Mid-year is a natural point for most firms to reassess their sales performance and adjust their plans for growth to year-end.

Presently UK businesses are facing cost pressure, with British Chambers of Commerce data showing 73% citing labour costs as a pressure and 49% expecting to raise prices. At the same time, AI adoption is accelerating, with BCC finding that 54% of firms are now actively using AI. This new transformative technology has been on every leaders’ agenda as firms struggle to make productivity gains in consistently tough trading conditions, consider new services, and simply want to not be left behind.

However, firms cannot afford to use new technology to simply sell harder or faster.

Pipedrive’s latest UK research ‘Hard Sell’, found that only 21% of the public see sales as trustworthy, while 53% say no immediate pressure to make a decision would make them trust a salesperson more. More than half also say they do not fully trust AI. Putting AI into practice without really considering its impact on prospects and customers may risk how they relate to your people and brand. There’s a lot of cachet in being people-first, with business services delivered by people for people.

Cost and trading pressures force businesses to do more with less and AI vendors promise new opportunities. Yet stable growth is likely to come from improving trust, as well as increasing and optimising activity. That Hard Sell research indicates that ‘selling harder’ won’t be the smartest approach.

Buyers are increasingly sceptical of sales approaches. Trust in sales remains low. The risk of prioritising volume over customer experience is that customers don’t want to be treated like an object. The firms that offer the most human, empathetic experience, will acquire and retain customers for the long term, if they combine great delivery plus a person to person connection.

AI should remove admin, not relationships

AI's biggest value is freeing sales and other business teams from repetitive tasks, speeding delivery and allowing them to better target brain power where it’s most needed. At the same time, there’s a risk of scaling generic outreach and automated interactions that turn off a portion of users. There’s a great deal of psychology at play.

Moreover, we continue to live in that distressing phrase ‘unprecedented times’ and human judgement remains essential in complex buying decisions as high stress and uncertainty abound. Customers will want to test solutions and challenge claims and will be more comfortable doing that with another human being. This creates a real business case for trust.

In a world where AI plays an increasing part of business processes where it makes sense, there should be greater time spent on getting foundational elements right in the first place, well-communicated, and regularly checked for continued fit. For example:

• Offer genuine transparency around pricing, and set expectations for the sales and delivery process
• Give customers the space to make decisions - and enable them to return to where they left their quote/enquiry
• Make it a measured responsibility for managers to check how trust is earned over the stages of customer conversion, sale and care

Then of course, there’s the matter of aligning sales and customer service. In the Pipedrive research, salespeople actually rated customer service the highest in importance (58%) over all other departments, including sales. They do care about the long-term customer experience, and they know it does not end at the deal signature. It’s worth checking for friction or silos between customer acquisition and retention.

Churn is such a pernicious factor in increasing the pressure on sales to make-up for lost revenue. Where possible, use customer feedback to improve sales and relationship conversations and celebrate the heroes that can show how it’s done and mentor their peers. If they find great uses for AI in their process, consider how others can replicate their success.

Before the year-end pressure

Make the time to calmly consider whether business processes really are aligned with goals, including being a trusted advisor or provider to customers. It might be worth investing in training in areas like systems or critical thinking so that leaders and business heroes can fully understand even their hidden challenges.

Make it a recurring calendar task to look again at how teams approach tasks, and how the business should support them. Audit sales processes and customer touchpoints. Review where AI adds value versus where human interaction matters most.

Set trust-focused KPIs alongside revenue targets and prepare for a world where the intangible and the hidden like emotions and biases play a greater role. Then sales and customer care teams can get the right training, and marketing can write the best copy to collectively meet people where they are.

H2 success will depend on building that internal strength and confidence, not increasing the pressure that customers say turns them off. SMEs that combine the best technology with real transparency and strong and clear customer care will be best placed for sustainable growth - whatever else happens around them.

Sean Evers is VP of Sales and Partner at Pipedrive