05 | AI-Driven Sales Strategies with Jérémy Grandillon

In this episode of the AI Marketers Playbook, host Audrey Chia sits down with seasoned sales professional Jeremy Grandillon. With over five years of experience, including a stint as head of sales, Jeremy shares his journey into the world of AI and sales. He discusses the initial skepticism around AI, the importance of mastering sales fundamentals, and practical use cases for integrating AI into sales workflows. Jeremy also highlights the power of personal branding on LinkedIn and offers insights on leveraging AI for content creation and cold prospecting. Tune in for actionable tips on enhancing sales strategies with AI.

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Transcript

Audrey Chia: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the AI Marketers Playbook, where we cover actionable frameworks to leverage AI in your business. I am Audrey Chia, your host And today I have with me my good friend, Jeremy Grandolin, who is a seasoned sales professional with over five plus years of experience. And that includes being the head of sales. Now, Jeremy has learned so much So many lessons along the way through trial and error. And today he is on a mission to share everything he has learned in sales, AI, and growing an impressive following on LinkedIn with us. Thank you for joining us, Jeremy.

Jeremy G: 0:39

Thank you so much. Thank you, Audrey, for having me. I'm super excited to, to discuss everything with you.

Audrey Chia: 0:44

Yes, and we have so much to cover today, but first, before we dive into the details, could you tell us a bit more about yourself, your background and how you got into the world of AI and sales? Yeah,

Jeremy G: 0:57

You made a quite good introduction of me. Thank you. but yeah, as you said, I've been in the sales world for five years now. And, in the AI world for almost a year. Yeah, it's been a year actually. And it all started at the beginning of 2023, still head of sales at a software company, looking to improve my sales processes, help my, my team to have better results and be more productive in our sales strategy. So I dived in into this AI world, because I felt like, like you probably, at the time that there were a huge potential to help us on repetitive tasks, to accelerate everything we are doing in sales. So it started like this and it went quite well, so well that I decided to, to make it my full activity. I started doing this last September of 2023. And I'm super happy now to do this full time.

Audrey Chia: 1:50

Awesome. And at that point in time when you first started encountered AI. Were you nervous or afraid? Or were you like, this is it. This is the future. What was it like for you?

Jeremy G: 2:01

Well, it's funny because the, the very first, feeling that I had about, AI was, when, ChatGPT was released and it was like at the end of 2022. And there were huge hype about it. And, maybe it's because I'm French. We are, you know, a bit skeptical. It's cultural. I was like, okay, this is just a hype. it, it will pass like everything else. And a few months later, like in January or maybe February in 2023, I was like, okay, this hype, is still here. So let me have a look in what it is. And then I realized, that it was more than just hype and, there was a lot of potential and, and I realized also how actionable it would be, for us as sales professional to, in, into our day to day life. So from this day in early 2023, I was like, okay, this, this is something I want to be part of for sure.

Audrey Chia: 2:56

I think for myself, it was a bit of a huge transition because again, like there was a moment of fear initially, and then a moment of like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And then a moment of like, what am I going to do with it? And I think that probably is the case for many of us. See the potential of AI and know that we have to leverage it, right? But I know one thing I love about your content is that you always talk about, you know, the fundamentals of sales as well and you don't just jump into AI and what would you say are some of the key concepts that people should master for sales?

