Navigating the AI Sales Revolution: Insights from Thomas Ryan

[00:00:00] How much can you really replace humans in the sales process?

[00:00:08] Thomas Ryan thinks you can replace people a lot and perhaps more than you might even

[00:00:14] think. He joins me today from Big Re sales on this bonus episode of the Business of Tech.

[00:00:21] Looking to reach an audience of thousands of MSPs and IT service providers, put your

[00:00:26] ad right here on the Business of Tech and be on the show that 64% of MSPs report having

[00:00:32] listened to. A recurring top 50 tech news podcast, there are affordable options for you

[00:00:39] to reach our audience when we can support any budget.

[00:00:43] Podcast listeners are more engaged, have a higher level of brand retention and are more

[00:00:48] willing to listen to ads here than any other avenues.

[00:00:53] I don't know more. There's information at mspradio.com slash engage including a button to book

[00:00:59] a time to talk. Go forward to that discussion.

[00:01:04] Thomas, thanks for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me Dave. I really appreciate

[00:01:10] it. It's going to be fun.

[00:01:12] So I want to start with the headline here. Talk to me about AI sales and agents and how

[00:01:19] they changed the sales process.

[00:01:22] Sure. So we automate the lead intake process. I'll tell you a little bit about what we're

[00:01:30] doing and just in general how I see the world going. What we're doing right now is we're

[00:01:38] primarily using SMS when someone fills up for me on Facebook, on TikTok, on landing

[00:01:44] page wherever it comes into your system. And depending on the company if it's someone

[00:01:50] with a great sales team, maybe they get to that lead within a couple of seconds or a minute.

[00:01:55] Like rocket mortgage is one that struck me that I hit send one time and instantaneously

[00:02:02] my phone started ringing. I was so impressed. Right? But a lot of companies that doesn't happen

[00:02:07] if the lead comes in after hours. No one gets to it till the next morning. Maybe they'll

[00:02:12] see it for a couple days and speed to lead is the most important thing for closing.

[00:02:19] So we automate that entire process that as soon as the lead comes in, we have the SMS

[00:02:24] start following up with that lead automatically and sending out text messages using natural

[00:02:29] language to book that person into an appointment. And we go back and forth with them until

[00:02:35] that person book.

[00:02:39] So how much so how does it want me to go a little bit of the specifics of how that agent

[00:02:44] works like is it? How much is it emulating humans like what how do I do program it?

[00:02:48] Like you may be a little bit inside into how those sales agents are built. Yeah, sure thing.

[00:02:52] So what we do is we take all the company information and we put it into a vector database.

[00:02:58] So we'll take the most common questions that are asked. We have a list of the 20 most

[00:03:03] common sales questions. What are your benefits? How do you compare to others? What are your

[00:03:09] reviews like? How long does it take to implement? Etc etc etc etc. Whatever the most common

[00:03:15] questions are, what's the cost. And then we put all the answers in and we feed all that

[00:03:22] information to the AI. We can also see that it's tactical specs and a really anything

[00:03:28] that we want. And we can feed as much data as we want. And then we put that into a vector

[00:03:32] database. So the AI can grab it very quickly and without having to read the entire thing

[00:03:39] which really drives up the price. So it knows exactly where to go. It can find the right

[00:03:45] bit of information and without using ton of tokens. And then you're tying it to people's

[00:03:52] count like to the calendar systems to get appointments booked. Is that like how it moves

[00:03:56] into the next stage of the process? Yeah, we have it done internally in our system.

[00:04:00] We build out a calendar type system. We built out something like CalMly as well. And

[00:04:07] then we'll hook that up to Outlook or we'll hook that up to Gmail right to the Gmail

[00:04:12] calendar. So it integrates back and forth. And you know, I mean, that's our solution. Right?

[00:04:18] That's the solution that we came up with for that piece. And you know, we also have a landing

[00:04:24] page generator with an identity management system that sits on top of there. So if you

[00:04:28] are suddenly in leads in or you do want to know who's coming to your landing page, we

[00:04:33] can actually get most of the individuals. As soon as they hit the landing page, we

[00:04:37] have their name, we have their cell phone, we have their email, we have their home address,

[00:04:42] the value of that home, their proffmaning, you know, and probably about 20 other data

[00:04:48] points. How many kids they have, etc. Now who's really successful this? The way you're

[00:04:53] talking about it, it kind of implies consumer. Obviously I could see that there might be

[00:04:58] more uses like one of the more the great customer connections and use cases that you're focused

