Upgrade your sales process by plugging into the new power of artificial intelligence
In today's cutthroat sales world, where sales professionals are constantly juggling multiple responsibilities and navigating a sea of relentless competitors, everyone is looking for an edge. What if that EDGE is found in a tool powerful enough to give you more time in your sales day, accelerate your productivity, and still leave room for the human touch that's vital to building relationships? Enter the game-changing world of Artificial Intelligence. Enter The AI Edge.
The AI Edge isn't just another book about technology. Anthony Iannarino and Jeb Blount, the world's most prolific sales book authors and trainers, have come together to transform how you navigate the sales process by helping you plug into artificial intelligence. This groundbreaking, hands-on guide marries their unparalleled sales strategies, used by millions of salespeople, with the transformative power of AI. Drawing from cutting-edge research and real-world applications, the authors demystify AI and demonstrate its potential to give you more time to leverage your human advantage—creativity, empathy, and authenticity—to build deeper relationships and winning solutions that give you a leg up over the competition. Inside you'll
Expert Benefit from the combined wisdom of Blount and Iannarino, two giants in the sales realm, as they lay out the roadmap to plugging into an AI-augmented sales strategy Streamlined Processes & Empowered Discover AI's role in automating repetitive tasks, freeing you to fully lean into the uniquely human side of cultivating relationships, unleashing creativity, and offering unparalleled authenticity Sales Prompt Get hands-on with tailored prompts that allow you to tap into generative AI and get better results in less time Powerful Learn how AI, used effectively, can help you develop and go to market with powerful messaging and presentations that connect with stakeholder needs and separate you from the crowded field Intelligent Grasp how AI can be leveraged to surface insights that give you instant authority, grab stakeholder attention, and lead to richer, more productive sales conversations Leverage the power of AI to build target prospecting lists that open pipeline opportunities while reducing cold calling and rejection Navigating the world of AI might seem daunting, but with Iannarino and Blount at the helm, it's a journey of empowerment, innovation, and profound human connection. Embrace a future where technology and humanity come together and carve out your own AI Edge in sales.
Unfortunately, this book didn’t provide much value. 2/5 ⭐⭐
It offers introductory and repetitive sales advice, along with a very basic overview of AI and tips for the sales process.
The only thing I liked was that it was extremely easy to read, and there were some interesting prompt suggestions for ChatGPT, especially for writing and editing content. Other than that, I was really disappointed and expected much more from this book.
Overall, The AI Edge felt more like a general introduction than a truly informative resource for anyone looking to seriously integrate AI into sales.
It’s hard to miss this author whenever you’re looking for a book about sales. After seeing so many of his books on Amazon, I finally gave in and read one of them a few years ago. After a few dozen pages, I realized I was wasting my time and gave up on it.
Now that I’m studying AI and ChatGPT, of course this guy also has a book on the subject. Maybe I had misjudged his wisdom and experience the last time, I thought, so I picked up this book.
Turns out I didn’t misjudge him the first time. He says he’s a fan of short chapters. Many, many short chapters. In the end, this is unnecessarily long book.
First he goes on and on about history and philosophy. He says he’s amazed at that ChatGPT can create a story. He even adds a long and boring poem created by ChatGPT in its entirety! “Just for fun, here is what AI produced.” Ain’t nobody got time for this.
One chapter is all about improving your grammar, punctuation, spelling, and general writing ability. Like some kind of wannabe Elements of Style.
He has offensively unfunny jokes too. Look at this for example: “Most salespeople wouldn't know good grammar and sentence structure if it walked up to them wearing a unicorn costume and hit them in the face with a two-by-four.”
And this:
“You may need to change out words [from ChatGPT] that you would never use—unless, of course, you are writing for your English literature professor. (In this case, for fun, you might ask AI to ‘write in the style of Shakespeare.’)”
Jeezus Christ! The guy deserves a tomato for this.
As far as I can tell, this author’s popular only because he’s created authority for himself by publishing often. If he teaches you anything, this is it. Publish often on the subjects you want to be considered an expert in and use it to gain clients and customers.
I enjoyed The AI Edge and Jeb Blount! If you're in Sales and care to remain relevant, you must read this book and change your systems and processes - now!
Below are my most memorable nuggets that may inspire you to read this. I recommend this read!
We must lean into being human. We must get fundamentally better at doing the things that only humans can do. We must leverage AI as a tool to enhance our human advantage and give us more time to do those things that we do best.
