In this episode of Love Your Sales, host Leighann interviews Dave Siegel, CEO of Siegel Advisory Services, who shares his unique perspective on sales. Despite his personal dislike for the repetitive nature of the sales cycle, Dave emphasizes the importance of building relationships and consistent communication to stay top of mind with prospects. They discuss how technology, especially AI, can optimize sales processes and improve efficiency while highlighting the necessity of human oversight to maintain authenticity and quality in sales interactions.
Contact Dave –
Email - dave@siegeladvisoryservices.com
LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/iamdavesiegel
Website - www.siegeladvisoryservices.com
Special Thank you to our Sponsors – Genhead – www.genhead.com and Accelerategrowth45 and the AG45 Soul Aligned Strategy Podcast – www.accelerategrowth45.com
Robb Conlon – Intro and outro – Westport Studio - https://www.westportstudiosllc.com/
Channel Subscribe link - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-O7W9DzaRv4waodQKCprIg?sub_confirmation=1
Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. I am joined by Dave Siegel today. I am so excited to have him. Dave has been helping Companies achieve greater profits by reducing enterprise risk, optimizing processes, applying appropriate technology, and working across business units to fill communication gaps to achieve the necessary results.
Dave has been working in healthcare, financial services, and insurance, both as man, as a management consultant and [00:02:00] employee for over 30 years. Dave is the CEO and senior advisor at Segal Advisory Services, and I am thrilled to have him join me today.
Dave Seigel: Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
Leighann Lovely: Is there anything that I missed?
Dave Seigel: Uh, you forgot the faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap a tall building in a single bound, but otherwise you think you nailed it.
Leighann Lovely: Oh, well. So you are. A superhero by night. Yeah. At times. Sure. Fine. Oh,
Dave Seigel: okay.
Leighann Lovely: Awesome. Well, I'm, I'm thrilled to be interviewing a, a superhero then. Now you and I, um, when we talked, um, I, I love, I loved our conversation because you are unique to my, um, well, you're gonna be a unique one to this conversation because you had made a comment, um.
I hate sales.
Dave Seigel: I hate sales.
Leighann Lovely: I [00:03:00] love it. Let's talk about that.
Dave Seigel: Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about it.
Leighann Lovely: Yeah. So why?
Dave Seigel: Well, I, I, I like creative fresh, new challenges, and it is the, um, very, in my humble opinion, the very tight cycle. That sales is, it's the prospecting. It's the qualifying, it's the contacting, it's the repeat.
And, um, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm, I enjoy connecting with new people. I enjoy the digging in and understanding, finding the pain, finding the opportunity, helping them. But it is the, the sales cycle that, uh, the predictability of it. Or the repeatability of it. That, that I just don't like it. Sorry. Just don't like it.
Leighann Lovely: And, and that is, um, I would say [00:04:00] the, the number one reason that salespeople will fail.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm. I can see that.
Leighann Lovely: Because it comes down to, if you don't follow that, and, and it really, it, it is, it is a pattern, right? Mm-hmm. It's okay. So I've got a new, I've got a new lead. They go into your CRM, they go into your Excel spreadsheets.
If some people are still on Excel spreadsheets, you're a small business, you make that first contact, you may actually get a one-on-one with 'em, get to know 'em a little bit, and then they drop into your funnel.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: And then it is a consistent, in order to be a, you know, a at the top, you know, the one percenters, it is the consistent reach out, touch, email, call, touch, email, call, some type of or form of continuous communication with that person.
Mm-hmm. To [00:05:00] stay top of mind.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: If you don't do that, you're not top of mind. Right. And when the need. You offer comes up, if they're not thinking about you, they're gonna go to the service that is staying top of mind.
Dave Seigel: That's right. That's right. And you, and you know that there's a, there's a, a likelihood given that I do executive consulting, executive advisory work, the first person plants the seed.
Mm-hmm. And puts the idea in their head and that has to germinate and it, and like you said, if you're not really building the relationship beyond the initial couple contacts, um, touchpoint, you've put the idea in their head and then somebody else is gonna actually be the one to engage. No doubt, no doubt.
Yeah,
Leighann Lovely: so you [00:06:00] may be the person that actually cracks the egg, but you're not the person that actually, you know, goes and cooks it and all of the other stuff because you've, you've fallen off, you've, you're no longer.
Dave Seigel: Right.
Leighann Lovely: So now we understand, you know, your position on this. How have you, how have you pushed forward to be successful?
Dave Seigel: Well, I think that, that. It's okay to understand you don't like something, but it's, that doesn't mean you don't do it. And I network constantly. Um, we met through a, a common person. Um, I'll give her a shout out. Christina Shrive. Mm-hmm. Um, she and I are both on the Alpha team. Uh, building an H seven networking group here in Florida.
