Dancing with A.I.

How to use A.I. to grow your career, not replace your assistant

For months, I’ve been exploring artificial intelligence at work. Then I stumbled upon an old anecdote that offered a fresh perspective. I’ve been innovating my whole life, and never thought it artificial, but if I want to keep growing,

I’ll need to teach A.I. to dance.

Here’s what I mean.

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A.I. Why?

First, let me recount a conversation with a real estate agent recently. While discussing ways to increase sales, he said,

“I use ChatGPT to write descriptions for my listings.”

“Interesting,” I said. “How long does it take to write a listing description with AI?”

“Ten minutes to describe the property, area, and target customer,” he replied. “I include a link to details and photos. The AI generates a description, email template, and three social media posts. I’m done in fifteen or twenty minutes, maximum.”

“Terrific!” I said. “Now let’s do some math. How many listings did you have last year, and how much total time did you save with AI?”

There was a pause. It stretched a bit long. So I repeated the question. Still, he hesitated, then quietly said,

“Four.”

I thought I’d misunderstood, so I rephrased, “You mean, you had four listings per month that needed fresh ad copy?”

“No,” he said. “Four listings. For the year.”

My sales heart broke.

It’s time to change our steps for using AI in our careers © Matthew Ferrara

A.I. GPT is Not G.I. Joe

AI “use cases” like this are distracting the industry.

AI will make tasks easier! Faster! Cheaper! Once again, the silicon cavalry arrives to save the day. Except that “A.I. the Better Intern” doesn’t add up. We’re tasking it to do the tiniest of tasks. Spending fifteen minutes writing a prompt to write ads four times a year is like —

— calling out the National Guard to rescue your cat from the tree.

Can we just get a ladder?

Remember what Peter Drucker said in the 1960s:

“There’s nothing more useless than doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

AI can do a lot of things really efficiently (and fairly accurately). But those aren’t necessarily the things that drive growth. Even if we stretch the imagination, the typical salesperson doesn’t have a taking-too-long-writing-listing-descriptions problem. Some people do, like an overwhelmed Marketing Director writing fresh copy for fifty agents a month. But teaching a salesperson to cajole a chatbot into writing good ad copy (for a listing that will sell fast anyway) begs the question:

If an AI writes a good listing description and nobody needs to read it, does it it even make a sale?

How I do A.I.

Now I’m no Luddite: I use AI a lot.

Just not to automate mundane tasks. I challenge AI to expand my production.

Sure, I have used it for “lather, rinse and repeat” things like summarizing emails, transcribing meetings, and turning tedious lawsuits into presentation points. I once analyzed my thank-you notes to identify values my clients appreciate. I used it to generate quizzes and role-play scenarios for some workshops.

But none of those things created more growth: they merely serviced growth I already secured. It wouldn’t be needed at all, if I didn’t teach AI to help me make more sales, first.

It’s The Chicken

You see the catch?

If you’re not careful, AI will trap you into “getting ready to get ready to get started” on actual production. We’ve seen this before: When CRMs came out, some salespeople spent weeks transferring records from a shoebox to a database. We watch agents play with Canva redesigning their logo every week: rather than sending the old one to a few FSBOs every day.

The history of innovation has frequently led people away from being productive, as they sought to become more efficient. It’s why an agent with a rotary phone can still outsell an agent with a billion-dollar cloud computer: while one talks to software, the other talks to actual prospects. And that matters.

Because chickens come before eggs. And agents need listings before they have too many listing descriptions to write.

Sorry, Social Algorithms

And all the talk about using AI to “mass produce” social media content? Well, ask the data. According to the latest home buyer and seller profile (excerpt), when asked how they found their real estate agent, recent sellers said:

Sphere remains the winner every year — because people always choose people through people. But what about the fancy algorithmic marketing we now produce at AI speeds? Sellers said the agent’s social media page led to the agent 1% of the time. So either Facebook’s algorithm isn’t so smart, or AI-generated content isn’t so good. Either way, it didn’t beat the margin of error in the survey.

Meanwhile, the 1980s called and they got a new listing.

Four times more frequently, in fact, using the ancient telephone and email. Even visiting an open house was three times as likely to create a relationship. As for AI-generated listing descriptions?

Not even a thing.

Is it Either / Or?

Actually, yes.

Because we’re entering a market very different than anything we’ve seen in fifteen years. It won’t be goosed by interest rates. Builders won’t catch up on affordable housing any time soon. Prices will normalize. Inventory will steadily rise. All of this means human sales intelligence like valuable presentations, pricing conversations, engaging open houses, and effective negotiations will matter more than ever.

Much more, I think, than how smoothly a listing description rolls off the tongue.

And one more thing: As soon as the NAR settlement is finalized, some people will exit the industry. But don’t cheer too fast. The agents who stay in the business will be both incredibly good and deeply committed.

It’s going to get harder, not easier, to outperform the competition.

One Envelope, Please

This leads me to an anecdote told by Kurt Vonnegut, the American satirical novelist, that offers an alternate perspective on our never-ending fascination with efficiency.

One day, in the age of Amazon, Vonnegut told his wife he was going out to buy a single envelope:

“Oh, she says, well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?

And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot of people. And see some great looking babies. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And I’ll ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is — we’re here on Earth to fart around.

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that.

And what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around.

And it’s like we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”

What’s the difference between buying an envelope efficiently online, and going out to buy an envelope? The same difference between between using AI to write some ad copy, and using it to drive growth.

One of them creates a successfully organized person, who didn’t make a sale.

The other creates a salesperson, who may be no good at writing listing descriptions, but when it comes to getting clients, definitely knows how to dance.

— M

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Plus scroll down for some additional AI tips on driving more sales!

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Check out these eight prompts to help you find sales opportunities with your favorite AI bot. 👇👇

Use these “prompt-starters” to program your AI to discover some prospecting, sales, and marketing opportunities for your daily sales activities.

1. Hey AI! I’m working my sphere. I haven’t talked to my Past Client [Matthew Ferrara] in a while. Do some research and find out what that philosopher, speaker and coach has been doing in the past six months, so I can call him and have a meaningful conversation…

2. Hey AI! I need listing appointments, so make a list of [Las Vegas] properties currently listed “for sale by owner” online. Create a table with the address, features, price, and contact information, so I can contact them…..