Sales, Technology Speaker; Speaking Tips by Frank Furness

Wigs, Briefs and Bots: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming the Modern Law Firm

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:54:00 +0000

By Frank Furness | Sales Trainer, Keynote Speaker & AI Consultant

I was sitting in a law firm's reception in Singapore — impressive marble floors, mahogany furniture, framed certificates on every wall — waiting to speak to their partners about the future of business development. The receptionist handed me a form to fill in. By hand. With a pen. I half expected a quill.

Now, I'm not picking on that particular firm — they were lovely people, and the coffee was excellent. But it did strike me as slightly ironic that a profession built on precision, intelligence, and staying one step ahead of everyone else was, in many places, running on processes that hadn't changed since the invention of the filing cabinet.

That was then. This is very much now.

Artificial Intelligence has arrived in the legal profession — not with a theatrical entrance, but with the quiet efficiency of a very good paralegal who never sleeps, never bills by the hour, and never makes you feel judged for asking a basic question. According to research from Thomson Reuters, over 80% of legal professionals believe AI will significantly reshape the profession within the next five years. Many already have. The question isn't whether your firm should pay attention to AI. The question is whether you want to be leading the charge or watching from the pavement as your competitors drive past.

1. Legal Research That Doesn't Take All Weekend

Ask any lawyer what eats most of their billable hours and research usually features heavily. Sifting through case law, statutes, precedents, and commentary is intellectually demanding work — but let's be honest, it's also the kind of work that makes you question your life choices at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night.

AI tools like Lexis+ AI, Harvey AI, and CoCounsel have changed the game significantly. Ask them a complex legal question in plain English, and they'll return a summarised answer with relevant citations in seconds. Not minutes. Seconds.

Lawyers using these platforms are already able to:

• Identify relevant precedents without wading through hundreds of documents

• Compare rulings across multiple jurisdictions quickly

• Analyse potential legal arguments — and the other side's counterarguments

• Summarise lengthy judicial opinions in plain language

The result isn't just speed — it's better thinking. When you spend less time hunting for information, you spend more time applying it. That's where lawyers genuinely earn their fees.

FRANK'S QUICK TIP

If you're still spending hours on routine research, you're essentially billing clients for something a machine can now do faster and cheaper. That's not a business model — that's a countdown timer. Trial Harvey AI or CoCounsel on a low-stakes matter this week. You'll be amazed.

2. First Impressions Count — Even at Midnight

Here's a scenario that plays out hundreds of times a day. A potential client has just had an accident, received a frightening letter from a landlord, or discovered something alarming in a business contract. They're anxious. They want help. They go to your website at 9pm and... nothing. A contact form. Maybe a phone number. The digital equivalent of a closed sign.

AI-powered chat tools integrated into your firm's website can change that dynamic entirely. A well-designed AI assistant can answer common questions, gather key details about the case, and schedule a consultation — all before your staff have had their morning coffee. The prospective client feels heard. You receive a qualified lead. Everyone wins.

Some firms are also using AI to draft initial email responses and summarise client conversations — keeping communication professional, prompt, and consistent. Because in a world where clients have options, the firm that responds first and communicates clearly tends to win the instruction.

3. Document Drafting: The Groundwork, Done Fast

Let me be clear about something. AI is not going to replace the lawyer. It won't apply judgment, read the room in a negotiation, or explain to a frightened client why the situation isn't as catastrophic as it looks. Those things require human expertise, empathy, and experience — ideally combined with a decent cup of tea.

What AI can do brilliantly is the groundwork. Upload a contract and ask it to summarise obligations, flag unusual clauses, or identify potential risks. Ask it to produce a first draft of an NDA, an engagement letter, or a standard policy document. It won't be perfect — nothing ever is on the first pass — but it gives a skilled lawyer something solid to work from rather than starting from a blank page.

Think of it this way. A surgeon doesn't prepare the operating theatre themselves. AI is doing the preparation so the expert can focus on the operation.

FRANK'S QUICK TIP

Next time you have a routine document to draft, run the brief through ChatGPT or Claude first. See what comes back. Odds are you'll have a working draft in under three minutes rather than an hour. Time is your most valuable asset — stop giving it away on tasks that machines can handle.

4. Marketing and Thought Leadership (Without the Migraines)

I've worked with law firms across more than seventy countries, and one of the most common frustrations I hear from partners is this: "We know we should be doing more marketing, but we simply don't have the time." I understand. You're running a practice, not a media company. Except that in 2025, the firms that are visible online are the ones winning new clients — and the ones that aren't visible are slowly becoming invisible.

AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity have made this genuinely manageable. A specialist employment lawyer can use AI to identify the questions their ideal clients are asking online — "What are my rights after wrongful termination?" for instance — and turn those questions into helpful articles, LinkedIn posts, or short explainer videos. The content positions the firm as a trusted authority, builds credibility, and generates enquiries. All without spending three hours staring at a blank screen wondering where to start.

Short videos explaining complex legal issues in plain language are performing particularly well on LinkedIn and YouTube right now. You don't need a production team. You need a phone, decent lighting, and something useful to say. AI can help you work out what to say and how to say it.

5. Productivity: Getting Back Hours You Didn't Know You Were Losing

Perhaps the most underestimated benefit of AI in legal practice is the sheer amount of time it gives back. Not glamorous, perhaps — but transformative. Tools like Otter.ai automatically transcribe meetings. Microsoft Copilot drafts emails, summarises documents, and organises meeting notes. AI assistants can generate action lists from long transcripts so that important decisions don't get buried in sixty pages of notes.

Cumulatively, these tools can save a lawyer hours every single week. Hours that can be spent on client strategy, business development, professional development — or simply leaving the office at a reasonable time. Which, if you've ever worked in a law firm, you'll know is not always a given.

A Word on Responsibility

AI in legal practice isn't without its considerations. Client confidentiality matters. Every AI tool you use should be properly vetted for data security. AI-generated research should always be verified by a qualified professional — these tools are brilliant, but they're not infallible, and in law, an error is never just an error.

Think of AI as the most capable assistant you've ever had — one that needs clear instructions, careful supervision, and sensible boundaries. The lawyer remains responsible for the advice. AI simply helps deliver it better.

The Bottom Line

AI is not coming for lawyers. It's coming for the inefficiencies, the bottlenecks, the routine tasks, and the wasted hours that stop talented legal professionals from doing their best work.

The firms that understand this — and act on it — will be faster, more profitable, better at serving clients, and frankly more enjoyable places to work. The firms that ignore it will find themselves increasingly competing on price against practices that have already built a significant structural advantage.

You didn't spend years studying law to spend your career filling in forms and drafting first drafts of NDAs. Neither did your team. AI won't replace you — but it can absolutely free you.

The only question worth asking now is: are you going to use it — or wait to see what happens?

About Frank Furness

Frank Furness is a keynote speaker, sales trainer, and AI consultant with 25+ years of experience and clients in over 70 countries. He helps businesses understand and implement AI practically — without the jargon, the panic, or the unnecessary complexity. To find out more, visit frankfurness.com

Why Video Isn't "Nice to Have" Anymore—It's Your Business Survival Kit

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:42:00 +0000

I was speaking at a conference in Florida last month, and a business owner asked: "Frank, video seems like such a big investment. We're doing fine with just written content. Why should we bother?"

I asked him: "How many of your competitors are using video?" He paused. "Most of them, actually." Exactly.

Here's what I've learned training businesses across 70+ countries:

Video isn't the future anymore. It's the present. And if you're still treating it like an optional extra, you're handing your competitors a megaphone while you're whispering into a tin can.

The numbers tell the story: 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, and 85% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.

That's not theory. That's your revenue walking out the door if you're not in the game.

The £10,000 Mistake Nobody Talks About

Here's where I need to save you from an expensive blunder I see constantly.

You spend money creating a brilliant video. You upload it to YouTube. You embed it on your website. Job done, right?

Wrong. Catastrophically wrong.

Someone watches your video. It finishes. And then YouTube—being helpful—immediately shows them "related videos."

Which videos? Your competitors. Videos about similar topics. Literally anything except what you want them to see.

I watched a financial services company spend £10,000 on an explainer video, embed it via YouTube on their pricing page, and wonder why people weren't converting.

We discovered 40% of viewers were clicking on competitor videos YouTube suggested at the end. They were literally paying to send traffic to their competition.

Frank's Quick Tip: If you're embedding videos on your website, use Vimeo (paid plans start at £20/month) or another dedicated hosting service that gives you control over what happens at the end. Yes, it costs money. But it's a fraction of what you'll lose inadvertently promoting your competitors on your own website.

5 Ways Every Business Should Be Using Video Right Now

1. Product demonstrations. Stop describing what your product does. Show it. 82% of people are more likely to buy after watching an explainer video.

A B2B software company I worked with created a 90-second screen recording showing exactly how a customer solved a real problem. Their demo request rate jumped 67% in two months. Shot on an iPhone, edited in an afternoon.

2. Personalized sales videos. Instead of another text email, record a 60-second personalized video addressing your prospect by name. Tools like Loom make this easy. Open rates are consistently 3-5x higher. Why? Because authentic personal video stands out like a lighthouse in a sea of automation.

3. LinkedIn thought leadership. Video posts on LinkedIn reach 5-10x more people than text posts with the same message. Film yourself sharing one practical insight. Natural light, iPhone, done. Keep it under 2 minutes. The content that performs best looks like it was made by a professional, not for one.

4. Customer testimonials. Written testimonials are fine. Video testimonials are gold. You don't need professional videographers. Some of the most effective testimonials I've seen were customers recording themselves on smartphones. The authenticity matters more than production quality. I have over 65, take a look https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBFF5A8C8590F57B2

5. Internal communication. How many company-wide emails get ignored? Most of them. Now imagine your CEO records a 90-second video update instead. Engagement will be dramatically higher. I've seen this transform company culture in organizations from Dubai to Denver.

The Tools You Actually Need (Spoiler: Less Than You Think)

You probably already own the best camera you need. It's in your pocket. Modern iPhones shoot in 4K quality that's genuinely professional—78% of LinkedIn videos are shot with a smartphone. The barrier to entry isn't equipment. It's pressing record.

For editing: iMovie (free on iPhone) handles simple edits perfectly. CapCut is free and powerful for social media content.

For desktop, DaVinci Resolve is shockingly powerful and completely free. My personal favourite I use all the time is Camtasia.

But honestly? For 80% of business video needs, your iPhone and iMovie will get the job done.

The AI Video Revolution

AI video generation has gone from "interesting experiment" to "holy hell, this actually works" in about 12 months.

Sora 2 can now create professional-quality videos up to 25 seconds long from just a text description. Complete with sound effects, music, and realistic physics.

I tested it: "A professional presenter in a modern office explaining business strategy, warm afternoon lighting." Thirty seconds later, I had a video that looked like it came from a £5,000 production.

Perfect? No. Does it replace human creativity? Absolutely not.

But for B-roll footage, concept videos, or situations where filming isn't practical?

Genuinely transformative. Disney just invested £1 billion in this technology. That's not a small bet.

The Quality Question Everyone Gets Wrong

People obsess over 4K resolution, professional lighting, and expensive microphones. Here's what actually matters: audio quality and authenticity.

You can get away with iPhone video quality. You absolutely cannot get away with rubbish audio. Invest in a simple lapel microphone (£30-50) before anything else.

And authenticity? That's free. The most engaging business videos are people being genuinely themselves—imperfect, human, real.

Overly polished corporate videos that cost £20,000 often perform worse than authentic content shot on a phone.

The Bottom Line

Video is no longer competing with other content types. It's dominating them.

Your customers prefer it, algorithms favour it, and your competitors are already doing it.

The good news? The barrier to entry has never been lower.

You have a professional camera in your pocket. Free editing software exists. AI tools can fill in gaps. And authentic content outperforms expensive production anyway.

The businesses thriving over the next decade won't be the ones with the biggest video budgets.

They'll be the ones who understood that video is simply how humans prefer to consume information now—and they got comfortable pressing record.

So the question isn't "Should we use video?" anymore. The question is "How quickly can we start?"

Ready to build a video strategy that actually drives results without requiring a film crew? I work with businesses globally to develop practical, sustainable approaches to video content that fit how you actually work. Let's talk about what's possible when you stop overthinking it and start recording.

LinkedIn in 2026 - The Game Has Changed

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:49:00 +0000

I was chatting with a marketing director in Manchester last week who was genuinely baffled. "Frank," she said, "my LinkedIn posts used to get thousands of views. Same content quality, same posting schedule. Now? Crickets. What the hell happened?"

I pulled up her last ten posts. Every single one had a link in the main text. There was her problem.

LinkedIn fundamentally changed the rules in 2026, and most people are still playing by the 2024 playbook. Having trained professionals across 70+ countries on LinkedIn strategy, I can tell you this with absolute certainty: What worked 18 months ago will actively hurt you today.

The Three Seismic Shifts

External links are poison. Posts with links see 60% less reach. I tested this myself—same post, same timing. The version without the link got 4x more impressions.

Comments beat likes. A post with 50 genuine comments outperforms one with 500 likes. LinkedIn wants conversations, not superficial engagement.

Engagement pods are dead. The algorithm identifies unnatural patterns and will hammer your reach if you're gaming the system.

What's Actually Working

Text-only posts dominate. Here's the shocker: Posts with a single image get 30% less reach than text-only posts. This completely reverses the 2024-2025 trend. My best-performing content in the past six months? All text, no images. Just well-formatted insights with strategic line breaks.

PDF carousels are kings. Multi-page documents keep users on LinkedIn while delivering value. I created a 5-page carousel on algorithm changes and it reached 3x more people than my typical posts.

Short video clips thrive. 30-90 seconds is the sweet spot. Anything longer loses people. And here's critical: Put the URL in the comments, not the post. One test showed reach quadrupling with this simple shift.

Frank's Quick Tip: Format text posts for humans. Short paragraphs, white space, occasional bold text for key points. Make it scannable. Nobody wants to read a wall of text that looks like terms and conditions.

The First Hour Is Make or Break

The first 60 minutes decide your reach. LinkedIn evaluates your post in that window. Genuine engagement—actual comments, saves, shares—gets it distributed wider. If it flops initially, it stays flopped.

I now block out 60 minutes after posting anything substantial. I'm in the comments, responding thoughtfully, keeping conversations going. It works.

Frequency and Timing

LinkedIn's official guidance: 2-5 posts per week. Not daily. Quality over quantity. I post 3 times per week now—Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Better results than when I was posting daily and burning out.

Best times: Tuesday-Thursday, 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm. Mid-morning catches coffee breaks, lunchtime catches scrollers. Weekends? Forget it. LinkedIn is a work platform.

Personal Profiles Win, Company Pages Lose

Brutal truth: Organic reach dropped 60% on company pages between 2024-2026. Meanwhile, personal profiles dominate 65% of content consumption. Your company page is basically invisible. Your CEO's personal profile? That'll actually get seen.

One client made this shift three months ago. Their company page engagement went to basically zero. But their three executives posting regularly? Combined reach 10x what the company page ever achieved.

The Link Workaround

Need to drive traffic? Put the link in the first comment. Create your post with all the value, then immediately comment with "Full details here: [link]". Better yet: Create the complete value on LinkedIn itself. Make LinkedIn the destination, not a billboard.

I stopped linking to my website from posts entirely. My traffic hasn't dropped—people who want more click through to my profile. But my reach has tripled.

Comments Are Your Secret Weapon

Your comments on other people's posts matter almost as much as your own posts. Thoughtful comments function like micro-posts, expanding reach and boosting your credibility.

I spend 30 minutes every morning commenting thoughtfully on posts in my feed. Not "great post!" rubbish, but actual insights. This has done more for my visibility than almost anything else.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn in 2026 is fundamentally different. The engagement hacks don't work. The clever tactics backfire. The company pages are invisible.

What works? Being genuinely helpful. Sharing real expertise. Creating value directly on the platform. Engaging thoughtfully. Posting consistently but not constantly.

The good news? This makes LinkedIn better. The people gaming the system are getting squeezed out. The people adding genuine value are getting amplified.

If you've been frustrated with declining reach, now you know why. And more importantly, you know what to do about it.

The question is: Will you adapt to the new reality or keep wondering why nobody sees your posts anymore?

Want to build a LinkedIn presence that actually drives business results in 2026? I work with professionals and businesses globally to develop strategies that align with how the platform actually works now—not how it worked two years ago. Let's talk about what's possible when you stop fighting the algorithm and start working with it.

How AI Can Transform Your Speaking Business (But Your Stage Performance Still Determines Everything)

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:10:00 +0000

I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Dubai last month, scrolling through my calendar for 2026. sixty-three confirmed speaking gigs. Another dozen in negotiation. My fee higher than it's ever been.

And here's what hit me:

Not a single one of those bookings came from cold outreach.

Not one came from a fancy marketing campaign.

Every single booking—every single one—came because someone saw me speak, or knew someone who saw me speak.

After 25 years on the professional speaking circuit across 70+ countries, I can tell you the uncomfortable truth: 95% of my bookings come from someone in the audience seeing me deliver.

The other 5%? They came from people who watched my showreel and thought, "That's exactly what we need."

Your stage performance is your real marketing. Everything else—your website, your AI prospecting, your social media presence—exists to get you on more stages where more people can see you work.

But here's where it gets interesting.

AI is fundamentally changing how speakers find those stage opportunities, connect with decision-makers, and stay visible between gigs.

The speakers who understand how to combine exceptional stage performance with intelligent AI-powered business development?

They're booking more gigs, at higher fees, with less effort than ever before.

Let me show you how to do both.

The Foundation: You Must Be Brilliant on Stage (Or Nothing Else Matters)

Before we talk about AI tools, LinkedIn strategies, or any other tactics, let's establish the non-negotiable foundation:

You have to be genuinely good on that stage.

Not just competent. Not just "fine." Genuinely excellent.

Because when someone in that audience thinks, "We need this person at our next event," they're not thinking about your LinkedIn profile or your clever email campaign.

They're thinking about how you made them feel. How you challenged their thinking. How you gave them something they can actually use.

I learned this watching a speaker in Singapore who had immaculate marketing materials, a gorgeous website, and an active social media presence.

On stage? Forgettable. Generic content delivered with no energy. I watched three people check their phones within the first ten minutes.

Contrast that with a speaker I saw in Manilla who had a basic website and almost no social media presence.

On stage? Mesmerizing.

Every person in that room was leaning forward. I counted five people taking photos of his key slides. At the end, there was a queue of event planners waiting to talk to him.

Six months later, guess which one is booked solid?

Your stage performance is your product. Everything else is just packaging.

What makes a booking-worthy stage performance:

You deliver immediate value—not just entertainment, not just inspiration, but practical insights people can apply Monday morning.

Your content is current and relevant, addressing issues your audience is actually facing right now.

You connect emotionally whilst backing everything with credible data and examples.

You're adaptable, reading the room and adjusting in real-time.

You finish strong with clear takeaways, not generic platitudes.

Most importantly? You're authentic.

