Unveiling the Future: Insights from the Sales 3.0 Conference on AI's Impact on Sales

Glue on pizza. 

That was the opening image of Peter Ostrow’s keynote at the Sales 3.0 conference last month in Las Vegas. As a VP and principal analyst on B2B sales at Forrester Research, he is not only one of the foremost thinkers on how AI impacts sales, but he also certainly has a knack for grabbing your attention right away. 

He shared that image because Google’s AI generator recently recommended that we should all put glue on pizza — um, no thank you. This seemingly absurd scenario served as a poignant metaphor for the surreal suggestions AI can conjure, underscoring the need for caution. It’s called an AI hallucination and it is one of the factors we need to be cautious of as we collectively explore how AI impacts work generally, and sales specifically. 

Per usual, conference organizer Gehard Gschwandtner, the founder and CEO of Selling Power, put on an event that made us all think hard about the incredible opportunities and potential pitfalls of how AI is already being incorporated into sales motions today and how it will mature and change the nature of B2B selling in the future.

The biggest “aha” that I walked away with is that we are at a critical inflection point in B2B sales. There is no going back to the old way of doing things. AI will impact nearly every aspect of B2B selling. The general consensus was that it won’t replace sellers — and that’s our point of view, too — but augment and support them by helping them work more efficiently and intelligently so that we can all focus on what matters most — creating and building buyer relationships. 

Jennifer Stanley, Partner and North America Lead, Sales & Channel Practice at McKinsey & Company summed it up nicely. She said, “AI is additive to what we can do as humans and it will revolutionize how sellers operate. It’s taking us all somewhere quite new.”

Here are the top 3 insights and learnings that I gleaned to help us all navigate the path forward.

1. AI is a skill and learning how to master it is a smart investment.

As is true with every new technology advancement, there’s a learning curve. Building AI skills has rapidly become a “must have” capability for all knowledge workers, but particularly sellers. 

Peter Ostrow from Forrester shared an interesting slide on how companies are thinking about acquiring AI skills and their strategy is primarily a mix of buy (hire new employees) and build (reskill current employees).

That’s in alignment with the most recent LinkedIn and Microsoft report on how AI is impacting work today, we found that 51% of sales leaders are worried that they can’t fill key roles because they can’t find the skills that they need.

Even in LinkedIn’s most recent Deep Sales Playbook, we found that 84% of reps are hungry to learn more about how to use the technology. (Interestingly, we also found that 75% of B2B salespeople who exceeded quota last year used AI).

What now? Technology is just one piece of the puzzle. With all of the confusion, it’s understandable that most sales leaders are unsure how to approach upskilling their teams in AI. So, here’s our suggestion. We have over 100 new AI courses on LinkedIn Learning that you can share with them. It’s free, easy, and a great first step!

2. Practical experimentation of AI is an imperative today.

AI can feel overwhelming. Everyone is talking about it, but much of the public conversation about AI is theoretical and what attendees were really looking for are real use cases.

That’s exactly what Jennifer Stanley, Partner and North America Lead, Sales & Channel Practice and Richelle Deveau, also a Partner at McKinsey & Company, discussed during their session.

They stressed that most experimentation with AI is happening at the beginning of the sales process — in lead identification and outreach (or next best action) — and that it’s critical to be crystal clear what ROI or impact that you would like to achieve. 

According to Jennifer and Richelle, AI is not only about productivity, but it’s also about creativity. They shared an interesting use case from one of their McKinsey clients. This client sold building materials to contractors at construction sites. Their salespeople would drive to construction sites and try to sell their materials, but the entire process was tiresome and manual and it was usually too late 

Instead, they scraped a public database for construction permits to include in their AI data set (CRM data, etc). Then then used GenAI to serve up relevant and timely leads and create “first touch” personalized emails with the types of materials and products most likely of use to that particular construction job.

That level of creativity gave them an enormous unlock that wouldn’t have been possible without AI. Result? They increased their lead flow 30% in just 3-4 months.

What’s next? Smart and focused experimentation with AI now is what will set you up well in 2025 when AI hits prime time. So, dive into AI with intention and purpose and don’t be afraid to stumble, learn, and iterate — particularly when you’re in the AI pilot phase. 

3. Underscore that AI is a sellers’ acquaintance now and their BFF in the future.

When humans are confronted with something new, such as AI, there are generally two reactions. Some sellers are diving into AI to increase their productivity and some are skeptical until it’s proven to make an impact on revenue generation.

Dana Therrien, VP of Revenue Operations and Sales Performance Management at Anaplan, shared a phrase that can best be used to turn those AI skeptics into superfans. He said, “AI is helping us move from information overload to intelligent information curation.”

To me, that insight felt like a breath of fresh air. AI isn’t meant to complicate sales, it’s meant to enhance it — make it easier to access the right information, about the right people, at the right time, to build trust and move deals forward.

Abe Awasthi, Sales Transformation Offering Leader at Deloitte Digital, put a finer point on it. He shared that AI is coming at us like a freight train, how it will quickly become a differentiator, and that buyer expectations around the sales experience will only get higher. After all, buyers have AI tools, too.

What’s next? Just take the plunge and see what happens. Play around with ChatGPT. Hang out with Microsoft's Copilot already embedded in Teams and Outlook.. Or, even better — sign up for Sales Navigator, powered by AI-enhanced features. 

Overall, the conference was filled with clear guideposts pointing to what’s ahead. Here’s the good news. No matter how advanced AI becomes, most B2B selling is still a human-to-human interaction.

To that point, I’ll leave you with the sage words of Roderick Jefferson, CEO of Fractional GTM Transformational Leader and author of Sales Enablement 3.0. He said, “Stop selling. Start helping,” which was followed by a spontaneous, thunderous applause from everyone in the room.

Special gratitude to Brynne Tillman, CEO of Social Sales Link and well known LinkedIn whisperer, for the invitation. Until next year!