The Impact of AI on your Business
What is ChatGPT?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the business landscape. Over the past few months, articles and news about AI, and specifically ChatGPT, have been omnipresent. Like with any new technology, there are plenty of pundits who are prognosticating everything from AI being the cure for all of the world’s problems to the destruction of mankind. I am not a pundit or a data scientist so I won’t make any predictions about the impacts of AI on the world at large - other than to say that I have yet to see any new technology become the savior or the end of mankind (though it may be too early to tell regarding social media).
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT (generative pre-trained transformer) is a type of artificial intelligence language model that stands out based on its advanced natural language processing capabilities. ChatGPT’s sophistication lies in the fact that it is capable of generating natural language responses to a wide range of queries and prompts. It is built on the GPT-3 (now GPT-4) architecture, one of the most advanced language models currently available.
In this blog post I explore how ChatGPT can help B2B companies become more efficient and targeted in their customer acquisition efforts, and improve customer satisfaction. Some people think ChatGPT will replace everyone’s jobs. At least in the near term, I don’t believe the technology will replace sales, marketing or customer service people. In fact, it should provide them with more effective training, enable them to be more efficient, and provide a higher level of personalized customer interactions - all of which should lead to higher job satisfaction and retention.
What will likely happen is that companies who strategically employ the technology will gain a competitive advantage that may put their competitors’ businesses at risk. Think about that relative to how the Internet empowered some businesses and marginalized others.
There are three areas of a B2B business that could significantly benefit from utilizing ChatGPT-based solutions:
Personalized Sales Experience
In a B2B sales process, the customer experience plays a vital role in closing the deal. ChatGPT can provide a highly personalized experience to prospective customers by analyzing their inquiries and providing relevant responses and solutions. ChatGPT can help B2B sales efforts by generating higher quality leads, improving the customer journey, and improving sales productivity. With ChatGPT's advanced natural language processing capabilities, businesses can engage with customers effectively, understand their needs, and provide them with relevant solutions, leading to higher engagement and customer satisfaction - all of which should result in increased sales. Think about this in terms of a tailored response to every prospect or customer based on their specific needs or circumstances.
Improved Lead Generation
Lead generation is a crucial aspect of any B2B sales process, and ChatGPT can help businesses generate better quality leads. ChatGPT can analyze customer inquiries and extract valuable insights that can be used for lead generation. It can identify potential leads, capture their contact information, and provide businesses with a list of potential customers. With ChatGPT's help, businesses can target the right audience and generate better quality leads, which can significantly improve sales productivity. Marketing departments and marketing consultants think a lot about how to identify and target the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). With the aid of artificial intelligence, you’ll be able to quickly produce and analyze marketing copy, market positioning, and key differentiators. Think about this in the context of a more automated and efficient way to target and qualify leads, meaning a higher percentage of leads moving through the sales pipeline.
Customer Support Cost Savings
When operated efficiently, customer service and customer success should ultimately be profit centers for a company vs. cost centers. However, there is still a considerable amount of investment in resources and technology required in order to provide the highest levels of customer support. ChatGPT can help businesses save costs by automating much of the customer service process. It can handle routine customer inquiries, freeing up customer service representatives to focus on more complex inquiries. By automating customer service, businesses can save costs and increase efficiency, which will also have a positive impact on sales. Think about a continuously updated and readily accessible knowledge base for customer support issues, including the correct remedies - all at a customer service agent’s fingertips.
In short, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can significantly impact B2B sales. Used strategically, businesses will be able to engage with customers more effectively, generate higher quality leads, increase sales productivity, and gain a competitive advantage. As the technology continues to evolve and improve, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases for ChatGPT in the B2B sales space.
A question you may be asking yourself is how does one incorporate ChatGPT into their business today? That is a great question. I have a client who is developing a ChatGPT-based solution for help desk organizations. They have configured their own instance of ChatGPT, which required a significant investment in hardware and software engineering. Clearly that approach is not practical for small and medium sized businesses, no more than setting up your own server farm in lieu of using AWS or another cloud service provider.
Similar to my client’s solution for help desk agents, I expect there will be numerous, highly targeted business applications utilizing ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence technologies that will be available as apps or browser plugins. I suggest keeping an eye out for these emerging solutions for sales, marketing, customer service, technical support and other operations in your business. As with any new technology, unless you have a lot of time and money, I would be cautious about employing anything until you’ve had the opportunity to fully vet the solution and the provider. I recommend experimenting on a smaller scale to see if there is truly an impact and that it doesn’t completely disrupt your business (unless that is your intent).
For more information about ChatGPT, I suggest starting with OpenAI’s website. You can set up a free ChatGPT account and see what all the buzz is about.
By the way - for better or worse - I did not use ChatGPT to write this blog :-)