Three Ways to Build Long-Lasting Customer Relationships in the AI Era

Every day there’s an announcement about a new development in artificial intelligence (AI). Companies are scrambling to figure out if and how they should engage this new technology frontier.

More progressive sales organizations are already reaping the benefits of improved productivity, deal strategy, pre-call planning, sales coaching, and skills practice. This seems to be generating stronger growth by helping improve win rates, cycle times, and better margins. I’m optimistic, but time will truly tell the benefit.

Then there’s the little voice in the back of our heads, asking whether AI will advance so much and so quickly that it will “replace” commercial teams altogether. I think the answer for today is likely not – at least not in a timeline that should keep us up at night.

I’m reminded of coming home from school very perplexed after learning our sun would run out of fuel in 2-3 billion years. That will be an unpleasant outcome, similar to AI fully replacing your sales job, but only for those alive to experience it. I would put my money on the sun rising every day for the rest of my life and there being talented human salespeople playing a critical role in the commercial process.

While AI can crunch data and identify, analyze, and report on patterns faster and at much greater scale than any human, there’s one obvious skill AI lacks: the emotional intelligence to create trust and build long-lasting customer relationships.

Author A.D. Ryan wrote, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.”

Trusting customer relationships are very delicate and must be managed with good intuition, emotional connection, and care.

You can apply the same concept to harvesting fruits and vegetables. While machines have the potential to be more efficient, it’s difficult to design them to be as gentle as human hands. We may get more apples off the tree faster, but are we better off if they come bruised and broken?

The solution in all these endeavors is a balance between human and machine, with AI supporting what it does best (pattern recognition, analysis) and humans doing what they do best (communicating, engaging, and caring for the customer).

That’s why – more than ever – sales leaders need to train sellers to build trust and maintain customer loyalty. I believe sales teams that excel in the following three human-oriented skills will rise to the top.

1. Adopt a Consultative Selling Approach

Retaining loyal customers and building long-term relationships requires a deep understanding of your customers’ business and their personal and professional goals.

This means using a consultative sales approach. Consultative selling is a needs-based approach that focuses on building a relationship of understanding with a customer or prospect. This means doing deep discovery (using open-ended questions and active listening) to understand their operations, problems, and aspirations.

Once you’ve done this type of sales discovery, you can better convey the value of your solution for your customer’s specific needs. You can also offer strategic advice that positions you as a resource far beyond the initial sale.

While AI can help any seller analyze a customer’s business, competition, and market, only a consultative sales approach positions a sales professional to be a trusted advisor. By focusing on understanding the customer’s needs and providing valuable insights rather than pushing for a quick sale, consultative selling establishes trust and lays the foundation for a long-term relationship.

2. Develop Sellers’ Emotional Intelligence

Highly emotionally intelligent sales professionals perform better at consultative selling than their less emotionally intelligent peers.

Since the 1960s, emotional intelligence has been recognized as a critical component of both personal and professional success. Yet many sales leaders focus heavily on building their team’s hard skills (product knowledge, process adherence) and neglect sales emotional intelligence or “soft skills.”

Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of one’s own emotions and the emotions of others and to manage both in a productive and empathetic way. Emotionally intelligent sellers demonstrate self-awareness and an ability to empathize, inspire trust, regulate emotions, and connect effectively.

In the AI era, developing emotional intelligence in sales matters more than ever. How sales professionals understand their emotions – and the emotions of others – can have a significant impact on sales performance.

Having a high level of emotional intelligence allows sales professionals to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power of their own emotions during interactions with buyers to improve sales rather than derail them.

3. Prioritize Customer Success

According to a recent article from McKinsey Insights, “With gen AI making transactional sales by a human seller obsolete, sellers can shift how they think about sales and focus on customer outcomes: they can solve for what’s best for the customer, not the seller or provider.”

Using a consultative selling approach shows the customer the sales professional is invested in their success beyond the sale. This commitment to the customer’s goals fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business.

The collaborative nature of consultative selling makes customers feel heard and valued. This positive experience contributes to higher customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased loyalty, better cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and referrals.

By maintaining an ongoing dialogue about the customer’s evolving needs and challenges, sales professionals can proactively suggest new products or services that add value. This approach helps expand the relationship and increases the customer’s reliance on the sales professional’s expertise.

Sales Training in the AI Era

Sales leaders take note: AI is changing sales, and that means sales training must change too. The most effective and motivated sellers of the future will be able to apply “empathy, deep critical thinking, and complex problem-solving skills,” according to McKinsey.

This means training your sellers to support customers as strategic advisors and advocates, helping them through the complex B2B decision-making process, and making sure they can get the most value from your products or services in the AI era.

Spencer Wixom is the president and CEO of The Brooks Group, an award-winning sales training and development company known for its IMPACT Selling® sales training program.