[00:05:04] on with the solution. So we're doing insurance, we're doing home services right now, some financial,

[00:05:15] some things around real estate. So usually more B to C. And the reason for that is those are

[00:05:21] the guys who have a really high volume of lead. Right, the B to B there are less volume of lead

[00:05:29] coming in and typically you want to nurture those a little bit more with their a little more

[00:05:35] active of those things coming in. This will work for B to B to B as well. But we're really targeting

[00:05:41] like from my sales standpoint is someone's doing life insurance right? Someone's doing health

[00:05:49] insurance. There is you know, if they need Medicare right? That's a great client for us because

[00:05:56] there's going to have a huge volume of lead coming in that they need to process and to automate

[00:06:02] that process and take it out of people's hands is just, you know, you're not going to reach out as

[00:06:07] many times as the AI. You're not going to remember to do it, you're not going to, you know, so the AI

[00:06:13] can reach out 50 times in two weeks and do it via tech. And we're integrating a voice solution

[00:06:19] in there as well. That's going to work seamlessly with the text using natural language.

[00:06:24] Oh cool. So, so where do you think the right spots for automation around the sales process are?

[00:06:32] Because that was one of the things that we talk all the time about in sales is, yeah, it's

[00:06:35] really you're building a relationship, you're building an engagement. We don't want to lose human

[00:06:40] touch to this. Like what are the areas that you look and say these are the ones that are really

[00:06:44] right for automation. So today, this can replace the SDR, right? This can replace the

[00:06:52] appointment center today. That's where we are that you know, you have a if you have a bunch of

[00:07:00] leads coming in your funnel and then speed to lead is going to be incredibly important, especially

[00:07:06] if you're in one of these spaces where, you know, let's say you're doing home services,

[00:07:11] you're a roofing company. Well, if you don't pick up that phone and get back to that lead right away

[00:07:16] and they have a leak in their house, they're gone, right? So there's some things that,

[00:07:23] you know, you're a plumbing company or a roofing company or some of these things where you need

[00:07:29] this done right away. I mean, you need this right now even if it's something else like health

[00:07:36] insurance. I don't know the difference between most of the brokers. So I find a broker online

[00:07:41] and, you know, I see okay, they're rated four or five stars in the first one who picked up.

[00:07:47] I'm probably going to talk to them and get a quote and as long as the quote doesn't seem crazy,

[00:07:51] I might just as well go with that guy, right? So, you know, any of these guys who are getting leads in

[00:07:57] and they have a nice lead funnel that comes in, you don't want to have those leads drop off because

[00:08:04] you're not dealing with those people right away. And that's where this I think can really

[00:08:12] help folks out in that speed to lead and then reach it out in natural language where,

[00:08:17] you know, we can say, hey, this is Dave or this is Dave's assistant, you know, Cindy

[00:08:22] and you know, have them go back and forth with the person, book them in and then just automatically

[00:08:28] put it on, you know, your calendar. And you know, that is again for someone who does a lot of

[00:08:34] business and has a lot of leads that's really our ideal client. And that's where I see the AI.

[00:08:41] It's not through a place going out for drinks and dinner with someone, right?

[00:08:45] Makes sense. Now, a lot of my audience are those technology advisors that are working with small

[00:08:49] and midsize companies. And so as I'm thinking this through, they might be the right people to

[00:08:54] sort of help like, how does the integration work with the existing infrastructure and with the

[00:09:00] technical team at your clients? Like what role is there for the IT team to be helping out with

[00:09:06] what you're implementing? That's a great question. So we've an open API, right? Anyone can

[00:09:13] hook to it. We have direct webhooks that go into Facebook already. We have direct webhooks that go

[00:09:20] into, you know, that go out. You know, so anything within the calendar is anything like that. We've

[00:09:30] already built that out. So the integration is really easy. We just have this kind of sit between

[00:09:35] your leads come in from Facebook. We have them slow in here. It does the scheduling for you and

[00:09:40] puts it right on to the calendar. You know, that's really how this is sitting for most of the clients.

[00:09:46] And that's the use case that most of the clients are having right now. Where I see is going over time,

[00:09:53] you know, not just what we're doing, but, you know, altogether, I see the AI being super persuasive

[00:10:00] that it's going to be better than any sales rep on earth.

[00:10:05] And the reason for it is simple. It's the same reason that the driverless cars are going to be

[00:10:10] better and the same reason that the, you know, the autonomous plans are going to be better. You can

[00:10:17] give it thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of hours, billions of hours driving time.

