Jordan Ledwein: Optimizing Sales Through AI

About Jordan Ledwein: Jordan Ledwein helps companies and sales teams improve efficiency and effectiveness through proven systems, processes, and technology. Widely known as The AI Sales Guy, Jordan is passionate about sharing his insights and proven best practices for AI- and automation-based selling to help sales professionals achieve new heights of success. After graduating from Clemson with a degree in Economics in 2017, Jordan took on a technical sales position with a manufacturing and engineering company. But almost 15 years after first listening to Sandler CDs in the back of his dad's car, Jordan rejoined Sandler full-time at the beginning of 2022. His focus within Sandler shifted to AI & automation as he realized the potential impact it could have on their own business and their current clients. With the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Jordan decided it was time to start sharing what he had learned about AI and how he was using it in his selling process. He started by creating a newsletter on LinkedIn, The AI Sales Guy, then moved on to international Sandler webinars & podcasts. He began creating content for Sandler and has now created a sales-focused AI Automation Agency - Sell Smarter. His passion is to help others learn how to combine a proven sales methodology, AI, and automation to help them become more efficient and successful. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Jordan.

In this episode, Nancy and Jordan discuss the following:

• Understanding commission-only sales
• Jordan Ledwein's experience in using AI to enhance sales processes
• How AI tools, like Humantic and Clay, help personalize and scale sales efforts
• The importance of optimizing sales systems before integrating AI
• Misconceptions about AI's role in sales – it assists but doesn't replace human effort
• A case study showing AI improving productivity and quote acceptance rates
• The integration of Sandler methodology with AI platforms like HubSpot

Key Takeaways: 

• People want AI to be the easy button, but instead, think of it as, "How can it make me twice as efficient?".
• I think of AI that way, where it's assisting what we're doing, not replacing what we're doing. 
• What's coming with Apple intelligence will probably be the most significant improvement we've seen with AI since chat GPTs were released.
• When it comes to building an AI-powered process, it doesn't happen overnight.

"Ialways talk about one of my first experiences with AI—it was with just a Google Home in my apartment, allowing me to turn on my lights or do simple things around the house. It started on a very personal level, and I just enjoyed playing around with it. I used a few different sales tools early on, even before ChatGPT was released, that incorporated some AI into them. I was amazed by how much time they saved me and how they improved my workflow and efficiency. Then, when ChatGPT was released, probably the week after it came out, I realized this was where things were heading. I researched AI and learned how to use it in my sales process. I also began explaining it to people in my network on LinkedIn and to clients in different professional contexts, helping them understand its potential as well." – JORDAN

"A couple of different ways, and I'll do a webinar for Sandler. I don't even know if I've mentioned this to you, Nancy, but I'll be doing a webinar later in August of this year. I'm not sure if this will get up before or after that, but for Sandler and how we're using AI to bridge the gap, that is what we're saying between the methodology and the technology. The DISC portion is one way that we're doing it. Another big way is through HubSpot, right? What we're doing at SalesLift is building Sandler's methodology into HubSpot in the form of tools, playbooks, process sequences and properties, and all these different things. So, that's one thing we're doing that's been successful, and it's exciting to see how that has grown over the last year or two. But we're also adding in other tools, right? So, another tool we're starting to use is Attention AI. Attention AI is another note-taker, similar to Fathom, Sybil, Otter, or whatever people use nowadays. But we've paid attention to that and customized it to Sandler's methodology. So, it talks about the pains, investment criteria, and decision-making process we discussed on this call. And for those of you familiar with Sandler, those are the three pieces we look for to qualify for an opportunity. So, attention takes that exact transcript and pulls any of those pieces out of the call. Then, when we build a HubSpot that's kind of Sandler optimized, it has the same properties as HubSpot. So, we can actually use attention, and it pushes that deal information right into HubSpot so that reps using both don't even have to update their deals. These tools are doing it for them. It's making Sandler in the flow of work is kind of the terminology that we're using, but also just making it so the tools can easily help us apply this process and just really power everything." – JORDAN

"I think the one thing I've been saying, and I think I can still say it for now, is that it's still really early with AI. I know many people are a little hesitant about the idea, and I don't blame them for that, honestly. I can be a little bit hesitant about the idea myself. But I'd rather understand how to use it, how not to use it, use it effectively, use it safely, use it ethically—all of those things. Just starting somewhere to learn how to use it is the best thing you can do. It could be ChatGPT or one of these simple AI programs that just help you create dinner recipes, create a procedure or document, or something like that. I mean, it doesn't have to be that complex. But the better you understand how to use it, the more set up you will be for the future, both professionally and personally. So, just start somewhere." – JORDAN

Connect with Jordan Ledwein:

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanledwein/
• Sales Lift: https://saleslift.com/

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