AI vs Human in B2B Sales: 8 Real Use Cases (Cold Calls, GDPR, Lead Scoring)

4:10Dominka: The first one, which is logically the first one: prospect research. So, what do I have here? Checking a new lead's company profile and recent news. AI or human? Key discussion: speed versus nuance. How good is AI at context? When does a BDR still need to double-check? So, while researching a prospect's website, or whatever source you use for researching a prospect: how does AI help here? Do you even need it?

4:52Anamarija: Yes, of course. I mean, you can use AI in multiple ways. It depends on what kind of information you need AI to gather. Depending on that information, you decide how you are going to use it. For example, in lead prospecting you can use AI. We are using it in our company, for example, to narrow down the things that interest me. What is the company specialized in? I need that because I have to approach that company, and it's important for the context of my pitch, so I can use it in my pitch. But even though AI can do a very, very good job, sometimes you have to double-check that. It cannot give you the context. It cannot give you …

5:49Dominka: … the full context. It can give you some context.

5:51Anamarija: Of course, yeah. It can give you something, but you still need to get a little bit deeper inside the company that you are about to approach. For example, maybe you're searching for a decision maker that AI cannot find for you. So you have to dig a little bit, you have to figure out: okay, this information I can use, this I will not use, this will be good, this will be bad if I use it in my pitch. So you have to be present as a human to decide whether or not this information is relevant. But it's super helpful, because you don't need to go and scrape the website manually and search for information that would be good for your pitch. So I would say in this case AI, if prompted very well, can be really, really helpful. In some cases you don't have to go on the website yourself. You can just pick up the phone: you already have all the information that AI gave you, you call the company and try to find the right decision maker to talk to. So: with caution. Human with caution.

6:58Dominka: Yeah. I think double-checking might not be the correct word. It's rather cross-checking while you're on the phone and seeing: okay, is the information that AI gave me relevant in the end? Because you cannot rely 100% on what AI has collected from a website for you, because the human touch happens while you're on the phone. That's a kind of cross-checking. Double-checking beforehand might be too time-consuming.

7:32Anamarija: Why do you need AI if you have to double-check everything? So yeah, definitely.

7:37Dominka: And a little red flag here is, after some time, after you have prompted it well, to rely 100% on AI. I would never do that in the phase we are in now with AI. But maybe later you might really be sure: okay, it's good. Double-checking might happen at the beginning, because you're not really sure if the prompt is set up well. But afterwards you say: okay, the prompt is working well, it hasn't disappointed me during my calls, after I made several of them.

8:14Anamarija: Yeah. At the beginning, of course, whenever you are using AI for anything in your sales job, you first have to check whether it's working well for you or not. After some time it's obviously going to be tweaked the way you want it.

8:32Dominka: Another one: drafting cold email templates. Creating the first outreach email draft: should it be AI or human?

8:44Anamarija: That's actually a very good question, because you can do both. You can create your own cold call script and then give it to AI to double-check it, to cross-check it with the website, depending on what you wrote to it, what you want, what you don't want, etc. Or vice versa: you give it some sentences, facts, figures that you want to have in your call script, and then you tweak it yourself depending on your needs and your goal. But you can never completely rely on a script that AI gives you, because it doesn't have that emotional context. It doesn't have the thoughts you created in your mind about how your approach should be. It cannot listen to your thoughts. So it's both, mixed. If you are completely new in a company and your first job is as a BDR, I would maybe prefer this: try to create something with AI, tweak it depending on your thoughts and experience, and then give it back to AI to enrich it. So back and forth, I would say that would be a good way to use it.

10:05Dominka: That's good. I think creating an email template is maybe the safest thing to do with AI, because you're always going to read it over and over again to see whether it's fine, and in the end you will test it and see whether it has a good open rate or whether anybody is replying. And once you see: okay, this looks nice, my client likes it as well, and everybody who has read it thinks it's okay with the information, then I think you're safe. I think it's more dangerous to use AI when you really have to do something directly with it, not just something you can send out and read over from time to time. But I think it's the best thing to tweak with AI. It's really easy, because sometimes, as you said, you already have a template that you've used in another project, or that other colleagues have used in another project, and you think: hey, maybe I should try to find a twist, using another source that can help me bring the company's ideas and philosophy into the template I already have. Then I think it's a really good thing to do, and it's easy.