Audiences can spot manufactured personas from three rows back.

The speakers who book consistently are the ones who show up as themselves—just the best, most focused version of themselves.

I've seen speakers with incredible credentials bomb because they were performing a version of who they thought a speaker should be. And I've seen speakers with modest backgrounds absolutely crush it because they were genuinely, authentically present.

After you walk off that stage, people should be thinking about your ideas, not your delivery. When they remember the message more than the messenger, you've nailed it.

Why Your Website and Showreel Are Non-Negotiable in 2025

Here's a scenario that plays out almost weekly: Someone sees you speak. They're interested. They pull out their phone during the break and search for you. What do they find?

In 2025, that moment—that immediate post-performance Google search—is where most potential bookings live or die.

A decision-maker at a conference in Amsterdam saw me deliver a keynote on AI and sales. Loved it. Wanted me for their leadership summit in March.

Before approaching me, they did what every professional does: They googled me, found my website, watched my showreel.

My website clearly showed my expertise areas, my speaking topics, my fee range (yes, I list it), client testimonials with logos, and contact information that didn't require jumping through hoops.

My showreel showed me working different rooms—intimate boardrooms and massive conference halls, different topics, different audiences, all delivering value.

She booked me before we even spoke. The conversation was about logistics, not convincing.

Another speaker I know and was going to refer. I thought I would call him first. I phoned the office number on his website and received a message that this number no longer worked and I had to call his mobile number that he rattled off so quickly I could not get it. Two calls later I finally got it.

I called the mobile number and received another message asking to leave my details and he would get back to me.

Funny thing, I did not refer him and never will….

Your website must answer five questions immediately:

What do you speak about? (Be specific. "Leadership" isn't enough. "How mid-level managers can lead remote teams through uncertainty using practical communication frameworks" is specific.)

Who have you spoken for? (Recognizable logos build instant credibility. If you don't have big names yet, be specific about industries and audience sizes.)

What will audiences experience? (This is where your showreel lives. More on that in a moment.)

How do I book you? (Make this ridiculously easy. Not hidden behind "Contact Us" forms that go nowhere.)

What's your fee range? (Controversial opinion: I list my fees. Saves everyone time. Attracts serious inquiries. Filters out the "can you speak for free" requests.)

Your showreel is your most important sales tool.

Not your longest keynote. Not your entire presentation.

A tightly edited 3–5-minute compilation showing you at your best across different contexts. ( I have 3 different versions on YouTube, 3 minutes, 6 minutes and 18 minutes)

I recently updated my showreel and the difference was immediate. Inquiries increased 40% in two months because potential clients could see me work before making contact.

What makes a showreel work? Show different audiences responding to you—laughter, heads nodding, people taking notes.

Include 2-3 of your strongest insights delivered with energy. Demonstrate range—show both entertaining moments and serious, practical content.

Feature client testimonials from recognizable organizations (I have 65, take a look at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBFF5A8C8590F57B2 .

Keep it under five minutes (three minutes is even better). End with clear contact information and your website.

Audio quality matters more than video quality.

Invest in proper sound. A well-recorded iPhone video with great audio beats a professionally shot video with muddy sound.

Most speakers' showreels are too long, too generic, or too self-congratulatory. Yours should answer one question: "What would it be like to have this person speak at my event?" Make the answer compelling.

Using AI to Identify and Connect With Potential Bookers (Without Being a Pest)

Right, here's where AI becomes genuinely useful for professional speakers.

Not to replace the fundamentals—your stage performance, your showreel—but to amplify your visibility and connect with decision-makers who need exactly what you offer.

The speaking business has always been relationship-driven. AI doesn't change that. But it makes identifying and nurturing those relationships dramatically more efficient.

Finding the right event planners and decision-makers:

Traditional approach: Scroll through conference websites, manually compile lists, send generic emails, hope for responses. Exhausting. Ineffective. Soul-destroying.

AI-powered approach: Let technology identify potential clients whilst you focus on content development and stage performance.

I have 3 qualified leads landing in my inbox every day…

Tools like EventX's AI-powered Lead Finder access databases with over 120 million verified contacts. You can search for event planners, corporate meeting organizers, and conference producers in your specific industries.

The system analyzes profiles and suggests matches based on event types, industry focus, and company size.

Seamless.AI offers real-time verification of contact information.

Unlike static databases that are outdated before you access them, this platform uses AI to verify phone numbers and email addresses in real-time. The free plan gives you 50 credits to test the system before committing.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator combined with AI tools like ChatGPT allows you to identify decision-makers, analyze their activity to understand their priorities, and craft personalized outreach that actually references their specific challenges.

I've been using these tools for the past 18 months.

Here's my workflow: I identify 20 potential clients weekly using EventX or Seamless.AI.

I research each one thoroughly on LinkedIn—understanding their recent posts, their company's challenges, their event history.

I use ChatGPT to draft initial outreach messages that reference specific context about their organization, not generic "I'm a speaker available for hire" nonsense.

The response rate? About 30-40%. That's dramatically higher than the 2-3% I used to get with traditional cold outreach.

Frank's Quick Tip: Don't pitch in your first message. Offer value. I often share a recent article or insight relevant to their industry with a note like, "Saw your post about employee engagement challenges. Thought you might find this approach interesting." No ask. Just value. Half the time, they respond asking about my speaking services.

Crafting AI-assisted outreach that doesn't sound like a robot:

The biggest mistake speakers make with AI?

Using it to generate generic messages at scale. Event planners can spot AI-generated spam instantly. Your emails get deleted before the second paragraph.

Instead, use AI as a research assistant and draft creator, then heavily personalize.

Here's my process: I ask ChatGPT to analyze a potential client's LinkedIn profile and recent company news, identify three specific challenges relevant to my expertise, and draft a 150-word outreach message that references these specific challenges.

Then—and this is critical—I rewrite it in my own voice, adding personal observations that only a human could make. I send it from my personal email, not a mass marketing platform.

The result sounds human because it is human. AI just handled the research and created a starting point.

Staying visible between bookings:

AI tools like Opus Clip and Lumen5 can transform your keynote recordings into dozens of short video clips optimized for social media. One 45-minute keynote can become 20+ pieces of shareable content.

I record every keynote (with permission), then use Opus Clip to identify the most engaging 60-90 second segments.

These become LinkedIn posts, Instagram reels, and website content. Each clip is a mini-audition, showing potential bookers what I deliver.

Taskade and Motion help manage follow-up sequences.

After speaking at an event, I add every attendee who engaged with me to a nurture sequence. Not aggressive sales follow-up—value-adding check-ins. AI scheduling tools ensure I stay in touch without manually tracking dozens of conversations.

The key principle: Use AI to identify opportunities and stay organized. Use your human judgment and authentic voice for all actual communication.

Speaking About Topics That Actually Get You Booked in 2025-2026

Let me be blunt: You can be the world's greatest speaker, but if you're speaking about topics nobody wants, you won't get booked.

The speaking business rewards relevance. What was hot two years ago is often dead today. What's emerging now will dominate 2026 bookings.

After conversations with dozens of event planners, speakers' bureaus, and fellow speakers across six continents, here's what's getting booked right now:

1. AI and Technology (But Make It Practical)

AI is the number one requested keynote topic for 2025-2026.

But here's the catch: Event planners don't want theoretical discussions about AI's potential (every man and his dog is suddenly an AI speaker and most are very weak, actually getting their speech written by AI, so obvious.)

If your AI content sounds like something ChatGPT could have written, you're in trouble. Bring industry-specific examples, real implementation stories, and practical frameworks.

They want speakers who can explain how their specific audience—whether that's financial advisors, healthcare administrators, or manufacturing executives—can actually use AI starting Monday morning.

Tech-focused speakers are being booked early, especially those who can speak in plain language to both executives and non-technical teams.

2. Human Connection and Relationships (The Counterbalance)

While AI dominates half the requests, the other half are specifically about human connection. Event planners are looking for speakers who explore how to create meaningful bonds at work and in life whilst technology accelerates around us.

Audiences are resonating with keynotes about presence, authentic relationship-building, and emotional intelligence in an increasingly digital world.

This isn't soft skills fluff—it's strategic capability development for organizations where remote work and AI tools are creating connection deficits.

3. Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Resilience

Wellness is no longer optional. In 2025-2026, meeting planners are bringing these conversations centre stage.

But it's not just about yoga and meditation—it's about resilience, mental clarity, stress management, and sustainable performance.

Speakers who can address wellbeing with both data and heart are getting booked. Organizations want practical frameworks for reducing burnout whilst maintaining high performance.

4. Leadership in Uncertainty and Change

With technology, geopolitics, and market conditions all in flux, organizations are looking for speakers who can help leaders navigate uncertainty.

The keynotes that work blend personal stories with practical takeaways about decision-making, communication, and adaptive leadership.

Generic motivation doesn't cut it. Audiences want actionable strategies they can use immediately.

5. Purpose, ESG, and Values-Driven Leadership

Corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and mission-driven leadership are no longer buzzwords—they're guiding principles for how businesses want to show up. Speakers who can connect purpose to performance are getting serious attention.

What's NOT getting booked:

Generic motivation without substance.

Recycled TED Talk content everyone's already seen. Obvious promotional talks disguised as keynotes.

Engagement bait tactics that patronize audiences. Content that could have been delivered in 2019 without changes.

Frank's Quick Tip: Audit your content quarterly. Is it addressing current challenges? Are your examples fresh? If your keynote description hasn't changed in 18 months, you're probably speaking about topics that are losing relevance.

The Shift to Short-Cycle Booking (And How to Adapt)

Here's a massive shift that's caught many speakers off-guard: Event planners are increasingly booking speakers 2-4 months out instead of 9-12 months in advance.

The data's clear: Shorter booking windows remained a defining characteristic of 2025 and now 2026.

Organizations are keeping their options open longer, waiting to see how markets, technologies, and business conditions evolve before finalizing speakers.

Why the shift? Topics become outdated faster.

Market conditions change rapidly, requiring more flexible planning.

Budget approvals are happening later in the cycle. Organizations want speakers who can address current issues, not what was relevant when they started planning a year ago.

What this means for your business:

You can't rely on booking out a year in advance anymore. You need to maintain flexibility in your calendar.

Last-minute opportunities are becoming more common and often better-paying. You must be able to create or customize content quickly.

I've adapted by blocking out "available" weeks rather than hoping they fill naturally. When an opportunity emerges 6-8 weeks out, I'm genuinely available, not scrambling to rearrange.

The speakers who struggle with short-cycle booking? Those who need months to prepare. If you require extensive lead time to develop content, you'll miss opportunities.

However—and this is important—not all events are moving to short cycles.

Strategic conferences, annual leadership summits, and flagship corporate events are still booking 6-12 months ahead.

These are often the highest-paying gigs with the best audiences. A global firm scheduled its 2026 leadership summit nearly a year in advance specifically to secure their first-choice economist and build programming around that theme.

Technology and fast-moving industries prefer shorter booking windows to maintain topical relevance. Healthcare, finance, and government sectors often maintain longer planning cycles.

Company-wide annual events book far in advance. Regional sales meetings and quarterly leadership gatherings book 2-4 months out.

Adapting your strategy:

Maintain two types of content: Evergreen frameworks that remain relevant regardless of timing, and current trend commentary that you can deploy with 6-8 weeks notice.

Make yourself easy to book quickly. Clear availability on your website. Simple contracting process. Pre-approved travel arrangements.

Stay visible in the interim. Regular LinkedIn content, newsletter, podcast appearances. When planners need someone fast, you want to be top-of-mind.

Build relationships before opportunities exist. The speakers getting last-minute bookings aren't unknown quantities—they're people event planners already trust.

Beyond the Keynote: Expanding Your Value (And Your Income)

The relationship with keynote speakers is shifting from transactional one-off engagements to longer-term partnerships. Organizations are seeking speakers who can contribute ongoing value beyond a single stage appearance.

This trend creates massive opportunity for speakers willing to expand their offerings.

Pre-event engagement:

Many event planners now expect speakers to contribute before the event. Pre-event webinars to build anticipation, custom video messages to promote the event, participation in planning calls to align messaging, or surveys to understand audience challenges.

I've started offering pre-event "audience insight" calls where I interview 8-10 participants about their challenges. This makes my keynote dramatically more relevant whilst building anticipation. Event planners love it because it increases registration and engagement.

Post-event follow-through:

The keynote's impact doesn't end when you leave the stage. Post-event Q&A panels or online forums, follow-up workshops or masterclasses, implementation guides or workbooks, and recorded recap sessions all extend your value.

One client hired me for a 45-minute keynote but then added a 90-minute workshop the next morning and a 30-day implementation coaching programme for their leadership team. The keynote fee was £15,000. The total engagement? £45,000.

Content licensing and repurposing:

Organizations want to maximize their investment. They're negotiating rights to repurpose keynote material into internal training modules, whitepapers and executive summaries, podcast episodes for ongoing employee development, or video content for their learning management systems.

I now offer three licensing tiers: Basic (they can share my slides internally), Standard (includes recording rights and internal distribution), and Premium (full repurposing rights including editing and integration into their training).

The speakers thriving in 2025-2026 aren't just delivering keynotes—they're solving ongoing challenges.

Think of yourself as a strategic resource, not a one-time entertainment option. The event planner who books you once should be thrilled to book you again because you delivered value far beyond your stage time.

The Reality About Speaker Selection in 2026: It's a Committee Decision

Here's something that's changed dramatically: Booking a speaker is no longer a one-person decision. Most events now involve 2-5 people in the speaker selection process.

What this means practically: Your pitch needs to appeal to multiple stakeholders with different priorities. The head of events cares about logistics and audience experience.

The CFO cares about budget and ROI. The CEO cares about message alignment with company values. The HR director cares about employee engagement and retention.

When you're being considered, multiple people are watching your showreel, reviewing your website, and evaluating your fit. Make sure your materials address different concerns.

I explicitly address this in my speaker packet. One section for event planners (logistics, tech requirements, what to expect). One section for finance (ROI metrics, testimonials with measurable outcomes). One section for executives (strategic alignment, my background and credibility).

Also? Be easy to work with. Event planners are seeking speakers who align with values, goals, and audience needs—not just the flashiest resume. Responsiveness, flexibility, and professionalism during the booking process signal how you'll be during the actual event.

Building a Sustainable Speaking Business: The Long Game

After 25 years in this business, I can tell you with certainty: The speakers with 20-year careers aren't the ones chasing every gig or constantly reinventing themselves. They're the ones who master the fundamentals and adapt intelligently to change.

Your stage performance is your real product. Everything else supports that.

Your website and showreel are your 24/7 sales team, working while you sleep. AI tools amplify your reach but can't replace authentic relationship-building.

Speaking about relevant topics keeps you bookable, but depth of expertise keeps you in demand.

The speakers I see struggling? They're focused on tactics—the latest LinkedIn hack, the newest AI tool, the trending topic. They're exhausting themselves chasing visibility.

The speakers I see thriving? They've built systematic approaches to business development whilst never compromising on stage quality. They use AI to identify opportunities and stay organized.

They maintain genuine relationships with event planners, fellow speakers, and past clients. They continuously update their content whilst maintaining their authentic voice.

Most importantly? They understand that this business is built on reputation, and reputation is built one excellent keynote at a time.

When you walk off a stage in Mumbai, Brussels, or Vancouver, and three people immediately approach you wanting to book you for their events? That's the business model. Everything else just increases the frequency of those moments.

I've spent 25 years on stages across 70+ countries, helping organizations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue. My speaking business has never been stronger, and AI tools are absolutely part of that success—but only because they amplify fundamentals that were already solid. If you're building your speaking career or looking to take it to the next level, let's talk. Visit frankfurness.com to see my showreel, explore my topics, and get in touch. Because the best speakers aren't just delivering content—they're creating experiences audiences will never forget.

What 10 Years as a Professional Drummer Taught Me About Running a Business

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:41:00 +0000

I was 21, sitting behind a drum kit in a smoky jazz club in Johannesburg, absolutely butchering a Miles Davis number. Our guitarist was brilliant. Our bassist was locked in. Our saxophonist was magic.

And I was rushing the tempo. Just slightly. Enough that the whole thing felt... off.

After the set, our band leader—a 60-year-old keyboard player (Werner Krupski) who'd forgotten more about music than I'd ever know—pulled me aside. "Frank," he said quietly, "you're playing for yourself, not for the band. And when you're out of sync, it doesn't matter how good everyone else is. The whole thing sounds wrong."

That conversation changed everything. Not just about drumming, but about how I've approached business for the past 25 years.

I spent a decade playing drums—jazz mostly, some funk and rock, a bit of country when rent was due.

I learned more about leadership, teamwork, and performance in those smoke-filled venues than I ever learned in a classroom.

Here's what the music taught me about business. Because the parallels (and paradiddles) aren't just interesting, they're transformational.

1) One Person Out of Tune Ruins Everything (And Everyone Knows It)

If one person is out of tune, the entire performance suffers. Doesn't matter if four band members are playing brilliantly—that one slightly flat saxophone makes everything sound wrong.

The audience might not know what's wrong. They just know something doesn't sound right.

Business is identical.

One team member who's "out of tune"—delivering poor quality, missing deadlines, treating customers badly—affects the entire organization. Your customers feel it.

Your other employees feel it. The whole operation sounds off.

In a band, you can't hide weak performers.

In business, your customers experience them. Your best people become frustrated carrying the load.

Eventually, they leave for companies where everyone's in tune.

Your move: Don't tolerate chronic underperformance. It's not just about that one person—it's about the impact on everyone else. Address it quickly, compassionately, but decisively.

2) You Have to Actually Listen (Not Just Wait for Your Turn)

The best drummers? They're the best listeners in the band.

You're responding to the bassist. Supporting the soloist. Creating space for quiet moments and energy for crescendos. You're in constant dialogue, even when you're not playing.

The bands that sounded magical? We listened to each other.

The guitarist would throw in a lick, the bassist would respond, I'd accentuate it, and suddenly we'd created something none of us planned but all of us felt.

The bands that sounded mechanical?

We were each playing our parts correctly but not actually listening. Just waiting for our turn.

I see this constantly. Sales isn't listening to marketing. Product isn't listening to support. Leadership isn't listening to front-line employees.

Your move: Build genuine listening into your operations. Create feedback loops between departments. Actually act on what you hear. The best strategies emerge from real-time collaboration, not from silos executing predetermined parts.

3) Your Audience Is Everything (And They Know When You're Phoning It In)

Your audience is the most important person in the room. Not you. Not your ego. Not your clever technique.

I learned this at a gig in Cape Town playing at the Crazy Horse. We played sophisticated, complex jazz. Very clever.

The audience looked bored. Half left before the second set.

The band leader was furious—with us. "We're entertainers," he said. "Our job is to give them an experience they'll remember. If they're bored, we've failed."

Your customers are your audience.

And they know—they always know—when you're phoning it in.

When you're going through the motions. When you care more about impressing colleagues than serving them.