H seven Networking is a, is [00:07:00] a nationwide networking, um, entity. Uh, I'm in other networking groups as well, and everything that I do is through referral and word of mouth. Mm-hmm. And so therefore it's constantly speaking with people and. I think that the, the honest truth is we're always selling. Every conversation is in some way informing, um, or listening, pulling, pulling information that you can say, you know, is this, is this somebody that I can help directly or indirectly?
So yeah, it's, it's, it's not like I can say. I don't like selling and therefore I'm not doing it. It's, I don't like the sales process, but I'm engaged in it constantly
Leighann Lovely: and we all are. And I think that's the number [00:08:00] one misconception of, of people that people have. I mean, yes. Maybe, maybe the, the, the, the engineer, the it person that sits in an office and has limited contact from the outside world or doesn't have any contact from the outside world can say I don't do any selling.
Right. Except, except when all of the sudden they're with their friends. Right. And they're. Dude, we totally gotta go to that. And I'm in Milwaukee Brewer game. Um, you come on man, we gotta go. All of a sudden they find themselves mm-hmm. Selling their friends on going somewhere or doing something. So. No matter what, at some point in our lives, we are selling, we're pitching, we're negotiating, [00:09:00] we're, it's just a matter of when, where, how.
Some people do it as a profession, some people slide into it as a friend. You know, what we call the, the peer pressure, um mm-hmm. Is actually a form of selling. So when people will say to me, I hate salespeople. I'm like, really? Really, you, you, you hate everybody because everybody in one way or another, right, is a salesperson.
Dave Seigel: You know, there was a word, um, there is a word right now that has gained, uh, almost a secondary meaning in my opinion. When you were in a company, there was the distinction between the decision maker and those who held influence. Okay. Those who were the influential people? Those, those are the people who advised the decision makers well now, you know, um, I can say honestly, I don't use [00:10:00] TikTok, but it seems like everybody is a self-appointed, self anointed influencer.
So what used to be advertising is now influencing. Mm-hmm. Um.
Everybody has the power to influence. If you have, if you have an opinion, if you have a position, if you have a thought, um, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm guessing if you live in a cabin on the side of a mountain somewhere, there's not a whole lot of people around you to influence. But you know, like you said, peer pressure is influencing.
Mm-hmm. And in a company. Uh, in my case, helping a company understand what, what AI is, why, why could it be valuable to them from a business perspective, not from a technology perspective. They're asking me to influence them with, with data and with, uh, relevant [00:11:00] information, et cetera, et cetera. So, so yeah. I mean, I think that it's, it's, to me, the, the, the word that.
Used to mean you were, you were a, a, a person of influence because of your experience and knowledge and its expertise. You know, now it's kind of been diluted to, I'm a. 25-year-old man or woman who receives product in the mail. And therefore I go on TikTok and I try to influence people. Um, you know, that's advertising.
Mm-hmm. That's maybe marketing and advertising, but the word is very necessary in the sales process.
Leighann Lovely: Mm-hmm. And how powerful is it to be asked to influence me? Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. You, you're hired by a company to come in and they're like, okay, influence me on X, Y, [00:12:00] Z.
Dave Seigel: Right?
Leighann Lovely: And you're like, oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, if, if we put that, if we bring that back to the root of what it really, where it really came from, they're like, sell me on this.
Dave Seigel: Right. That's it. It's, you know, advisory work. Uh, I'm not a consultant. What we do is we advise, we, we, we want the client to, as quickly as possible, feel that we are sitting on their side of the, of the table. Mm-hmm. Seeing the problem or opportunity from their eyes and their point of view. And then we're able to say to them, okay, given what you wanna achieve.
Given the timeframe and the resources you have to allocate to it. I'm advising you to consider this or this or this, and I'm advising you to stay away from this or this, or this. Mm-hmm. Initially, it may be advising. Advising a path. But then when it gets closer [00:13:00] to decision making, yes, you are being brought in and you are being paid to influence.
You are being paid to be an objective third party who is not gonna receive, uh, compensation from, uh, a vendor or a product or a platform. You are influencing a decision that helps them feel comfortable and knowledgeable and, um. To achieve what they need to achieve.
Leighann Lovely: Right. Yeah. And that's, that's a one that's a powerful position to be put in.
Um, and.
I think that's, that's it. One, that's a powerful position to be put in. I was gonna try to come up with a two and I was like, wait, no. It's just, that is it. Not only is it a powerful position to be put, it's, it holds a great deal of responsibility because it, once you have influenced, once you have made recommendations, once you have, [00:14:00] and they have decided to go down that path.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Who are they looking to? If that doesn't work?
Dave Seigel: It's, yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. Um, Leanne, if, if, if I influence somebody and they pursue the, um, pursue the path that I'm suggesting, you know, there are, there are a couple different approaches. There are companies very, very wealthy.
Nationally, internationally, globally known companies that provides strategy, advisory, influence, et cetera, they influence and then leave. It's like, okay, well I've given you the strategy. I've given you what you asked for, and now it's your choice, and if you decide to pursue it, you own the positive and or the negative.
