Someone I know recently interviewed for a position at an Apple Store. The way Apple has this set up is by interviewing candidates in groups of three. As the interviews started, my friend noticed something pretty incredible – one of the candidates had an Android phone in front of her and was wearing a Google Watch. Ten minutes into the conversation, the interviewer began ignoring this person and was only speaking with the other two candidates.
While I’d like to suggest this kind of sloppiness is rare, I’m actually seeing it becoming more common, especially among sales teams. As a Baby Boomer, the easiest way to explain this is generational, but that would be wrong. I frequently see some really good sales skills across all generations.
No, I think it’s something else, and something I’ve been promoting for decades . . . technology and the way it’s eliminating common human sense.
Since COVID, I frequently hear from salespeople how they are being “ghosted” by clients who aren’t responding to their emails. Maybe it’s because the primary form of communication with their clients has become via email. Now I understand many clients only say they want to be reached that way, but in fact, I think they are saying something else: “Unless you have something important or relevant to share with me, don’t waste my time and just send it via email.”
In other words, while email has made it easy to reach out to clients frequently, the quality of communication has fallen drastically and it’s much easier to delete an irrelevant email than it is to stop a quality in-person conversation of idea-sharing and problem-solving.
This is because while technology has made it easier for salespeople to research a client and create solutions, it’s also made them a lot lazier.
When I started in sales, there was no internet. The only way we could learn about a business was to either go to the library and scan articles about them, or visit the business and talk to people who work there. Today, between search engines and ChatGPT, access to information makes it incredibly easy for a sales rep to take the time to not only learn about a business, but also learn about their category as well as solutions other similar businesses have taken. The technology is powerful and great, but without a human brain taking the information and crafting it to the specific needs of the client, it almost becomes generic because every sales rep has access to it.
Yet, too many reps are blindly emailing clients with random missives that fail to do the one thing a sales rep in 2026 has to do – stand out as a credible solution/idea provider among a sea of competitors.
AI has made things worse. Gordon Borrell was recently interviewed in “The Barrett Report” about the disconnect between media sellers and SMB’s due to the over-reliance on AI to generate emails, presentations, and other communication. Gordon sums it up well: “Once advertisers suspect a sales rep is leaning on AI instead of expertise, the relationship sours fast. The tell isn’t subtle, either, since clients notice patterns like excessive wordiness or unnecessary formatting almost immediately.”
You can read the whole article here – it’s worth sharing with your sales team: Why Gordon Borrell Investigated the AI Disconnect Between SMBs and Media Sellers – Barrett Media
So at a time when technology had made selling so incredibly easy, it’s actually driving a wedge between a sales rep’s ability to create an actual relationship with their clients, and I believe it’s time for a reset. The next time a sales rep complains about being “ghosted” by a client, make them do a content analysis of the last 20 emails they sent that client. Look at each for four things:
- The quality of the subject line. Was it generic like “touching base” or “how are you?” or was it compelling to the point the client was interesting to learn what it was about?
- The quality of the content. Was there something of value provided (an idea, something about a competitor, an opportunity that they might be interested in) or was it more about the station, a new package that was bulk-emailed, or other non-targeting information?
- Was it human and relatable? Was there anything personal in it or specific to that person’s business, or could it have been written by any salesperson to any client?
- Was it written by AI?
And then tell them if they can’t create a valuable, collaborative, human relationship with that client maybe you need another rep on the account.
It’s time to raise the bar by lowering dependance on technology. Your biggest competitors – Facebook, Google, YouTube have zero human relationships with their clients. And unfortunately, many other radio and television competitors are slimming down their local sales teams, so they don’t have the time to make face-to-face sales calls and depend on emails and AI to do their selling for them. This creates the opportunity for your reps to stop playing the game the way they are and standing apart by creating a substantive, tangible human relationship with them.
AI and algorithms can’t replace that.
Paul Jacobs
Jacobs Media
