Ask HN: How do you sell to B2B in current state of AI? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you sell to B2B in current state of AI?

5 pointssalesdo6 comments

There is a massive AI fatigue going on in the Sales, CxO circles. While everyone is building by themselves using ChatGPT or Claude, I am pretty sure building everything in-house is not an answer.

I used to get 3% to 5% replies to emails. Now, its zero for months. Similarly, LinkedIn used to have 10% reply yes and 5% positive rate. Now, it's crickets.

I guess AI is having negative impact on people's perception - especially in Marketing, Sales, GTM circles.

If you are selling "AI-powered" or "AI based" software, do you do it that demonstrates value and clearly points out that it's not a chatGPT wrapper.

How do you generate interest in your B2B software in current state of AI?

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> How do you generate interest in your B2B software in current state of AI?

Stop saying "AI". People care if you solve a problem of theirs - that is all. When anything in your emails says "AI", you become noise, and get ignored. Partly because people are getting tired of it, but partly because if the only differentiator of your product is AI, then they can do it themselves with ChatGPT or some other LLM and do not need your product. If you lead with "AI", it tells people that you don't have much else to say.

(...and now is the time when as a sales person, you start telling me all about your product is different and how it is way more than just ChatGPT, because, because, reasons, reasons. As your audience, even if you are telling the truth, I've already lost interest.)

So stop saying it. If you are solving a problem, just say so.

AI is a new addition to the technological toolkit used to solve problems.

B2B sales has always been the problem solving business. Define the problem, demonstrate how your solution makes more money or saves money. Price your solution at some viable fraction of the value you deliver.

So AI is part of your magic sauce. It might make some solutions feasible that require that capability.

Another suggestion: pick up the phone and talk to your prospects. eMails get lost in the volumes being received. The spam filters might be rejecting everything that has AI/ML/LLM etc in it.

AI can definitely be part of your product but the point is dont center your value prop or marketing around it. Center it around your customer pains.

Marketing is all about standing out not blending in. And emphasizing your AI prowess is blending in. The exact opposite of good marketing

Sidenote: when I look for a solution to a problem I don't care whether ones uses AI, or a hammer, or a screwdriver. I just want the bloody job done.

(Additionally) Depending where you are in the world, and where your customer is, AI can simply make things worse (GDPR: profiling, decision making, 'explainability, etc)

> There is a massive AI fatigue going on in the Sales, CxO circles.

> If you are selling "AI-powered" or "AI based" software,

Seems like you just answered your own question. Don't sell "AI-powered" software, or at the very least don't market it as such because there is too much AI fatigue for that to work. In any case, in my experience the technology a product is built on has never been a significant selling point in CxO circles. Focus on how your product will increase income or decrease cost.

Two things that have helped me: 1. If you are using LinkedIn for reachouts, try to build a more credible and engaging profile. For example - write more thoughtful and helpful posts as people checkout before replying and accepting your requests, engage even more with comments to your prospects and try to use as less AI as possible for these two tasks now when you’ll reach you’ll get better response and meeting rates. To check this. See the number of people viewing your profile but still not accepting requests or replying back

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