Adam Gray [00:07:40]:

You know, we're gonna get AI, and it's gonna turn it on, and it's gonna deliver a constant stream of quality leads. And then all of these people are gonna be buying, and the phone will start ringing, and I won't need a sales team anymore. I'm just gonna need some autotakers. And and, you know, that's a dream that is so far away from reality because I think what people forget is that sales is still a very personal thing. You know, why are you gonna listen to me when I speak? Because you like me. Why are you gonna like me? Because I've invested time in you. And this idea that the the AI is gonna go out there and do all the work, and I'm just gonna pick up the phone and go, so you're interested in buying is delusional behavior, isn't it?

Rosa Yupari [00:08:21]:

Very delusional behavior. And I'm glad you say that because one of the things that I comment in my talk is that, you know, people ask me, are the salespeople gonna be here 5 years from now or 10 years from now? Now you're thinking 2034. Like, I can't even imagine what 2034 is gonna bring because I remember the difference between 2014 to 2024. It was huge. It's almost as scary to think about what 2034 is gonna bring. But one of the things I say is probably a lot faster than that. If you're a salesperson that are a price seller, a transactional, a person here's the feature, here's the price, thank you for the order situation. The ones that believe they're sales, but they really product sells itself, you know, situation, they are gonna disappear.

Adam Gray [00:09:14]:

Yeah.

Rosa Yupari [00:09:14]:

Because an AI, they can ask better questions. They can pull up more technical information. They can match the need a lot better. They work 247, and guess what? They are not afraid of losing the sale. So they're probably gonna be giving less discounts. Because there is something very typical of that transactional salesperson is that they come back, hey. Can we give a 10% discount? Hey. Can we give a 20% discount? I I hated having them in my team.

Rosa Yupari [00:09:44]:

I was like, no. I can't have one of those. Because they're constantly calling you to get a discount. Right? And so AI is not gonna be like, oh, you got me. Right? So I do believe they're going to be disappearing, and they're gonna be disappearing not in 2034, but a lot earlier than that. But I don't know. What do you guys think about that?

Adam Gray [00:10:06]:

Yeah. I think it's inevitable, isn't it? You know, if if if you're selling based on the things that are written in the book, AI can read it better and faster than you can. And, you know, it knows what the baseline is, and, you know, it can negotiate all of that stuff. And and I think what what we see as being really interesting in this space is that there is still this, and and this is this is a terrible cliche, but, everybody wants to do the minimum amount of work they possibly can to get the result. Yeah. And all of us hope that this next advert campaign, event, post, whatever it is that we're gonna do, is gonna go viral, and everyone's gonna be talking about us, and the phone will start ringing. And what we know is that it doesn't matter if it goes viral. The phone won't start ringing because life doesn't work that way.

Adam Gray [00:11:02]:

It's not that easy. So, so it boils down, and we see this this proven time and time again. It boils down to the fact that people buy people. So if I don't like you, you're just talking, and all of your competitors are just talking, and I'm not listening. And even if I do happen to listen, I'm not believing. And it's a big shift, isn't it, to actually making it a relationship that you're you're building rather than a sale? And then the sale comes naturally as a result of that.

Rosa Yupari [00:11:35]:

Right. So when I, when I have these conversations with salespeople at the beginning, I have I said, just for the hunters, especially, I said, you have 5 old habits that you need to get rid of. Right? So just those 5, then you're good to go. As a matter of fact, I say these are the 5 old habits that you need to get rid of, and to the middle sellers are, these are the 5 things that hunters do that you should match or do better. Right? And when you say there's just 5 things, people are like, okay, give me those 5 and I can handle 5. Because when you say AI, it's like, woah. What is AI? Like, the world. Right? Like, can AI cook me dinner? I'm like but when you just say 5 things, people are like, okay.

Rosa Yupari [00:12:24]:

I can handle that. So there are 5 things that I I wonder if you guys agree with me on this one. But the first one is to be able to listen to what the customer says is very difficult for everybody. I don't care how good you are. Right? Because nowadays, we get so distracted by things. I bet you're already thinking about something else while I'm talking because, you know, that's what that's what happens. Right? So even if you wanna hear every single word that the customer says, you really can't, even for the hunters. So what I've learned is that just by using a framework, not just any recording analyzer, but if you use a framework and download your recording and say, tell me what the pain of the customer was.

