For the past 15 years, Predictable Revenue taught a generation of companies why salespeople shouldn’t prospect and how to build a repeatable outbound system.
A lot of that machine is now jammed, a victim of its own success. In leadgen, success means everyone else does it too, and does more of it :) AI is just adding afterburners.
I’m in the early stages of developing a complete redo (not an update, not a new edition) of Predictable Revenue. Working title: The New Predictable Revenue. Co-authoring with Gaurav Bhattacharya, CEO of Jeeva.ai, and with my business partner in Brazil, Thiago Muniz.
I’m seeing three cracks in the holy church of AI. Maybe you’re seeing them too.
#1: people are abdicating their understanding & decisions, not just delegating work.
You can use AI to implement ideas… or use it to avoid understanding the work in the first place. The rep who lets AI write the whole sequence and then freezes the second a prospect goes off-script - because they never knew why the message worked in the first place.
#2: everybody’s busy and nothing’s happening.
AI’s commoditising high-output work & activities. It’s never been easier to look productive. 400 hyper-personalized emails before lunch. A professional-looking marketing plan spun up in 20 minutes. Dashboards looking gorgeous. Yet pipeline growth... ehhhhh. Tons of work completed, but impact is dubious.
#3: nobody believes anything anymore.
When every “Hey, loved your post!” looks like a bot because the comments are long and generic, people stop caring. When everyone is a professional copywriter, no one stands out. Channels (emails, social, all of it) are filling with “good enough/great”, and it’s not helping most people stand out, because there’s an ocean of it.
I have some strong premises for solutions on the other side of this.
If any of this is hitting home, I want to talk to you. Salespeople, managers, CEOs, marketers, anyone, especially:
You’ve cracked something that’s working in this new mess and you’re excited; I want to hear it!
Or it’s not working, you’re staring at the screen wondering where to go next, and you’d like to think out loud with someone who’s chewing on the same problem.
You have something else you want to jaw about.
Grab a time here → www.calendly.com/aaronross
Or reply to this email with any questions or suggestions.
— Aaron
Loved it! => nobody believes anything anymore. Just that feeling!
My gut reaction for one solution to issue #1 'crack' (where salesperson freezes when prospect goes off script) is TAKE AN IMPROV CLASS!!!!