[00:15:00] My approach
Leighann Lovely: is, I'd love to be in that position. It's, Hey, hey, go jump off that cliff. If you decide I'm outta here. That's, if you don't, I'm outta here.
Dave Seigel: You know, it's, uh, if the shoot doesn't open, sorry, dude. Um, but what, what my approach, my company's approach is, is we definitely are the trusted partner. So, you know.
Everything comes back to reputation. If I, if, if, if you, if you influence or advise 3, 4, 5, 10 clients and your batting average is good enough to get in the Hall of Fame in baseball, let's say your batting average is three 17 mm-hmm. Or even 400, we'll make it, we'll make it Ted Williams 400. That means you've failed 60% of the time.
Okay. In baseball, that's amazing. In baseball, right? That would be the best hitter of all time as a career, [00:16:00] 400 hitter. It means that career, you got out 60% of the time and everyone thought you were amazing in business. That's a, that's a, a different, a different metric,
Leighann Lovely: right?
Dave Seigel: Um, chances are if my, if, if I'm advising 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 clients and they're not.
Reaching a level of success, my reputation is gonna be shot. Right. My, my, my possibility of future work in a referral basis from any of them is obviously zero. So we not only do the influencing part, but we stay to help, um, advise the execution. Mm-hmm. You know, a lot of what comes down in business is knowing.
Where the potholes are and knowing where the failure points are. In fact, I have a, I have a, a, a a work of art in the other room that says an expert knows what not to do. [00:17:00] So that's, that's, I, I think a differentiator.
Leighann Lovely: And that's, I love that because often it's not what to do. It is what to avoid doing. Yeah.
And then once you are on the right path, pivoting appropriately as you are going through each next step.
Dave Seigel: That's right.
Leighann Lovely: And I mean, and that's all we can do. I mean, especially right. Especially in like the sales game and the marketing game, and it's, it's not necessarily always knowing the right answer. It's knowing no, just don't do that.
Right, right. And then, and definitely in, in sales, in, in every sales call. I can't walk in and say, okay, this is exactly what we are going to do, because you are working with a human element.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: You have, you have no idea what that human or how that human is going to react. [00:18:00] And so in business it's the same thing.
Like coming, you know, coming. And again, I, I always hate to bring, you know, politics, so I'm going to just brush over this because I'm, I'm, I'm not going one way or another, however. Mm-hmm.
Dave Seigel: We just came
Leighann Lovely: out of an election year. Right. Yep. Everybody kind of knew what not to do, which is go out and spend a ton of money and, and all of this other, you know, everybody kind of went, okay, this is where we kind of hold close to the chest and we, you know, we just stay in a holding pattern until we understand what's gonna happen with the economy the best that we can.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Then once we see what the new playing field looks like, right. Then we can start to figure it out. That's right. That's right. And that's, and that, and that happens at what, every single election year? Um, well, it, and I came from the staffing industry, um, and, and the predictors in [00:19:00] hiring are just insane.
They, you always see the predictors in hiring and the hiring patterns mm-hmm. Prior to what's gonna happen with everything else. It's wild. Yeah. Um. But that's, that's for any, any business. It's what not to do. Instead of saying, oh, here's what to do, here's what's not to do, and then let's pivot to the right way.
And a great advisor, a great salesperson. Mm-hmm. A great, any great business person, as long as they take that mentality
Dave Seigel: mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Then, and, and often there's people out there who mistake that and they're like, no, no, no. I wanna know exactly what we need to do right now. You're like,
Dave Seigel: right. Well, let me ask you a question if I may.
Um, yes. Okay. So now the, the interviewee becomes the interviewer please. Um,
would you agree that strategy, the way I define strategy in a very simple fashion, [00:20:00] is that when you get on an airplane at Mitchell Field and you're flying to Paris, okay. Strategically, they know where they wanna land. Mm-hmm. They know the endpoint on the horizon is Charles desal airport. Now on route there's going to be wind, there might be storms, there might be turbulence.
So they're constantly forced to make adjustments, tweaks. Tactical tweaks. Yeah. But the strategy remains intact. Mm-hmm. If you, and in fact if, if, uh, the weather at Charles desal shifts dramatically in the six hours or eight hours or however long the flight is and they have to divert you, then that was a strategic, a [00:21:00] strategic change based upon.
New information. Mm-hmm. In the sales process, do you feel that that is a similar pro approach?
Leighann Lovely: Absolutely. There's, there's been a hundred percent. There has been times where I have a proposal all ready to go, and I walk into a meeting and I'm ready to present that. Mm-hmm. And when I walk in the meeting, I get a, a sense in the room and I'm like, IM not presenting this proposal today.
Either they're not ready for it, or there's a, a sense in the room that. Like there's, there's just something that's not right or there's an extra person in there and they start asking all of these questions and I'm like, I don't, I don't know that I have the solution yet.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Like, they're not, they're still in discovery mode.