As AI integrates more into human life, it will amplify our potential in sales by streamlining tasks like content creation, prospecting, and sales forecasting. Salespeople will use AI to focus on building relationships and solving customer problems. The role of the salesperson is not diminishing. Instead, it’s evolving and becoming more important. With AI handling data analysis, content creation, and strategy suggestions, salespeople can focus on what they do best: building genuine authentic relationships, trust, and developing creative solutions for customer problems.
The Three A’s The keys to plugging into AI to become an enhanced human—faster, better, smarter—are the three A’s: 1. Adopt: Commit to becoming an early adopter of new, cutting-edge technology, and leverage it to achieve a game-changing, competitive edge. 2. Adapt: Adapt new technology to your unique sales process. Avoid seeing AI as a one-size-fits-all solution. Most importantly, leverage artificial intelligence in your sales day to gain more time for focusing on high-value human interactions and strategies. 3. Adept: Rapidly assimilate AI into your sales motions, blend it into your sales process—even when it feels uncomfortable—and then use it, practice it, experiment with it until you become adept at it.
The Four Elements of Sales Intelligence Success in sales requires a balance of technology acumen (TQ), intelligence (IQ), knowledge (AQ), and emotional intelligence (EQ). High-TQ sellers thrive by using AI to free up time for relationship-building.
The foundations of Me Management: Adopting a CEO mindset Ruthless prioritization Planning and calendar management Territory mapping Attention control Time blocking
The First 7 Steps on Your AI Edge Journey 1. Conduct a Time Investment Audit to gain a clear understanding of what you are doing now. 2. Make a comprehensive list of the activities only you can do and which activities you should delegate to AI (or someone else). 3. Brainstorm all of the possibilities for how AI might put time back into your sales day. 4. Research and test AI tools and platforms. 5. Prioritize where and how you hand activities off to AI and integrate it into your sales process, planning, calendar management, and sales day. 6. Implement AI using the 3 A’s: Adopt, Adapt, Adept. 7. Continue to repeat and refine this process until you’ve optimized your sales time for leveraging your human advantage.
Prompt Engineering The goal of prompt engineering is to write prompts that are clear, concise, and produce the information you seek on the first try.
Build a Sales Prompt Library What you want to avoid doing is reinventing the wheel each time you need something from AI. That will cost you a lot of time. Instead, when you find a prompt that works for you, add it to your prompt library to make it easy to reference when you need it in the future.
The Future of List Building: Right Prospect Plus Right Time Imagine how things would change for you if, as you started your sales day, your company’s sales AI handed you a targeted list of highly qualified prospects that are in the buying window.
Define Your ICP The first step toward more effective qualifying is developing an ideal customer profile (ICP). AI can quickly analyze your database for patterns and commonalities among your best customers, uncover the stakeholder roles most likely to be involved in decision-making based on past sales data, analyze the deals you are closing, and gain a deeper understanding of trigger events that opened those buying windows.
The easiest way to sell more is to spend 100% of your time talking with prospects who are in open buying windows and ready to buy. AI is already making this possible by analyzing and scoring leads based on intent data.
Show Me You Know Me - Remember a simple but powerful premise: people make decisions based on emotion first, and then justify with logic. Focus on specific problems they are facing and bridge to how you can help them.
Everything in Sales Begins with a Qualified Opportunity Effective qualifying requires a systematic and methodical focus on turning the unknowns into the known. AI is particularly effective at gathering factual information to help you qualify and target the right prospects before you put them into your pipeline. Qualification is a combination of both data and human intuition. You must consider factual evidence and listen to your gut instinct when assessing the viability of an opportunity.
The Art of Discovery Discovery is the most important step in the sales process. The art of discovery is a uniquely human endeavor. It requires intention, strategy, and planning. You must ask open-ended questions, demonstrate sincere interest, use your empathy, and listen. AI cannot do this job for you.
AI-Powered Proposals Those who harness the full power of AI to streamline and elevate their proposal game gain a powerful sales edge. Advanced AI models and platforms are rapidly transforming proposals from dry, lifeless documents into dynamic, multimedia storytelling experiences. In the near future, your CRM will harness AI to fully automate and streamline every stage of the proposal creation workflow.
Closing the Sale & Sales Training AI simulation enables salespeople to get realistic, risk-free practice for high-stakes situations like closing the deal.
