Courage, Speaking, and Sales in the AI Era

With Sales and Public Speaking Expert, Richie Nkana

Ritchie Nkana discusses the impact of AI on social skills and how that has affected sales. He also shares some tips on courage he’s learned from public speaking.

Let’s talk about AI and authenticity. Are people outsourcing their judgment to AI?

A fear right now, especially for the kids that are coming up with AI, is that the critical thinking aspect is being eroded, because now there’s that reliance on AI to do the thinking for you, as opposed to you thinking or AI being a tool. And that is a danger. We’ve got young people now using AI even with their studies. It might get them good grades, but can you imagine people going into the industry not really having those fundamentals?

But that goes with teams as well, I think. In the case of teams, I talk a lot about that because when it comes to being in workplaces, we cannot outsource that, creating those relationships, be it in a business environment, be it in a workplace.  

I think with AI, some jobs are being replaced, a lot of stuff is being automated; does it become a danger that communication now is lacking?  

You have that human touch, the human aspect to a job. Yes, you can have efficiency, but human connection is really important as well. So that’s something we have to be aware of.  

And as business leaders with the people you’re leading, are you present, are you being human? Or are you just outsourcing your presence in being that leader of that team? So there is a lot to unpack, and I think we’re still that stage right now. We’re just figuring things out and navigating the landscape. But I think it’s just that we need to be aware and ensure that we don’t lose touch of that.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your concerns about youth and critical thinking?

You look at social media as well and how it’s so rampant. I remember a time when social media wasn’t as commonplace as it is right now. Case in point, kids know how to post videos on TikTok, right? But the thing is, I think we have a privileged position in our case, be it AI, be it social media, where we have actually seen a time [before these technologies].  

We have an opportunity to bridge that gap and meet the young people where they are–not talk down to them because that’s all they know. But how can you bridge that gap? 

If you tell your kid, don’t go on social media, don’t go use ChatGPT or AI because it’s bad for you, they’re just going to find a way to do it anyway because other kids are doing it. And so critical thinking is actually key. It’s about instilling those values in them, having them being able to assess: “I don’t want to spend hours in the end on Tick Tock,” for instance, “because it’s not wholesome for me and this is the reason why.” And ChatGPT–“I can use it to do well on my coursework, but guess what? I’m just cheating myself.” 

So they can actually be able to deduce, “Right, okay, this is why I need to do this again.” It’s about developing those philosophies from that young age.

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Many young people are having issues when it comes to developing social skills. What impact is this having on sales?

Sales is definitely impacted quite a lot, especially now with AI. That’s the reason I’m a big advocate now of speaking, using stages as a mechanism. People are hiding behind DMs or content. You can just use ChatGPT to write those DMs. But it’s one thing to actually be in a room with people and to be able to communicate, be it virtually as we’re talking right now or in a physical room. 

You have keyboard warriors who are hiding behind the screen. And social skills are lacking in a great way. I think that they are being eroded in a lot of ways and people now want authenticity.  Something that’s been so constant to speaking is, you know, when you go in a room for a 20-minute talk, a 40-minute talk, how you can get people to go from, “I don’t know you” to at the end of a talk, “how do I get to know more about you or what you do?”  That idea-sharing might take hundreds of pieces of content.  

So social skills and the human connection are being eroded in a lot of ways. Technology brings a lot of good. But, when it comes to social skills, they’re something that we have to work on, and they take a conscious, deliberate effort. 

I work from home for the most part now. I don’t go into the office as I used to. So I even at times have to make that conscious, deliberate effort to do this because I found I get overwhelmed. Sometimes I go to speak, and it’s a big room. I have to readjust to that. So social skills are something we have to keep on working on now a lot more than we did in the past because we had to go out, we had to go into the offices.

What advice do you have for people who are trying to improve their interpersonal communication?

People always look at confidence like, “I’m an introvert.” Believe it or not, I’m also an introvert.  So I have to consciously make an effort to [speak publicly].

I came from a banking background, and I was happy being in the back-end building systems but not really being in front of people. It’s only when I wrote my first book and everything, I had to go out there and speak. That’s when it started. I had to do it. But, having said that, if I had waited until I had the confidence to do that, it would have never happened.  

So my advice to young people, If you’re an introvert, you don’t have confidence right out of the gate. It starts with courage and knowing exactly what you want. Courage builds when you jump in there. You’re building capabilities. And with capabilities, confidence comes later down the line.  