11:13Anamarija: For a call script, I would say it can be a good starting point, but also if at some point you don't have any ideas. Then give it to AI to cross-check it, maybe it gives you some fresh insights, fresh new ideas. That's also a good thing. Why not?

11:32Dominka: You opened the third idea: creating or personalizing a call script. I'd say, okay, you can maybe create a call script draft with it. But in the end, you will never really use it.

11:47Anamarija: Even if you wrote it from the beginning to the end, you will never use it from the beginning to the end completely. Because scripts, AI-written or manually written, can never be used like that. You have to put some of yourself inside. Otherwise you're going to sound really, really robotic, and nobody wants that.

12:14Dominka: Personalizing a call script, I think that's a no-go with AI, because you cannot really personalize it. Personalization happens during the call. But you can do a call script that has an intro, a main part and an outro, something that helps you think about the structure of your call and gather your thoughts. But in the end, the personalization doesn't happen on paper. It happens on the real call.

Anamarija: Exactly.

Dominka: I'd say that's not really something that should be …

Anamarija: Of course, yeah.

12:51Dominka: Handling frequently asked questions in calls or chats. Answering the typical "How does your service work?" AI or human? Key discussion: self-service bots or human improvisation. Who do you trust more here? A really well-developed AI database, or the human behind it, answering complex questions about some product or whatsoever?

13:28Anamarija: Well, AI can definitely be a huge help here, just for gathering the thoughts and information that are important for you to discuss over the phone. But it cannot replace that. Because sometimes a prospect will ask you over the phone about some key features of your product. It doesn't mean he wants to know everything. Maybe his intent is to hear something that is connected to his pain points. And you have to feel that. AI cannot feel that. You can answer him point by point, everything about the key features of the product. But you have to listen, you have to feel whether that's his pain point or not. It's good to have a list of things you can use in your call, but don't read it from beginning to end.

14:20Dominka: Yeah, but when we're talking about chats, I think it doesn't even matter if there's a human being behind it, because …

14:27Anamarija: You mean the widget on the website? Oh, yeah. Because it's not …

14:32Dominka: … the bots from five years ago, where you don't get any answers and you just get an email that somebody is going to call you back or get back to you.

14:43Anamarija: Frequently asked questions over the phone, definitely not. There you can use it as a knowledge base. But in chat, as a widget on your website: I mean, today you have really, really good chat widgets on a lot of pages, and they are quite useful. And if it's not useful, you are going to be forwarded to a person behind the desk either way.

15:08Dominka: That's right. I think you can use it if you have a product that can be put into a database, where you can have, let's say, 80% of the problem solved just by having keywords. But in our case, we have a chat on our website and I don't think we should ever put AI in it. Because it's something we only use to get the attention and then call the prospect back. We don't want to sell an AI product. We want to be the people behind it. Of course, it depends on the service or on the product in the end.

15:52Dominka: This is one that's really, really interesting, and definitely something the European Union wouldn't like. But I think a lot of people do it, sometimes without consent: recording and summarizing calls. I do that in meetings with prospects. But we always tell them: "Hey, this is our note taker. We would summarize this call. We would have a transcript. If you want us to share it with you, we can do that." But really, a call that you are doing, a cold call, recording it and summarizing it. What do you say?

16:37Anamarija: You are right. That is really a grey area, I would say, for AI and GDPR and everything. But I would definitely say how useful it is. Recording, I think, is very useful.

16:51Dominka: If you could at least …

16:52Anamarija: In some cases, yeah. But you have to double-check that, you know?

16:56Dominka: You cannot tell somebody: "This is a cold call and we are recording it." Because then you're out. I had a call with a provider who does something like this, but it only records the BDR and gives you a transcript of what you're saying on the phone to your prospect.

Anamarija: But how useful is that?

17:17Dominka: Yeah, that's not the whole picture. But when I do it in online meetings, record it and get the call summarized, that's really useful. I really like that kind of stuff, because it helps you draft a new email with some specific things, and it helps you remember the call better after some time. So it would be nice if it weren't such a grey zone.