Your move: Every interaction is a performance. Not fake—genuine. But intentional. Present. Focused entirely on giving them an experience worth remembering.

4) Rhythm Is Everything (And It's Created Through Coordination, Not Control)

As a drummer, I was the "timekeeper." But that's misleading. The entire band was creating rhythm together.

The best rhythm sections felt like one organism. The bassist and I were so locked in you couldn't tell who was leading. That synchronization let everyone else fly.

Business needs rhythm too. Not rigid "this is how we've always done it" rhythm. The organic, responsive, synchronized kind.

Marketing launches Monday. Sales is ready with talking points. Support knows what to expect. Finance knows projections. Everyone's playing the same tempo.

Your move: Create rhythm through coordination, not control. Regular communication cadences. Clear handoffs. Shared understanding of priorities and timing. You're not micromanaging—you're ensuring everyone's playing the same groove.

5) There Are No Stars—Only Teams (And Ego Kills Performance)

I played with a guitarist who was genuinely brilliant. Technically gifted. And he knew it.

Every song became a showcase for his abilities. He'd play over other people's solos. Turn up his amp mid-set. Take bows like he'd performed alone.

That band lasted three months. Not because he wasn't talented—because nobody wanted to work with him.

The bands that lasted years had no stars. We were all stars. Or none of us were. We were a team, and we succeeded or failed together.

I see businesses make this mistake constantly. The "rock star" developer who's arrogant. The "superstar" salesperson who won't share techniques. The executive who takes credit for team successes.

Your move: Build a team culture, not a star culture. Celebrate collective wins. The moment you allow one person to believe they're more important than the team, you've started dismantling it.

6) Don't Play Louder—Play Better (Volume Isn't Impact)

Young drummers think louder equals better. If the crowd isn't responding, hit harder. It never works. You just sound like noise.

The drummers I admired had dynamics. They knew when to play quietly, building tension. They knew when to explode. They understood that the softest moment could have more impact than the loudest crash.

In business, people make the same mistake. More emails. More meetings. More presentations. Louder voices. It's exhausting. And ineffective.

The most impactful professionals aren't the loudest. They're the most thoughtful. They speak less but make every word count.

Your move: Impact isn't about volume—it's about precision. Say less, make it matter more. Do fewer things, do them brilliantly. Stop confusing activity with achievement.

The Bottom Line

I stopped drumming professionally years ago (but still jam everywhere I travel now), but those lessons show up in my business every single day.

When I'm training a sales team and they're not synchronized, I hear a band out of time.

When I see ego destroying collaboration, I remember that guitarist nobody wanted to work with. When a business leader tells me their team isn't performing, I ask, "Are you listening to each other, or just waiting for your turn?"

The skills that make a great band make a great business: Listening. Synchronization. Humility. Consistent practice. Audience focus. Leadership that gels people together. Full energy in every performance.

After 25 years training teams across 70+ countries, I can tell you with absolute certainty: The businesses that sound like jazz ensembles—everyone listening, responding, building on each other's contributions—consistently outperform the ones that sound like five people playing different songs in the same room.

Your business is a band. The question is: Are you creating music, or just noise?

Want to build a team that works together like a world-class band?

I've spent 25 years helping organizations in 70+ countries develop the rhythm, communication, and cohesion that transforms good teams into unstoppable ones.

Visit frankfurness.com—because your customers deserve a performance worth remembering.

The New World of Sales: 7 Trends Reshaping How Buyers Buy

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:31:00 +0000

I had a conversation last month in Amsterdam with a sales director who'd been in the industry for 20 years.

"Frank," he said, looking genuinely bewildered, "I used to know exactly how to close a deal. Now I don't even know when the bloody deal starts."

I laughed. Then I realised he wasn't joking.

Welcome to the new world of sales, where everything you learned in 2015 is about as useful as a Rolodex. (Yes, I'm old enough to remember those.)

Look, the fundamentals haven't changed—people still buy from people they trust, relationships still matter, value still wins. I've been training sales teams across 70+ countries for a quarter-century, and those truths are eternal.

But how those fundamentals play out? That's shifting faster than a politician's promises.

The sales professionals absolutely crushing it right now aren't the ones with the slickest pitch decks or the biggest LinkedIn networks. They're the ones who've adapted to how buyers actually behave in 2026—not how sellers wish they behaved.

Let me show you what's really happening out there.

1) The Silent Research Phase (And You're Definitely Not Invited)

Here's what keeps sales leaders awake at night: By the time a prospect actually contacts you, they've already completed 70-80% of their buying journey.

They've researched your competitors. Read your reviews. Watched that interview your CEO gave three years ago where he stumbled over the revenue figures. Stalked your LinkedIn profile. Joined a Slack community or Reddit thread where people in their industry compare notes on vendors like yours.

And you had absolutely no idea they existed.

A SaaS company in Miami showed me their analytics: prospects consumed an average of 23 pieces of content before requesting a demo. Twenty-three! These buyers are doing more homework than I did for my entire university degree.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: You can't rely on being the first call anymore. You need to be present in the research phase even when you don't know who's looking. That means content, thought leadership, actual customer stories, and genuine expertise that shows up when people are searching—not just when they're ready to talk.

The winning move isn't interruption. It's being genuinely helpful when buyers are in learning mode.

2) The Committee Has Entered the Chat (And Brought Seven Friends)

Remember when you could close deals by convincing one or two key decision-makers? Ah, simpler times. I miss them.

Today's B2B purchases involve an average of 6-10 stakeholders. Finance wants ROI models in triplicate. IT needs security documentation. The end-users want proof it won't make their lives harder. Legal needs to rewrite your contract. And someone from procurement you've never heard of has strong opinions about your pricing structure.

I watched a deal in Singapore that should have closed in 6 weeks drag on for 6 months because new stakeholders kept emerging like surprise guests at a wedding. Each one had different priorities, different concerns, and completely different definitions of success.

The sales professionals winning in this environment aren't trying to manage around the committee—they're actively mapping it early, understanding each stakeholder's priorities, and creating content tailored to each person's specific concerns.

Frank's Quick Tip: In your first meaningful conversation, ask: "Who else in your organisation will be involved in evaluating this decision?" Then actually ask to speak with them. The worst deals are the ones where you meet half the stakeholders for the first time at the final decision meeting. That's not selling—that's ambush.

3) "Trust Me, It Works" Doesn't Work Anymore

The era of "just believe me" is dead. Buyers today expect to test drive your product, see proof of concept results, talk to similar customers, or engage in some kind of low-risk trial before committing actual budget.

This is happening even in industries where trials were never standard. I know—it's annoying. But it's reality.

I worked with a professional services firm in Melbourne who resisted this trend like a cat resists a bath. "We can't give away our intellectual property for free!" they protested.

Fair concern. But their win rate was dropping faster than my enthusiasm for LinkedIn algorithm changes, whilst competitors offering paid discovery projects were cleaning up.

They finally adapted with a structured "diagnostic phase" that let buyers experience their methodology and see preliminary value before committing to full engagements. Win rate jumped 40% in two quarters.

The new reality: Your sales process needs legitimate proof points that happen before the contract is signed, not just promises about what will happen after.

4) The Trust Economy Has Replaced the Attention Economy

Here's something I've noticed speaking at conferences from Dubai to Dublin: The salespeople getting the best results aren't the loudest or the most persistent. They're the most trusted.

In a world where buyers can verify literally everything you say—your company's financial health, your customer satisfaction rates, what your employees say about you on Glassdoor—authenticity isn't optional anymore. It's your competitive advantage.

I've seen deals lost because a salesperson exaggerated capabilities that prospects later fact-checked. (Pro tip: Don't claim your software does something it doesn't. They will find out.)

I've also seen deals won because a salesperson was brutally honest about limitations upfront and helped prospects understand if they were actually the right fit.

Buyers tell me consistently they're exhausted by aggressive sales tactics and desperate for genuine consultative partnerships. They want sellers who tell them what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.

This is both harder and easier than traditional selling. Harder because you can't fake expertise or make promises you can't keep. Easier because when you genuinely prioritise buyer success over commission, the path forward becomes remarkably clear.

5) Speed Wins (Just Not Where You Think)

Everyone's obsessed with faster sales cycles. But here's what I've learned: The speed that matters isn't how quickly you close deals—it's how quickly you respond to buyer signals.

A prospect downloads your whitepaper at 2pm on Tuesday. Do they hear from you within an hour, within a day, within a week, or never?

A potential client asks a thoughtful question on your LinkedIn post. Do you respond within hours or ignore it entirely because "that's marketing's job"?

A B2B company in London implemented one simple rule: Every inbound signal gets a human response within 2 hours during business hours. Not automated emails. Not chatbots. Actual human contact.

Their conversion rate from inquiry to qualified opportunity increased 85%.

Why? Because whilst they responded in 2 hours, their competitors were still routing leads through systems and waiting 24-48 hours for someone to reach out.

Buyers today expect immediate access to information and surprisingly fast responses. The companies treating inquiries with urgency are winning deals from competitors still operating on 2015 response times.

6) Personalised Video Is the New Superpower

I know what you're thinking: "Not another person telling me to do video."

Stay with me.

It's not just that buyers expect video content (though they do). It's that personalised video is becoming the differentiator in competitive deals.

The top sellers I'm working with send personalised video messages instead of text emails at key moments. "Hi Sarah, thanks for our conversation yesterday. I wanted to quickly walk you through how three companies in your industry approached this exact challenge..." Two minutes. Recorded on a phone. Speaking directly to that buyer's situation.

Open rates through the roof. Response rates 3-5x higher than text emails. And the personal connection is genuinely different.

In a world of automated sequences, AI-generated emails, and templated outreach, authentic personalised video stands out like someone wearing a tuxedo to a beach party. You can't help but notice.

7) Your Current Customers Are Your Best Sales Force

This one's a bit philosophical, but it's critical: Your current customers are your best sales asset—not testimonials you extract from them, but the actual experience of working with you.

Buyers today talk to each other constantly. They're in Slack groups, LinkedIn communities, industry forums. When someone's evaluating vendors, they're not just looking at your marketing materials—they're asking existing customers directly about their experience.

I watched this play out with a consultancy in Berlin. They lost a competitive deal because during the prospect's reference calls, one customer mentioned a rocky implementation phase. Nothing terrible—just honest feedback. The prospect chose a competitor.

Six months later, that same competitor's customer was complaining in an industry forum about poor service. The original prospect came back, apologised, and signed.

Your reputation isn't built in pitch meetings. It's built in delivery. And in today's transparent market, that reputation spreads faster than office gossip.

The Bottom Line

The new world of sales isn't about abandoning everything that's worked. It's about adapting proven principles to how buyers actually behave today.

They research silently, decide collectively, demand proof, value authenticity, expect responsiveness, appreciate personalisation, and verify everything through peer networks.

The sales professionals thriving aren't fighting these trends—they're embracing them.

Is it more complex than the sales world of 2005? Absolutely. But here's what I've learned training teams from Bangkok to Boston: Complexity creates opportunity for those willing to adapt.

Your competitors are still cold calling from outdated lists and sending generic email sequences written in 2018. If you understand how buyers actually buy in 2026, you have an unfair advantage.

The question is: Will you use it?

Want to transform your sales approach for the new reality? I work with sales teams globally to modernise their strategies whilst keeping the human relationships that still drive every deal. Visit frankfurness.com or email frank@frankfurness.com | +44 7711 672888

7 Prompting Secrets That Will Transform How You Use AI

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:31:00 +0000

Stop Getting Terrible Results and Start Getting Genius-Level Output

Here's what happens at nearly every conference where I speak about AI:

Someone raises their hand: "I tried ChatGPT and it gave me absolute rubbish. AI just doesn't work for my industry."

Then I ask to see their prompt.

Nine times out of ten, it's something like: "Write me a blog post about leadership."

The problem isn't AI. The problem is they're speaking to a genius like it's a mind reader.

I've spent three years testing AI tools across dozens of business scenarios—from sales proposals in Japan to keynote development in Dubai. The difference between mediocre AI output and genuinely brilliant results comes down to how you ask the question.

1) Give AI a Role (And Watch the Magic Happen)

Most people start with "Write me..." That's like walking into a party and immediately asking someone for a favour.

Instead, tell AI who it should be.

Weak: "Write an email to a difficult client."

Strong: "You are an experienced customer success manager with 15 years in B2B software, known for turning around difficult relationships through empathy and clear communication. Write an email to a client threatening to cancel because of a recent service issue."

See the difference? The specificity makes all the difference.

2) Show, Don't Just Tell

Want AI to write in a specific style? Don't describe it—show it an example.

I learned this after getting frustrated with AI content that sounded nothing like my voice. Then I started including examples of my own writing in prompts. Everything changed.

Every time I need content in my style, I provide a link to www.frankfurness.com/articles so it can check my writing and match my rather crazy sense of humor.

I use Claude to do my articles, it is brilliant, better than any other AI app.

Frank's Quick Tip: Create a "style file" with your three best pieces of content. Use snippets whenever you need AI to match your voice.

3) Use the "Think Step-by-Step" Trick

This sounds too simple to work, but it's genuinely transformative.

When you need AI to solve something complex, add: "Think through this step-by-step" or "Let's work through this methodically."

Why? AI models literally perform better when prompted to show their reasoning.

I was working with a sales team in Kuala Lumpur using AI to analyse deal risks. Initial prompts got surface-level responses.

When they added "Analyze this step-by-step, considering each risk factor individually," the quality jumped dramatically.

Use this for strategy development, problem-solving, complex analysis—any situation where you need thorough thinking rather than quick answers.

4) The Power of Constraints

Counterintuitively, limiting AI makes it better.

Instead of "ideas for improving customer retention," try: "Give me exactly three customer retention strategies that require no additional budget, can be implemented in under two weeks, and specifically target our mid-tier B2B clients. The name of our business is Frank Furness and the website www.frankfurness.com"

Constraints force strategic thinking rather than generic churn.

I use them constantly:
• "In exactly 150 words..."
• "Using only strategies that worked in the UK market..."
• "Avoiding any corporate jargon..."
• "Suitable for a technical audience with no marketing background..."

The tighter your constraints, the more focused and useful the output.

5) Build Context Like You're Briefing a New Team Member

AI doesn't know your business, industry nuances, or specific challenges unless you tell it. More context upfront means better output.

If you hired someone brilliant but new to your company, you wouldn't just say "improve our sales process" and expect magic. You'd explain your current process, where it breaks down, what you've tried, and what success looks like.

Do the same with AI.

Recent prompt I used: "I'm a B2B sales speaker working with offshore financial services companies in the Middle East. They're traditional, relationship-focused, and sceptical of new technology.

Sales cycles are 6-18 weeks with multiple decision-makers. I need to explain why AI-enhanced sales processes won't replace relationship building but will make relationships stronger. Draft an outline for a 45-minute presentation."

That gets infinitely better output than "Write a presentation about AI in sales."

6) Ask AI to Analyse Your Own Prompting

Here's a secret most people never discover: You can ask AI to teach you how to use AI better.

Try this: "I've been using AI for [your use case]. Here are examples of prompts I typically use: [paste 3-5 actual prompts]. Based on these, what am I doing well, and what could I improve? Give me specific suggestions."

Last week I asked ChatGPT to analyse all my prompts from when I first signed up. I was astounded.

AI will spot patterns you didn't realise existed, suggest improvements you hadn't considered, and teach you techniques specific to how you work.

I discovered I was being too vague in my context-setting. Changed my approach, and quality improved by at least 30%.

7) Use the Iterative Refinement Method

The biggest mistake? Expecting perfection on the first try.

The pros know: AI is a conversation, not a vending machine.

Your first prompt gets you 60-70% there. Then you refine: "That's good, but make it more conversational," or "Keep the structure but add healthcare examples," or "Too formal—write it like you're explaining to a colleague over coffee."

I rarely use AI's first output unchanged. I treat it like working with a talented junior colleague: they give me a solid draft, I provide direction, they refine, we iterate until it's right.

Here in Great Yarmouth by the coast or at my condo in Orlando, I write dozens of articles and newsletters every month.

None of them are AI's first attempts. They're all the result of this back-and-forth refinement—and honestly, that's where real quality comes from.

Right now, I have taken 2 days to write and submit 9 articles (my exact method in my webinar coming up)

The Bottom Line

AI is probably the most powerful business tool you've ever had access to. But like any powerful tool, the results depend entirely on how you use it.

These seven secrets aren't really secrets—they're techniques anyone can learn and apply immediately.

The difference between people who think "AI doesn't work" and people getting genuinely transformative results usually comes down to mastering these fundamentals.

Start with one. Maybe it's giving AI a role, or maybe it's asking it to analyse your prompting style. Master that, then add another. Within a month, you'll be getting output that makes colleagues ask, "How did you do that so quickly?"

And here's the thing: These prompting skills are only going to become more valuable. As AI tools evolve, the people who know how to communicate effectively with them will have an increasingly unfair advantage.

So, the question is: Will you be one of them?

Ready to transform your team's AI capabilities?

I work with organisations in 70+ countries who are committed to staying ahead. Visit frankfurness.com or contact me at frank@frankfurness.com | +44 7711 672888 | +1 407 588 9714

Why Training Your People on AI Isn't Optional Anymore

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:18:00 +0000

Let me ask you something: When was the last time your company rolled out new software and just assumed everyone would figure it out on their own?

Exactly. You wouldn't dream of it.

Yet that's precisely what most businesses are doing with AI right now. They're giving employees access to ChatGPT or whatever flavour-of-the-month they've subscribed to, then wondering why adoption is patchy and results are underwhelming.

I've trained teams in over 70 countries, and I can tell you this with absolute certainty: Access without training is just expensive confusion.

The businesses winning right now aren't the ones with the best AI tools. They're the ones whose people actually know how to use them properly.

1) The £50,000 Question Nobody's Asking

Three months ago in London, I had this conversation with a CEO of a 200-person firm:

Him: "We've given everyone AI tools. Cost us £50,000 a year. Usage is terrible."

Me: "How much did you spend training them?"

Him: (long pause) "We sent an email and did a bit of internal training."

There's your problem.

You wouldn't hire a salesperson without training them on your sales process. You wouldn't buy expensive machinery without training operators. But somehow, with AI, businesses think access equals competence.

It doesn't.

The companies that invest in proper AI training see 3-5x higher adoption rates. The ones that don't are burning money on subscriptions nobody uses effectively.

2) The Productivity Mirage

Most employees use AI like a slightly smarter Google. They ask basic questions, get basic answers, then declare "AI doesn't work for my job."

But when you train people on effective prompting, context setting, and AI-assisted workflows? Magic happens.

I worked with a marketing team in Atlanta using AI to "write social posts." Generic rubbish. Totally unusable.

Two hours of training later, they were generating 15 message variations, analyzing competitor content, brainstorming campaigns, and creating first-draft copy that actually sounded like their brand.

Same tool. Different results. The only variable? Training.

The art of prompting and how to use it is one of the most essential skills required right now. I think they will be teaching it in Universities in the future, if not already.

