First of all, if you’re tired of hearing about adapting to change, I sincerely apologize. But it seems to me that too many salespeople still can’t figure out what to do when the ground shifts beneath their feet – and brother, the ground is shifting faster than ever.
Let me tell you what I mean. When ChatGPT first came out, I’ll be honest – I resisted it for months. Here I was, preaching adaptation, and I was acting like that old-school salesperson griping about “kids these days” and their fancy technology. Sound familiar? But then I started using it, discovered tools like Claude, and realized I had two choices: evolve or become irrelevant.
That’s when it hit me. This isn’t just about AI. It’s about everything. The salespeople getting left behind aren’t just struggling with technology – they’re the same ones bitching about younger buyers having different needs, complaining that Gen Z prospects don’t respond to cold calls the way Boomers did, or refusing to change their recruiting methods to attract younger talent to their teams.
You know what separates the winners from the losers? Three words that still ring as true today as they did when I learned them: “Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.” Full disclosure, I learned it watching one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies – “Heartbreak Ridge,” about a craggy old Marine in Grenada. And if it works for Marines facing life-or-death situations, it damn sure works for salespeople facing market disruption.
But what does it mean in today’s world?
Adapt: The dictionary definition is still “to become adjusted to new conditions,” but the conditions are changing at warp speed. Your 25-year-old prospects aren’t going to sit through your 90-minute presentation, complete with a 50-slide PowerPoint deck. They’ve researched you online before you even know they exist. They want video demos, they text instead of call, and they make buying decisions differently than their predecessors.
Here’s the thing – you can either adapt to this reality or watch your pipeline dry up. If your traditional prospecting methods aren’t working, try something new. If LinkedIn outreach is getting better response than cold calling, then guess what? It’s time to master LinkedIn. If your younger prospects prefer Zoom calls to in-person meetings, become a Zoom expert. Or Teams, or WebEx, or whatever THEY prefer.
The biggest mistake I see? Salespeople waiting for the market to come back to them. It’s not coming back. The market moved on, and you’d better catch up.
Improvise: Sometimes the perfect solution isn’t in your playbook – especially when the playbook itself is outdated. That’s when improvisation saves the day. Think MacGyver as a salesperson, but instead of defusing bombs, you’re navigating a landscape where AI is screening your emails and 29-year-old decision-makers are ghosting your voicemails.
I didn’t have an AI strategy manual when ChatGPT launched. Neither did you. But the winners figured it out as they went, using the tools at hand. They started experimenting, testing, learning. They didn’t wait for corporate to roll out the official AI policy – they started using AI to write better emails, research prospects more thoroughly, and prepare for meetings more effectively – even using AI to role-play the sales call (yep, it can be done).
Forget not having the perfect CRM integration or the latest sales enablement platform. As my friend Darren LaCroix likes to say, “Done is more profitable than perfect.” What can you do right now, with what you have, to connect with today’s buyers? The answer is probably sitting right in your pocket – your smartphone has more capability than entire sales departments had twenty years ago.
Overcome: This is where the rubber meets the road. To overcome means to succeed in dealing with obstacles, to prevail no matter what stands in your way. But here’s what’s different now – the obstacles aren’t just individual competitors or difficult prospects. The obstacles are seismic shifts in how business gets done.
Some salespeople see AI as a threat that’s going to replace them. Others see it as a tool that makes them more effective. Some see generational differences as insurmountable barriers. Others see them as opportunities to connect in new ways. The obstacle isn’t the change itself – it’s your attitude toward it.
Right now, I talk to salespeople every day who are stuck in 2019. They’re waiting for things to “get back to normal,” complaining about remote selling, griping about how prospects don’t respect salespeople anymore. Meanwhile, their competitors are leveraging AI to identify better prospects, using video messaging to stand out in crowded inboxes, and building relationships with younger buyers on their terms.
Don’t be one of the ones left behind. When you hit an obstacle – whether it’s a new technology, a generational gap, or a complete disruption of your industry – think of the Marines. Or think of that salesperson who figured out how to use AI while you were still resisting it.
Then find a way. Because that’s what professional salespeople do. And in a world changing this fast, it’s what professional salespeople must do to survive.
