AI, B2B business development, and you

Is it the best of times, or the worst of times? Whichever stance you take, AI is generally acknowledged as being the greatest workplace disruptor since the invention of the internet, and is, without doubt, the hot topic of 2023.

But is it the end of work as we know it – or simply a new, incredibly fast, incredibly efficient tool in your armoury?

Most importantly, how is it likely to affect B2B business development – and you?

Predictions, predictions, everywhere

The Future of Jobs Report 2023, created by the World Economic Forum, predicts that AI will be embraced by some 75% of the companies surveyed. Of those, 25% expect it to lead to job losses, but 50% expect it to increase job growth. Meanwhile, earlier this year McKinsey estimated that “12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030” in the US alone.

As Bill Gates wrote in a blog post in July this year: “One thing that’s clear from everything that has been written so far about the risks of AI — and a lot has been written — is that no one has all the answers. Another thing that’s clear to me is that the future of AI is not as grim as some people think or as rosy as others think.”

At Pure Business Development, we tend to agree. But the fact is, for all the predictions, AI is here right now, and people are already using it.

New launches, such as LinkedIn’s Account IQ, announced this week, promise to speed that up even further: Account IQ can be used to gather sales information from a huge variety of resources – including financial reports and public filing data – and summarise it for you. Plus there’s the addition of Generative AI promises to make Sales Navigator even faster, and simpler to use, with the ability to use conversational language to help identify leads. Other similar tools are already here, with others on the horizon, we may also be spoilt for choice.

Facing an uncertain future

Progress is always daunting, of course, and nobody likes to think about job losses. But in many ways we have been here before: there were similar fears about the industrial revolution, as well as the internet. And the reality is that AI isn’t going anywhere.

The way businesses, including B2B business, are most likely to lose out, is in how they approach it, whether that’s burying their heads in the sand, or expecting it to be able to do everything. For continued success, B2B businesses need to make sure they are getting that balance right. Get it wrong – and your business will undoubtedly suffer. But for those who get it right, AI is going to be an invaluable tool.

At Pure Business Development, we believe that means evolution, not revolution.

AI: working for you, not instead of you

The obvious use for an AI tool in business development is crunching all that data. Open AI’s ChatGPT, the market leader, agrees: when we asked it to outline AI’s key uses in B2B business development, it told us that “helping companies to streamline processes, make data-driven decisions, and improve customer experiences” were going to be central.

When it comes to marketing, there is no doubt that AI is going to make some processes a great deal more efficient (with the caveat that just because AI comes up with answers, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be the right answers: AI has a tendency to “hallucinate”, or make things up, and there are currently ongoing legal challenges around AI defamation, copyright and data privacy.) But there is a great deal more to B2B business development than marketing.

While it’s easy to be blinded by the headlines of how AI is going to take over all our jobs, there are some things that only people can do: with more data than ever before, decisions are going to become ever more complex. Ultimately, somebody is going to have to understand it and decide what to do with all that data – what pain points does it identity? How are those pain points felt by the person in the target account? How serious are they about it? Are they even aware that the pain points exist in the first place?

Businesses also have to be agile enough to adapt to whatever comes up, as it arises – whether that’s an unforeseen client issue, or presenting to the board.

AI will not be able to read the room, or build those relationships for you – only a person can do that. Because ultimately, in the B2B world, people buy from people. To continue to succeed in B2B business development, it’s essential we don’t overestimate the power of tech, or underestimate the power of people.

Pure Business Development: AI + humans = working in harmony

When it comes to assessing the future, and working with AI, we’re all in the same boat – none of us quite knows what the next steps we’ll be.

But at Pure Business Development, we make sure we make the best use of everything that’s available to us – and that means using technology to maximise the data, and working with people to turn that data into real relationships and qualified leads and Sales Appointments for your business.

We’ll use that expertise to identify your target’s appetite for your value propositions, and uncover where the pain points might be – and if your target is already aware of them. And we’ll set up confirmed diary appointments with pre-qualified decision marks in the right accounts for you, so you can close more deals.

In short: we work hand in hand with you, and with AI, to create the best solutions for your business.

Book your introductory call today and find out more.