Case Studies and Social Proof AI can help you build persuasive, personalized case studies for sales proposals.
What I like most about this book is the simplicity of explaining ai is your robot and you need to train your robot what to do and help you do it! Great read can’t wait till the next edition.
Great book to learn about AI specific to sales and prospecting activity. Follows other great books by Jeb Blount to be your best in sales.
The book outlines practical ways sales professionals can leverage AI tools to optimize their workflows, personalize customer interactions, and boost productivity. Review many examples that help make complex AI concepts accessible, offering a clear roadmap for integrating these technologies into everyday sales practices. Learn actionable steps that inspire confidence in embracing this transformative tool.
One of the book's standout strengths is its emphasis on blending human skills with AI capabilities to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Blount illustrates how AI doesn’t replace human connections but rather enhances them by automating repetitive tasks and uncovering actionable insights. From predictive analytics to personalized outreach, he demonstrates how AI can empower sales professionals to focus on what they do best—building relationships and closing deals. His advice is particularly relevant in today’s fast-paced sales environment, where staying competitive requires both adaptability and a willingness to innovate.
Overall, The AI Edge is an essential read for sales professionals looking to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. It’s not just a book about AI—it’s a guide to thriving in the future of sales by combining technology with the irreplaceable human touch. Highly recommended for anyone looking to save time, sell more, and outpace the competition.
I really enjoyed Blount’s other books Fanatical Prospecting, Objections, and Sales EQ. I believe they are great foundational sales books.
I feel like The AI Edge missed the mark a little bit. I felt like 30-40% of the book were rehashes of information provided in those other books. If you’ve read them before you will not be getting any new information or value from that content.
I’d say about 20% of the book is fluff about AI, nothing you haven’t heard before.
About 20% of the book is general advice on how to use AI and what tools could help, but not actually actionable unless you have the tools integrated with your workflows.
That leaves about 20-30% of actual practical takeaways. Some good content for sure, but I feel like it’s very scattered brained and all over the place. Not worth buying a book when info is already online.
To sum up the book: You need to have AI tools that integrate into all your workflows, CRM and sales tools. Make admin automatic. I mean, yeah sure. We already know this.
Not very practical also if you’re heading up sales for small to medium sized business that aren’t start up bros or backed by funding that can’t evaluate and use all the tools out there.
The book does a good job of living up to its title. However, for someone who uses ChatGPT often, the first half of the book felt too simple, like explaining what a computer is. It didn't offer any new insights for me. The second half was much better and quite interesting. It showed how AI can help with sales by taking care of the routine tasks, which lets salespeople focus on more important things like making personal connections. It also offered valuable insights on establishing authentic connections, closing deals effectively, and entering high-stakes meetings fully prepared.
With these two authors I was really looking forward to this book. With that said, the strategies were very surface level and ironically a short trip to ChatGPT could have given me better insights. More than half the book was about sales strategy overall but that's not what I expected to be informed on.
My rating system is as follows: 1 - Stopped reading before completing as didn't intrigue me enough (therefore rating incomplete) 2 - Completed reading but did not enjoy 3 - Enjoyed but not enough to want to keep on bookshelf 4 - Enjoyed and want to keep on bookshelf 5 - I'm actively telling people how great this book is!
This was a book I read to gain a better understanding of the various ways AI could be beneficial to my business. It is directed towards sales businesses and does a great job of simplifying the material, providing you with some excellent ideas and jumping-off points to work on your own. The sample prompts it gives throughout the book were helpful, and I transferred most of them (with some tweaks) to my docs so that I can use them. If you are in a sales business and want to accelerate your use of AI and stay ahead of the competition, this is a good book to start with.
This is a great book for someone that is quite new to AI. Very few new things for me, but maybe I am not the right audience. However, I've got a few ideas as well and some inspiration for my HatHawk app. So, I am grateful and thankful.
The AI Edge is a must read for sales professionals looking to integrate generative AI into their daily work. It offers clear, practical examples of how AI can streamline prospecting, enhance outreach, and improve scripting.
I bought several copies for my team and highlighted key takeaways to help them put the concepts into action. While it’s not a deeply technical book, it succeeds in translating complex ideas into simple, usable strategies.
If you’re in sales and haven’t yet explored how AI can boost your productivity, this book is a great place to start. In today’s market, understanding AI isn’t optional it’s essential.