March 15, 2025 | Read online
Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday.
That’s right. I’m Mugatu. At least I feel like it when it comes to AI.
I really don’t understand why more people aren’t taking it seriously.
I’ve had multiple conversations this week with people who were struggling in their role, or trying to figure out what to do with their career, or nervous about the relevance of their role moving forward.
My feedback is always the same - dive into AI with everything you have right now and figure out how to use it before you get replaced by people who do.
It’s not an “if” scenario any more, it’s “when” you’ll become irrelevant if you don’t start using it and from what I’m seeing that “when” is coming faster than ever.
The good news is that it’s insanely easy to get started and become proficient in no time.
Let’s talk about how…..
TACTICAL TIPS: Be Curious
SALES RESOURCES: Build Your Own GPT
SALES FROM THE STREETS: Steak Dinners
TACTICAL TIPS:
Be Curious
Is curiosity something you’re born with, or can you learn to be curious?
That’s the question I ask almost every guest I have on my podcast.
Most people, including myself, think it’s something you’re born with.
However, I also think it depends on what you’re interested in.
Most people are curious about things they’re genuinely interested in, which means you can become curious by becoming interested.
This is the easiest way to start becoming proficient in using AI the way I think it should be used—as a curiosity and learning engine, NOT an answer engine.
One of my biggest concerns with the shift from “Googling” something to using AI is that we’ve gone from a search engine to an answer engine, and people are taking that answer at face value without being curious enough to learn more.
We can argue that Google would only serve up the information it wanted to us when we searched for something, but at least it gave us a few options, and we could then choose which source we felt was reputable for the information we were looking for.
AI gives us THE answer, which is inherently inaccurate since AI is pulling data from the “internet,” and we all know how much crap is out there.
That’s why I talk about AI in terms of augmentation, not automation. If you’re looking to automate with AI, then I think you will most likely automate yourself out of a job eventually. More importantly, you won’t really learn anything along the way.
BUT, if you look at AI for augmentation and to feed your curiosity, it becomes a superpower and force multiplier that will help you leapfrog your peers and stay relevant as things continue to evolve.
Here’s how I would bridge the gap between interest and curiosity with AI.
Pick a topic you’re passionate about or a challenge you’re trying to address.
For instance, I’m planning a full-day event in NYC for 18 sales influencers/practitioners on the 28th.
We’ll be doing a Free Training Friday at Linkedin’s office in the Empire State Building, moving to a live stream happy hour for Q&A and finishing the day going to the Broadway Production of Glengarry Glenn Ross.
I want to livestream the majority of it and record the whole thing documentary-style. (Sign up details will be in next week’s newsletter)
Even though I’ve thrown my fair share of parties, I’m not exactly an Event Planner and I don’t have an admin to do any of this for me.
I could call around to my friends who are Event Planners or do a post on Linkedin to ask for some ideas on how to make this a memorable event…..or……I could open up my customized version of ChatGPT and tell it to act like the best B2B event planner on the planet and help me figure this out.
Since I’m INTERESTED in making this an epic event, I’m CURIOUS to figure out the best approach and options.
So, I used the talk to text feature and told (not typed) ChatGPT about the event I wanted to put together, including who I wanted to invite and the vibe I wanted to create.
From there I became curious and kept asking questions and brainingstorming different ideas.
Within an hour I had mapped out a detailed plan, found unique venues that fit the exact vibe I was going for and created an outline with prioritized next steps.
It’s literally that easy.
Pick something, anything and start using AI to be curious. For instance:
- Career advancement/development
- Core values
- Your “Why”
- Investment strategies
- Health - food plan, exercise etc
- Vacation planning
Once you find something you're interested in and start using ChatGPT to be curious about it, you’ll start to see how you can leverage it in every aspect of your career/job.
SALES RESOURCES:
Build Your Own GPT
Just like I’m not an Event Planner, I’m not a Coder either.
But, my curiosity led me to create my own GPT to help me prepare for podcast interviews.
