ChatGPT can help salespeople leverage online communication with their customers if they are willing to embrace the technology and use it properly, according to Steve Roessler, Chief Evangelist Officer of DriveCentric.
“I’m not a tech guy, I’m a sales guy at heart,” said Roessler, who delivered an upbeat presentation this week at Canada’s Used Car Conference in Toronto, Ont. “If you choose not to use it because you don’t trust it, that’s on you.”
Roessler explained that ChatGPT, an acronym for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, has the ability to respond to a text or email by providing more information than a human due to its research capacity. In other words, if a salesperson doesn’t have an answer to a specific email or online query, the salesperson can use ChatGPT to help them out.
The software appears to be taking the world by storm. “It’s not going away. I’m not saying it’s gospel (but) this is a tool that you can leverage,” said Roessler. “It’s about improving our communication as an industry.”
“The days of waiting 15-30 minutes (to a text or email) are long gone,” said Roessler. “Your closing rates will go down if you are waiting too long to respond to a lead. You have to feel that sense of urgency now more than ever. Don’t let the customers wait. There is no way a customer would walk into your store right now and wait 10 minutes for a salesperson to attend to them.”
“A customer that is talking to your store is a digital showroom (opportunity). If they are not talking to you, they are not buying,” he added.
According to Roessler, an online conversation with a customer needs to be “hyper-personalized,” meaning it develops a positive reaction that determines whether or not the customer decides to make a purchase.
“In the auto industry, if you go out there and read your digital communication with your salespeople and the customer, is it personalized or is it transactional? That’s the difference,” said Roessler. He also highlighted that ChatGPT can identify certain keywords in a customer’s email using AI, which in turn can help create a positive reaction.
“I challenge you all, go into whatever CRM you’re in, find a customer communication where the customer is telling you something that is going on in their life and see how your people respond,” said Roessler. “I guarantee it’s transactional, not hyper-personalized.”
If a customer is going out there and opening the door into their personal life, he said, “that’s a door you want to walk through. That’s what technology can help teach you.”