Frank's Quick Tip: Don't train people on "AI." Train them on "AI for your specific role." A finance person needs different skills than a marketing person. Generic training produces generic results.

3) The "Shadow AI" Problem (That Should Keep You Awake)

Your employees are already using AI. They're just doing it badly, without oversight, and possibly creating massive compliance or security risks.

When I audit companies, I consistently find:

• People pasting confidential information into public AI tools

• Employees using AI-generated content without checking accuracy
• Teams making decisions based on AI outputs they don't understand
• Complete inconsistency across departments

Untrained AI use isn't just ineffective, it's dangerous.

Proper training teaches people how to use AI safely, what data they can and cannot share, how to verify outputs, and when AI is appropriate (or inappropriate) for different tasks.

4) The Competitive Time Bomb

While you're debating whether AI training is worth the investment, your competitors are already doing it.

Last month in Dubai, a retail company shared their results after comprehensive AI training:

• Customer service response times down 60%, satisfaction up
• Product team research time cut by 40%
• Marketing team doubled content output without hiring anyone

Meanwhile, their nearest competitor is still "evaluating AI strategy."

Guess who's winning market share?

This is happening right now. Businesses that train their people on AI are moving faster, serving customers better, and innovating quicker. The ones that don't are falling behind in real-time.

5) The ROI Is Ridiculous

Let's do some simple maths (yes, "maths" with an 's'—I'm British).

Invest £500 per employee in comprehensive AI training. That's typically one or two full days.

If that training helps each person save just two hours per week through better AI usage, you've got a 10-hour monthly return. At an average loaded labour cost of £50/hour, that's £500 saved per month per person.

Your investment pays for itself in one month. Everything after is pure profit.

I've seen companies achieve far better than two hours weekly savings. Some teams are saving 10-15 hours per person per week. The ROI isn't just good—it's spectacular.

6) What Training Actually Does (That Access Never Will)

Training creates a culture of intelligent AI adoption.

When everyone understands AI's capabilities and limitations, you get:

• Teams collaborating on AI-enhanced workflows
• People sharing effective prompts and techniques
• Innovation bubbling up from unexpected places
• Natural champions who help others improve

I worked with a manufacturing company in Spain where AI training sparked an internal innovation competition. Employees from warehouse to executive suite started sharing clever AI applications they'd developed.

Production efficiency up 18%. Employee engagement up. Turnover down.

None of that happens with just access.

The Bottom Line

Giving your employees access to AI without proper training is like giving them a Ferrari and expecting them to win races without driving lessons.

They might eventually figure out how to move forward, but they'll never unlock the real performance—and there's a decent chance they'll crash along the way.

The businesses that will dominate the next decade aren't the ones with the most sophisticated AI tools. They're the ones whose people know how to use AI effectively, safely, and strategically.

Training isn't an expense. It's a competitive advantage you either choose to build or choose to surrender to someone else.

From where I'm sitting—having trained thousands of professionals across every continent—the companies investing in AI training right now are the ones I'd bet on. The ones still "thinking about it" are the ones I'd be worried about if I were their shareholders.

The technology is here. The tools are available. The only question left is: Are your people actually ready to use them?

Want to transform your team from AI-curious to AI-capable?

I've developed training programs that take people from zero to genuinely effective in record time—no technical background required. Visit frankfurness.com to see what's possible for your business.

Why AI-Enabled Financial Advisors Will Win the Next Decade

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:05:00 +0000

Here's something that might surprise you: The financial advisors thriving in 2035 won't be the ones with the fanciest degrees or the biggest client lists today. They'll be the ones who figured out how to dance with AI rather than run from it.

I've been watching this transformation unfold from conference stages in Florida to training rooms in Manchester, and the writing's on the wall.

Financial advisors who embrace AI aren't just getting a competitive edge—they're redefining what "advisory" actually means.

Let me explain why the smart money (literally) is on AI-enabled advisors.

1) The Time Liberation Revolution

Traditional financial advisors spend roughly 70% of their time on administrative tasks. Portfolio rebalancing, compliance documentation, client onboarding, market research—all the stuff that keeps you busy but doesn't make clients' lives better.

AI flips this equation.

I met a financial advisor in Dubai last year who told me his AI tools saved him 15 hours a week. That's nearly two full working days he redirected toward actual client conversations, strategic planning, and business development. His client retention jumped 23% in six months.

The advisors winning the next decade aren't the ones working hardest—they're the ones working smartest by letting AI handle the predictable while they focus on the irreplaceable: human judgement, empathy, and relationship building.

2) Hyper-Personalisation at Scale

Here's the paradox: clients want deeply personal service, but they also expect instant responses and comprehensive analysis. Humanly impossible, right?

Not with AI.

Modern AI tools can analyse hundreds of data points about each client—spending patterns, life stage changes, risk tolerance shifts, market conditions—and generate personalised insights faster than you can say "asset allocation." But here's the crucial bit: the advisor still makes the recommendation and has the conversation.

Think of it this way: AI is like having a brilliant research assistant who never sleeps, never takes holidays, and can cross-reference thousands of scenarios in seconds. But you're still the one building trust, reading the room, and knowing when someone's worried about their daughter's university fees versus their own retirement.

Frank's Quick Tip: Start with one AI tool that solves your biggest daily headache. Master it completely before adding another. I've seen too many advisors drown in a sea of half-used subscriptions. There are amazing tools out there that will identify your ideal prospects and connect with them.

3) Predictive Intelligence (Not Crystal Balls)

Let's be clear: AI won't predict the next market crash or tell you which stocks to buy. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling snake oil.

But what AI can do is spot patterns humans miss. It can flag when a client's spending habits suggest they're about to make a major life change.

It can identify when portfolio drift occurs before it becomes a problem. It can analyse sentiment across thousands of news sources to help advisors understand emerging risks.

One advisor I worked with in Malaysia used AI to identify clients likely experiencing financial stress based on transaction patterns (Asia is so far ahead at adopting AI)

He reached out proactively—not to sell, but to help. Three of those clients were considering switching advisors due to feeling "forgotten." His retention rate that quarter was 98%.

That's not replacing human intuition. That's amplifying it.

4) The Compliance Advantage

Compliance is the necessary evil of financial advisory. It's also getting more complex by the quarter.

AI doesn't get tired of checking regulations. It doesn't forget to document conversations.

It doesn't accidentally use outdated disclosure language. It can flag potential compliance issues before they become expensive problems.

The advisors winning the next decade will spend less time worrying about regulatory audits and more time building their practices—because their AI systems are handling the baseline compliance automatically.

5) The Emotional Intelligence Multiplier

Here's where people get it backwards. They think AI makes advisory services more robotic. The opposite is true.

When AI handles the data crunching, portfolio monitoring, and administrative burden, advisors have more mental and emotional bandwidth for the human elements.

They're not exhausted from paperwork. They're not stressed about missing a compliance deadline. They can be fully present in client conversations.

The next decade belongs to advisors who are both data-informed and emotionally intelligent. AI provides the former, freeing you to excel at the latter.

6) The Always-On Client Experience

Your clients don't only have financial questions between 9 and 5. They worry about money at midnight. They wonder about investment decisions on Sunday mornings.

AI-powered chatbots and support systems can provide immediate basic answers, triage urgent issues, and schedule advisor consultations—all while you're sleeping.

When you do speak with clients, you're addressing the complex, meaningful questions rather than "What's my current balance?"

This isn't about replacing human contact. It's about being appropriately available in an always-on world.

The Bottom Line (Quite Literally)

The financial advisors who will dominate the next decade aren't the ones with the most AI tools. They're the ones who understand that AI is an amplifier of their unique human value.

AI handles the scalable. You handle the irreplaceable.
AI processes the data. You provide the wisdom.
AI works 24/7. You build relationships that last decades.

The question isn't whether AI will change financial advisory—it already has. The question is whether you'll be leading that change or scrambling to catch up.

I've trained sales professionals and business leaders in over 70 countries, and here's what I know for certain: Technology never replaces human expertise and relationships. It just raises the bar for what "expertise" means.

The advisors winning the next decade will be those who master both the art of human connection and the science of AI-enhanced service delivery.

So, which side of that divide will you be on?

Ready to future-proof your financial advisory practice? Visit frankfurness.com or contact me at frank@frankfurness.com | +44 7711 672888

Sales Managers: Stop Managing, Start Leading

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 13:17:00 +0000

(And Why Most of You Are Doing It Spectacularly Wrong)

I was in Singapore last month when a sales manager named David said something brutally honest: "Frank, I spend my entire day firefighting, attending pipeline reviews, and updating forecasts for my boss. When exactly am I supposed to manage my team?"

The room went silent. Then everyone started nodding.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most sales managers aren't managing.

They're glorified administrators with fancier titles and higher blood pressure.

The numbers prove it.

Only 28% of sales reps hit their annual quota — the lowest in six years.

Meanwhile, 70% of B2B reps missed quota in 2024. That's not a rep problem. That's a management problem.

The £100,000 Mistake: Managing Activities Instead of Coaching Outcomes

Here's the biggest mistake: Managers track calls made, meetings booked, emails sent.

All measurable.

All documented.

All utterly meaningless if your reps don't know how to actually sell.

Two-thirds of salespeople don't have the skills to close deals. Yet when I ask managers "How much time do you spend coaching?", the answer is always "Not enough."

The managers crushing it? They block out 40% of their week for coaching. Not "when I have time." Scheduled, protected, non-negotiable coaching time.

Frank's Quick Tip: Two hours per rep per week. One hour ride-alongs (joint calls). One hour skills development. Five reps = ten hours coaching. Sounds impossible? You're spending twelve hours in meetings that could be emails.

The Time Theft Nobody Discusses

Sales reps spend only 33% of their time actually selling.

The rest? Administrative rubbish that doesn't close deals.

A Toronto manager did a time audit.

His reps spent twelve hours weekly updating CRM, generating reports, and attending meetings. That's 30% of their week producing zero revenue.

He streamlined inputs, automated reports, killed recurring meetings.

Within two months, selling time jumped from 32% to 48%. Revenue followed accordingly.

Your job isn't creating processes that keep you informed. It's eliminating everything that stops your reps from selling.

One-on-Ones That Actually Matter

Most one-on-ones are glorified pipeline reviews. "Talk me through your deals." "What's moving?" "Why is that stuck?"

That's not coaching. That's interrogation with better lighting.

Effective one-on-ones follow this structure:

First 10 minutes: Wins and challenges. What went well? What's blocking you? This is about the person, not just deals.

Next 30 minutes: Pick ONE skill. Work on it through role-play or call reviews. Not five skills. One.

Final 10 minutes: Pipeline focus. But ask "What support do you need?" Not "Why haven't these closed?"

One makes you a coach. The other makes you a hall monitor.

The Five Metrics That Actually Matter

Sales managers have access to more data than NASA had when they landed on the moon. It's overwhelming. Most of it's useless.

Focus on these five:

1. Time selling vs admin. Under 40%? Process problem, not people problem.

2. Win rate by stage. Where are deals dying? Different stages = different coaching needed.

3. Average deal size. Increasing or decreasing? Tells you if reps are moving upmarket or discounting.

4. Sales cycle length. Taking longer? Wrong people or no urgency.

5. Quota distribution. Three crushing it, seven struggling? Knowledge-transfer opportunity.

Everything else is noise.

The Accountability Problem

44% of sales leaders struggle with holding people accountable.

Why? Accountability feels confrontational. So they avoid hard conversations until it's too late.

The best managers see accountability as clarity, not confrontation.

They set crystal-clear expectations: "20 qualified calls per week, 30 minutes each, following our framework." Not vague goals like "improve prospecting."

When someone misses commitments, they have the conversation immediately. "You committed to 20 calls, did 12. What happened?"

Notice the question. Not "Why didn't you do your job?" but "What happened?" You're problem-solving together.

Most performance issues aren't motivation problems. They're skill, process, or clarity problems. But you'll never know unless you have the conversation.

Build a Learning Culture

44% of salespeople say training motivates them.

Yet 82% think their companies need to modernise sales techniques.

The disconnect?

Most "training" is a two-day annual event with stale pastries. Forgotten by Tuesday.

Managers getting results build continuous learning into daily work:

Monday: 30-minute team call on one specific skill.

Wednesday: Someone presents a won/lost deal case study.

Friday: Team reviews a recorded call together.

No budget needed. Just commitment. And when learning is continuous, top performers stay engaged instead of getting bored and leaving.

The Underperformer Conversation

Most managers wait too long.

They hope it improves.

They make excuses.

They extend "performance improvement plans" everyone knows are documented termination paths.

Effective managers have honest conversations early:

"Your numbers are below target for three consecutive months. I don't think this role is working out. Do you?"

Sometimes they agree. Relief all round. Sometimes they fight back. "Give me another chance." Fair enough. "Here's what needs to change by when."

Then follow through. If improvements don't materialise, make the change quickly.

Why? Keeping underperformers destroys team morale.

Top performers watch you tolerate mediocrity and wonder why they're working evenings.

It takes 6-12 months for new reps to become productive.

Every month avoiding the decision is a month you could be developing their replacement.

The Bottom Line

Being an effective sales manager isn't about fancy CRMs or analytics dashboards. It's not about more meetings or more reports.

It's about coaching people to be better, protecting their time so they can actually sell, having honest conversations, building continuous learning, and leading by example.

The difference between good and great isn't dramatic.

It's small, consistent choices about where you invest your time.

Your reps don't need you to be their friend.

They don't need you to be their boss.

They need you to be their coach — someone who makes them better every single week.

So here's the question: When you look at your calendar this week, how much time is blocked for actual coaching?

If the answer is "not enough" — and for most managers, it is — you know what needs to change.

Ready to Transform Your Sales Leadership?

I've spent 25+ years training sales leaders across 70 countries, helping organisations generate over £1 billion in revenue by focusing on what actually matters: genuine coaching, not checkbox management.

Contact me: frank@frankfurness.com | +44 7711 672888 | USA +1 407 558 9714

www.frankfurness.com

Because managing spreadsheets is easy — leading people to be genuinely better is hard, valuable, and exactly what your team needs.

Frank Furness is an internationally recognised speaker, AI consultant, and sales expert based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, specialising in dev

Why Your Best Salesperson Will Probably Be Your Worst Sales Manager

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:26:00 +0000

(And the 7 Traits That Actually Matter)

I was working with a software company in Amsterdam three years ago when the CEO pulled me aside with a problem.

"Frank," he said, "we just promoted our top salesperson to sales manager. She crushed her quota every single quarter. Absolute legend."

"How's she doing?" I asked.

He grimaced. "Three months in, and the team's falling apart. Two reps have quit. Revenue's down 22%. She's micromanaging everyone and still trying to close her own deals instead of coaching her team."

"Let me guess," I said. "You promoted her because she was your best seller?"

He nodded.

"That's your problem right there."

This story isn't unique.

I've seen it play out in boardrooms from Boston to Bangkok, Dubai to Dublin.

A company's top salesperson gets promoted to manager, and within months, everything goes sideways.

The team underperforms. The former star becomes frustrated. Everyone wonders what went wrong.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Being brilliant at selling and being brilliant at managing salespeople are completely different skill sets.

Promoting your top seller to manager is often one of the most expensive mistakes a business can make.

Research analysing over 50,000 sales employees found that top salespeople, when promoted to management, often caused a decline in their team's performance.

Let me explain why this happens — and more importantly, what traits you should actually look for in a sales manager.

The Peter Principle in Action (And Why It's Destroying Your Sales Team)

There's a management concept called the Peter Principle, first articulated in 1969 but still painfully relevant today.

It states: "In a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence."

People who excel in a given role will tend to be eventually promoted into a new role that they won't be suited for, and then remain stuck there because their apparent lack of competence keeps them from being promoted any further.

The classic example?

A company promotes its top salesperson to a sales manager role.

However, the new manager struggles with delegation, team motivation, and strategic planning.

I've watched this disaster unfold more times than I can count. The pattern is always the same:

1. Top performer exceeds quota consistently

2. Company assumes they'll be equally good at managing

3. They get promoted without proper training

4. They struggle because selling and managing require fundamentally different skills

5. Team performance drops

6. Everyone becomes miserable

The kicker? High-performing sales leaders were such a positive influence on their teams that they reported an overall average annual quota attainment of 105% compared to 54% for underperforming sales managers.

That's a 51% difference. The right manager doesn't just improve performance — they transform it.

Why Great Sellers Often Fail as Managers

Let me be blunt about why this happens.

Great salespeople succeed through personal excellence. They're individually brilliant. They build relationships, handle objections, close deals.

They succeed by being the best individual contributor they can be.

Great managers succeed through team performance. They don't close deals themselves — they develop people who close deals.

They coach, strategize, remove obstacles, and hold others accountable.

These are fundamentally different competencies.

A top salesperson might:

• Work independently and thrive on autonomy

• Focus intensely on their own pipeline

• Rely on instinct and personal relationships

• Prefer doing over explaining

• Avoid administrative tasks

• Compete to be the best

A great sales manager must:

• Lead through others and develop talent

• Focus on the entire team's pipeline

• Build scalable processes and systems

• Coach others through repetition and patience

• Handle significant administrative responsibility

• Foster collaboration over competition

See the problem? The traits that make someone an exceptional seller can actually work against them in management.

I worked with a company in Toronto whose top salesperson was a natural lone wolf.

Brilliant closer. Terrible at sharing his methods.

When promoted to manager, he couldn't understand why his team didn't "just figure it out" the way he had.

His coaching sessions consisted of "Do what I do" — which, of course, told them nothing useful.

Within six months, three of his five reps were underperforming, and two had started quietly looking for other jobs.

The 7 Traits That Actually Make a Great Sales Manager

Right, enough about what doesn't work.

Let me tell you what actually matters when identifying or developing sales managers.

After 25+ years training sales teams globally, these are the seven traits I look for:

1. Coaching Ability Over Personal Performance

The best sales managers understand that their job is to make others successful, not to be the hero themselves.

The skills that drive individual success, such as consistently hitting quota, rarely translate into effective team management.

Sales management demands leadership, coaching, and strategic thinking — skills that differ entirely from those needed for personal sales performance.

A great sales manager can watch a rep on a call, identify three specific areas for improvement, and coach them through practice until the new behaviour becomes natural.

They don't just say "do better" — they show exactly how to do better.

I worked with a sales manager in Melbourne who was never the top seller on his team.

But he was phenomenal at breaking down complex skills into teachable steps. His team consistently outperformed everyone else because he invested time making each person better.

2. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy

Sales managers deal with human beings who have bad days, personal struggles, different learning styles, and varying levels of confidence.

You need to understand who your reps are.

No two team members are built the same — they're going to be receptive to different kinds of coaching.

If you can tactfully tailor your messages and feedback to accommodate your reps as individuals, you'll put yourself in an excellent position to be the best sales manager you can be.

The manager who treats everyone identically will fail.

The manager who understands that Sarah needs detailed guidance whilst Tom needs autonomy?

That manager wins.