17:46Anamarija: But yeah, you are completely right. It can be useful for you to go through that summary, read the main points, use them, tweak them, save them in your CRM …

17:59Dominka: Save it in your CRM. That's something that's really nice, to just have it so you don't have to type everything in, which we still do.

18:06Anamarija: We have to double-check it.

Dominka: That's right.

18:10Anamarija: You cannot put the complete transcript or a summary from AI directly into your CRM without cross-checking it.

18:21Dominka: Of course. It's the same thing as with the first topic we talked about, prospecting. You get some main information, and you prompt as well. After some time, I think it's going to be able to give you two sentences which you can double-check really easily.

18:39Anamarija: It takes time, you're right. Yeah. This would be a great thing if GDPR wasn't involved in that.

18:53Dominka: Preparing for objection handling.

Anamarija: Preparing for objection handling …

18:57Dominka: Yes, this might be a question for Franjo. He's the objection guy in our company. But do you think it can help with something like this? Does it have the knowledge?

19:13Anamarija: Yes. And of course, a little bit of a chance of no. But you can use it, most definitely.

Dominka: Did you try it for a project?

Anamarija: Yes, I did.

Dominka: Okay. And what was the result?

19:25Anamarija: It was quite, quite useful, I would say, for formulating the sentences for the most common objections, such as "I don't really have the time right now", "the budget is really low", something really, really simple. It's perfect for that. But it's still better to use everything you can think of yourself, the simple ones: I don't have the time, I don't have the budget, etc. And also to listen to your clients about which objections they receive most, because you maybe can't think of that at the beginning of a new project. And then maybe enrich that with AI. Because based on my experience, AI has been quite helpful. It was like gathering the thoughts you would eventually come to, but it's quite simple, it's not time-consuming, and it's a perfect base for your objection handling preparation. So I would definitely recommend it. As a help.

20:34Dominka: But would you rather say this is something for AI? Would you always rather involve AI or the human?

20:44Anamarija: Of course, human. That's the primary thing.

20:48Dominka: You would not start with AI and then check it as a human. You would rather use your own knowledge first?

20:56Anamarija: Yes, definitely. Definitely, yes.

21:00Dominka: Lead scoring. Can AI help you decide whether a lead is good enough for your project, for the company you are doing the calls for, or for OB2B as well? Can it help you say: okay …

21:16Anamarija: I think it can help you, depending on the criteria that are important for you. For example, it can see statistics, numbers, maybe the budget a company can have, like revenue or something like that. Those can be signs: okay, yes, this is quite interesting, this company might be my ICP or not. So in the beginning, in the first phase of a cold outreach, it's that kind of research: let's see if this company is really my ICP or not, and then calling. But when the process has already begun, when you've started calling, you have your client on board, you've sent a few emails already, etc., I don't think AI can help with this. It can see, for example, how many times a decision maker opened the email or didn't, how many times you had a chance to speak with him over the phone or didn't. But based on that, it cannot score that lead, because it lacks the emotional touch where you have your own feeling: okay, this is a good lead, even though I spoke with that person just three times and it seems like he never opened the email, and so on. In summary: quite useful when you prompt it at the beginning of your research, before you call, but not as useful when you're already in a process with that company.

22:47Dominka: Okay. I think it can almost give you a basic lead scoring, where you can say: okay, good industry …

Anamarija: … good revenue, good size.

22:58Dominka: Good size might be something that has potential. Maybe great potential, because the lifetime value of your products is high and stuff like that. Something that's interesting for OB2B or for another client. But on the other hand, the human intuition is what happens during the calls. Let's say for the first step, it's definitely something that takes away a lot of preparation and a lot of the time you actually need to spend browsing through websites and seeing whether a company is even something you would consider calling. It goes hand in hand with prospect research and preparation. It gives you a potential scoring, and after some time you're really sure and don't even have to look at the summaries so much anymore. The summary might be something that prepares me for the cold call, and then I see: okay, it's a 10 out of 10, I'm definitely calling it, let's go.