It used to take me at least an hour to prep for podcast interviews. I would have the guest fill out a form with some information that I would then review along with their Linkedin profile, any books or interviews they’ve done and more.
Based on that information I would then think through the type of questions I would want to ask them and the flow of the conversation. I never want it to be scripted but I do want some flow to it and have some questions ready in case the conversation gets stale.
The challenge for me is that I usually don’t have a ton of time to prep for these interviews since they’re usually stuffed between client and prospect meetings and training sessions.
I knew about the ability to create your own GPT but any time I needed a GPT, someone else had already created one so I would just use those.
This time, I couldn't find one to help prepare for podcasts the way I wanted to so I decided to create my own.
Within about 15 minutes I had created my Podcast Interview Prep GPT that took my prep time from an hour to 10 minutes.
Like I said, I’m no Coder but this was stupid easy and had an immediate impact.
If I can do this, anyone can, and I recommend you do.
Here’s how: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67902ae0a66c81919dfe071bbbde2cb2-podcast-interview-prep
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Insightly CRM
We all know negotiation is a crucial skill in sales, but how many of us actually feel confident when it comes to the nitty-gritty of deal-making?
That's why I've teamed up with my friends at Insightly CRM to create "The Art of Negotiation" guide.
Look, I've seen too many deals fall apart at the finish line because of poor negotiation tactics.
This guide is packed with real-world strategies that I've used to close some of my biggest deals. We're talking about techniques to handle objections, create win-win scenarios, and ultimately boost your close rates.
Here's the kicker - this isn't just some theoretical BS. We've included actual scripts and role-play scenarios that you can start using in your very next call.
Inside, I break down how to:
✅ Track your "gives" and "gets" so every deal stays balanced
✅ Use the Rule of Reciprocity to move negotiations in your favor
✅ Leverage Insightly CRM to stay on top of every stage in the process
So, do yourself (and your quota) a favor - grab this guide now and start closing more deals. Trust me, your future self will thank you.
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SALES FROM THE STREETS:
Steak Dinners
For the past 10 years I’ve been telling those old school sales reps who were still relying on the “relationship sale” and taking their clients out golfing and to steak dinners that their days were numbered.
I wasn't just referring to their retirement either.
I was referring to the fact that VALUE is what matters in a relationship and steak dinners and golf weren’t as valuable as insights and strategies that drive real business outcomes.
I still strongly believe this but my conversation with Steve Lucas, the CEO of Boomi during a recent podcast interview (that I used my podcast prep bot for :) has me thinking that steak dinners might be coming back in style.
The reason is that AI is on its way to taking over the majority of the admin and development work that Sales reps do right now.
We’ve all heard that stat about how Sales reps only spend about 37% of their time engaging with their clients and the rest of the time is spent on admin tasks.
AI is going to easily take care of the majority of those tasks in the not so distant future.
I’m not just talking about taking notes and updating CRM either, I’m talking about engaging with the client, sending relevant information, suggesting specific solutions, providing options, running trials, generating ROI and more.
So, if AI Agents are going to be able to do all that better and faster than we ever could, where does that leave us?
Steak dinners.
Well, not exactly. “Steak dinners” represents the human connection and getting back to real relationships.
As much as I still believe that value is what matters, unfortunately we’ve gotten too far away from real relationships.
Everything with everyone feels so transactional these days.
I think COVID had a lot to do with it. When we went virtual, we lost the human connection and now we have a whole generation of sales professionals who don’t know what it takes to make that connection and an older generation who’s forgotten how to themselves.
We need to reconnect.
Take a client out to lunch, go to a networking event, grab coffee with someone in the office you’ve never talked to before.
As dated as it might seem, I still think a mandatory reading for all Sales reps should be How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. (Here’s a ChatGPT summary of it if you just want a refresher)
Do something to sharpen your relationship skills because they’re going to matter more than ever moving forward.
ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME
- The JB Sales Membership 2.0 is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?
- The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)
- The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.
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