One of the best sales managers I've trained in Dublin had this incredible ability to read people.

She knew when someone was genuinely struggling versus when they were making excuses.

She adjusted her communication style for each person.

Her team would walk through walls for her because they knew she genuinely cared about their success.

3. Strategic Thinking and Process Orientation

Top salespeople often succeed despite broken processes. They work around obstacles through sheer talent and effort.

Great managers? They fix the processes so everyone can succeed.

There should always be some rhyme and reason to your team's sales efforts — and the best managers know it's on them to define and enforce what that will look like.

A strategic sales manager doesn't just react to problems — they anticipate them.

They build systems for lead qualification, deal progression, account management.

They create playbooks for common scenarios.

I watched a sales manager in Stockholm transform her team by implementing a simple qualification framework.

Instead of reps chasing any opportunity that moved, they focused on prospects who fit specific criteria. Win rate jumped 28% in three months.

Frank's Quick Tip: If you're evaluating someone for sales management, ask them to explain how they'd improve your current sales process. Great individual contributors will say "I'd just work harder." Great manager candidates will identify specific process improvements.

4. Communication and Active Listening

46% of buyers agree that "active listening" is the number one skill they expect from sales professionals; meanwhile, managers rank "active listening" as the seventh skill they look for in an applicant.

That's a problem. Because sales managers who can't listen can't coach effectively.

The best sales managers ask more questions than they answer.

They listen to understand, not to respond. They're genuinely curious about what's blocking their team.

Effective managers know how to hear every side without playing favourites and make sure that disputes get resolved constructively — minimising friction, maintaining high morale, and ultimately making their teams run smoother.

One sales manager I worked with in Singapore started every one-on-one by asking "What's going well, and where do you need help?"

Then he actually listened. His reps told him about obstacles he never would have known existed. He removed those obstacles. Performance improved.

5. Accountability Without Micromanagement

This is a delicate balance, and it's where many new managers fail spectacularly.

Great sales managers hold people accountable to commitments without hovering over every activity.

They trust but verify.

They measure outcomes, not just activities.

The manager who checks CRM entries obsessively but never asks "How can I help you close this deal?" has it backwards.

The manager who sets clear expectations, tracks results, and intervenes when patterns emerge? That's effective accountability.

I saw a brilliant example in Manchester.

A sales manager told his team: "I don't care when you work or how many calls you make.

I care that you have 20 qualified opportunities in your pipeline every month and that you're moving deals through our stages at the expected velocity. If you're hitting those numbers, I trust your process. If you're not, we're going to dig into why together."

His team had the highest satisfaction scores and the lowest turnover in the company.

6. Willingness to Make Tough Decisions

If your leader starts avoiding tough decisions or conversations, it's a sign they're not confident in their ability to handle the responsibility.

Great sales managers don't avoid difficult conversations. They have them quickly, directly, and compassionately.

They fire underperformers who won't improve. They tell top performers hard truths about blind spots. They push back on unrealistic demands from leadership.

I watched a sales manager in Frankfurt do something that took genuine courage: He told the executive team their aggressive Q4 target was mathematically impossible given current pipeline and historical conversion rates.

He showed the data. He proposed an alternative. They adjusted the target.

His team respected him enormously because he protected them from unrealistic expectations whilst still driving high performance.

7. Continuous Learning and Adaptability

70% of US-based sales managers agreed that managers' capability to adapt to change is more important now compared to five years ago.

Markets change. Competitors adapt. Buyer behaviour evolves. Great sales managers evolve with them.

48% of leaders are asking for more training to become better coaches themselves.

In other words, sales managers themselves understand the importance of learning new skills and honing their existing ones.

The manager who says "this is how we've always done it" is already obsolete.

The manager who constantly seeks new approaches, learns from failures, and adapts strategies? That manager stays relevant.

One of my favourite sales managers — a woman I trained in Vancouver — spent an hour every Friday reading about sales methodology, competitive intelligence, and market trends.

She tested new approaches constantly. Her team always had the latest strategies whilst competitors were still using outdated techniques.

The Bottom Line

Your top salesperson probably isn't your best candidate for sales manager. They might be. But don't assume.

Many organisations assume their top seller will excel as a manager.

However, the skills that drive individual success, such as consistently hitting quota, rarely translate into effective team management.

Instead of automatically promoting your best seller, look for these seven traits: coaching ability, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, communication skills, balanced accountability, decisiveness, and adaptability.

Sometimes your best manager candidate is the person who was a solid B+ performer as a seller but has natural leadership ability.

Sometimes it's someone from outside your sales team entirely who has the right management competencies.

The cost of getting this wrong is enormous.

Poor sales management can cost a company up to £2.7 million annually.

The cost of getting it right?

A team that consistently overperforms, reps who stay longer, and revenue that grows predictably.

I've trained thousands of sales professionals across every continent. The pattern is always the same: Teams with great managers thrive.

Teams with poor managers struggle regardless of how talented the individual reps are.

So before you promote your next top seller to manager, ask yourself: Do they have the seven traits that actually matter?

Or are you just rewarding past performance with a role they're not suited for?

Your team's future performance — and your revenue — depend on getting this decision right.

Ready to Build High-Performing Sales Leadership?

I've spent 25+ years working with organisations globally to identify, develop, and train sales managers who actually drive results — not just managers who were good at selling.

If you need help ensuring your managers have the skills they actually need — not just the sales numbers that got them promoted — let's talk.

I can help your organisation through:

• Sales management assessment and development programmes

• Leadership training for newly promoted managers

• Customised coaching systems for your sales teams

• High-impact keynote presentations on sales leadership

• Strategic sales process optimisation

Contact me today:

• Email: [email protected]

• Phone: +44 7711 672888 or USA +1 407 588 9714

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/frankfurness

• Website: www.frankfurness.com

Because promoting the wrong person to sales manager doesn't just cost you one good salesperson — it costs you an entire team's potential.

Frank Furness is an internationally recognised speaker, AI consultant, and sales expert who has trained teams in 70 countries, helping organisations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue. Based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Frank specialises in developing high-performing sales leaders and transforming sales team performance through practical, results focused training.

Why Most Sales Training Is a Complete Waste of Money

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:43:00 +0000

(And How to Fix It Before Your Best People Leave)

I was sitting in a hotel conference room in Brussels watching a sales trainer deliver what he clearly thought was brilliant content.

PowerPoint slides from what looked like 2012.

Generic techniques that could apply to selling anything from software to sandwiches.

Role-plays that made everyone squirm.

The sales team sat there politely, checking their phones under the table, probably wondering if the coffee break would ever arrive.

At the break, one of the sales managers pulled me aside. "We paid £10,000 for this," he said quietly. "Three months from now, nobody will remember a single thing."

He was absolutely right. And he's not remotely alone.

Here's a statistic that should terrify every business owner: 84% of sales training content is forgotten within three months.

Even worse, approximately 70% of salespeople lack formal training entirely.

So businesses either don't train their people at all, or they waste money on training that evaporates before the next quarter starts.

Both options are expensive disasters.

I've spent 25 years training sales and marketing teams across 70+ countries, helping organisations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue.

And I can tell you exactly why most training fails — and what works instead.

The £100,000 Problem Nobody Wants to Discuss

Let's do some uncomfortable maths.

You hire a salesperson for £60,000 per year.

Add benefits, office space, CRM licences, and your actual cost is closer to £80,000.

You give them two days of generic sales training when they start, hand them a laptop, and send them out to fend for themselves.

Six months later, they're underperforming.

Eight months in, they leave.

Nearly half of account executives attribute their departure to poor training or onboarding.

Now you're recruiting again.

Another £10,000-15,000 in hiring costs.

Another salary.

Another six months waiting for them to become productive — if they ever do.

The total cost? North of £100,000.

And you've got nothing to show for it except a revolving door, a stressed-out sales manager, and a pipeline that's perpetually rebuilding.

Here's what's genuinely mad: The average ROI of sales training is an impressive 353%.

That means £1 spent training your reps should produce £4.53 in return.

Yet only 33% of companies rate their sales training as highly effective.

The other 67%? They're throwing money at training that doesn't work, then wondering why their revenue numbers are stubbornly flat.

Why Training Fails (And It's Not What You Think)

Most training fails for four specific reasons.

None of them are about the quality of the content. They're about how training is designed and delivered.

1. It's a One-Off Event, Not a System

Someone attends a two-day workshop.

They're energised.

They learn techniques.

They're inspired.

They return to work Monday morning and... immediately fall back into old habits.

Only 16% of sales training is retained by new hires after 90 days.

That's not because people are forgetful.

It's because training was treated as an event rather than a process.

The training that actually works?

It's reinforced weekly.

It includes coaching.

It's practised repeatedly until new behaviours become automatic.

One workshop achieves nothing.

A system of continuous development transforms performance.

2. It's Generic, Not Customised

"Here's how to handle objections." "Here are the seven steps to closing." "This is how you build rapport."

Generic techniques taught to everyone the same way.

Meanwhile, your industry has specific challenges.

Your customers have unique concerns.

Your sales cycle has particular complexity.

None of which the generic training addresses.

I worked with a SaaS company whose sales team attended an "excellent" sales training programme.

The only problem?

Every single example was about selling physical products to consumers.

Their reps spent the entire two days mentally translating everything to their B2B subscription model.

Half of it didn't apply at all.

Effective training is built around your actual sales process, your real customer objections, your specific market challenges.

Anything else is expensive theory.

3. It's Outdated Before It Starts

62% of sales leaders cite outdated training as the biggest hurdle in delivering effective programmes.

The market changes.

Competitors adapt.

Customer expectations evolve.

But training materials?

They're PowerPoints from 2019 that nobody's bothered updating.

I am constantly amazed at how little training give their companies on how to use sales with AI. This is not only dangerous because they don’t know what they are doing, but they are wasting time.

I saw this brilliantly illustrated in Dubai last year.

A company was training their sales team on LinkedIn strategies using content from 2022.

Everything they taught had been made obsolete by algorithm changes.

The reps were being trained to use techniques that would actively hurt their reach.

Training must evolve with your market.

Otherwise, you're teaching people to lose effectively.

4. There's No Accountability or Follow-Up

Training ends.

Everyone returns to work.

And... nothing.

No follow-up.

No coaching.

No measurement of whether anything actually changed.

Managers don't reinforce the training.

They don't observe whether reps are using new techniques. They don't provide feedback on application.

The training exists in a vacuum, completely disconnected from daily work.

Without accountability and reinforcement, training is just expensive entertainment.

What Good Training Actually Looks Like

Right, enough about what doesn't work. Let me tell you what does.

Effective training has five essential characteristics:

1. It's practical, not theoretical. Every technique is immediately applicable.

Participants practise using real scenarios from their actual work. No generic case studies about companies they'll never encounter. When I train companies, everything is customized toward their business and clients.

2. It's customised to your business. The content addresses your specific products, your actual customers, your real objections. It's built around how your sales process actually works, not how some textbook says it should work.

3. It includes ongoing reinforcement. Initial training is just the beginning. There's weekly coaching. Monthly skill refreshers. Continuous development. New behaviours are practised until they become instinctive.

4. It's measured relentlessly. We track what changes. Activity levels. Conversion rates. Deal sizes. Win rates. Time to productivity for new hires. If it's not measured, it's not managed.

5. It evolves constantly. As your market changes, training adapts. New competitor emerged? We address it. Customer objections shifted? We update the responses. Regulations changed? We incorporate them.

This isn't complicated. It's just intentional.

Frank's Quick Tip: If your training doesn't include at least three follow-up sessions within 90 days, you're wasting your money. Knowledge without reinforcement is just expensive trivia.

How I Approach Training Differently

I've been training sales and marketing professionals for over 25 years.

I've worked with everyone from startups in Singapore to multinationals in Stockholm.

The organisations that get spectacular results do training differently.

Here's my approach:

I start by understanding your actual challenges.

Not what I think your challenges should be.

· What they actually are.

· I talk to your sales team.

· I listen to their calls.

· I review their deals.

· I understand where they're winning and where they're losing.

I build training around your real world.

Every example comes from your industry.

Every scenario mirrors situations your team actually faces.

We practise using your sales process, your products, your customer objections.

I make it immediately actionable. Nobody leaves my sessions with theory they'll "implement someday."

They leave with techniques they can use in their next conversation.

Practical, proven methods that work in the real world.

I include follow-up and reinforcement.

Initial training creates awareness.

Follow-up creates mastery.

I work with managers to reinforce training through coaching.

We measure adoption. We celebrate wins. We address obstacles.

I bring 25 years of international experience. I've trained teams in over 70 countries. I've seen what works in Dubai and Detroit, Singapore and Stockholm, Bangkok and Boston.

I understand cultural nuances, different market dynamics, various buyer behaviours.

Most importantly: I focus on results, not activity.

I don't measure how many people attended training.

I measure whether revenue increased.

Whether win rates improved.

Whether sales cycles shortened.

Whether new hires became productive faster.

The Results That Actually Matter

Words are cheap. Results matter. Here's what happens when training is done properly:

Organisations I've worked with have generated over £1 billion in additional revenue.

That's not theory. That's actual, measurable business impact.

Sales training can boost an individual rep's sales performance by an average of 20%.

I've seen higher.

One team in Melbourne increased their average deal size by 34% within six months of completing training.

Companies that prioritise training are 57% more effective than their competitors.

The gap between trained and untrained teams isn't marginal — it's massive.

Training also dramatically reduces turnover.

Well-trained reps are more confident, more successful, and significantly more likely to stay.

One company I worked with in Frankfurt reduced sales turnover from 42% to 18% in two years through comprehensive training and ongoing development.

The ROI is undeniable. But it only happens when training is done right.

Sales and Marketing: Better Together

Here's something most trainers miss entirely: Sales and marketing need to be trained together, not separately.

Marketing creates content, messaging, campaigns.

Sales uses that content to engage prospects and close deals.

If they're not aligned — if sales doesn't understand marketing's strategy or marketing doesn't understand sales' challenges — you've got expensive dysfunction.

I train sales and marketing teams jointly. Same room. Same sessions.

Building shared language and mutual understanding.

The result? Marketing creates content sales actually uses. Sales provides feedback that makes marketing more effective.

82% of salespeople think businesses need to modernise their sales techniques.

That modernisation requires sales and marketing working in harmony, not in silos

The modern sales person needs to understand AI, LinkedIn, Article and video marketing and so much more.

It’s a different world and if your people are not trained, you will be overtaken by competition who provides ongoing training.

The Bottom Line

Most sales training is a waste of money because it's designed wrong, delivered wrong, and forgotten immediately.

But when training is customised, practical, reinforced, and measured?

The ROI is spectacular. 353% returns. 20% performance improvements.

Reduced turnover. Faster ramp times. Increased revenue.

Right now I am working with Keiser Gyn Equipment who pride themselves on having the finest in American engineering and manufacturing.

Every month we have a Zoom training session with follow up tasks and accountability to their management.

I will speak at three conferences this year where it will be a half day training session.

It works….

You're either investing in developing your team properly, or you're watching them leave for competitors who will.

I've spent 25 years proving that effective training transforms businesses.

I've worked with organisations across every continent, every industry, every market condition.

I know what works — and I know how to make it work for you.

Your team wants to succeed.

They want training that actually helps them sell more effectively.

They're tired of generic workshops that waste their time.

Give them training that matters.

Training that's built around their actual challenges.

Training that produces measurable results.

The question isn't whether training works.

The question is whether you'll invest in training that actually delivers.

Ready to Transform Your Sales and Marketing Teams?

I've helped organisations across 70+ countries generate over £1 billion in additional revenue through practical, customised training that produces measurable results.

If you're tired of training programmes that sound impressive but deliver nothing, let's talk. I'll show you exactly how I'd approach developing your team — customised to your business, focused on your challenges, designed for lasting impact.

I can help your team through:

• Customised sales and marketing training programmes

• High-impact keynote presentations

• Intensive workshops with ongoing reinforcement

• AI-enhanced sales strategy implementation

• Revenue generation systems that actually work

Contact me today:

• Email: [email protected]

• Phone: +44 7711 672888 or USA +1 407 588 9714

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/frankfurness

• Website: www.frankfurness.com

Because your competitors are already training their people. The only question is whether yours will be better trained — or left behind.

Frank Furness is an internationally recognised speaker, AI consultant, and sales expert who has trained teams in 70 countries, helping organisations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue through modern business methodologies. Based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Frank delivers practical, results-focused training that transforms sales and marketing performance

How ChatGPT 5.2 Is Failing Miserably — and How a 20-Minute Task Took Over Two Hours

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:47:00 +0000

I spend my professional life teaching people how to use AI properly.

I speak on it.

I consult on it.

I build systems around it.

I show sales teams, leaders, and advisors how to save time, think better, and move faster with it.

So when I say this should have taken 20 minutes, that’s not an exaggeration.

Today, a simple content task — clearly defined, structured, and well within my wheelhouse — turned into nearly two hours of repeated instructions, lost outputs, partial responses, and ignored prompts. Not because the task was complex. Not because the brief was unclear. But because ChatGPT 5.2 repeatedly failed to execute basic instructions consistently.

And that’s the real issue.

This isn’t about clever prompts or advanced workflows. It's about reliability.

The Core Problem Isn’t Intelligence — It’s Execution

ChatGPT 5.2 is not “dumb.” In fact, its raw capabilities are impressive.

The problem is that it behaves like a distracted assistant who understands what you want, starts doing it… then forgets halfway through what it was asked to do in the first place.

Today’s failures weren’t subtle:

Instructions were acknowledged, then ignored
Multi-step requests were completed partially, then abandoned
Content that was explicitly requested “with depth” was reduced to surface-level summaries
Outputs repeatedly reverted to earlier versions instead of progressing
Context was lost mid-task, even when nothing changed

At several points, I was shown confirmation that the work existed — only for it not to appear at all.

It’s not a prompting issue. That’s a workflow-breaking reliability issue.

Why This Matters More Than Any Feature Announcement

AI is only useful if it reduces cognitive load.

The moment you have to:

Re-explain the task
Re-paste instructions
Re-correct scope
Re-assert constraints
Re-check whether the output even exists

…it stops being a productivity tool and becomes a time sink.

Today, I wasn’t thinking with the AI. I was managing the AI.

That completely defeats the point.

Where ChatGPT 5.2 Is Falling Behind Its Rivals

What made today more frustrating is that I know this isn’t inevitable — because other platforms are currently doing this better.

Gemini (Latest Version)

Gemini is far from perfect, but it handles long-form continuity better.

When you set a structure, it is more likely to stick to it without reverting or truncating halfway through. It feels calmer, less jumpy, and more predictable in execution.

Claude

Claude excels at following tone, depth, and instruction fidelity.

When you say “two meaty paragraphs before each link,” it does exactly that — consistently. It doesn’t suddenly decide to summarise when you asked for expansion.

For writing-heavy tasks, it currently feels the most dependable.

Perplexity

Perplexity isn’t built for creative writing in the same way, but it wins on clarity and stability.