24:01Dominka: I would like to go through all of those again and see whether there's something where you'd say it's rather a red flag, where you wouldn't really use AI at first glance and would always say human. You can raise your glass if you want to say human. So: prospect research, AI or human? Is there a red flag for you with using only one or the other?

24:31Anamarija: Yes. I wouldn't use only one or the other. I would either combine it or …

24:39Dominka: Would you rather use AI or the human touch here?

Anamarija: Human touch here.

Dominka: For prospect research?

Anamarija: Yeah.

Dominka: Really?

Anamarija: I'm not sure. Maybe I don't trust AI as much. I don't know.

24:55Dominka: I'd use AI here.

Anamarija: You'd use AI? Okay.

Dominka: Because what happens later is my choice, you know? When I'm on the phone.

Anamarija: You're risky.

25:04Dominka: Prospect research would be AI for me. Definitely. But with a good prompt.

Anamarija: No doubt.

25:10Dominka: I wouldn't waste another minute sitting down and browsing through large databases or going through LinkedIn Sales Navigator, looking into every company and seeing whether this is something that should be there or not. I'll leave this to AI. Without thinking. Human touch is a no-go here.

25:34Anamarija: No, I would definitely do that by myself, because there are a lot of providers that can give you so much good information for creating databases, depending just on the filters you click. So I will definitely do that by myself. I really love when I create a list that is working perfectly for a BDR, rather than just: "Hey, AI, can you please create me a list?" and I have nothing to do with it.

26:02Dominka: That's a question of productivity now. Good. Drafting cold email templates: AI or human touch? Would you rather say yes to AI here, or write it down with a pen and then type it into Word?

26:22Anamarija: I would draft it with AI and then manually cross-check it.

Dominka: Okay. So, AI?

Anamarija: You still have to improvise when you're calling, even though you have the script. So, AI, and then maybe manually cross-check.

26:40Dominka: I think I'd use AI for emails just because I'm really lazy to write emails. So, just put something together for me and I'll make it better if needed.

26:51Anamarija: Definitely. 100% agree.

26:54Dominka: Personalizing a call script?

26:56Anamarija: No. Human. Red flag for AI.

27:00Dominka: For AI, definitely. Handling frequently asked questions in calls or chat.

Anamarija: Okay, in calls, human, so red flag for AI. But in chats, AI wins.

Dominka: Human, red flag. Okay, good.

27:22Dominka: Recording and summarizing calls.

27:25Anamarija: No, because of GDPR. Yes for internal sales calls, when you can say to your client: "Hey, this is going to be recorded and summarized." It can be quite helpful. If there weren't the GDPR issue, then AI wins.

27:45Dominka: AI wins here, yeah, definitely. I think it's the best thing that you have a transcript and a summary of an online meeting where everybody knows that they are being recorded. And lead scoring at the end: AI or human?

28:04Anamarija: Lead scoring, I would give a point to AI.

28:10Dominka: Definitely. Well, looking back, AI has gotten a lot of points here now.

28:20Anamarija: Yeah. But it cannot work alone, which is quite sad.

Dominka: That's definitely …

Anamarija: And good for us, I would say.

28:28Dominka: Okay, what would be our biggest takeaway? Can we still live without AI in sales?

28:34Anamarija: Yes, we can. But it would be harder.

Dominka: But we don't want to.

Anamarija: Yeah, we don't want to.

28:40Dominka: Yeah, it has made it a lot easier. To be quite honest, it has just improved things. We have been using automation in sales for a couple of years now, and now we just have more powerful tools that can give us more insights into something that has been a manual job for years.

29:02Anamarija: Exactly. And AI is getting better and better, not each year, but each month. There are many tools, different software connected to AI, that can help you so much, so much.

29:13Anamarija: But in cold calling, when it comes to cold calling: even though there are cases where cold calls are made by AI, thank God it's not okay, it's forbidden, and it cannot ever replace your feelings.

29:28Dominka: That's most definitely something the future will show. Whether it's going to replace human calls the way we are doing them right now, I don't think so. I think you cannot really do a good sales call without somebody having real human empathy behind it and somebody understanding what the other person is saying. Unless it's two AIs talking to each other, then do whatever you want.