Jeremy G: 3:34

Yeah. Yeah. I think my luck from this point of view comes from that I've been involved in the IT environment for almost all my professional life. And from that, I already knew from my previous experience, that any tool, that, Even if it's very powerful, if you use it the wrong way. You will just accelerate and amplify mistakes. So, so based on that, I saw how powerful AI would be. I talked to myself right away. Okay. How can I take the best from this without replicating mistakes like a hundred times? So this vision of how to use technology in general helped me, I think. So that's, that would be my recommendation to anybody, to any professional who wants to leverage AI, which I definitely recommend would be to, make sure to use it for a specific need in a specific way. try and iterate, like start small, make sure that you understand everything you are doing, and then you can, scale it, increase the volume. But at the very beginning, you need to have your fundamental rights, because if you don't, I, I, I think in general, in it with AI, there is two extremes, opinions at, at one side, there is people who don't believe it. They still don't believe it. They think it's not a revolution. It's just, a scam almost. And on the other extreme, there are people who believe that it's magical. And I think, and, and probably you, you, as with your experience, you, you believe like me, it's not, it's in the middle. Actually, it can be an amazing, an amazing tool, almost magic. If you master what you are doing, but yeah, it's, it's, it's not, you can't click a button and have amazing results without working.

Audrey Chia: 5:28

Yeah. And I love what you said about that. So I think for people who are actually using it like ourselves, you would see that perhaps, you know, 40 to 70 percent of the work can be done by AI, and then there's the other 30 percent that you really have to add that magical human touch. And I know like for sales, a lot of it is like understanding the human insight, the customer's pain points, and desires, then figuring out what is the best way to target them. And then you can use AI to perhaps, you know, but with that being said, what would be like some use cases where you could use AI and really integrate it into your workflow?

Jeremy G: 6:06

a lot, actually. I always, like I said, like to start with the fundamentals. So it starts with, for sales, you said it, you need to target the right people to offer them the solution to a problem they are actually facing. so you have to understand your audience, your targets to make sure that you are relevant to them. So that would start like with this. You can use tools like ChatGPT to help you brainstorm, digest data, on your existing customers, for example, analyze trends, stuff like this, to make sure that you understand the context, where your, your ICP, your ideal customers, evolve every day. And, and to make sure that you will be relevant for them. When you reach out, for example, or in the content that you are creating to, to catch their attention. So I would, I'm definitely using it like this. there is all of course, a lot of different uses you can, if you want to be more concrete, for example, it can be, if you want to prepare a call, a sales call, for example, you can use tools like human which hello's you, on LinkedIn to, Amplify and, and, augment the information that you have on a prospect, a specific prospect based on their LinkedIn profile, but also information from the internet and, the news related to their industry, to their company, and all of this, all of this information, used to be, manual you, you add as a sales professional to look for this kind of information manually, and it. Took forever to get, to get, to make sure that you are relevant to these people. And we still like, like this one augmented with AI, you save a huge amount of time. That's, that's an example.

Audrey Chia: 8:00

Before you send them a message at such a huge, you know, in such a huge depth and detail. It's an incredible function by AI. I actually tried Human Linker after you recommended it on one of your posts. And I was like, this is so accurate. And then I started stalking all my friends and testing it on them because I was like, now I know your personality profile and everything that you like and dislike, so it's scary, but also cool at the same time. And I know that you are a huge fan of building a personal brand. Of course, you have grown from zero to 20 K or more followers in a short amount of time.

Jeremy G: 8:36

I'm trying to keep up with you.

Audrey Chia: 8:40

I think we are all on that path of growth together. I think it's amazing cause we met each other when we were still smaller creators. And we have seen each other's growth, which is amazing. And I always think that, you know, people say community is just a soft word, but it's true. You and me met, and it's very nice to see some other creator who is also on the same entrepreneurial journey growing together. But with that being said, what have you learned growing a following on LinkedIn and how do you use it for sales?