It doesn’t pretend to do more than it does — and that honesty makes it easier to trust. You don’t fight it.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek is surprisingly strong at structured logic and task adherence. It may lack some polish, but it doesn’t hallucinate progress or lose track of where it is in the task.

Grok

Grok is rough around the edges, but it has one advantage: it doesn’t constantly second-guess itself. It commits to the task and moves forward, rather than looping back.

ChatGPT 5.2’s Biggest Weakness: It Can’t Hold the Line

The most damaging flaw in ChatGPT 5.2 right now is that it cannot reliably hold constraints.

You can be crystal clear:

“Do one thing only”
“Do not summarise”
“At least two detailed paragraphs”
“Finish before stopping”
“No templates”
“No repetition”

And still, it will:

Collapse detail
Drift format
Stop mid-thought
Revert to earlier outputs
Or act as if the instruction was never given

That’s not a creativity problem. That’s a control problem.

Why This Is Dangerous for Business Users

For casual users, this is annoying.

For professionals, it’s costly.

If you’re:

Writing client-facing content
Building training materials
Producing paid newsletters
Creating sales assets
Developing thought leadership

You cannot afford tools that behave unpredictably.

Every interruption breaks flow. Every correction burns time. Every restart kills momentum.

AI should be an accelerator — not a babysitting exercise.

The Irony: The Task Was the Lesson

The biggest irony of today?

The task itself was about clarity, structure, and thinking properly with AI.

And the platform failed precisely on those fundamentals.

That’s not just frustrating — it’s instructive.

It shows that the future of AI adoption won’t be won by who has the most features, the biggest models, or the loudest announcements.

It will be won by who is the most reliable under pressure.

The Bottom Line

ChatGPT 5.2 isn’t failing because it lacks intelligence.

It’s failing because it lacks discipline.

Until it can:

Follow instructions consistently
Maintain context without drifting
Complete tasks without truncation
Respect constraints without “helpfully” overriding them

…it will continue to turn 20-minute tasks into two-hour ordeals.

And that’s not acceptable for professionals who rely on AI to think faster, not harder

The Magic of ChatGPT Projects: How One Simple Feature Will Transform the Way You Work

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:46:00 +0000

By Frank Furness — Global Sales Rebel, AI Explorer & Professional Chaos Organiser

If you're anything like me — juggling keynotes across different continents, training sales teams, creating LinkedIn content, and somehow finding time to review whisky (purely for research purposes, of course) — you know the feeling of having brilliant ideas and absolutely no system to manage them.

For years, my ChatGPT conversations were scattered everywhere. One chat for a client proposal. Another for newsletter ideas I'd scribbled down while boarding a plane. A third where I'd asked ChatGPT something important... and then completely forgotten what it was.

Sound familiar?

Then ChatGPT Projects arrived, and suddenly everything changed.

Think of Projects as your digital brain, your content engine, and your "I've actually got this sorted" assistant all rolled into one. It doesn't just answer questions — it organises your entire creative world.

Let me break it down the Frank Furness way: real talk, practical examples, and zero tech jargon.

What Exactly Is a ChatGPT Project?

Imagine a workspace that remembers your writing style, your stories, your frameworks, your past work, your goals, your tone, and all the materials you've uploaded. Now imagine that same workspace helps you pick up exactly where you left off — even if you closed your laptop, flew to Dubai, had a three-hour business dinner, and forgot what you were working on.

That's a Project.

It's not a chat window. It's not a folder.

It's a living system that learns, remembers, organises, and executes — all inside one clean digital space.

How Projects Work (Explained Like You're Human)

Here's the process:

Step 1: Create a Project

Give it a name that makes sense:

"LinkedIn Content Engine"
"Sales Prospecting System"
"2025 Keynote: AI Revolution"
"My Book Draft"

Step 2: Add Everything You Need

Stories, drafts, slides, scripts, videos, notes, instructions, files — dump it all in. Projects thrives on your organised chaos.

Step 3: Projects Remembers EVERYTHING

No more repeating yourself:

"My tone is warm and conversational with British humor"
"My audience is CEOs and sales teams"
"I deliver keynotes in 70 countries"
"I live in Orlando"

It knows. It remembers. It applies.

Step 4: Everything Stays Connected

Every asset you've created remains linked, accessible, and ready to use. No more hunting through 247 random chats titled "idea2finalmaybe" or "thatthingfromtuesday."

Step 5: You Say "Continue" — and It Does

"Continue Module 4"
"Extend this article"
"Rewrite section 3 in my voice"
"Turn this into a carousel"
"Build the landing page from materials in this project"

Projects picks up instantly. No warm-up required. No starting from scratch.

This alone saves me hours every single week.

Why Projects Matter in 2026

Here's the fundamental shift: AI is no longer just a tool. It's a complete workflow.

Projects gives you five critical advantages:

1. Clarity

No more hunting through endless chat histories with names like "draft3maybefinal" or "whatwasthatidea."

2. Speed

Because Projects already knows your tone, goals, audience, and style, content creation happens exponentially faster.

3. Consistency

Your writing stays on-brand. Your tone stays recognizable. Your messaging stays sharp across every platform.

4. Creative Momentum

You don't start from scratch ever again. You start from an ecosystem you've already built and refined.

5. Less Stress

This might be the biggest benefit. Your brain goes from "I can't keep up with everything" to "I can't believe how manageable this feels."

How I Use Projects (And Why You Should Too)

LinkedIn Content Engine

Inside one Project I have my hook library, story bank, CTA templates, carousel frameworks, poll templates, and DM scripts. Every week I say: "Give me 5 new posts based on last week's top performers."

Done in minutes instead of hours.

Sales Prospecting

For the financial advisors, sales teams, and property professionals I train, I've built complete systems containing emails, follow-up scripts, cold outreach prompts, objection handling, and event invite messages.

Your entire sales system in one accessible place.

Keynote Development

Each keynote has its own Project with slides, stories, openings, closings, industry-specific examples, and global references. When I need to customize for a new audience, I just say: "Build me the Singapore version focused on financial services."

Done in minutes, not days.

Books & Training Programs

If you're writing a book (or three, like I always seem to be), Projects is genuinely life-changing. Chapters, stories, research, quotes, frameworks — ChatGPT keeps everything intact and keeps you sane.

The 5-Minute Project Setup

Anyone can do this:

Create a Project — Start with your biggest priority
Tell ChatGPT who you are — Your tone, brand, audience
Upload your materials — Slides, posts, drafts, outlines, emails
Give ChatGPT instructions — How you want it to work, what you want it to remember
Start building — Ask it to create, organize, rewrite, expand, or assemble

Within minutes, you go from chaos to clarity. From overwhelm to momentum.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

The world's getting faster. Demands are getting bigger. Competition's getting fiercer.

But we don't get extra hours added to the day.

We get smarter tools.

ChatGPT Projects is one of the smartest productivity upgrades we've seen in years. It's structure without stress. Creativity without overwhelm. Consistency without burnout.

If you've ever dreamed of being more organized, more visible, more productive — Projects feels like walking out of fog into brilliant sunshine.

It's your second brain. Your silent teammate. Your creative amplifier. Your memory system. Your momentum builder. Your clarity creator.

And here's the best part: it works while you're traveling, speaking, writing, swimming, or conducting very serious whisky taste-testing sessions for "professional research."

I've trained teams in 70 countries. I've seen every productivity system, every time management hack, every organizational method imaginable.

ChatGPT Projects isn't just another tool. It's a genuine workflow transformation.

If you're still managing your work across scattered chats, forgotten documents, and mental notes you'll probably lose by tomorrow, you're working ten times harder than necessary.

Welcome to the new era of productivity. Welcome to Projects.

Ready to Transform Your Team's Performance?

If your team is ready to stop being average and start being exceptional, let's have a conversation. I work with organizations in 70 countries who are committed to staying ahead in today's competitive landscape.

I can help your team through:

High-impact keynote presentations that inspire and educate
Intensive training workshops delivering immediately applicable skills
Conference speaking positioning your event as cutting-edge
Custom coaching programs tailored to your industry

Contact me today:

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 7711 672888 or USA +1 407 588 9714
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/frankfurness
Website: www.frankfurness.com

Remember: in today's rapidly evolving business environment, standing still means falling behind.

Your competitors are already adapting — are you?

Frank Furness is an internationally recognized speaker, AI consultant, and sales expert who has trained teams in 70 countries, helping organizations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue through modern business methodologies.

The 5.1 ChatGPT Leap: How This AI Update Will Transform How You Sell, Market, Communicate & Lead

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 17:44:00 +0000

The 5.1 ChatGPT Leap: How This AI Update Will Transform How You Sell, Market, Communicate & Lead

By Frank Furness — Global Sales Rebel, AI Explorer & Occasional Troublemaker

If you’ve ever wished you could clone yourself so one version could build your business while the other lies on a beach in Alicante feeding seagulls (I’ve tried this — only one of us had fun), then the arrival of ChatGPT 5.1 might be the closest you’ll get.

Because 5.1 isn’t just another update and it has just happened, so this is hot from the press.

It’s a shift, a step-change, a “put your seatbelt on” moment in AI.

If you’re in sales, marketing, leadership, professional services, fitness, finance, hospitality, or anything involving humans… this matters.

Let me break it down in my usual way: real-world use, a little humor, and a firm nudge to get ahead before your competitors wake up.

1. So… what’s new with ChatGPT 5.1?

Ø In simple terms:
It’s faster.
It’s smarter.
It’s more intuitive.
It’s better at keeping context.

Think of the upgrades like moving from a rusty old bicycle to a Ducati. It still has two wheels, but the experience is wildly different. Maybe a drummer with 4 hands…

Here’s what stands out:

Sharper Reasoning & Better Memory

5.1 doesn’t just answer questions — it understands where you’re going, anticipates next steps, and sticks with conversations without losing the plot.

If previous versions occasionally felt like dealing with a goldfish, this one feels more like a well-trained assistant who actually listens.

Real-Time Workflow Capability

This is the gamechanger.

Instead of giving you ideas, it can now build the work, structure it, format it, improve it, and even run multi-step sequences without you juggling 200 prompts.

It’s like hiring a digital VA who never gets tired, never takes a lunch break, and never complains that your video scripts are too long.

Context Handling on Steroids

Long conversations?
Complex workflows?
Multi-layered projects (like your 30-slide LinkedIn strategy deck)?
5.1 handles it without dropping a thread.

This unlocks serious power for:

Sales playbooks
Funnel builds
Email sequences
Proposal creation
Research projects
Book chapters
Client strategy plans

Basically… the stuff businesses spend weeks on.

2. What This Means for Sales, Marketing & Business Growth

A. Salespeople can now “scale themselves”

For years I’ve been telling audiences:
“If you’re not using AI, you’re already being outperformed by someone who is.”

5.1 takes this to another level.

Imagine:

Prospecting lists built automatically
Personalised outreach written and scheduled
Meeting prep summaries created in seconds
Objection-handling scripts adapted to each buyer
LinkedIn content generated daily without the ‘blank screen panic’
CRM updates done for you

If 2024 was the year of AI curiosity, 2025–2026 is the year of AI performance.

B. Marketing teams get a full creative department in a box

I’ve seen companies spend £30,000 on branding, only to finish with a PDF nobody reads and a logo that looks like it was designed by a tired Labrador.
Now?
5.1 helps you create campaigns in hours:

Landing pages
Email sequences
Carousels
Video scripts
Blog posts
Lead magnets
Presentation slides

It’s Canva, HubSpot, and a creative director rolled into one — and it doesn’t argue about color palettes.

C. Leaders finally get breathing space

If you run a company, you know the pain:
Strategy meetings, onboarding, crisis control, endless emails, “urgent” requests that aren’t urgent…

5.1 frees up mental bandwidth so leaders can actually lead instead of firefighting.

It becomes your:

strategist
sounding board
presentations assistant
meeting preparer
communications writer
research analyst

For CEOs and founders, this is huge.

3. How I’m Personally Using ChatGPT 5.1 Right Now

I’ve already built:

A LinkedIn Hunter Agent that finds 50 conference bookers a week
A Sales Mechanics Workflow for monthly Keiser sessions
A full-suite content engine for my articles, carousels, scripts, and proposals
A Lead Magnet Factory for advisors and property teams
A Speaking Proposal Builder that drafts documents in minutes

Here is an example of what I have set up. A system that finds me 6 targeted prospects every day, connects with them on LinkedIn in a personalised message and creates email follow up. This saves me around 2 hours a day….

4. Why This Update Changes the Game (and why ignoring it is dangerous)

We’re entering a world where:

Salespeople who use AI will outsell those who don’t
Advisors who use AI will acquire more clients
Speakers who use AI will get more bookings
Entrepreneurs who use AI will run leaner, faster, smarter businesses
Content creators who use AI will publish 10x more than those who resist

This isn’t about replacing humans — it’s about supercharging them.

The same way we eventually all learned to use email, PowerPoint, and Google Maps… AI will become the next essential skill.

The businesses that adopt it early?
They win……Every time.

5. Where to Start (Simple Steps Anyone Can Implement)

Step 1: Upgrade your prompts

Most people are still writing one-line prompts.
With 5.1, you can now create multi-step workflows.

For example:
“Create a 10-post LinkedIn campaign, write the scripts, design the carousel outline, structure the PDF lead magnet, and give me a posting schedule.”

Step 2: Build recurring systems

Prospecting, content creation, email nurturing, and client onboarding can all be automated.

Step 3: Train your team (before your competitor does)

This is where companies fall behind — they buy the tool but don’t teach their people.

I’ve already begun running full-day programs showing teams how to:

set up AI workflows
create content engines
replace manual tasks
build “AI thinking” into the culture

It’s transformational.

6. Final Thoughts: ChatGPT 5.1 Is Not the Future — It’s the Present

When I started speaking about AI years ago, people smiled politely and hoped it would go away.
Now CEOs, sales managers, advisors, HR directors, fitness clubs, property companies, and global associations are calling me asking:

“How do we catch up?”

Because the companies moving fastest right now are using AI not as a tool…
but as a strategy.

And ChatGPT 5.1 is the biggest shift we’ve seen yet.

It’s faster.
Smarter.
More human.
More powerful.
And easier to integrate into everyday business than ever before.

If you embrace it now, you’ll lead the pack.

If you wait… you’ll be trying to catch up with someone who didn’t.

What Would You Like Me to Build for You With 5.1?

If you want help creating:

an AI prospecting system
a LinkedIn machine
a content engine
a sales workflow
or an AI-powered strategy for your team

Just book me — I’ll happily show you what’s possible.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from speaking in 70 countries: those who adapt fastest win the fastest.

Ready to Transform Your Sales Team’s Performance?

If your team is ready to stop being average and start being exceptional, let’s have a conversation. I work with organizations in 69 countries who are committed to staying ahead in today’s competitive landscape.

I can help your team through:

High-impact keynote presentations that inspire and educate your entire organization
Intensive sales training workshops that deliver immediately applicable skills
Conference speaking that positions your event as cutting-edge and valuable
Custom coaching programs tailored to your industry and challenges

Don’t let your competition leave you behind while they master these essential skills.

Contact me today:

Email: frank@frankfurness.com
Phone: +44 7711 672888
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/frankfurness
Website: www.frankfurness.com

Remember: in today’s rapidly evolving sales environment, standing still means falling behind. Your competitors are already adapting – are you?

Frank Furness is an internationally recognized sales expert, keynote speaker, and author who has trained teams in 69 countries. He’s helped organizations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue through modern sales methodologies.

24 Social Media Predictions That’ll Make or Break Your 2026

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:11:00 +0000

After 70 countries, thousands of salespeople trained, and far too many airport sandwiches, here’s what I can tell you with certainty:

Social media isn’t evolving. It’s mutating.

LinkedIn: The New Money Machine

Predictive Buyer Intent
LinkedIn’s becoming part sales platform, part mind reader.
It’s learning who’s likely to buy before you know. Creepy? Yes. Useful? Absolutely.
Video Takes the Crown
If you’re camera-shy, 2026 is your nightmare.
LinkedIn is now mobile-first (≈70%) and video-obsessed.
Think “mini-masterclass,” not “corporate hostage tape.”
Newsletters That Actually Get Read
While emails gasp for air, LinkedIn newsletters still average 50% opens.
Mine bring in new clients almost every time I hit publish.
Coincidence? I doubt it.
Collaborative Articles for Visibility
Comment intelligently and your profile views will spike.
Think of it as networking for introverts — minus the canapés.

Instagram & Threads: The Good-Looking Platforms

Stories Become Shops
If it’s pretty, it sells.
If it’s not, fix it — because Stories are the new storefronts.
Threads Overtakes X (For Sanity)
It’s calmer, friendlier, and the trolls haven’t moved in yet.
Get your tone right now, before the marketers ruin it.
AI Faces? Disclose Them.
Meta’s flagging AI-generated images.
Be transparent — fake never ages well.
Reels: Shorter, Sharper, Stronger
You still have about 1.5 seconds to stop the scroll.
No pressure.

TikTok: Where Chaos Becomes Commerce

TikTok Shop Takes Over
More than 30% of users will buy something without leaving the app.
That’s not a trend; that’s a revolution.
AI Hosts on Night Shift
Virtual presenters, multilingual, tireless, terrifyingly effective.
They don’t blink, but your bank account might.
Mini-Apps Take Over
TikTok wants to be your booking engine, food app and dating site.
Choose what helps your business — and ignore the rest.
Transparency… Sort Of
They’ll show you some of the algorithm, but not the secret sauce.

Meta: From Midlife Crisis to Comeback Tour

Chronological Feeds (In Europe)
EU users can now ditch algorithmic feeds thanks to new laws.
Translation: your organic reach just went on holiday.
AI Shopping Bots Get Smart
WhatsApp and Messenger will sell for you — 24/7, no overtime pay.
Ray-Bans That Record
They’re brilliant for authentic POV storytelling.
Just don’t believe the myth that Meta boosts the posts.
Group Commerce = Gold Rush
If you’ve built a community, you’ve also built a customer base.

YouTube: Where Serious Players Play

Shorts Start Paying
Revenue-sharing improves, but competition’s fierce.
Out-teach, out-talk, out-title.
Podcasting Finds Its Home
YouTube’s finally embracing audio-first creators.
Your voice deserves better than Spotify’s algorithmic shrug.

X: Clinging On by Its Fingernails

X Money Appears (Partially)
Payments are live in some states.
Will it matter? Only if your crowd’s still hanging around.
Community Notes Chaos
When fact-checking depends on volunteers, results vary.
Brands, think before you repost.

The AI Avalanche

AI Labeling Becomes Standard
TikTok, Meta and YouTube now flag synthetic media.
Get ahead of it — honesty beats mystery every time.
AI Handles the First “Hello”
Bots will take 70% of first-line service, but the best brands use them to accelerate humanity, not replace it.
Virtual Influencers Go Mainstream
They never age, never argue about contracts, and never eat the catering.
Expect them everywhere.
AI Ads Beat Human Ones (Sometimes)
But when AI meets human insight? That’s where the magic prints money.