Yeah. And I'm in presentation mode.
Dave Seigel: That's right.
Leighann Lovely: And it's like, wait a second, I missed something here. [00:22:00] You know? And if you were to push forward.
Dave Seigel: Yep.
Leighann Lovely: If that pilot were to just be like, eh, I'm just gonna keep going.
Dave Seigel: Yeah.
Leighann Lovely: You're gonna crash and burn.
Dave Seigel: Yeah. It's a very good chance. Yes.
Leighann Lovely: It, it's, I mean, and that's in life in general,
Dave Seigel: right?
You
Leighann Lovely: know, you're driving down the highway and there's big, huge orange cones that say, don't drive this way. The clo the, the road is closed. Well, do you just keep driving?
Dave Seigel: Well, what's interesting is that, yeah. In business, the number of times that I have in my career, um. It can be a startup or it could be a Fortune 25.
Mm-hmm. The number of times that you say to a business leader, can I see your published business strategy? You know, it's probably a three year, five year plan. Can I see where we are right now? The number of people who say it's not ready for prime time, it's not formulated, it's not [00:23:00] published well. That's a key thing necessary.
A filing a flight plan is kind of important, right? Um, the number of businesses who jump onto the tactical and say the strategy will figure itself out. Um, it just doesn't work.
Leighann Lovely: No. You still ha you still have to have the plan,
Dave Seigel: right.
Leighann Lovely: You still have to have, you know, how do we get from point A to point B?
Dave Seigel: That's right. And so I'm, I'm guessing in sales it's, you know, it's, it our, our sales teams tactically driven. In your opinion, like it, does sales strategy exist in your clients or in your companies, or do you help them craft that?
Leighann Lovely: It all depends on what they're looking. Four. And that's, you know, are, are, do you have a strategy in plan and are you [00:24:00] looking for me to, to help execute that?
Mm-hmm. Or do you not have that? And do you wanna sit down and figure out what does that look like today? What does it look like in 30 days, six months, a year? Yeah. And you also have to have the end in mind. Mm-hmm. Where do you wanna be? Okay. So you're making X amount a month today? Yep. What do you wanna make in 12 months?
And do you want, you know, what does that growth look like? What is it ca? What are you capable of? Exactly. It's like, it's like a salesperson. If you were to tell a salesperson Oh yeah, you making. Your revenue. And again, it could be completely different depending on the industry, but you're bringing in a hundred thousand dollars a month.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: And if you keep just telling the salesperson, that's so great. That's so great. Just keep doing it.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: They're gonna be happy with just making a hundred thousand dollars a month for the business every month.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: But if you sat 'em down and went, you're doing awesome. I love it. You're so great now.[00:25:00]
How do we take a hundred thousand dollars a month to 120,000? A dollars a month? Yeah. What do we have to do to increase that each month? What activities are we doing? We need to increase those activities. How do we increase, how do we increase that to $200,000 a month? Yep. And we actually talk about what is creating that, those results, if that sales person understands what's creating those results.
They will be able to then translate that into, oh, okay, so when I do this, this happens. When I make my sales calls, I get X amount of appointments. When I go on this amount of appointments, you know, those turn into, you know, presentations. Mm-hmm. This many presentations turns into this many. You have to understand the ratio to close.
Dave Seigel: Yes, yes.
Leighann Lovely: How many appointments turn into close?
Dave Seigel: That's right.
Leighann Lovely: And [00:26:00] once your salesperson understands those numbers
Dave Seigel: mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: All of a sudden they're like, oh, I just need five more appointments a month.
Dave Seigel: Yep. Yeah. And I can
Leighann Lovely: go to, you know, a hundred, a hundred thousand to 120,000.
Dave Seigel: Yep. Yeah.
Leighann Lovely: It's, it's, again, it's a numbers game and I, I learned that, um.
I learned that really early on that like if I made X amount of phone calls and then as you make those phone calls
Dave Seigel: mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: You get better at 'em.
Dave Seigel: Yes.
Leighann Lovely: Then all of a sudden I don't have to make as many phone calls.
Dave Seigel: There you go. Yes. Efficiency is very important.
Leighann Lovely: Right? Right. Let's not throw spaghetti at a wall and just hope that something sticks there.
Dave Seigel: Right.
Leighann Lovely: Let's do less work more efficiently. Right. And, and people, people think like, well, if I just keep doing what I'm doing today
Dave Seigel: mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: It'll continue to work well, why?
Dave Seigel: No, [00:27:00] no. I, we're kind of now dancing between what you do and what I do, which, you know, again, is very, very, what what you're talking about is data driven.
Mm-hmm. It's actually collecting information. To assess and analyze and improve and optimize. And that is exactly what what we are asked to do. Um, oftentimes people will come to us incorrectly by saying, we want to solve this technology issue, or we want to reduce the amount of money we spend on technology.
