We asked two sales leaders which skills reps need to develop manually in the age of AI

AI can get a new rep productive fast — but there's a risk it lets them skip the practice that used to build real instinct.

For someone early in their career, which skills are worth building the slow, manual way even when AI could do them, because those are the ones that compound into a career?

Leslie Venetz

Founder - The Sales-led GTM Agency

Every task we hand to AI builds our fluency at directing AI, not our fluency at the task. ​

That distinction matters most for the real-time judgment that consultative selling depends on. ​

Judgment is a pattern library our brain builds through practice. You can't transfer it by reading, watching, or prompting. ​

Only intentional, hands-on practice builds a library rich enough to make us expert sellers.

​Active listening, needs analysis, and objection handling live in the patterns a seller develops by sitting in hundreds of real conversations: being wrong, adjusting, and learning. ​

Early-career sellers who let AI run these skills for them build the wrong library. ​They learn prompting at the expense of learning how to sell.

Collin Cadmus

Founder - Collin Cadmus, LLC.

Tesla is the perfect comparison here. 

You still need a license to operate a self-driving car. You never know when you'll need to take over.

AI in sales should be treated the same — if you want to use a tool, you need to understand what the tool is doing for you. 

It’s like learning to use a hammer and nails before using a nail gun.

When I train entry-level salespeople nowadays, I still focus on teaching manual skills: research, cold calls, email drafting.

Only once the rep has perfected those abilities does it make sense to focus on efficiency and enhanced accuracy with AI. 

If you can’t do it manually, you can’t know the AI is doing it correctly.