Frank’s Action Plan for 2026

If you only do five things:

Post 3 quick teaching videos weekly on LinkedIn
Start a LinkedIn newsletter
Experiment with TikTok Shop
Learn and love AI tools — they’re not replacing you, they’re multiplying you
Batch content on Sundays so you stop winging it

Stop doing this:

Posting without purpose
Avoiding video
Hoping reach will come back
Waiting for “the right time” (that was last year)

The Final Word

Social media now rewards bravery and consistency, not perfection.
Pick your platform, master your tools, show up daily.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t let AI out-human you.

Need help turning this into sales?
📧 frank@frankfurness.com | 🌐 frankfurness.com

P.S. Remember my British Airways post that hit 230,000 views?
No filters, no fluff — just raw truth.
Do that this week.
Authenticity beats algorithms, every time.

The 10 Essentials for Sales Teams That Sell Smarter

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 15:49:00 +0000

The Sales Wake-Up Call: Why 73% of Sales Teams Are Already Behind (And How Yours Can Lead the Pack)

Here's a sobering statistic that should make every sales leader pause: 73% of sales teams are still using methods that worked five years ago. Meanwhile, their prospects have evolved light years ahead.

Just recently, I was working with a client in Manchester when one of their prospects corrected them about their own product features – the buyer had done more research than the seller!

Sound familiar? If this scenario makes you uncomfortable, good.

It should. Because in today's hyper-informed marketplace, being "pretty good" at sales is the same as being spectacularly average.

After training sales teams in 69 countries and watching billions in revenue transformation,

I've identified the ten non-negotiable activities that separate the sharp teams from the struggling ones. These aren't suggestions – they're survival skills.

1. Master AI-Powered Sales Intelligence (Not Just ChatGPT)

Here's what's happening while your competition is still manually researching prospects: smart teams are using AI to do in minutes what used to take hours.

The Sharp Team Approach:

ChatGPT for personalized outreach: I watched a client generate £180,000 in new business from a single LinkedIn campaign powered by AI-crafted messages
Crystal Knows for personality insights: Know whether your prospect is detail-oriented or big-picture focused before you dial
Tutorai.me for rapid onboarding: New team members are productive in days, not months

The key? AI is like salt in cooking – too little and your results are bland, too much and you've ruined everything. Master the balance.

2. Become LinkedIn Legends (Not LinkedIn Lurkers)

LinkedIn isn't social media anymore – it's a sales weapon. With over 32,000 followers, I've seen teams transform their pipeline using strategies most sellers never discover.

What Sharp Teams Do:

Post valuable industry insights 3-4 times weekly
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator like a precision instrument, not a blunt tool
Engage meaningfully in comments before making any sales approach
Share knowledge freely without expecting immediate returns

Remember: in 2025, buyers expect you to be visible, credible, and valuable before they'll even take your call.

3. Sell to Both the Head AND the Heart

This is where most teams fail spectacularly. They either go full analytical (boring the emotional decision-maker) or full emotional (frustrating the logical buyer).

Head Buyers Need:

Detailed ROI calculations and comparative analysis
Risk mitigation strategies and implementation timelines
Industry benchmarks and peer references

Heart Buyers Need:

Vision of the transformation and personal impact stories
Emotional connection to the outcome and recognition of their concerns

Sharp teams identify which type they're dealing with in the first five minutes and adapt accordingly. The best? They speak to both in every presentation.

4. Prospect with Precision, Not Prayer

Gone are the days of "smile and dial." Today's sharp teams prospect like scientists, not gamblers.

The Modern Prospecting Formula:

Research first: LinkedIn, company news, industry challenges
Personalize ruthlessly: generic outreach gets deleted instantly
Multi-channel approach: email, LinkedIn, video, phone – but strategically sequenced
Track everything: what works, what doesn't, what converts

I recently worked with a team that increased their response rates from 2% to 34% simply by changing their prospecting approach from quantity to quality.

5. Understand Marketing Like a Marketer

Sharp sales teams don't wait for marketing to hand them leads – they understand the entire customer journey and contribute to it.

What This Looks Like:

Know your buyer personas better than marketing does
Contribute to content creation based on real customer conversations
Understand SEO basics and help optimize company content
Use marketing automation tools to nurture their own prospects

When sales and marketing truly align (not just say they do), companies see 38% higher win rates.

6. Develop Razor-Sharp Questioning Skills

Average salespeople talk. Sharp salespeople ask questions that make prospects think differently about their situation.

The Question Hierarchy:

Surface Level: "What's your budget?"
Strategic Level: "What happens if you don't solve this problem this year?"
Transformational Level: "What would success look like for you personally?"

Master the art of asking questions that your competitors would never think to ask.

7. Become Industry Authorities (Not Generic Sellers)

Your prospects don't need another salesperson – they need an industry expert who happens to sell solutions.

Authority Building Actions:

Read industry publications religiously and share insights
Attend (and speak at) industry events
Build relationships with industry analysts and journalists
Become the person prospects call for advice, not just quotes

8. Master the Art of Social Selling

This goes beyond LinkedIn posts. Sharp teams integrate social selling into every touchpoint.

Advanced Social Selling:

Monitor prospect companies' social activity for conversation starters
Share relevant content that helps prospects solve problems
Build relationships with prospects' connections
Use social listening tools to identify buying signals

9. Embrace Video Communication

While your competition is still sending text emails, sharp teams are building relationships through video.

Video Applications:

Personalized video prospecting messages
Product demonstrations tailored to specific use cases
Thank you videos after meetings
Problem-solving videos that add value

My YouTube channel has over 4 million views because video builds trust faster than any other medium.

10. Continuously Upgrade Your Skills

The moment you think you've "arrived" as a salesperson is the moment you start falling behind. Sharp teams are learning machines.

Continuous Learning Strategy:

Read one sales/business book monthly
Attend at least two professional development events yearly
Practice new techniques with low-risk prospects first
Regularly role-play challenging scenarios with teammates

Companies with robust training programs experience 53% lower employee turnover and 34% higher win rates.

The Bottom Line: Sharp or Obsolete

The sales profession has evolved more in the last five years than in the previous fifty. Teams that embrace these ten practices don't just survive – they dominate their markets.

But here's the challenge: knowing what to do isn't the same as doing it consistently and correctly. Implementation is where most teams fail.

Ready to Transform Your Sales Team's Performance?

If your team is ready to stop being average and start being exceptional, let's have a conversation. I work with organizations in 69 countries who are committed to staying ahead in today's competitive landscape.

I can help your team through:

High-impact keynote presentations that inspire and educate your entire organization
Intensive sales training workshops that deliver immediately applicable skills
Conference speaking that positions your event as cutting-edge and valuable
Custom coaching programs tailored to your industry and challenges

Don't let your competition leave you behind while they master these essential skills.

Contact me today:

Email: frank@frankfurness.com
Phone: +44 7711 672888
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/frankfurness
Website: www.frankfurness.com

Remember: in today's rapidly evolving sales environment, standing still means falling behind. Your competitors are already adapting – are you?

Frank Furness is an internationally recognized sales expert, keynote speaker, and author who has trained teams in 69 countries. He's helped organizations generate over £1 billion in additional revenue through modern sales methodologies.

10 AI and LinkedIn Breakthroughs Every Sales Leader Must Know in 2025

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 15:27:00 +0000

Last week a friend asked me: “Frank, is AI really going to take over sales?”

I smiled and said, “Only if you’re still selling like it’s 1999.”

The truth is, sales isn’t disappearing—it’s evolving. AI isn’t here to steal your job; it’s here to steal your excuses. And LinkedIn? Well, it’s no longer just a place to park your CV—it’s the world’s biggest sales stage.

So, what’s new? Here are 10 advances in AI and LinkedIn that dropped just this past month. They’re practical, powerful, and (if you actually use them) they might just help you book more meetings, close more deals, and even get home early enough to watch Netflix without your laptop glowing in the background.

1. Sales Navigator's New Assistant (Your Digital Wingman)

Think of this as your personal sales butler. Every morning it politely serves up the best leads, insights, and conversation starters—without you lifting a finger. No silver trays, but plenty of golden opportunities.

What this means: You'll spend less time hunting and more time selling.

2. Account IQ & Lead IQ (Because Homework Sucks)

Remember those awkward moments when you hop on a sales call and have no idea what the company does? LinkedIn fixed that embarrassment for you.

These tools pull together everything you need to know about a prospect or company. It's like having the world's most thorough stalker working for you—but in a completely legal and helpful way.

The bottom line: No more starting calls with "So... tell me about your business."

3. Message Assist (For Those Who Hate Writing)

If crafting personalized outreach messages makes you want to fake your own death, this is your lifeline. LinkedIn's AI writes InMail’s that sound like they came from a human who actually did their research—not a desperate robot.

Before: "Dear Sir/Madam, I hope this message finds you in good health..."

Now: "Hi Sarah, Sarah, I saw your post on renewable energy—let’s connect!”. Quick question about your Q4 initiatives..."

4. Smarter Notifications (The Noise Filter)

LinkedIn quietly became less annoying. They upgraded what they show you, which means you'll see more relevant prospects and fewer updates about someone's lunch.

Translation: More signal, less noise. Finally.

5. LiDDA Attribution (Know What Actually Works)

This sounds technical, but it's pure gold. LinkedIn can now track what actually leads to closed deals. Was it that blog post? Your webinar? That comment you left on someone's update?

Why you care: Stop wasting time on activities that feel productive but don't move deals forward.

6. SalesRLAgent (Your Deal Whisperer)

Imagine having a co-pilot who whispers: "This prospect is 94% likely to buy—don't screw this up."

Early tests show this can boost conversion rates by over 40%. It's like having a crystal ball, but one that actually works.

Reality check: This isn't magic. It's pattern recognition on steroids.

7. Lumio AI (The Tool Buffet)

Not LinkedIn, but worth mentioning. This platform lets you test multiple AI tools side by side. Think ChatGPT for brainstorming, Claude for research, Gemini for data analysis.

The benefit: Stop guessing which AI tool to use and start using the right one for each task.

8. LinkedIn's Knowledge Graph Upgrade (The Behind-the-Scenes Magic)

LinkedIn improved how it connects people, companies, and industries. You won't see this directly, but you'll feel it through better targeting and richer prospect insights.

What you'll notice: Your search results will be more accurate, and your content will reach the right eyeballs more often.

9. The 2025 AI Sales Stack (What Everyone's Using)

The latest roundup of must-have tools includes everything from Gong to HubSpot to Clari. If you’re not experimenting with at least one or two of these, you’re basically showing up to a Formula 1 race on a bicycle.

Frank's take: You don't need every tool. You need the right tools. Start with one, master it, then expand. (Let me help you and your team to find the right solutions for your business)

10. The Uncomfortable Truth About Job Security

Microsoft saved $500 million by using AI in their call centers. Some traditional sales roles are disappearing faster than free donuts at a Monday morning meeting.

But here's the flip side: Solution-focused, tech-savvy sellers are more valuable than ever. The "I'll just build relationships over golf" approach is becoming as outdated as fax machines.

Don't panic. Adapt. The fastest way to become irrelevant is pretending this isn't happening.

My Challenge to You

Pick one new AI or LinkedIn feature this week. Test it. See what happens. Don't wait for your competition to figure it out first.

Sales have always been about connecting with people and solving their problems. AI just gives us sharper tools to do it better and faster.

The game is changing whether you like it or not. The only question is: are you changing with it, or are you the person still insisting that email will never replace phone calls?

Ready to get serious about AI in sales? Check out my workshops and strategy sessions at frankfurness.com. Let's make sure you're ahead of this curve, not buried under it.

Let me speak at your next conference or train your team on the latest tools or strategies.

#Innovation #Technology #Futurism #linkedin #business

Selling from the Heart vs. Selling from the Head: The Two-Brain Strategy That Actually Closes Deals

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:37:00 +0000

You’ve polished your pitch. The ROI calculator is glowing. The PowerPoint animations are smooth and you are ready to close.

And yet… nothing. Just glazed eyes and a polite, “I want to think about it.”

Have you ever had that?

I have, more times than I can count, before I realised I was selling the way I sold and not the way they bought.

You don’t bomb the pitch. You pitched to the wrong brain.

“People buy emotionally and justify logically.”

I heard that 20 years ago from Alan Weiss, and it’s still true.

But here’s the kicker—some people need the emotion before they commit, others won’t budge without the numbers (think most accountants, lawyers and architects).

And if you sell the wrong way to the wrong person, you’ll lose faster than a cold caller who forgets the prospect’s name.

Let’s unpack the difference between heart buyers and head buyers, how to spot them, and—more importantly—how to sell to them without sounding like a canned sales script.

The Great Brain Divide

Every buyer has two internal engines running the show: the Head (logic, data, risk management) and the Heart (emotion, story, connection). And here’s the kicker:

Most salespeople pitch as if every prospect is powered entirely by Excel spreadsheets or Hallmark cards—when in reality, they’re some messy, glorious combination of both.

Think about yourself, how do you like to buy, from the head or heart. I am a bit of a combination of both.

The Two Tribes

Head Buyers
They’re spreadsheet samurais. They want case studies, KPIs, due diligence, and disaster plans. You’re not pitching a partnership—you’re submitting a procurement dossier. They want facts and figures and proof.

Logic-driven, fact-finding missiles.

They want spreadsheets, ROI projections, case studies, and the approval of their inner accountant.

They don't “feel” their way into decisions—they calculate, analyze, and dissect.

Think:

The CFO who wants a 3-year cost-benefit analysis before switching software.
The investor who needs market performance graphs before touching a property.
The tech buyer who asks about compatibility, warranties, and uptime percentage.

My success in financial services sales was although I am a heart buyer, most of my sales were to accountants, doctors and dentists who by and large were logical head buyers.

When they said they wanted to think about it, they did.

I always gave them two proposals and used head language like ‘I have analysed the alternatives and want you to go away and study and analyse what would work best for you and when we meet again let me know which is best’

They don’t want to be rushed and normally would study the proposals and tell you what they have decided.

One word of warning, when selling to head buyers, know your product, their company and any pain points, they will have the answers but will still test you.

I remember when I first started selling, I managed to make an appointment with one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in South Africa.

This was in the 80s and when I walked into his office he told me he had $5 million to invest, what would I suggest (what I heard was ‘go and order your Bentley this afternoon)

He then started asking difficult questions to which I did not have the answers.

After 10 minutes he walked around the desk, shook my hand and said ‘young man, go and learn your business and come back in 5 years’ time when you know what you are talking about’.

I felt sick for a week but then realized the importance of knowledge in selling to head buyers and my sales career took off.

Heart Buyers

These are the gut-feel gladiators. They buy on emotion, trust, culture fit. To them, a deal that "feels right" is often better than one that merely "adds up."

These are your emotional decision-makers. They care about how it feels, not just what it does.

They’re buying the dream, the status, the story, the legacy.

Think:

The client who buys a beachfront apartment because their dad always dreamed of retiring by the ocean.
The business owner who signs the deal because “it just feels right.”
The gym owner who installs £50k of equipment because they want to “change lives,” not because of ROI.

You’ve met both. The CFO who wanted 43 pages of ROI analysis. The founder who bought after a five-minute story about your dog and your startup journey.

Most people lean one way or the other.

Your job? Know which way they’re tilted—and sell accordingly.

Spotting the Buyer in 60 Seconds

You don’t need a neuroscience degree. You just need to ask better questions and listen like your life depended on it.

Spotting a Heart Buyer from a Mile Away

Heart buyers give signals that are easier to spot than a bad poker face:

What They Say:

"I just have a feeling about this..."
"My team is going to love this"
"This feels right for our culture"
"I trust your judgment"
"What do you think we should do?"

How They Behave:

They ask about your experience with similar companies
They want to know who else you've worked with
They focus on relationships and partnerships
They make decisions quickly (sometimes scarily fast)
They trust recommendations from people they respect

Real Example: Sarah, a marketing director, called me after a 20-minute conversation and said, "I've been burned by marketing speakers before, but you just get our brand. When can we start?"

She didn't ask for case studies, pricing comparisons, or a detailed proposal. She made a gut decision based on connection and trust

Identifying the Head Buyer (AKA the Spreadsheet Warrior)

Head buyers are the ones who make you work for every single data point:

What They Say:

"What's the ROI on this?"
"Can you provide benchmarks?"
"I need to see the numbers"
"What's your methodology?"
"How do you measure success?"

How They Behave:

They ask for detailed proposals before committing to anything.
They want multiple options to compare
They research you and your competitors thoroughly
Decision-making takes time (sometimes painfully long)

· They involve multiple stakeholders in the process

(I hate putting together proposals but know I must do it for head buyers. Heavens opened when I started using ChatGPT as my helper)

Real Example: David, a CFO, requested a 40-page proposal, three references, a risk assessment, and a pilot program before committing to a $15K consulting project. He spent six weeks evaluating options and built a comparison matrix with 17 different criteria. But once he decided? He became a client for life.

Ask These Questions:

“What’s most important to you in making this decision?”

“Making an impact.” → Heart.
“Staying within budget.” → Head.

“What would success look like 12 months from now?”

“Happy clients who love our service.” → Heart.
“12% increased profit margin.” → Head.

“What’s the best buying experience you’ve had?”

“They just got us.” → Heart.
“They provided detailed comparisons and timelines.” → Head.

Your Guide to Selling to Each Brain

Selling to the Head Buyer

These folks are walking procurement checklists. Respect the process.

Bring the Data (Lots of It) Come armed with case studies, ROI calculations, benchmarks, and proof points. If you can't quantify it, don't mention it.

Create Clear Comparison Frameworks Help them evaluate options by providing structured ways to compare solutions. They love matrices, scorecards, and detailed proposals.

Address Every Possible Risk - Head buyers are naturally cautious.

Proactively address potential concerns and provide mitigation strategies.

Be Patient with the Process Don't rush them. They need time to analyse, compare, and build consensus. Trying to speed them up often backfires.

Frank’s Real Example:
David, a CFO, made me jump through every hoop—proposal, pilot, risk assessments, references. Took six weeks. Became a lifetime client. Of course, he was an accountant and figures and facts were what he bought, tangible proof.

Selling to the Heart Buyer

Now we’re in my zone. These are the buyers who want to trust you, feel the vision, and see that you “get” them.

Lead with Stories, Not Stats Instead of rattling off features and benefits, tell them about other clients who were in similar situations. Paint the picture of transformation.

Wrong: "Our platform increases productivity by 23% on average."

Right: "I remember when the CEO at a financial services company in Malaysia told me, 'Frank, for the first time in years, my team actually looks forward to Monday mornings.' That's what happens when you get the right tools in place."

Build the Relationship First

Heart buyers buy from people they like and trust.

Spend time getting to know them, their challenges, and their vision.

Make It About Them (and Their Team)

Show them how this decision makes them look like a hero.

Heart buyers often worry about how decisions affect their relationships and reputation.

Move Fast When They're

Ready When a heart buyer says yes, get the paperwork signed quickly.