One of the reasons we don’t get started is we’re always looking, thinking, I see that person working with an extrinsic kind of motivation. They’re great at what they’re doing. They’re great at speaking. But you have not seen what they had to go through to get to where they wanted to go. It’s the repetitions they have put in. It took courage for them to get started, then they built up their capabilities. [Then you see for yourself], I can actually do that. I did that right now. Confidence comes through.

Something my mentor gave me–this was a mindset shift and a game changer for me–is that we’re already selling. We always sell stuff. If you’re a parent, you’re always selling your kids on eating vegetables. But we don’t look at it from that perspective.   

Sales skills aren’t really built into school or college curricula. Is that something we should revisit?

I’ve been running a workshop for young people for the last five weeks for charity and financial literacy. That’s an issue I’ve been very big on as far as how things like financial literacy are not being taught in schools. But for the most part, we figure it out when we’re much older in life. At that point, maybe it’s a little bit too late. We’ve made some mistakes.

For me, sales, it was something I just did not want to do because there’s that negative connotation to it. Because when you think about sales, about trying to convince somebody to get something or trying almost to manipulate them, you always think about something like a car salesman, right? But something my mentor gave me–this was a mindset shift and a game changer for me–is that we’re already selling. We always sell stuff. If you’re a parent, you’re always selling your kids on eating vegetables. But we don’t look at it from that perspective.  

So what changed for me was when he said, “you know what? It’s not about selling, it’s about helping somebody. What you’re doing is giving value or solving a problem.” Because when you look at it from that perspective, I’m solving a problem. And if I don’t articulate that or I don’t share this solution to somebody who needs or who’s got this pain point, I’m actually doing a disservice to society. 

So that was a game changer for me. That’s looking at it from a different lens. I’m not selling. I’m only trying to find somebody who’s got this particular problem, and what I have can actually help them solve it. Otherwise they wouldn’t know that there is a solution for that problem.  

That needs to be taught, I think, from an early age, because we always look at sales through a negative lens. But if it’s articulated, be it in the school system or early on in life, then it all changes. I’m actually selling every time I have to go out, and I ask my parents to let me go out. I sell that idea. I’ll be back at this time, right? I need to use the car. I’ll keep it safe. We’re selling all the time.

But if we don’t teach that from an early age, I think we’re doing a disservice. That’s another thing I think we need to introduce in the school system, because it’s something that we have to do anyway. Whether or not you sell as an official salesperson, each and every one of us have to sell in some way at one time or the other.

From the outside looking in, sales often appears formulaic, but you’re describing it as conversational problem solving.

Absolutely. Yes, you can have scripts, but I’m not a big believer in hard selling. Somebody has a problem that I’ve either got a solution to help them with, or I don’t. Because if I sell somebody something they don’t need, that’s a disservice from my perspective. 

When I have a sales call, I really have a strategy call, understanding where they are right now and where they want to go. Then I have to articulate how we can actually help them bridge that gap. So for me, it doesn’t even feel like a sales call because it more feels like, “I understand where you are right now. This is where you want to go. And my solution can actually help you do that.” And if I find in that discovery call that my solution is not the right fit, I’ll tell them up front. 

It’s easier this way because you’re both at ease. The person feels they’re not actually being sold to but just having a conversation. You’re asking them questions, understanding where they are, and just digging in.

If you just say “we’re going to have a conversation, and, regardless of what happens, whether we work together or not, you’re going to get some value out of it”—at least getting value from the call itself puts people at ease.

It seems like we’re moving from “always be closing” to a consultative partnership.

Absolutely. And that’s the reason you find people will avoid jumping on sales calls. It’s because they feel like they’re going to be pressured into buying something they might not need. But if you just say “we’re going to have a conversation, and, regardless of what happens, whether we work together or not, you’re going to get some value out of it”—at least getting value from the call itself puts people at ease. And if it’s the right fit, well and good. If it’s not, they go away with some pointers on how they can actually move along.  

And reputation is actually key as well. We see that a lot where, yes, you’ve pushed somebody to get something. Now they have it, and then later down the line they feel it’s actually not the right fit. Then what? To start off with, your reputation is tarnished. Then you might also lose that person for good.

So what I found is, if somebody’s the right fit, not only is your solution going to help them, but it’s also a marketing play. You’re building your pipeline. Because then they’re going to spread the word. For the longest time, this was my channel: word of mouth. “Oh, speak to Richie. This is what he does.”  So it’s all based on that as opposed to just forcing something for the sake of it.

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About Ritchie Nkana