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I have been looking into the use of AI in the sales process, and it is proving to be a fascinating subject. Thanks to a variety of misrepresentation, creative reporting and media imagination AI has gained a poor reputation in some quarters. Due to the fascination we have for conspiracy theories and thriller writing, we have a regular diet of crazy images, often poorly executed and in poor taste.

I must have watched half a dozen streamed TV ‘thrillers’ recently that depicted such horrors, some well done, some less so. ‘The Capture’ I thought was well done, but some of the rubbish shown on the You Tube feed are at least ridiculous, sometimes distasteful, and often very poorly executed.

That covers the horror stories, what of the positives?

I am happy to state that AI can, and is currently excelling, at improving key areas of the sales process. All thanks to AI expert, Ninian MacGregor of P2P AI Consultancy, who has shown me the potential benefits that can be applied using the ‘good side’ of AI.

Prospecting – AI can identify companies and leads that match accurately your ideal customer within seconds

Contacting – using AI, select from multiple options of opening lines and conversation structures.

Marketing Messages – choose from a selection generated once your chosen AI platform(s) have understood the ethos and preferences of you and your company.

Pitches and Presentations – need to make a presentation at short notice? AI can write it for you, just feed it the criteria and objectives.

Negotiation, Securing (‘closing’) and Customer Care are also areas where AI can make a significant difference to success in selling.

Three key things to remember:

· AI stands for ‘Artificial Intelligence’. It is artificial because it is about knowledge, NOT wisdom. It is only as good as the data it can access. If the data is flawed or biassed, then the AI results will be too.

· The question you ask AI can make a huge difference to the answer you receive.

Question composition and framing is a necessary skill to ensure the most accurate and comprehensive answer/result.

· It will not be personal to you unless you show it how, or add it after the event. It will not sound like you, reflect your thinking or ethos and will easily be seen to be artificial. You will need to add personalisation to make it more ‘real’. So, proof reading is essential. Be careful, there may well be something that is counter to your own feelings or beliefs. In my case, I will always ensure it is ethical!

These are just some of the points to consider when using AI. There are many more.

Used wisely, AI can make a considerable and profitable difference. Dabbling runs the risk of sounding ‘fake’ or accusations of referencing less than accurate data. Avoiding it could leave your business behind the pace.

I am now including AI best practice tips into the full sales process. The choice is yours whether you use or abuse it. It could lift your business to another level.

Then there is the question of what if you do not adopt it, but your competition does……….?

Look out for my courses which include ‘the best bits of AI’.

©Salient 2026

I truly believe that labelling people, or ‘pigeon-holing’ them as we used to say, is not a good thing. Generally, we have accepted that certain labels can be divisive and result in segregation and even suspicion and hate. We are all people deserving of each other’s respect, consideration and kindness.

However, I also hold to the French phrase ‘vive la difference’ and believe we should celebrate that everyone is simply different. If we have one label of ‘people’ and lump everyone together, such differences will gradually fade and may eventually disappear. What is wrong with being ‘different’ and respecting it? I am not in favour of homogenisation, as with this approach we could lose, and have lost local accents and dialects, food styles and flavours, we could discard local traditions.

People are still people and worthy of respect even if they display different traits or behave differently. What works for one doesn’t work for the other. The only condition must be the lack of aggression or hate.

As always, we apply the usual question of ‘where do you draw the line?’ Differences should be celebrated but should all values be shared? Who decides where to draw this line? Those who shout the loudest perhaps?

There is one discriminatory label that is creeping into sales and marketing at the moment. It is that of generational labelling. Should we label generations, or should we simply acknowledge that social norms change over time? I favour the latter for some simple but common-sense reasons.

We now have labels for every ‘generation’ since early in the last century. If you search for a list of these you will find these classifications will follow notable dates, something that provided a little more impact on society at the time. It could be the start or end of a war, the coronation of a new monarch, and so on. Alternatively, it could relate to technological advances such as the introduction of the cell phone or the internet, each event heralding a new ‘generation’ and way of thinking. However, there appear to be some holes in this approach, and more recent labels have become more arbitrary. Favouring an inconsistent alphabetical approach we have ‘Boomers, x, y, z, alpha’ amongst others. Apparently, 2025 was the start of the ‘Beta Generation’. It is interesting that what started as labelling following an identified societal change or trait, has become labelling before any such trait is identified!