Jeremy G: 9:11

Yeah. LinkedIn and social media in general are an amazing and super powerful tool to create what's the only thing that you want when you are a sales professional is to create trust. And there is nothing more powerful than a personal brand to generate trust to many people at the same time. So that's very relevant. Let me give you some concrete examples. You can. If you, if we're focusing on, on LinkedIn, if you are, if your profile is, optimum, optimized, if, your content is good quality content, this means that when you will reach out to a target, either on LinkedIn directly or. For using emails, for example, the reflex for them, if they don't know you, if you are doing code outreach, it's that they will, they are, if you are relevant, they won't ignore you. And the next step is they will look, for you on, on the internet. And if your LinkedIn account is, well optimized, you are in control of what they will find. And this is super important. This will increase the trust that they have in you. What we receive so many messages all the time, trying people trying to sell us everything, sometimes not really relevant because they didn't make their own work to, you know, identify you really properly. if you want a chance to stand out, you need to generate this trust and reduce skepticism from them. So just for that, it's important to have a personal brand. I'm not telling you to be a full time content creator or influencer. This is different, but to be in control of what people will find on you when they look on the internet and it would be even more accelerated in a few years when they will, they won't Google you, they will ChatGPT you, you know, it would be even more important at this time to be in control of the information they find. To make sure that this information is relevant to what you are trying to say is, it's a full package. You have to make sure that you are, reaching them the right way.

Audrey Chia: 11:29

I love what you said about creating that connection even before they hop on the call, and in the future, they will be. LinkedIn searching us up instead of Google searching or using an AI tool, which is also why like starting now is more important than ever. I also think that it's going to get more and more competitive as more people come onto these platforms. So for people who are in a sales role or marketing role, actually any other role, if you're not leveraging personal branding right now, you should get started. And I think it's a good investment of your time. And with that, Jeremy, I think previously I reached out to you to ask about how do you do like cold prospecting on LinkedIn through like the DMs function? Because this is something that I as an entrepreneur might struggle with, especially because I am new to how do I make a sales on my DMs. I'm good at writing with copy, but, having these chats, totally different ball game. I would love for you to share that with the audience.

Jeremy G: 12:33

Yeah, it's tricky actually, because we are not used to it, to do it. this is why I liked you not seeing it as a sale. it's not, you don't want to sell something you want to have conversation. And if you have this goal in mind, it would be way more natural for you to do it. If you are not a sale, an experiment sales person to, you know, use triggers techniques. so yeah, my, my, my vision about this is try to have a conversation and, and all the effort comes before, because what you want to do is to be relevant again and, and trustworthy for these people. So if you put yourself in the shoes of your target, they receive a DM from a stranger. It has to be relevant, or if I receive something which is not relevant, I will just ignore it. We receive so many. So if it's relevant, then what you don't want, the next step is that you don't want to pitch slap, send a text, well, it's not, it's not nice. Actually, it's just not nice. just open a conversation and, you know, simple things, make a compliment. It's, it's. We are humans. We like having someone, requesting for our time to be nice and, and telling us that the last post we did was, was good, and actually. So it's not just like generic, I like your post. No, I like your post about X, Y, Z, especially what you meant, blah, blah, blah. It's way more, deeper and it's helps to create a connection, a bond with this person. And then from, from this, it's the start of the relationship that you are creating with this person, the next step, because we're all here on LinkedIn to make business, not friends, but we can do friends too, but can make some friends. But the goal is to make some business. So they know, you know, so it's just Logical to into conversation, ask questions about business. And if you are smart, smart about this, you will ask questions that should show a pain point that you can solve basically. So. I'm not telling you talk to this person for five days. No, but just, just be human and have a few words before asking the fatal questions. And from that, also be transparent. Yes, you are here to help. But as you say, as I said, you have targeted them. So you are relevant. The only thing that can happen is like they say, no, not right now. Thank you for the offer. I appreciate you. And if this is the worst case scenario, That's fine because first you made a new friend and second, they will think about you next time they have this problem and it is the right moment for you. And this is how in the long run you will generate trust again and, and leads and relevant leads. And, there is also, strategy to be there in the right timing. That's helps too.

Audrey Chia: 15:39

Within

Jeremy G: 15:40

relationships.

Audrey Chia: 15:43

Going in, not with the intention of like, buy this right now, but in forming that connection and that trust. I think that is really important. and with that, I was still thinking, are you currently using AI for your LinkedIn content? Or do you have ways that you can optimize your LinkedIn content with AI that you can share with us?