[00:10:23] Right? You're never going to billions of hours of driving time. You know,

[00:10:28] you know, thousands of years, millions of years worth. It's going to be impossible for an individual

[00:10:33] to have that amount of rep under their belt. And it's the same thing for sales. Even if you're a great

[00:10:38] sales rep, you know, and you're on 10 sales calls a day and you've been doing it for, you know, 25

[00:10:44] years. You're not going to have the amount of practice that the AI does. And with the information

[00:10:52] that's out there, where I see this go over the next couple of years, is the AI will know that everything

[00:10:55] you've ever written on, everything you've ever written on Facebook, it will know your politic.

[00:11:00] It will know the issues that you care about. It will remember your kids names.

[00:11:05] And it will be, you know, paper persuasive and how it explains things to people. Plus having

[00:11:12] perfect knowledge of the product and perfect knowledge of, you know, kind of the general world.

[00:11:18] I mean, so that's what I see happening. I see this replace in most of the sales with the exception

[00:11:27] of the meeting breaks, you know, your meeting the VT going out for dinner and drinks. You know,

[00:11:32] you're going to the conference and meeting the guys of the conference. I see all of the, you know,

[00:11:37] lower level activities just being handled entirely by the AI. Now that can be taken as a pretty bold

[00:11:43] prediction because that's, you know, sounds super disruptive. What do you think is, I'll take one step

[00:11:48] further. I'll take it one time further. AI, anything that's done on a computer, AI is going to do

[00:11:53] better faster and cheaper in the next year or two if it's not doing it already. Anything, program and

[00:11:59] you know, security, graphic design, you know, accounting. I mean, analysis all is going to be

[00:12:07] done better faster and cheaper by AI in the next year or two if it's not happening operate.

[00:12:12] So that great prediction so that that's just very disruptive to those sales professionals

[00:12:17] that are working here. What do you think happens to those roles in those organizations that are

[00:12:23] currently filled by humans? Do they go on to other customer tasks? What do you think that goes

[00:12:28] into business? I don't know. I think they'll end up doing something else. So if they're good and

[00:12:33] they know a lot about customers, they know a lot about workflows and you know, they might be able to add

[00:12:37] some value somewhere else in the organization or they might move to I mean, I think that in person,

[00:12:44] IRL is going to get a lot more important because if you don't see it with your own eyes, you're not

[00:12:51] going to be able to believe any video that you see anymore. You're not going to be able to believe anything

[00:12:55] you see on the internet. If you're not seeing it with your own eyes, you know, you can't believe it

[00:13:02] and even then you got to be a little careful. I mean right now we can clone any voice, we can clone any

[00:13:06] face, you know, you can make we could take a picture of you and make you do anything, make you

[00:13:14] say anything. It would sound like you with your voice and your mouth would move with what's right?

[00:13:19] I mean, you know, that's today's tech. So yeah, I see this being massively massively,

[00:13:29] massively disruptive across the world. Where do the guys go? I don't know. They're going to do something

[00:13:35] else. There is going to be a huge change in jobs. This happens all the time. This happened with

[00:13:44] industrial revolution. This happened with farming equipment coming into the fields. You know, if you

[00:13:48] go back 200 years, 90% of people worked in the fields. If you asked them, what am I going to do?

[00:13:54] You know, I wouldn't have it right. Well, you're going to be working during customer service and

[00:13:58] you're going to be working doing sales and you're going to be driving trucks and, you know, these things

[00:14:04] didn't exist. So I mean, I don't know. I just know what's going to change dramatically quickly.

[00:14:11] So you're a guy that is a ton of time thinking about the sales process. What I want to swear for me,

[00:14:16] two statements you've just made. Because on one hand, you said we're going to eliminate a

[00:14:19] whole bunch of people. But at the same time, in real life is going to be coming credibly in

[00:14:25] sorting in the sales process. Like if you can't trust anything that you see online, but you've

[00:14:31] additionally moved the sales process online, did you? And you can't trust it. And the buyers are

[00:14:37] looking for more in real life. How do you square those two competing tensions?

[00:14:42] So I think that there's going to be a lot more in real life because people are going to crave it.