The danger here is that someone’s date of birth will automatically label them as a specific generation with specific traits then applied to them, often very unfairly. Not all generation Zs are focused solely on what will be of benefit to them, ‘what’s in it for me’, just as not all millennials seek stability and work-life balance above all else.

We are back to the old danger of making assumptions. Any such label will manage our expectations of how people will behave. In recruitment, I have heard people say that for a specific job they would prefer and expect to recruit someone they have labelled as a millennial, expecting them to display certain traits that would be desirable for the job. Isn’t this akin to using horoscopes? Preferring perhaps to take on a Pisces rather than a Leo?!

When sales training I always warn against such labels and in making assumptions as to peoples social and business traits. It has been proved that, of the possible influences; parents; year of birth; star sign; part of the country; belief system; and so on, it is the influence of your peer group, that has the most profound effect on your social behaviour. Choose your friends wisely!

My message is simple:

• Try not to take too much notice of labels, or to apply them.
• Do not make assumptions about people. Talk to them. Find out what really matters to them.
• Always respect yourself and others equally while enjoying the differences.

It’s a bit of a tightrope sometimes and it can be too easy to offend without intention. I have daughters who will quickly tell me what I can and can’t say these days!

It is essential to have a plan for your business, especially one which focuses on key aspects of the coming year. By now you should have a workable draft of your plan for growth in 2026.

It is good to have a plan, but will you take action and follow the plan and make it happen, or will you simply shelve it, having ‘ticked the box’?

It is so important when you have a plan to make it happen. To ensure its success, the process follows simple logic, along the lines of:

1. Keep the plan handy, be prepared to adjust it has circumstances change

2. Make sure you have a half or three-quarters prepared ‘Plan B’

3. Develop strategies to complete each step

4. Be sure you have enough resources

5. Set milestones at suitable intervals

6. Select your KPIs and monitor your progress against them

7. Review at pre-determined intervals

8. Celebrate notable successes

9. Keep moving forward and making progress

10. Try to exceed your plan, and make sure you have a basis of a five-year plan from which you can derive your next plan for 2027!

So, with Planning you need to be Taking Action, Monitoring, Reviewing, Celebrating and Repeating the Success! Good luck with exceeding your plan!

This is where the Salient Inspiration Programme can help, with peer mentoring, monitoring, reviewing and (gentle!) accountability.

Ask Andy for more details.

I read an interesting article the other day which outlined the key issues between positivity and authenticity.

The author described how in seeking to maintain 100% positivity, when a prospective customer declined his offer, the psychological jolt he experienced was not only painful, but it required him to reconsider and reset his mental approach.

He suggested that positivity could be like a drug, and like a drug, the ‘come-down’ following a disappointment could be very damaging to our wellbeing.

He changed his approach to ‘authenticity’. In this way, he accepted his shortcomings, used any setback to reshape his approach, and allowed himself to acknowledge all aspects of his strengths, weaknesses, preferences and emotions. In short, to admit he was human.

Once I had read this I reflected on my own approach.
I display positivity and I look for positivity in others. Is this ‘authentic’ to myself, to my psyche? I believe it is. I genuinely enjoy being around people and enjoying their successes as much as my own.

However, whenever I am asked ‘how are you?’ invariably I say ‘great thanks’, even if I do not feel it. Why? Because I learned early on that answering negatively to this question elicited little more than a slight murmur of sympathy and I was eventually avoided. The longer the friendship, the longer they would listen before avoiding. Nobody likes a grumbler! Although my approach was truly authentic, it taught me that it is human nature to avoid the negative unless you are a true and caring friend. From then on, I adopted a slightly more positive response. Interestingly, I found that the more I talked positively, the more positive I felt!

I use the same in return. If I am taking to a friend and I suspect they are being falsely positive, I will ask them twice. ‘No really, how are you?’ Then I get the authentic answer.

As with most aspects of the mind and its involvement in working practices, both approaches are needed, and it is up to the individual what balance between the two they wish to achieve.

Now, I simply acknowledging that both approaches are needed and their selection will depend on the individual, the situation, and the other people involved. I find it interesting that the more aware of both, and the more aware I am of my feelings and preferences, the better balance I achieve between the two.