This is not a technology problem. What this is. First of all, you go and you look at the processes. And you say, um, are the processes that are being done that are critical, I won't say mission critical, but let's just say critical processes. I'll put it into your audience's, [00:28:00] um, arena. Let's say it's sales processes.
Okay? Mm-hmm. First, we look at them and we make sure that they are most efficient because in any organization, and I think, uh, um. Can't remember who exactly said it first, but it was a brilliant thing. Um, if you, if you try to add technology to a poor process, you just amplify inefficiency. So the first thing we do is we look at the process, the sales process, and we figure out is it most efficient and optimized for your purposes?
Mm-hmm. Then we look at the people and we say, okay, are the people. Complying, are they following the process? Are they circumventing it? Are they saying, you know, I've been doing this for 35 years and I'm gonna continue doing it my own way. On the back of napkins. So back
Leighann Lovely: of napkins,
Dave Seigel: you know, so you got the process optimized, you got the people, [00:29:00] I don't wanna say people optimized, but I wanna make sure that the people are actually following the optimized processes then, and only then can you introduce technology.
Or something. 'cause I call it the what and the why and the how. Right? People, process and technology. You gotta get the what and the why. Correct. Because the how is the most transient piece. It will change. Technology will change. So then you can say, now we've got these optimized sales processes. Now we've got our people following them.
Now let's collect data and. Make sure that first of all, everything is operating as we expect it to. Okay? Oftentimes you have a, you have to install a feedback loop to make sure that all of your assumptions and your modifications are actually bearing fruit. Then you can say, all right, let's apply technology.
Maybe that is a CRM [00:30:00] improvement. Maybe it's CRM, like you said, where it doesn't exist. Maybe it's reporting. Maybe it's a better business intelligence. Element being introduced. Mm-hmm. So that your salespeople, sales managers, leadership, uh, you know, and executives are being informed in a way that not to, not to weed out or to, to negatively, you know, punish, but rather to say, we have found patterns that are working and we want to make sure everybody can benefit from them.
'cause salespeople of course. Want to succeed on their, for their own bottom line. Mm-hmm. Um, so anyway, so I, I hope I stayed on track. What you're saying is that, that you need to be able to know when, when, what is, what does success look like? What does failure look like within your own four walls? And I, I think that that is, again, something that, that [00:31:00] my, um.
Company focuses on is mm-hmm. Helping companies of any size, um, find and create efficiencies.
Leighann Lovely: It, it absolutely does. And you're, you made the point of it doesn't, bringing in something to analyze the data before you have reviewed the processes, made sure that the people are doing it. What's the point of doing that, right?
If, if the processes are broken in the beginning,
Dave Seigel: right?
Leighann Lovely: Like I, I mean, I can analyze all day long and the results are gonna be the same, which is, yeah, this sucks.
Dave Seigel: Well, and, and the, the honest truth is remember now we'll go back to being an influencer or an advisor. Um, if you or one of your viewers calls us in and the chief sales or chief revenue officer.
Chief marketing [00:32:00] officer says, um, we're, we are having issues and we have three different CRM salespeople who are really pushing hard for us to bring in their solutions. Mm-hmm. As an influencer, as an advisor, my first question is, have any of those salespeople. Showed you a plan in which they analyze and optimize the processes, or are they just basically saying for a million dollars a year or for a hundred thousand dollars a year, whatever it comes down to, using our platform is your end game.
It is your golden ticket. They are influenced, pardon me, bad word. They are, uh, incented. To sell their product the same way salespeople, I mean, face it, who, you know, salespeople are selling and they're salespeople. Right. But [00:33:00] you need to, you need to see it holistically that this is process driven. Mm-hmm.
That this is people driven, that the tools are good if everything else is in place.
Leighann Lovely: Right. Right. And. It, it's, it, I go back to like chat GPT, which I use every single day. Mm-hmm. Yep. And if, and if I tell chat GPT to create me an email, it's only as good as creating an email or an article or by the information that I put in.
Dave Seigel: Right.
Leighann Lovely: So your tools, and again, you know, everybody gets a, some people get weirded out by ai. Some people AI is only as good as the information that you provide to it. It, I mean,
Dave Seigel: you are talking, you are now leading people into my world, which is Right. Whole thing. Thank you. I appreciate that. The way that [00:34:00] we, um, I, I, and just.
For, for background sake, I do have some certifications in ai. Um, the most recent witch was from MIT in AI in healthcare, and there is a term which I'm sure will gain a lot more visibility and traction day over day. Here the term is hallucination. Uh, I don't know if you've heard it. I can, it doesn't look like it.
Um. AI engines
Leighann Lovely: bringing me back to my college days. No, sorry.
Dave Seigel: Right on, bro. The, uh, the, the, uh, AI engines, I'm, I'm, I'm coming back to your point. The input is so important. Mm-hmm. The information you put in. Okay. So let's say you ask a question into chat, GPT or something else, the engine that sits behind it.