[00:14:49] People are going to crave that human interaction. They're going to want to know who they're dealing with

[00:14:56] because you can program the computer and say anything, right? You can use whatever voice you want

[00:15:01] and you can use whatever techniques you want. But they still want to look someone in the eye and

[00:15:04] shake their hand and know who they're dealing with on the other side. If you're doing a big

[00:15:11] multi-million dollar deal, I mean, if you look at how insurance companies work, they want to know

[00:15:15] you for years before they do a lot of major work with you. If you're in the board of a local

[00:15:22] tenant and it's company, and I remember they were looking at pricing from insurance companies

[00:15:28] and these guys' process was three or four years. They said, ah, they're not sure if they're going to

[00:15:35] quote this year, maybe they'll quote next year. I mean, it was unbelievably long and I was shocked.

[00:15:43] You know, with me to this day, how long that sales process took and it was because they didn't want

[00:15:49] to get burned. So you know, I think it's going to be important from that standpoint. I do CBA,

[00:15:57] I've been hyper persuasive over time just having perfect information and I see just improving

[00:16:02] everyone's life in general. So it might not improve the life of the guy in the Philippines who's

[00:16:07] going to lose his job, right? But it's certainly going to improve the life of every person who has

[00:16:13] to call that customer support place. You know, if you're calling Comcast and you sit on hold for a

[00:16:19] half hour to half hour of your life gone usually during business hours when you're busy, right?

[00:16:25] Because you're trying to get something done and then you get the run around, you have to cite

[00:16:29] the automated system for 20 minutes, get through to someone. Usually they don't know what they're

[00:16:34] talking about. At least that's been my experience. So to have perfect information, you know, or

[00:16:41] pretty much perfect information to have it know all of the technical data to be able to have all

[00:16:48] of the most up-to-date offers be able to answer that stuff instantaneously without having to look

[00:16:53] through notes. It's going to be super powerful. It can improve how people feel about it, right? People

[00:17:01] are going to they're going to like it better than talking to someone in India or Pakistan. They just

[00:17:05] talk. They're going to like getting perfect information. They're going to like not having to wait

[00:17:10] on hold for 5, 10, 20 minutes. You know, not having to talk to three agents. I talked to Apple last night.

[00:17:16] I talked to three different agents, right? You know, I was on the phone with them for 28 minutes.

[00:17:21] Not a good process and that's the norm. So what advice are you giving to businesses to make

[00:17:27] sure they're ready to be effective in a world of this much AI? I mean, just do it now. Don't wait.

[00:17:35] You don't have to wait for version three or version four or version five. The technology is here now.

[00:17:42] It's advancing by the day if you're using one of the main players you're using an open AI

[00:17:48] for, you know, LLM is your using clawed. You're using menstrual. You're using something like that.

[00:17:54] It's just going to keep advancing without you doing anything. Without you lifting a finger, it's

[00:17:59] just going to get better, you know, every month or two. Already the, you know, I remember when

[00:18:07] we're talking to Yerika, right? A year and a half ago, you had about 4,000 characters that

[00:18:13] Chattcheapy could have in its work and memory. Right? Tokens, I should say, right? 4,000 words.

[00:18:21] Well, Google just announced they're coming out with one 10 million.

[00:18:26] It's increased 2,500 times in let's give it say two years.

[00:18:31] I mean the pace that this is moving is just unbelievable. I always tell people, you know,

[00:18:39] if it doubles every three months, that means it's a million times more powerful in five years.

[00:18:44] It moves faster than that right now. Maybe it slows down to that pace where it's a million

[00:18:48] times more powerful in five, but you know, that's the math. Well, there's a picture of the future.

[00:18:56] Thomas Ryan is the CEO and founder of Bigley Sales and the Force behind AI sales agents

[00:19:02] tools reshaping the sales landscape with AI sales solutions. He's got a track record of making

[00:19:07] a strategic vision happen and his leadership, including a remarkable 1,500 percent revenue growth

[00:19:14] at Barden and Associates. Thomas, how can people get in touch with you?

[00:19:19] You can see us over at BigleySales.com just come and hit the form and see the AI in action.

[00:19:25] The business of tech is written and produced by me Dave Solbal, under ethics guidelines,

[00:19:30] posted at businessof.tech. If you like the content, please make sure to hit that like button,

[00:19:36] follow or subscribe. It's free and easy and the best way to support the show and help us grow.

[00:19:43] You can also check out our Patreon where you can join the business of tech community at patreon.com

[00:19:49] slash mspradio, or by our Why Do We Care Merch at businessof.tech. Finally, if you're interested

[00:19:57] in advertising on this show, visit mspradio.com slash engage. Once again, thanks for listening to me,

[00:20:05] and I will talk to you again on our next episode of the business of tech.

[00:20:12] Part of the mspradio network.