Don't let them overthink it—their gut is usually right.

The Million-Dollar Mistake Most Salespeople Make

They use the same approach for everyone.

They either go full data-dump on a heart buyer (who stops listening after the third statistic) or try to build rapport with a head buyer who just wants to see the numbers.

Here's the fix: Ask diagnostic questions early.

For Heart Buyers:

"What's most important to you in a supplier?"
"How do you typically make decisions like this?"
"What's worked well for you in the past?"

For Head Buyers:

"What criteria will you use to evaluate options?"
"What metrics matter most to your organization?"
"Who else is involved in this decision?"

When They're Both (like me)

Some buyers flip between heart and head depending on the situation. The secret? Start with logic, finish with emotion.

People make decisions on logic; they act on emotion.

Give them the rational reasons to buy (satisfying their head), then help them feel good about the decision (satisfying their heart).

Example Script: "Based on the analysis, this solution delivers a 200% ROI within 18 months [HEAD]. But honestly, the real win is that your team finally gets to focus on strategy instead of fighting fires every day.

Imagine walking into the office knowing everything just works [HEART]."

What Happens When You Get It Wrong?

You lose the sale. Plain and simple.

Pitch logic to a Heart Buyer. You’ll sound cold and robotic.
Pitch emotion to a Head Buyer? You’ll sound fluffy and unprepared.
Pitch both wrong? You’ll be ghosted harder than a bad Tinder date.

The Final Word: Sales is Emotional Intelligence in Action

Great selling isn’t about scripts. It’s about EQ.

It’s about reading the room. Listen between the lines. Knowing when to show the spreadsheet… and when to tell the story.

So, here’s your new mantra:

“Speak to the brain they’re using.”

You’re not selling to robots. You’re not selling to daydreamers.

You’re selling to real, complex humans—who just want to make a decision that makes them feel smart and feel right.

And remember, this is not just in your face-to-face selling, its in your marketing, prospecting, preparation and approach.

Does your team need help building a sales strategy that actually converts?

Whether you're a CEO looking to scale your sales team or a consultant wanting to close bigger deals, I help leaders build systems that work.

Visit www.frankfurness.com to explore keynote speaking, sales training, and strategy sessions.

Otherwise email me at frank@frankfurness.com or call +44 7711 672888

Email me at frank@frankfurness.com

Let's turn your prospects into clients—no matter which brain they're using.

To get your free PDF copy of Heart to Head Selling, please email me at frank@frankfurness.com

"The AI Landscape Just Exploded: What Business Leaders Need to Know Right Now's 2025 Algorithm Shake-Up: What You Need to Know (Before Your Posts Disappear)

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:46:00 +0000

Let’s be honest: LinkedIn’s at it again—quietly updating the algorithm while the rest of us are just trying to figure out which day to post and what emoji gets the most engagement.

If your once-thriving posts are now struggling to break 300 views, don’t panic. It’s not you—it’s the algorithm. And the good news?

With a few simple changes, you can adapt, thrive, and get your content seen by the right people.

LinkedIn’s Algorithm Has Matured

Quality Over Quantity: The New Golden Rule

Remember when we all thought more posts, more likes, more everything was the answer? Well, LinkedIn has decided to throw a wrench in that particular machine

They're now prioritizing quality and relevance like a hawk eyeing its prey. This means your content needs to be less about "look at me!" and more about "let me help you!"

Think insightful advice, genuine knowledge sharing, and content that makes someone stop scrolling and think, "Hmm, that's useful!"

They're actively moving away from "viral" content that might have been great for a fleeting moment of fame but offered little substance.

If your post is packed with value, solves a problem, or offers a fresh perspective, the algorithm is far more likely to give it a high-five and show it to a wider, more relevant audience. So, less clickbait, more brain bait!

It’s no longer about volume. It’s about value. Here’s a quick before-and-after snapshot:

Old LinkedIn	New LinkedIn (2025)
Likes = visibility	Meaningful comments = visibility
Post links anywhere	External links reduce reach
Long, wordy posts	Short, structured insights perform best
Any engagement worked, now	Only quality engagement matters

The message is clear: LinkedIn is focused on elevating high-quality, niche-specific content that sparks real interaction.

What the Algorithm Now Prioritizes

LinkedIn’s new AI-driven system rewards content that creates depth and dialogue. Key performance drivers include:

Dwell Time – The longer someone reads, the more the algorithm notices.
Saves & Shares – These signal lasting value.
Meaningful Comments – Discussions matter more than quick compliments.
Niche Relevance – Stay in your area of expertise.
Early Engagement – The first 90 minutes determines broader reach.

The first 60-120 minutes after you hit "post" are critical. This is your "golden hour."

If your content gets a burst of meaningful engagement during this time, LinkedIn's algorithm will show your post to more and more people, even beyond your immediate network. So, time your posts wisely when your audience is most active.

Frank's Quick Tip:

Stop trying to connect with everyone on the planet. Focus on building genuine relationships with people in your industry, your clients, and your prospects. Quality over quantity – it's not just a saying, it's now the algorithm!

And finally, LinkedIn is really pushing for niche expertise.

If you consistently share valuable insights on a specific topic, you'll be recognized as an authority.

This means your content is more likely to be shown to others interested in that niche, even if they're not directly connected to you. So, pick your professional hill to die on, and plant your flag with insightful, consistent content.

In essence, the LinkedIn algorithm is maturing. It's less about viral stunts and more about building genuine connections, sharing authentic expertise, and providing real value.

Tactics to Retire

Here’s what’s no longer effective (and could hurt your visibility):

External links in the post body (use the comments instead)
Tagging people who don’t engage
Low-effort engagement bait (“Comment YES if you agree!”)
Generic stock photos that add no real context

Authenticity and relevance are now non-negotiables.

What Still Works (And What’s Growing)

Text-only posts with strong hooks and substance
Carousel posts (PDFs) – Educational slides continue to perform extremely well
Short native videos – Especially those under 60 seconds
Vertical videos – This format is rapidly gaining favour as mobile consumption dominates. LinkedIn is now prioritising vertical videos in the feed, making them ideal for thought leadership, Quick tips and event recaps. Keep it concise, clear, and captioned.
Relatable storytelling – Share experiences, lessons, and Real-world examples that resonate with your network

Frank’s Winning Post Formula

Hook – Start strong with a surprising insight or provocative question
Value – Share useful advice, a compelling story, or a fresh perspective
Engagement Prompt – Invite discussion with a clear question
Format – Use white space, bullets, and simple visuals for readability
Consistency – Post 3–5x per week with a clear theme or niche focus

Metrics That Matter Most

Metric	Why It Matters
Dwell Time	Indicates content relevance
Saves	Shows your post is useful long-term
Comments	Drives deeper engagement
Reposts	Expands network reach
Early engagement	Boosts algorithmic prioritisation
Vertical video views	Indicates strong mobile engagement and storytelling

Less Broadcasting. More Conversation.

LinkedIn is not a megaphone — it’s a conversation platform. Instead of pushing messages, invite your audience to participate.

Try:

“What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?”
“Is hustle culture hurting productivity?”

Genuine dialogue will always outperform a generic update.

Final Thought

LinkedIn’s 2025 algorithm isn’t trying to confuse you—it’s trying to elevate quality content. Yes, the bar is higher. But that also means the opportunity is greater for those who bring real insights to the table.

Be consistent. Be helpful. Be real.

Need a LinkedIn Strategy That Works in 2025?

If you’re a CEO, consultant, or sales leader looking to:

Attract better leads
Build authority in your niche
Leverage AI and content to grow your visibility

Visit www.frankfurness.com to explore keynote speaking, workshops, and strategy sessions.

Let’s make LinkedIn your best business tool in 2025.

"The AI Landscape Just Exploded: What Business Leaders Need to Know Right Now's 2025 Algorithm Shake-Up: What You Need to Know (Before Your Posts Disappear)

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Wed, 07 May 2025 16:35:00 +0000

Remember when AI was just chatbots answering simple questions? Those days are long gone….

I've just completed a fresh analysis of the latest AI developments, and I'm bursting to share these golden insights with you.

Google Just Dropped a Beast of an Update for Gemini

Buckle up, because Google's new Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview (I/O edition) is an absolute BEAST!

After analyzing its performance across multiple leaderboards, here's what makes it exceptional:

It's Topping the charts everywhere – beating Claude 3.7 Sonnet on the WebDev Arena Leaderboard and crushing OpenAI's o3 across all LM Arena categories
Its video processing is 30x faster with an 84.8% score on VideoMME (if you're a data junkie like me, you'll appreciate these numbers!)
It's got dramatically improved coding capabilities - handling code like someone Who's been living in VS Code since birth

What's truly remarkable is that you're not paying extra for this firepower. It fully replaces the regular 2.5 Pro model at the same price. You can access it through the Gemini API, Vertex AI, AI Studio, or just hit up the Gemini app.

And this is just the appetizer before Google's I/O conference. Remember my COPE strategy (Create Once, Publish Everywhere)? Google seems to be following their own version: Improve Once, Dominate Everywhere!

Your Chatbot Probably Shouldn't Be Your Doctor

An eye-opening Oxford study just confirmed what many of us suspected: letting AI play doctor might not be the smartest move yet.

Despite one in six American adults already asking chatbots health questions (those medical bills aren't getting any smaller, are we right?), the research found people using AI were:

Less likely to identify health conditions correctly
Regularly underestimated how serious the symptoms were

The problem is two-fold:

Most People don't know how to effectively communicate with these chatbots
The responses are a confusing mix of good and questionable advice.

Meanwhile, tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are racing to stake their claim in the healthcare AI gold rush. But when even OpenAI is advising against relying on ChatGPT for health diagnoses, maybe we should listen!

Bottom line: While asking ChatGPT about a sore throat might be tempting, leave the serious stuff to actual doctors for now. The tech isn't quite there yet.

Video Generation Just Got Scary Good

Two massive developments have just changed the video game:

HeyGen's Avatar IV brings a single photo to life with movements and expressions that are uncannily real. Their "audio-to-expression" engine analyzes voices to create facial movements that respond naturally to speech. And it's not just talking heads; they've added support for half-body and full-body formats too.

Lighttricks' LTXV-13B generates high-quality content 30x faster than existing models while running on regular consumer hardware. They're using a clever approach called "multiscale rendering" that builds videos in layers of detail.

The speed of innovation here reminds me of what I always tell my clients: "The gap between 'mind-blowing demo' and 'anyone can do this' is collapsing faster than ever."

Musk, Palantir & TWG Want to Rewire How Businesses Use AI

Elon being Elon, he's now taking on enterprise AI. His xAI startup just teamed up with Palantir and TWG to "redefine how banking institutions adopt AI across the entire enterprise."

The alliance is targeting a real pain point: 74% of CEOs know they should be implementing AI-first strategies but can't figure out how to get beyond the proof-of-concept phase.

What makes this partnership fascinating is their approach - AI integration needs to come from the C-suite rather than being siloed in the tech department. It's like what I tell businesses about LinkedIn strategy: success comes from the top, not from delegating to the newest team member!

OpenAI Drama Continues (No Surprises There!)

OpenAI is reportedly spending $3 billion to acquire Windsurf (formerly Codeium), which would be their biggest acquisition yet.

But not everything's rosy in AI land:

Musk's attorneys are calling OpenAI's restructuring a "transparent dodge"
Microsoft wants solid assurances that their $13.75 billion investment is protected

Watching this drama unfold is better than the latest streaming series! Just like on LinkedIn, authenticity always wins in the end.

Five Tools Worth Checking Out

Just like my AI recommendations for LinkedIn, here are some standouts:

MarketMind: Analyzes billions of data points for real-time business insights
Vsub: Creates faceless videos in seconds (perfect for quick content)

Humanize: Makes AI-written text sound actually human (essential for authentic content!)

TabMate: Finally, something to tame your 87 open browser tabs

Remember what I always say: "AI is fantastic, but it can't buy you a beer after closing a massive deal. Always remember: humans close deals, AI just helps you get there faster."

Want to transform your AI knowledge? I've got you covered:

📧 Email: frank@frankfurness.com
🌐 Online Course: www.linkedinmarketingforbusiness.com
🎙️ Call +44 7711 672888

Speaking & Training: Customized for your team. Book me now for 2025 to speak at your conference, train your team or to consult and grow your business.

#AITrends #BusinessGrowth #AIinBusiness #TechInnovation #PersonalBranding

"The fastest way to succeed with AI isn't to copy everyone else - it's to understand the technology so well that you can be authentically yourself while leveraging it."

Frank Furness

This Keynote Changed the Game – AI, LinkedIn & Sales Reimagined | Jamie ...

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Tue, 06 May 2025 14:09:00 +0000

Inman Porter testimonial on Frank Furness

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Tue, 06 May 2025 13:15:00 +0000

Mastering the Art of Creating Your Own Custom GPT: A Step-by-Step Guide

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 21:36:00 +0000

So, you've been using ChatGPT for a while, and now you're thinking, "Wouldn't it be amazing if ChatGPT knew exactly what I wanted without me having to explain it every single time?" Well, my friend, that's exactly what custom GPTs are for! Let me walk you through how to create your very own personalized AI assistant that thinks like you (minus the coffee addiction and occasional existential crises).

What is a Custom GPT, Anyway?

Think of a custom GPT as ChatGPT after it's been to a specialized training camp. It's still ChatGPT at its core, but now it has special instructions, knowledge, and capabilities that make it uniquely suited to help with specific tasks or topics that matter to you.

It's like having a digital mini-me, except it doesn't need sleep and won't raid your refrigerator at midnight.

Why Create a Custom GPT?

Before we dive into the how-to, let's talk about why you might want to create one:

Save time: No more explaining your company's style guide every single time
Consistency: Get responses that follow your preferred approach
Specialized knowledge: Give it documents only relevant to your field
Automation: Create an assistant that knows exactly how to handle routine tasks

Plus, it's just plain cool to say, "Oh, that? That's my personal AI assistant. No big deal." (Though I recommend not actually saying this at parties unless you want to spend the evening explaining what GPTs are.)

Its also a cool way to drive business. Add the link at the bottom of your email signature, below your articles and blogs and videos and have customers wondering how you did this….

How to Create Your Own Custom GPT

Step 1: Access GPT Builder

First things first, you'll need a ChatGPT Plus subscription to create custom GPTs. I know, I know—another subscription. But think of all the time you'll save not having to explain your brand voice for the thousandth time!

Once you're subscribed:

Log into your ChatGPT account
Look for "Explore" or "Create" in the menu
Select "Create a GPT" or "GPT Builder"

Step 2: Start with a Clear Vision

Before jumping in, take a moment to clarify:

What specific problem will your GPT solve?
Who is it for? (You, your team, your clients?)
What tone should it have? (Professional, casual, sarcastic?)
What knowledge should it have access to?

This pre-planning will save you from creating yet another "Jack of all trades, master of none" GPT that joins the ever-growing collection of digital assistants that sound impressive but aren't actually that useful.

Step 3: Name and Describe Your GPT

Give your GPT a name that clearly communicates its purpose. "MasterOfEverything9000" might sound cool, but "QuickSocialMediaPostCreator" tells people exactly what it does.

Write a clear description that explains:

What the GPT does
Who it's designed for
How it should be used

Remember: good descriptions attract the right users and set proper expectations. Bad descriptions lead to conversations that start with "Why aren't you helping me plan my wedding? Your name is WeddingPlanner!" "Yes, but I'm a planner who works AT weddings, not someone who PLANS weddings..."

My GPTs are called – Ask Frank – LinkedIn Maximizer and Ask Frank – Your Video Strategy Coach

Step 4: Define the Instructions

This is where the magic happens! In the instructions field, you'll essentially be programming your GPT's personality and capabilities without writing a single line of code.

Good instructions include:

Role and identity: How should it introduce itself?
Knowledge limits: What should it know or not know?
Response format: How should information be presented?
Tone and voice: Formal? Casual? Funny? Sarcastic?
Handling specific questions: Any particular approaches to common questions?

The more specific your instructions, the better your GPT will perform. Think of this as writing a job description for your digital employee.

Step 5: Upload Knowledge

This step is optional but powerful. You can upload PDFs, documents, and other files that contain specialized knowledge your GPT should have access to.

This is perfect for:

Company guidelines
Product specifications
Research papers
Training materials
That novel you've been working on for six years (don't worry, your GPT won't judge the plot holes)

Remember that the documents you upload will only be accessible to this specific GPT, and they'll influence how it responds to queries related to that information.

Step 6: Configure Capabilities

Decide which additional capabilities your GPT should have:

Web browsing: Can it search the web for information?
DALL-E image generation: Can it create images?
Code interpreter: Can it run code?

Choose wisely based on what your GPT needs to accomplish. A recipe GPT probably needs image generation to show the final dish, while a coding assistant needs the code interpreter.

Step 7: Test Your GPT

Before sharing your creation with the world (or just your annoyed colleagues who are tired of hearing about AI), test it thoroughly!

Try asking questions that:

Are directly related to its purpose
Are slightly off-topic to see how it handles them
Might be challenging based on its limitations

This testing phase is crucial for refining your instructions and ensuring your GPT behaves as expected.

Step 8: Refine and Iterate

Based on your testing, go back and refine your instructions. This is often an iterative process—you'll notice patterns in how your GPT responds and can adjust accordingly.

Don't be afraid to say things like "When asked about X, always emphasize Y" or "Never suggest Z even if directly asked."

Step 9: Publish and Share

Once you're satisfied with your creation, decide whether to:

Keep it private for personal use
Share it with specific people or your organization
Publish it publicly in the GPT store

If you're creating it for professional purposes, consider starting with limited sharing to gather feedback before a wider release.

Watch the video I have created showing exactly how to do it – click here

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Vague instructions: "Be helpful" is too general; "Provide step-by-step guidance for using our product's API" is specific.
Overloading with documents: More isn't always better; focus on quality information.
Unrealistic expectations: Your GPT won't have perfect domain expertise unless you provide that knowledge.
Neglecting to test edge cases: What happens when someone asks something completely unrelated?

Final Thoughts

Creating a custom GPT is a bit like raising a digital pet—it needs clear guidelines, proper training, and regular attention to perform at its best. The good news is that unlike real pets, you can edit its behavior instantly if it starts chewing on the metaphorical furniture.

Remember that your GPT will only be as good as the instructions and knowledge you provide it. Take the time to craft clear guidelines, and you'll end up with a powerful tool that saves you time and makes you look like a tech wizard to your less AI-savvy colleagues.

Now go forth and create your digital mini-me! Just remember that if you create a custom GPT with your sense of humor, you're legally required to laugh at its jokes. I don't make the rules, I just report them

Also remember, if you would like to hire me to speak at your next conference or just coach your team, please email me at frank@frankfurness.com

Check out my website www.frankfurness.com my

YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/salestips and follow me on

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfurness/

Build Your Personal AI Assistant Without Coding!

frankhfurness@hotmail.co.uk (Frank Furness) — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 20:52:00 +0000