Is known as an LLMA large [00:35:00] language model, okay? Mm-hmm. Now, if the data, let's say the data here is correct, and there is a pretty well high, highly reliable, curated data source, and then over here there's some more data, but in between there's a gap, okay? Imagine a, A Valley AI engines. We'll make a leap of logic to fill in the gaps and then to return a response to you extremely quickly.
And they do this at blistering speed. That leap of logic oftentimes will return information that is incorrect, but it is inferred. That is what we, that is what is known as a hallucination. Okay. That is data hallucination. And. What people need to understand, um, what I don't call ai, artificial intelligence, I call it [00:36:00] augmented intelligence.
Okay. And the reason being is that you are, we are, at least at the current stage, it is heavily reliant upon you and I putting in the right information. It's reliant upon the. Let's say you're a company and you want to create and leverage ai, whether it be for internal efficiency or for external data, uh, pardon me, value creation.
So now you're using your own data stores and your own databases. Okay? Maybe mixing it with others, but you're now leveraging your own knowledge. Um, the data that is going in and the, and the information that is being. Produced still needs people to validate it needs people to say, you know, sniff test, sanity check, however you wanna call it.
Uh, and that's where the risk. In AI exists.
Leighann Lovely: [00:37:00] Yep. And, and I remember early on when like, God, this was quite a few years ago now, I was at like a little mini seminar or at, it wasn't, I don't, I don't remember what it was, but somebody was giving like a, a talk on ai.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Um, and this was, you know, still really new to me.
I hadn't really gotten my, you know, hands on anything yet. I hadn't really used it yet. People were still, you know, learning about it. Um, I mean, it has, it had existed for a while, but it just hadn't become like mainstream where I literally am on it every single day and I'm like asking, Hey, could you look up some information on this for me?
And then I'll, you know, again, they had, he'd said like, and I, and I remember this so clearly because I was like, oh, that's a really good piece of information. He said that chat, GPT and other AI tools out there are, um, and I, I wanna get this phrase like, um, are. Um, and like excitedly, [00:38:00] he said something, some, um, are, oh God, now I forgot the phrase, but basically he was saying, um, they are
now, I forgot the, the phrase. Basically saying that they're. Inaccurate.
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm. But,
Leighann Lovely: but very
Dave Seigel: convincingly,
Leighann Lovely: convincingly inaccurate, like, yes, yes. You know, you'll, you'll get this information spit out and you're like, oh, yeah, that sounds like it's based completely on facts.
Dave Seigel: Right. So
Leighann Lovely: often I will ask for reference material if I'm looking for something that's like.
That I really need to know. Like if, if so, hey, let me know where you're referencing this from. Like don't, don't tell me that you're referencing this from. Some random Facebook person, you know, Facebook or something, right? So, you know, if I'm looking for true information and then I can go back and re like, check those references to make sure that they're, they're [00:39:00] coming from viable, you know?
Oh, confidently inaccurate. There we go. He said,
Dave Seigel: there it is. Cap GBC is
Leighann Lovely: confidently inaccurate. And I was like, that. That really. And there have been times where it's spit out information and I'm like, I don't think that's,
Dave Seigel: that's it's, it's like a toddler with great confidence. Yes. It's uh, you know, it the, um, when I was taking that MIT course, it was kind of cool.
It was like eight weeks and every week you would do a project and after the third week or fourth week, the proctors actually called me. And of course, being a little paranoid, I thought, oh God, I'm being taken to the principal's office. Um. What they said was that there are 200 people in the cohort and they said 199 of them answer our questions or basically do the responses in the way, in the manner of thinking of, Hey, wouldn't it be cool if you know we can do this and we could do this, so we could do this?
And, and they said, you know, we love that. 'cause MIT we [00:40:00] want to foster creativity and push, push boundaries. But, but they said yours is always the response that we love to read. We love to share amongst ourselves and they said, because of the 200, you're the only one that answers things with a pragmatism.
And in order to do this and to do it predictably and profitably and to I and to identify and abate the risks that we are introducing into the environment, we have to do it this way. And they said so few people in this day and age understand that, that using AI in a profitable and risk abated fashion will again catapult their success.
Mm-hmm. Too many people think that AI is a technology problem. With a technology solution and it is a business problem or business [00:41:00] opportunity that needs a business strategy. It needs process. And then you can then A, a use technology as the enabler, which is really the way it's always been.
Leighann Lovely: Right? And I think people have.
Misunderstood that. Yeah. That it's a tool to be used, not one to, yeah. It's, it's a tool to be used. Mm-hmm. And if used correctly is wildly powerful. That's right. Used incorrectly. And I think that we all understood that when the article, like, I don't how many years ago that was now, where the lawyer was like.
Used it for his deposition and it was like, oh my gosh, really? Like,
Dave Seigel: yeah.