Jeremy G: 16:07

Yes, absolutely. It's, actually I released quite recently, a custom GPT that I use myself to, to accelerate my process to create content on LinkedIn, LinkedIn posts that are, a good quality from my perspective as a content creator. so yeah, sure. I would be able, happy to, to show you how, how I, I made it, and describe for, for people who are just listening to this.

Audrey Chia: 16:30

That would be amazing. So Jeremy, feel free to share your screen and for all of you who are just listening and tuning into the podcast, he will be walking us through with his voice over as well. So take it away, Jeremy.

Jeremy G: 16:44

Okay, let's go. Okay. Let's make sure the screen. Okay. So first, so as I said, this is a custom GPT. What I wanted to do when creating this, this GPT was to avoid, absolutely avoid these generic outputs that we all get when we just say, okay, write me a blog post about XYZ in shared GPT. The output is almost. Every time, bad, too many images, weird sentences, weird words, like too many hashtags and stuff like this. So how you can, avoid this with JDPT, with any LLM, actually is to frame it, frame the model into what you consider the right, data that you want. The model to use. Let me show you how it works. and, and then I will show you how it is inside. This is exclusive.

Audrey Chia: 17:43

Awesome.

Jeremy G: 17:44

So yeah, I made this a little trigger. You just have to click a button to incline, to, to launch the process. it can be, it can take a while because it's a GPT 4. And as I said, I fed it with external, files. So it has to read them before answering me. So it's takes a bit of time. So the first step is to choose a topic, that you want to treat into your, your, your future LinkedIn post. So let's say, I don't know, I'll try copywriting maybe. So I'm just typing copywriting. So the next, the GPT is trying to provide me 10 hooks, which will, put me in the right direction and give me ideas, about, a LinkedIn post that I want to create. So from just a word, I will have 10 ideas, 10 directions that I can use and follow to. Create a LinkedIn post. So it's writing right now.

Audrey Chia: 18:45

It's super cool that you broke it down into multiple steps as well. Instead of just asking it to generate a post for you. So now you can actually like shortlist the stuff that you want, and then you can like dive deeper into those.

Jeremy G: 18:57

Yeah, exactly. And, and also by adding these steps, first, it helps the model to, to treat the information properly. If you are not, I'm not overloading the process, the model, it's lost. It's, it's lost in the steps. So cutting by steps helps the model first. And also it allows me, if I'm not satisfied with these 10 ideas, I can just regenerate 10 new ones and I don't have to have to do the entire process again, from scratch, you know.

Audrey Chia: 19:25

Super cool. Cool. So what would be like an example of like a hook that you would choose? And then what would be the next step?

Jeremy G: 19:33

so as I said, it's, I will show you how it is inside, but I've added three files. One file is about what I consider a good hook. So I gave the model a list of good hooks. the second is context about me. If you want a LinkedIn post to be, good, actually, it has to be personal, it has to be from you. You don't want a generic stuff. nobody's interested in generic ideas. So you have to add a bit of yourself, which is made through this file. And the last one is format. And we will see, this. after just after in the step after. So, yeah, as I said, there is, there are 10 hooks, based on my story. So it's almost always related to sales. and yeah, maybe this one would be nice to book number five. So the GPT is just asking me if I'm satisfied with this hooks. So I would just say yes. And then I would have to choose one. Let's say I would choose. Hook number five. So I wanted it to, for the users to be super simple to use. so far I've written into the chat, I've written copywriting. Yes. And hook number five.

Audrey Chia: 20:51

Got it. So a very simple user interaction to be able to pick out what you're looking for and then proceed to the next step.

Jeremy G: 20:59

Exactly. That's the goal. I wanted this GPT to be, usable for anybody. Okay, it's coming. The draft, the LinkedIn post draft is coming.

Audrey Chia: 21:11

So you actually trained the GPT on different steps, like, is it like a phase by phase approach that you trained it? Got it.