29:54Dominka: But the thing is, I think it has definitely made our lives easier. It has helped us improve our productivity in the calls, to focus on really being present, to focus on really being empathic in the calls, without breaking our heads over things like: "Oh my God, now I have to do a summary. Now I have to do another email draft. Now I have to do another call script, and I have no idea how to handle the objections in it," and so on. So this can really help us. And it can help us improve the way we collect data. For me, that's the most important thing AI has given us. The data is out there, and it helps us gather it into one nice database. We don't have to waste hours and hours on creating a good database now.

30:45Anamarija: Not only that. It's also the perspective of a BDR: when preparing for a call, sometimes you have to prepare your pitch depending on what the company is doing and what they are specialized in. Using AI for that helps you so much before your call. You don't have to scroll endlessly through the website, figuring out whether this is a manufacturing company, what they're doing, what they're specialized in, whether they're connected to something quite specific that's important for your pitch or not. You can see that with your AI saying: "Hey, this is your ICP because of this, this and this." And you know: okay, my pitch is going to be this one. I'll just pick up the phone, and my time isn't wasted on endless scrolling through the website and preparing. That's a huge win.

31:37Dominka: Another thing I haven't asked you: using AI to create LinkedIn posts.

31:44Anamarija: Oh, don't ask me that.

31:47Dominka: Is it something you'd say is a good thing? Or would you say: no, write it on your own and don't rely on ChatGPT or whatever?

31:56Anamarija: Well, I personally do use ChatGPT, but I've prompted it a lot to give me what I need for my LinkedIn posts. That means I collected my own data from before, my previous posts. I wanted to create prompts so that it listens to my tone, to my post culture, let's call it that. So when I type something in, I say: "Hey, write me a post about this. I want to speak about this." I always read it. I never just copy, paste and schedule. I have to read it, I have to tweak it, I have to make it as perfect as I want it to be. But it's always good to have, because I don't waste my time thinking: "Oh, my LinkedIn post, what am I going to talk about?" And whether my English is good or not, I'd have to double-check that and so on. So it makes my life quite a lot easier.

32:55Dominka: I like to write them on my own.

Anamarija: Because you're crazy.

Dominka: Because I'm crazy. Yeah. No, it's just that I really don't want somebody else to write for me.

33:08Anamarija: I can understand that.

33:09Dominka: Because I really like to write. Sometimes it's a really long post, sometimes it's short. And it would be a lie if I said I never used ChatGPT. I did for some short texts, yes. But never for something long, something really personal or something I really want to make a statement about.

Anamarija: Perfect. Good for you.

Dominka: I know.

33:33Anamarija: But lead prospecting is going to be all AI for you.

Dominka: Yeah, definitely.

Anamarija: No ChatGPT here.

33:43Dominka: I mean, lead prospecting is something that really depends on AI now, because it's a really time-consuming job. Writing a post is not a time-consuming job for me. It's done in fifteen minutes. More if I have a bad day, you know?

34:04Anamarija: I wish I was like you a little bit more.

34:11Dominka: This was just a little intro with a game, to see whether AI is something sales needs or doesn't need anymore. I think it's really needed in sales. I think it's a great help, and everybody who uses it needs to use it consciously and not just rely on it 100%. But it makes your life way easier and makes the quality of the work, of the calls, of the meetings so much better in the end, because you just focus on what's important.

34:47Anamarija: Of course. I agree completely.

34:51Dominka: Yet another episode on tools: AI as a tool. It's definitely just a tool. It's not something that will replace the job we're doing. Not in this century, I think.

35:03Anamarija: I hope so. Maybe. And this podcast is not AI-generated.

35:08Dominka: Definitely. We are not avatars. We are people, as you can see. Hopefully. Or maybe we are just really, really good AI. Thank you for being here. Everybody out there, thank you for listening, thank you for watching. Subscribe to our channel.

35:25Anamarija: Add us on LinkedIn.

35:27Dominka: And add Anamarija on LinkedIn, you can do it with me as well. And if you have any questions or comments, leave them below. We will not read them. No, we'll be really happy to read them … and forget to reply. That's it. Thank you so much. Peace out. See you next week.