Leighann Lovely: But that was, that was really the eye-opener for some people when they went, oh
Dave Seigel: yeah. Well, in your world, um, not to feel like I'm, I'm an outsider, but you're a sales professional and I'm, I, I do it 'cause [00:42:00] I have to. Um, Salesforce is.
Really dumping an immense amount of resources towards their sales agent technology. Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, which makes all the sense in the world. Right. But coming back to that point, it is not gonna replace salespeople. It is not going to, um, it is not going to seismically change. Well, well crafted processes.
You know, you're gonna, you're gonna again say, all right, we now have the, the cutting edge tools. We have a, uh, a highly motivated sales team, Salesforce, we're using sales agents, or whatever Salesforce is calling it. Um, but the reality is it still comes down to, you know, an annual assessment of process. [00:43:00] Is everything still finely tuned?
Right. Are the skills people, uh, leveraging and adhering and complying, right? And, and the technology, again, in this case may be an AI injected platform is going to be your enabler. Right.
Leighann Lovely: And we, our c, our CRM, um, we are not only working on the sales, like a sales agent type thing
Dave Seigel: mm-hmm. But
Leighann Lovely: we're focusing more on the mundane tasks, the repetitive tasks.
Mm-hmm. That our AI can learn to do that are repeatable. Yes. So I have a meeting with somebody, I send them an email. We're creating it so that once you've had, you know, once you've had that meeting, there's a trigger in that system where that the system will automatically pull up that thank you email so that you can really quickly look at it [00:44:00] and be like, oh yes.
This is the email that I now send after this meeting where it, where it does those functionality. Like it has those functionalities where it's like, oh, you do this every time. Right? Let me just do this for you. Um, so there's, I mean, CRMs and there isn't gonna be systems where it's gonna cut back. Hours of your time because our ai, you know, the ais are learning from the humans on what comes next, but there will always have to be the human element, an oversight.
Dave Seigel: Thank you. Because Thank you. It,
Leighann Lovely: it's not a human, it doesn't have emotion, it doesn't have feeling, it doesn't have, and so when I meet with somebody who tells me, oh yeah, I was, you know. On vacation with my three daughters or my, whatever it might be. Well, as a salesperson that has emotions and feelings and wants to be able to connect with the people, right?
Right. I wanna be able to say, Hey, I'm so glad that you had a great [00:45:00] vacation. It was great that we have my AI will never be able to instill that emotion or that connection that I felt when I met with somebody.
Dave Seigel: Can I, can I mention now I'm gonna bring this back to risk if I can for one second, because again, I'm amazed at how many companies, large and small do not, when I say risk, if you say risk in the the financial world, they, they think about trading risk or credit risk, right?
The risk I'm talking about is enterprise risk. And there are, I wanna say, if you look it up, there's like. It's between eight and 13 that they list out, but it's financial, operational, reputational, legal, strategic, et cetera. Okay? Mm-hmm. And if you're pointing an AI agent or AI tool to the external, to the outside of your environment, to, for value creation [00:46:00] purposes.
Mm-hmm. Um, again, without some kind of. Operational control to make sure that what it's saying and what it's representing, uh, the amount of risk that you're exposing yourself to is immense. Okay. Because they're like dominoes. You know? If you, if you, if, if, let's say you're in healthcare and you, and you say, okay, well, I'm never gonna compete with the big companies.
I'm gonna have to do something different. I'm gonna create a differentiator. I'm gonna use AI and I'm gonna have it so that my clients can, can ask questions. Okay. Well, the minute that something comes out of the system that causes somebody to do something dangerous to themselves or to a child, you know, you know, take this antibiotic and this painkiller and it causes a reaction, you now have a, you know, reputational legal.
[00:47:00] Um, all of the dominoes are falling, right? Reputational risk or reputational, financial, operational, legal, strategic. They're all okay. Right? But when you point it internally, when you create widgets that are for internal efficiencies, you still have the same, you touched on it and that's why I was excited and you said yes.
You know, I was like, if, if you are a salesperson. And you are using that system that does exactly what you said. Mm-hmm. And it's, it's providing you the, the workflow. Okay, now here's the email, here's the, here's the, here's the follow up, whatever. Right? I agree with you that I personally would never assume that everything is right.
Right. Doesn't matter how many times you use it, you know? The fact is, is yes, AI can learn. AI does learn, but if AI is [00:48:00] being trained on questionable data or with questionable interaction, it, it's, it's not gonna be a linear path towards the pot of gold. So. If you are that sales person, and I'm now speaking to anybody in your audience that's listening, is if you're that person who's lucky enough to be working in an organization that is really thinking about process and efficient process and efficiency, and the system is putting in front of you, the next thing you should do in the process, um, look it over every time.