Rosa Yupari [00:13:17]:

Tell me how the sentiment was. Tell me, did I gather what was the emotional impact of my product on them, of my pitch? What was the rational impact? What was important for them? You you download that framework and you ask this from the transcript, and it tells you exactly what the customer said. And what I found out is that when I asked because I've done this several times. When I asked salesperson, so what did you learn from the call? They tell me something, and then I said, actually, this is what the customer said. And there is a gap. There is a gap that I've noticed there. The gap is bigger on the middle salesperson. Right? Because the hunter is a little bit more attuned to that connection, to that neuro coupling.

Rosa Yupari [00:14:07]:

Right? But, that alone, if you give this to the hunter, if you tell the hunter, listen. These were the the feeling tone words that the customer used, they can go they could be unstoppable because now they are like, ah, I'm gonna use that, and they know how to use it. Right? So you're just sharpening them. Like, they're using another tool to just sharpen what they already have in it. So I I think like that, I know people are like, oh, yeah. I recorded, but learning how to use it, they come back and they were like, you know what? I never really thought about that. So that was one of the big, big difference that they that they understood about, you know, something AI can do. What do you guys think?

Rob Durant [00:14:58]:

I'm just wondering what else you're using AI for. How is AI helping the salespeople? Because I heard you say it's still about relationships. It the AI is working on the, mundane. How are you incorporating AI?

Rosa Yupari [00:15:18]:

So, for example, on these recordings, right, once you learn the tone words, tone words are the words that the customer uses to express their pain. Right? If you give this to a salesperson that knows how to use this, they're gonna be able to use this in all their messaging, all their conversation, all their executive summaries, all their proposals. And that is not that AI is doing their work, but they are analyzing and making it giving them information that they can use. So it's about the data that they can use. Data people think data is numbers. People are like especially salespeople are like, I don't wanna do data. I don't know data. But data is, hey.

Rosa Yupari [00:16:01]:

Use these three words, and it will resonate with the customer. The other thing that I always push on AI is once you have this these generic pitches, they have to go. Like you know what I mean? Like, your one size fits all pitch, that has to disappear because people want are looking for that relation. Right? We talked about what is the hunter good at? It's like, I'm going to talk to you, and I'm gonna tell you what you feel and how I'm gonna make it better for you, and you're gonna trust me. That thing that the hunters do is very intuitive. But can you imagine if you give them data and they can do the same, but now it's not intuitive? Now it's the combination of intuition with, hey. This is what the pain says, and this is what they're you know? You ask the same questions. What's your pain? What's your impact? What's your time? What's your urgency? Now now your pitch is completely driven or written around the words that you heard from the customer.

Adam Gray [00:17:19]:

I think that's really, really powerful because, anyone that's been in sales knows that there's a there's a difference between a a fun meeting and a good meeting. So a a fun meeting is, yeah, I really got on well with Rosa. You know, we certainly had a rapport and there was some chemistry there. She's definitely gonna buy from me. And a good meeting is, I had a meeting with Rosa. It went really well. These are the next steps, and she's gonna buy on this date. And I think the the one of the problems because we're all human, one of the problems is that the chemistry that there is in the meeting is not necessarily a good barometer for whether or not the customer is ready to buy or wants to buy your product.

Adam Gray [00:18:03]:

And the nice thing, you referenced this early with AI in the transactional type sale. The thing with AI is that it's not emotional about this stuff. So it can say, this is what you heard. This is what they actually said. This is what you think the message was. This was the actual message. And, actually, if you lean towards that and you gravitate to here's what the message is, you can then take action to to to work with that, can't you, rather than work with your own biases or preconceptions?

Rosa Yupari [00:18:31]:

I that is exactly what I say. We all have narratives because we all live the life. Right? We all want to sell. So we transform what the mess what the customer says, and I don't know why I do it because sometimes when people say that the customer said is completely different, sometimes I don't know if you had the experience that you walk out of a meeting and you're with marketing or you're with technical support or whatever, you 3 come out of the meeting, and I'll be like, okay. We didn't get that sales. And Mark is like, you're kidding me? They were shaking their head. They were smiling. They were, like, asking questions, and I'm like, that's not it.

Rosa Yupari [00:19:10]:

So the 3 of us had a completely different opinion about what the customer was gonna do in the same meaning, and it used to frustrate the heck out of me. But now with AI, there is, like, a very objective, not even opinion. It's like, this is what's happened. Right?

