Invest First In AI-driven Sales Or Customer Support?

Sarah McConnell, VP, Demand Generation at Qualified, delves into the topic of investing first in AI-driven sales or customer support. In this episode, Sarah shares her perspectives on discussing the benefits of AI-driven sales and customer support, implementing AI for personalized customer interactions, and leveraging AI to streamline lead qualification and nurturing. Show NotesConnect With: Sarah McConnell: Website // LinkedInThe MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

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  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro and today, joining me is Sarah McConnell, the VP of Demand Generation at Qualified. They've created an AI SDR named Piper to do what human SDRs do, but at massive scale. And today, Sarah and I are going to talk about how AI is fundamentally changing how marketers think about demand generation. Sarah, I want to move into our lightning round now where I'm going to ask you a couple of Martech-related questions that are connected to this week's topic, which is AI-powered demand generation. Are you ready?

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  I'm ready.

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  All right, question number one, toss-up. Would you choose to invest in AI-driven sales or customer support if you had to pick one?

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  I would pick sales, but we'll also say, if you're listening to this in your demand gen, look at where your pipeline is coming from. If it's coming from net new business, AI-driven sales, if it's coming from expansion and retention, customer support. It all comes back to the money. Where are you getting your money from?

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  Okay, let's talk through that because I cannot stand AI-driven customer service, period, full stop. Now we've taken this whole idea of press one to talk to somebody. Actually, I have another question for it. And it seems like the AI agents, maybe I'm nobody's valuable customer, but it seems like the AI agents are always really good at, here's a link to our customer support and not solving the exact problem. It drives me nuts. Why on earth are we investing so much money into AI-driven customer support when people want to talk to people?

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  It's almost like AI customer support was the first pioneer of the AI conversation and has the unfortunate reputation now of being

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  Of being the worst.

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  Of being the worst. Because now, as a consumer, I've been trained, the second I know it's AI customer support, I'm like, I don't care. Let me talk to someone because I know you're not going to answer my question. That's not to say AI customer support, I don't think can be done well. I think it's gotten the bad reputation because it was the first to market and had the biggest learning curve. But I'm right there with you. I know I've talked to, we just had a broken dryer, I'll name names, it was LG, and trying to use their

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  Shots fired.

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  AI customer support was so difficult. And every time I'm like, just let me talk to someone. I got it.

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  Okay, secret code, 000, talk to a representative.

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  Yes.

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  Up, down, up, down, left, right, select start, ABBA, or something like that. But always, talk to a representative seems to be the secret code. And then sometimes you have to ask them what you're, give them what you want to talk about. Anyway, so I think with the toss-up, I'm definitely going, I would invest in AI-driven sales over customer support.

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  I would be the same.

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  All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Sarah McConnell, the VP of Demand Generation at Qualified for joining us. If you'd like to get in touch with Sarah, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes, or you can visit her company's website, which is qualified.com. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app, or follow us on YouTube, and we'll be back in your feed soon. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast, an I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand, then visit iHearEverything.com.