How to Break Into AI Sales

Demand for AI products and services, like automation software, generative AI tools, and AI-fueled platforms, is growing. To break into AI sales, you'll need to understand the landscape, consider relevant roles, enhance your skills, and hone your resume and interview skills. 

Understand the AI landscape

As you consider a career in AI sales, start by researching its meaning. Artificial intelligence refers to the computational techniques that simulate the capabilities of human cognition. These tasks use machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision to recognize patterns, solve problems, and make decisions.

Research key AI companies 

Next, familiarize yourself with the major players in the AI market, as well as the solutions they provide. Apple is an innovator in the industry. The company’s Apple Intelligence marries AI technology like ChatGPT with personal assistant-like features for iPhone users. Microsoft has made major investments in AI in recent years, relying on ChatGPT to propel chatbots and DALL-E to provide AI generative images. AI features like these are now available in a new class of PCs. NVIDIA produces computer processing units for computers that support AI functions, and Google just introduced AI Overviews, which provides AI-generated summaries to search users.

AI applications in various sectors

AI isn’t just impacting one or two industries, it’s becoming commonplace in many fields. If you’re exploring how to break into AI sales, you can tailor your research to your industry of interest. Industries currently using AI include:

• Education

• Health care

• Finance 

• Transportation

• Agriculture

• Retail

• Manufacturing

• Marketing

• Cybersecurity

• Entertainment

Potential jobs in AI sales

A career in AI sales has its advantages, including generous compensation, bonuses, and career development. While the benefits are appealing, jobs in AI sales are still fairly new, so you may be wondering what positions are available in the field. You'll find the job titles mimic those in traditional sales, but focus on the sale of AI products. 

Depending on your skills, experience, and industry, positions could include: 

Sales development representative (SDR)

An SDR spends their time searching for leads. You'll research companies that could benefit from the product, identify decision-makers, and reach out. Once a company is considered a qualified lead, you'll pass it on to another representative who will try to close the deal. 

Sales representative

A sales representative works with qualified leads to build relationships with clients and encourage them to purchase products. Sales reps can use interpersonal skills to connect with clients and fulfill their AI wants and needs. 

Account executive

An account executive identifies leads and nurtures them through the sale. In this role, you focus on customer acquisition and retention, maintain communication with a client for long periods of time, and provide solutions to problems.

Sales manager

Sales managers oversee a team of sales representatives. In this role, you might hire, train, and encourage sales reps to excel at their job. To hold this position, you'll likely have a strong sales background, a history of closed deals, and the ability to teach others.

Developing your AI sales skills

Since more companies are building out AI solutions, sales positions are more in demand and can offer long-term growth potential. To earn a spot in this field, consider elevating your skills by bolstering your understanding across the following topics:

Consultative selling vs. solution selling 

While multiple sales techniques exist, you should focus on consultative and solution selling.

Consultative selling focuses on building relationships with clients by asking questions and actively listening to their needs. Solution selling focuses on the customer's pain points and then addresses those needs with customized products or services. 

While both selling techniques encourage customers to purchase a product, the consultative model encourages sales reps to act more as advisors. The point is to build trust and not rush to push a sale. 

AI products at a technical level

As you gain technical knowledge of the AI products and services you’re selling, it will be easier to match your clients with solutions. Start by studying AI use cases to better understand how the implementation improves capabilities or helps with new product development for the client in a way that justifies the investment.

Building a relevant professional network

Building a network of professionals across the AI and tech sales sectors will serve to help you at every touchpoint of your career journey into AI sales. From job opportunities and networking events to industry conferences and webinars, connecting with industry thought leaders and peers will help keep you up to date on the rapidly changing developments in artificial intelligence. 

To get started, you can sign up for industry conferences and workshops, join industry associations, meet recruiters, join online groups, and connect with professionals on LinkedIn.

Resume and interviews in AI sales

You'll need both sales skills and a passion for AI to capture the attention of an employer. Get started by creating an AI-focused resume and practice for interviews. 

Tailor your resume and cover letter.

In order to showcase your relevant sales experience and achievements when applying for jobs, you’ll need to highlight the specific skills mentioned in the job description to those on your resume. To do this effectively, you can:

• List keywords from the description that pertain to your experience

• Research the company's values and culture and explain how you'll fit it

• Highlight technical and workplace skills that are relevant to the AI industry

• Add AI training and certifications

Be interview-ready.

If you do get a call to set up an interview, ensure you’re prepared. It's your chance to showcase your skills and explain why you're best for the role in AI sales. Be sure to review the job description, research the company, read about current AI events, run mock interviews that provide real-world examples of success, and prep your portfolio for viewing. 

Getting started with AI sales with Coursera

Getting into AI sales does take research and job readiness skills, but it also requires technology skills. If you're changing careers or want to increase your technological and sales skills, a Professional Certificate is an option. On Coursera, the Salesforce Sales Development Representative Professional Certificate will enable you to apply the success-proven principles of the SV Academy Conversational Selling methodology and learn how to problem-solve using the best-in-class tech tools of the SDR workflow.