What Dune Tells us About Self Deception

In the latest science fiction prequal, Dune Prophesy, there’s a brief mention of a conflict humans wage within themselves. This is caused by the brain’s willingness (and effectiveness) in manufacturing lies, but the body’s discomfort with them, as betrayed by elevated heart rates, sweating and dry lips. No doubt some are more comfortable with it than others, and experience “less” conflict. We all have our own definitions as well, hence the expression “white lies.” While there isn’t always a dark purpose to lying, it’s hard to confront problems until we admit that they exist. This is usually where we're lying to ourselves. Which brings us to B2B sales and the use (or not) of AI Sales Readiness.

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As sellers, we’re conditioned to exude confidence and believe there nothing we cannot handle. As sales and revenue leaders we’re conditioned to believe we have the best teams and that we are the best leaders and coaches. It’s ok to admit to some of our own weaknesses. This is the first step to getting better. Consider the following:

Ubermensch: The philosophical concept coined by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1883 that translates to "overman" or "superman" in English. It represents an ideal human being and a goal for humanity to strive towards. While we might not think we’re “ubermensch,” again we’ve been conditioned to BE confident and exude confidence and believe there’s nothing we cannot handle. As sales and revenue leaders we’re conditioned to believe we have the best teams and that we are the best leaders and coaches. This is a logical trap – if we’re the best and we have the best team we should be crushing it…all the time. If you are then stop reading (or listening now.) It’s ok to recognize areas for improvement either in ourselves or the team.

The 90/10 Rule: Often cited as the 80/20 rule, in sales, this ratio is frequently more extreme, with approximately 90% of sales often generated by just 10% of the team. This stark imbalance highlights the need for a more nuanced approach to managing and supporting sales teams, rather than accepting that “this is the way it is” and continuing to rely on a few high performers to carry the load.

The "A Player" Fallacy: The belief that you want, or have, a team composed solely of top-tier salespeople and that this is the strategy that will yield the best results. Leadership always claims, “we’ve only got A players.”  This is the worst kind of nonsense, but we live in the era where we cannot admit publicly or tell people the truth for fear of hurting their feelings. Everyone’s an “A” player, everyone gets a prize, and everyone’s a rockstar. This is a huge fallacy that is both unrealistic and impractical. “A players” are rare, and even if you could find and recruit a team of them, you’d never (and wouldn’t want to) manage them. Too many big egos.

Neglecting B & C Players: “B" and "C" players represent untapped and generally ignored, potential for improvement. These individuals represent the most significant opportunity for growth through targeted coaching and support. According to Ethan Mollick in his book: “Co-intelligence: Living & Working with AI” - “In study after study, the people who get the biggest boost from AI are those with the lowest initial ability—it turns poor performers into good performers. In writing tasks, bad writers become solid. In creativity tests, it boosts the least creative the most…And in a study of early generative AI at a call center, the lowest-performing workers became 35 percent more productive…In our study in BCG, we found similar effects. Those who had the weakest skills benefited the most from AI, but even the highest performers gained.” This is why we call it the “equalizer” and explains why a good proportion of the millennials & Gen Zer’s are, at best, indifferent to AI as it blunts the tip of their intellectual spears.

Coaching Capabilities of Sales Leaders: There's a common assumption that all sales leaders are effective coaches, but the reality is that most lack the skills necessary and/or fail to dedicate adequate time. Sales coaching efforts are falling flat. The outside consultants love this. It’s a way for them to justify their protracted (and expensive) continued involvement.

Overreliance on Coaching and Training: Organizations devote less time and money to training and development. There’s not much mentoring going on since everyone vacated the office, anyway, leaving people to "figure it out for themselves.” Old school training hasn’t worked for years, but none of this is a justification for letting people sink or swim – your customers won’t thank you and your prospects will pass you by, and you won't even know why?

So, let’s stop kidding ourselves and others and get to work at getting better. Enter AI Sales Readiness, not just a shiny new gadget but a transformative force ready to rewrite the sales playbook. This technology boosts the underdogs and offers a fresh perspective to the veterans.  It’s the equalizer, capable of preparing teams better and faster by providing the plans, strategies, personalized insights and advice that were once the exclusive purview of high-dollar consultants (and sales coaches!)

Embrace Generative AI Sales Readiness to bridge the chasm between sales truth and lies. It's time to turn up the volume and tune into the new era of sales, and then maybe we can truly claim that (as Elaine pointed out) “hey, you’re all winners!”