And make sure you are not just simply clicking send, you know, don't, don't, don't enable the pro, don't enable the automation of the process to take over and to Leanne's point, make it human because the, the system will give you the, uh, the boilerplate to work from. But it is, it is going to look like [00:49:00] an AI agent wrote it unless you make it your own.
Leighann Lovely: Right. Right. And that's. What do you do, Dave? If, if you get a robo call, what do you do? Mm-hmm.
Dave Seigel: I don't answer it.
Leighann Lovely: Well, the first thing I do is say, are you a human?
Dave Seigel: Yeah. Well, yeah. And typically
Leighann Lovely: they'll, typically, the response is, yes, I am a human. And I'm like, no, no, you're not. No, and I'll ask again, are you a human?
Right? And then they hang up on you because they're like, it gets tripped up in Right. The whole, like, it doesn't know what to do at that point. And I'm like, and you can always tell there was, early on, early on there was one that, um, like. And it, it's funny, but I mean, early on there was one that was really funny.
He kept saying, I can understand how you could think that I was not human. I mean, and you could tell like he was, it was a robot. But I, I don't, I'm not gonna talk. I mean, eventually every call is gonna [00:50:00] probably be that, but like, I'm not gonna talk to a robot right now. Like, I'm not interested in talking.
If you wanna reach out to me and do a sales call, fine. And I am a salesperson so often I will take sales calls and I will listen to their pitch.
Dave Seigel: Yep.
Leighann Lovely: And and they're horrible. So many. So many calls nowadays are horrible. They just talk over you and I, and I'll even say to 'em, stop, stop, stop. And they don't, and I'm like, you know what?
You can't
Dave Seigel: help. You can't help the coach.
Leighann Lovely: Fine. I'm, I'm hanging up. Like, I know I can't help but do it. I, it's, it's hor My husband's like, why do you put yourself through that? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I still in malls. God, I haven't been in a mall forever, but. In a mall. I used to walk up to 'em and be like, okay, gimme your spiel.
Like, I wanna hear it, but it's also training for me. Like, what are they doing that works? What are they doing that doesn't work?
Dave Seigel: Mm-hmm.
Leighann Lovely: Um, yeah, that's okay. Now that we've talked about my [00:51:00] issues.
Dave Seigel: Well, but it's so true. It's, it's a, a good salesperson will listen and will only speak enough to keep the other person talking.
Okay. And you are right when somebody calls and it's obvious that they are going on a script, and you know, it's not converse, it's not dialogue, it's, you know, you, I have to make sure you hear my message, rather or not, it's valuable to you as irrelevant to me. Right? Yeah. It's, it's not smart.
Leighann Lovely: Okay. Well, we, Dave, we have, we are coming to time.
This has been such an awesome conversation. I could have it for the next hour, but I wanna give you, um, the opportunity to do your 32nd shameless pitch. Hmm. Um, because that is what we do on, uh, the Love Your Sales podcast. So you have 30 seconds.
Dave Seigel: Well, Segal Advisory Services, uh, you can reach me at [00:52:00] dave@segaladvisoryservices.com and we are different in that we are not a consulting firm.
Uh, we will do an assessment for you. Uh, it's intended to be brief and intended to be very affordable. You are going to get value from it quickly. You're gonna find out what your company is strong at and what your company may need some attention on, but it's always being done from the customer's or the client's point of view.
Um, most consulting firms will use the assessment as an opportunity for them specifically. To sell. They want to be, they want you to pay them to figure out how they can make you frightened or, or show you where you're lacking without really digging into your strategy and, and really understanding you. We want to become a trusted advisor to you.
We are reputation based, we are [00:53:00] integrity based. So when we come in and we look at your company, we're doing it with a knowledge of. What your strategy is, what you see as your problems or your opportunities. And then helping you understand, can we achieve success in our current state? And here are the greens, the yellows, the reds, and let's help you figure that out.
Everything we do is with the customer's perspective and point of view. First and foremost, uh, once again, it's Dave at. Segal advisory services.com. Uh, and I would love to hear from you
Leighann Lovely: and thank you so much for that, Dave. Um, your, your contact information will also be in the show notes, so if you are looking to reach out to Dave, you can check there for, um, his email, his website, um, also his LinkedIn, um, so you'll be able to reach out to 'em there.
Dave Seigel: Fantastic, fantastic. Thanks. And I look forward to hearing from the [00:54:00] millions and millions of listeners and viewers that you have.
Leighann Lovely: Thank you so much. This has been awesome.
Dave Seigel: Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity and I hope, I hope you have a fantastic day.
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Robb Conlon: Thanks for joining us for Love Your Sales. For More, connect with Leanne on LinkedIn and be sure to subscribe to the show and leave us a rating in review. We'd love to hear what you think, looking for a way to take your sales process to the next level. Visit us@loveyoursales.com to find out more about how Leanne [00:55:00] can take your organization to new Revenue Heights.
And be sure to join us next time for more great ways to love your customers so they love your [00:56:00] sales.