Jeremy G: 21:19

Yes. Yes, exactly. So I will show you what's inside behind the scene, but as you can see what I wanted, it's, so this is a draft, sorry for those who can't see it, but it's really well formatted to be a LinkedIn post. Of course, as always with AI, you have to refine, the output to make your own to kit a bit. but you know, with this. Actually, it's 80 percent usable, I would say. And the 20 percent is your personal secret sauce that you have to add in this output.

Audrey Chia: 21:51

Yeah. I really love that it's formatted in like a high conversion copy manner because on LinkedIn, we all know there's a specific format. You can't have chunky paragraphs, you need to have like short and punchy lines. And you need to have bullet points and then structure it in a really aesthetically pleasing way. Exactly. And I think this post example did exactly that.

Jeremy G: 22:14

Yeah, exactly. That was the goal. So if you want me to show you what's inside, I can edit the GPT. So these are the instructions. I will skip this, but as you can see, it's quite detailed and a bit long because I want the model to use every step, never miss anything to make sure that, it will be stable when you can use it and reuse it every time it will still work. And as I mentioned in here, I have the different, files. One context is about my story. My personal story models is actually a database that I have created about good LinkedIn posts, with, an example of a post and a template that is, related to this specific example, I can show you just after and the hook, same logic, a list of hooks that are good, example, and, a template by doing this, providing a template and an example, it helps the model to take the text, the template. Use it with your content that you are, the input that you're giving it, but also have a reference, an example to like, it's a few shots, one shot, methodology. Maybe you know, this, Audrey,

Audrey Chia: 23:31

so I think what people don't realize is sometimes they think a prompt is very straightforward. But actually there are so many different components to it. Like even in your example and the documents you've uploaded, you're always giving it the template and an example so that chat GPT knows how to follow that structure and have like a framework to create the content.

Jeremy G: 23:52

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Because, it's actually how an LLM works. It's predicting the next word, the better probability for the next word. And if you don't frame it into a specific context, if you don't put some limits, it will probably go too far and find something quite generic because generic to the model is safe. You know, if I'm asking you something and you say, you reply something generic, you're not taking any risks, but probably you won't be mad. You won't be like, Oh, that's, that's a shitty thing. But you would be like, well, it's not exciting either. So it will always be generic in right in the middle. So if you have to guide it most precisely into what you specifically want and to do that, you have to provide the model with examples, which helps a lot to narrow on the result that you, that you will have. And if you want me to show how it looks, so I've created this, and, you know, in the, for example, the LinkedIn models database, I've, copied and passed, 29 models, 28, 28 models and, and, and templates, so templates and example every time. So, you know, it's always formatted on LinkedIn posts that are performing and the good news. And this is next level is that in the future, find posts that you like when scrolling LinkedIn, capture them and transform them into templates that you can put into your database to enrich the potential of the GPT. So, yeah, that's basically how it works.

Audrey Chia: 25:40

Awesome. We're sharing that Jeremy. And also one question before we move on to the next, are there any hot tips that you have when it comes to creating custom GPTs? Things that you've learned along the way of how do you get the answer that you're looking for?

Jeremy G: 25:57

Yeah, it's, it's super, tricky actually. I spent a few hours creating this. I would say you have to basically iterate and fail and identify the errors to avoid them. What helped me creating this one was like, okay. I want, for example, I want it to be splitted into different steps. And sometimes in the middle of a step, the output wasn't what I wanted. So I was like, okay, I asked to the GPT, like, why did, don't you, follow the, the instruction that I've put? And most of the time it answered like, oh, I override this instruction. And so I had that, I had it a lot of do not avoid this step, like instruction, super clear. And also you can add some, tips that you can find on the different, creators about ChatGPT, like tips, such as, tipping the model, like if you do this step really well, I will tip you. 1, 000, for example, I'm not 100 percent sure that it's better, but from my tests, it has been better. So I recommend you to, to, to use this kind of, tips. So, put something out and just iterate on this and refine it. I would say I've done 10 versions of this one before it works like I wanted.