Rob Durant [00:19:32]:

It reminds me of the old adage, there are three sides to every story, yours, mine, and the truth. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Rosa Yupari [00:19:41]:

That is true. And when you present this to the salespeople, right, like, this is what you said, like and they're like it's like this light bulb hits them, and they're like, okay. So this is what we need to do. And so their their their attitude changes, their strategy changes. You can see how suddenly they can see a clear path of what are the next steps, like you're saying. That for a salesperson, for a hunter, that's again, you know, there is less opportunity to make a mistake. Let's put it this way.

Rob Durant [00:20:19]:

So leveraging AI in this context, how will AI change the role of sales managers?

Rosa Yupari [00:20:29]:

Oh, I like that. I tell you, that is one of the biggest changes I wanna see. So, Rob, have you ever been in sales and then your manager calls you for your 1 on 1? And your manager says I know you're laughing. Right? You're like, so how are the week? Good. How is that sale? Hey. How is that sale with this customer? Yeah. Good. When are they gonna close? I think they're gonna close next month.

Rosa Yupari [00:20:51]:

How do you know? Yeah. I I talked to them. They're gonna close the month. Good. Good. Good. What else? What other problems you have? No. Everything is good.

Rosa Yupari [00:20:56]:

Okay. Good. Let's see you next week. That is your typical one on one. You come out thinking, worthless 1 hour. Come on. Right? And because they're asking you the same questions, they they can look at the CRM, but wait. The CRM is not good because the hunter didn't fill out the CRM.

Rosa Yupari [00:21:14]:

And so they ask you the same questions 3 times. 1 in the 1 on 1, 1 in the pipeline review, and then another one to tell you why you haven't gotten CRM. So the managers are completely in the dark because you don't tell them anything during the 1 on 1. They can't rely on the CRM. Right? And now they have to create a message to their superiors, and so they're constantly stressed out. But now with AI, it's very good. I I actually talked to one of them yesterday, and I run reports. We call them I use a lot of the spice methodology, so I run a lot of the spice reports in 4 different, scripts from 4 different countries.

Rosa Yupari [00:21:57]:

And I said, this is a diagnosis of how your salesperson are running sales calls. And I said, they didn't ask the sales. They weren't prepared. They did the power. Okay. They found the pain. This guy only does emotional. It was so easy to analyze and diagnose.

Rosa Yupari [00:22:12]:

And the sales manager says, oh my gosh. I need to talk to them about being able to ask the right urgency questions, critical event, compelling events. And now they actually are using data to help the salesperson to work on the skills that they need to work on instead of just, what's up? What are you doing? Why haven't you sold? You need to sell more. And and that is so the I I have to think that the only time I've seen a 1 on 1 using data is saying, hey. You're 50% sure in your month. What are you gonna do? I'm going to sell more. Okay. Good.

Rosa Yupari [00:22:56]:

Great conversation. Bye. That's the only time I heard data. I mean, do you guys agree or what?

Rob Durant [00:23:04]:

Actually, I've heard data in these reviews in terms of quantity but never quality. Mhmm. For example, oh, you made an average of 50 calls a day, but we're looking for 80 calls a day quantity. But that did not in any way evaluate the quality. If I could make 20 calls a day, but it it resulted in 20 meetings, isn't that much better? But we don't have we haven't had the ability to measure the quality of those contacts, and now we do.

Rosa Yupari [00:23:43]:

Now we do.

Rob Durant [00:23:47]:

Rosa, just like that, we're out of time. What? I know.

Rosa Yupari [00:23:52]:

I told you this was gonna be a problem, Adam. I think when you said this before.

Rob Durant [00:23:57]:

This has been great. How can people learn more about you? Where can they get in touch with you?

Rosa Yupari [00:24:03]:

Well, you can, find me on LinkedIn at Rosa Yupari, or, I have a website, www rosa yupari.com, and Yupari spells y u, p as in Peter, a r I. So rosa yupari dot com. And you can contact me through there or rosa@rosayupari.com.

Rob Durant [00:24:26]:

Excellent. Thank you. We now have a newsletter. Don't miss an episode. Get show highlights beyond the show insights and reminders of upcoming episodes. You can scan the QR code on screen or visit us at sales tv.live and click on newsletter. This has been another edition of Sales TV Live. On behalf of the panelists and everyone at Sales TV, to our guest, Rosa, to our audience, thank you all for being an active part of today's conversation, and we'll see you next time.

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