How do you feel about this? Are you too positive? Perhaps you are too negative? Could you be more authentic?

Let me know your thoughts, or if you have any further questions, why not get in touch? You can do so HERE or by email directly!

15 years ago, I formed Salient Sales & Training and every day has been different.  Testimonials received have been very positive and great motivators.  I am still thoroughly enjoying it.

From Physicist to Electronics Engineer, to technical sales to general sales, and finally, to running Salient, the business and life lessons I have learned along the way have served me and my clients well.  Of the 200+ companies and considerably more delegates I have trained, coached or mentored, each one has been both a challenge and a reward.

Here’s to the next 15 years!

15th Anniversary Special Offer

Any Salient training course or programme* booked before the end of February 2023 will be given the option of a free extra module, to be selected from the following list: (others will be considered)

Selling Yourself	The Psychology of Sales
Smart Networking	Practical Decision Making
Time Management	Self-Inspiration & Motivation
High Level Prospecting	Positive Ethical Influencing

* Courses and programmes are defined as any booking for a minimum of two days training or coaching and apply to general sales, technical sales and sales management.

(The offer does not apply to 1 to 1 coaching days, the Mentoring Programme or ‘Salient Gems’.)

I have won an award!

In the AI Global Media, Corporate Social Responsibility Awards 2022, Salient has been awarded the Best Ethical Training Course Provider in the UK!

My latest offer: ‘Salient Gems’

These are perfectly formed 3 – 5 minute video ‘bites’, each of which explains a tip, skill or technique useful in sales or business development.

They were chosen by the team I trained from Samsung Semiconductors.  At the end of every course or programme I ask the delegates to list three of the best ideas from each of the 8 to 10 Salient modules that have made up their full programme. The Samsung team of ten chose 44 in all and I added another 8 recommended by other customers and so we now have 52 Salient Gems.

Released at one per week, these will serve you all year.  At just £120 for the set, your return on investment will be significant, even if you just apply a few of them to your business.

You can pay for the full year, or sign up to a monthly payment of just £10.  Both payment options and details are available online at www.salientsales.co.uk

Testimonials

This newsletter features some of the feedback from Samsung Semiconductor delegates

(4-day sales programme given in Munich):

• “Really well explained”
• “Highly professional”
• “Fulfilling today’s demand”
• “Demonstrated great experience in sales”
• “Good style of presenting”
• “It was a real pleasure to learn sales techniques”

Tip of the day

Need some ‘bread-and-butter’ income?  Subscription products are a great way of doing this. Can you make something available to people that can be drip-fed to them, weekly or monthly?  Promote it, sell it and you have a useful regular income.

Clearly, the advantage to the customer is that they do not have to make significant outlay and can spread the cost over an agreed time period. 

It’s another Salient Win-Win!

Do you believe in the ‘Field of Dreams’ approach?

This is where people or businesses build their presence online, or build a variety of marketing initiatives, and then sit back and wait for new customers to knock on their doors.  They believe that this is enough effort to build a business.

Hence the belief that ‘If you build it, they will come’; the Field of Dreams’ approach.

I am now experiencing this going a stage further with Lead Generation companies.  They appear to have a similar approach.  The latest I have seen was a video of the owner saying how effective their cold calling process is (cold calling is for another blog!)  He explained that his strategy can ‘continuously feed new leads into your pipeline and, therefore, have consistent sales coming into your pipeline and so we have solved that challenge’.

Well, not really.

The supposition is that if you have leads you will automatically have sales.

You see, if you have no skills in sales and selling you have collected all these leads and have little chance of converting them into sales.  You will have spent all this money on the cold calling, and all you have is cold leads, no sales, and no business.

If you have some sales skills, you may be able to convert some of them.  However, you are probably wasting more than half of the opportunities you have accumulated, wasted half the funds you have invested.

My advice would be, until you have had some sales training or coaching and learned how to convert a significant proportion of those leads, then don’t waste your money on expensive marketing or lead generation.

By all means invest in a variety of marketing and lead generation ideas, whether you do them yourselves of outsource them, but first, make sure you are skilled at opportunity or lead conversion.  Make sure you can negotiate and secure (close) the best deals.

I will not attempt a sales pitch here, but, before you invest in such initiatives, find yourself a good, ethical and experienced sales coach or trainer and book yourself a course or session with them!