Audrey Chia: 27:18

I was very tempted to use that tipping prompt, where I'm going to give you$200 if you were to complete this task. But I'm so afraid that it's going to come back and bite me in the butt in two years, two to three years time. I'm AI will be smart enough to be like, you did not tip me girl.

Jeremy G: 27:36

Here is the invoice. I'm waiting.

Audrey Chia: 27:40

We shall see about that.

Jeremy G: 27:42

Yeah.

Audrey Chia: 27:44

But I know, I know you shared many amazing tips on your online community and workshop. Do you want to tell us more about that? You invited me and I have found so much value. I would love for you to share that with the audience.

Jeremy G: 27:57

Yes. Thank you very much. it came from, my experience as, a business consultant at the beginning of my journey in September, October, November, 2023. I wanted to help people with my time, giving them some advice from my experience. And I realized that many of my clients, even if it's, it was quite a short period, they all had the same issues. Which wasn't exactly operational problems, more strategic programs. so I realized, okay, we are in a wave of AI, many professionals are suffering from the FOMO syndrome. You know, I don't want to miss on this magic revolution. So they were super, In a hurry to implement AI, but most of them didn't have the fundamentals, right? They were lacking, on the fundamentals and, based on that, I was like, okay, first this consulting thing is awesome, but I'm not sure that I personally want to do it on the long run and second. As I only have 24 hours and if, as that many people are facing the same problems, I should probably be able to help more people by recording this in the course and spread this course more heavily, basically. So that was the first idea that I had. So it was in, At the end of 2023, I would say December. So I spent, all my time in January and February to create this, this course. And, by studying this, world, of course, I really also realized that, a course isn't enough. Well, I did it. You may be probably, You did it too. You buy a course, even if you're paying, you buy a course, but you don't go through it entirely and you don't apply the benefits from the course because, you know, life it's, we are busy and that's it. So I wanted this to be more than just a course. So I added more value from this, which is a community. So I was, I'm offering to every members of this program to communicate, to, to network together and to share the problems they are facing because one thing in entrepreneurship. That can be hard is sometimes you are a bit lonely in front of your problems. So I wanted also to, to help and cover this. And the final thing would, was, the live events because same community and course, it's not live. So I wanted to add this layer. So we have the group calls every Wednesday. I'm joining the call and we can just talk about the problem they are facing. The members are facing and I can share all my experience and knowledge about sales. So I'm super happy with this because, it, you know, it make, accountability when you are, I can ask you, so how, how is it going? And, and it's, it's motivates people to, to go through the course and apply the benefits from it. And in the future, I'm also planning to add, events like. Exclusive events with other professionals to not only cover sales, but everything related. It can be marketing. It can be copy Audrey. It can be, this is an imitation. It can be. It can be anything. So this, I want to enrich, enrich with this, this program. And, I hope people will be happy to try

Audrey Chia: 31:25

for sharing that. So for those of you who are listening, you have to check Jeremy's course out. It's called The Forge and we will link the details to that in the comments. And before we wrap up, Jeremy, one last question for you. Do you have any advice for someone who is trying to leverage AI in sales?

Jeremy G: 31:46

Ah, only one. yeah, yeah. As I said, we said it already get the fundamental right. and then from this, you will identify, different steps in your sales processes or different processes in your business that are, actually repetitive tasks. And this is the first thing that you can, enhance using AI. And based on this, I know this can be overwhelming, so just chill out and find the right tool. Take the time to find the right tool that will help you for this specific need that you have and not listen to any gurus that will sell you magic things. Just chill out. Take your time and you will surf this wave of AI. I

Audrey Chia: 32:34

absolutely love that. Listen to Jeremy. Chill out. You know, don't overcomplicate things. just get started. And I think that as soon as you get started, you will slowly figure out how to fully leverage it and integrate it into your day to day. So thank you again, Jeremy, for joining us today. It is an absolute pleasure speaking to you and having you on the show and thank you for tuning in. So don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and remember to hit the notification button to get updated when our next release is out till next time.