Artificial intelligence (AI) for sales describes using automated technology to simplify and streamline the sales process. <\/p>
Forward-thinking companies are catching on to this fact. According to a Salesforce State of Sales report, sales leaders expect their AI adoption to grow faster than any other technology. Salesforce also found that high-performing teams are 4.9X more likely to be using AI than underperforming ones.<\/p>
Sales is a field that relies heavily on human interaction, but technology has always played a significant role in enhancing its efficiency and effectiveness.<\/p>
AI is one of the latest technologies that\u2019s making a big impact on the world of sales. In fact, according to a recent survey,\u00a050% of senior-level sales and marketing professionals\u00a0are already using AI, and another 29% plan to start using it in the future. AI tools can provide sales teams with valuable insights based on data, identify new leads, personalize customer experiences, and optimize sales processes.\u00a0<\/p>
Yet AI is not replacing salespeople. The vast majority of companies using AI or planning to also plan to increase staff. That’s because AI is creating practical value for sales teams by giving them superpowers, with several real-world use cases and tools being used today.<\/p>
However, there’s so much hype around AI that salespeople often miss this fact.<\/p>
AI in sales uses artificial intelligence to simplify and optimize sales processes. This is done using software tools that house trainable algorithms that process large datasets. AI tools are designed to help teams save time and sell more efficiently.<\/p>
Artificial intelligence algorithms learn from and apply data in various ways, including<\/p>
An estimated\u00a033% of an inside sales rep\u2019s time\u00a0is spent actively selling. Administrative to-dos and meetings can pull these professionals away from prospects. Artificial intelligence presents a compelling opportunity to improve this stat and level up your sales operation.<\/p>
Organizations use different kinds of sales AI for different functions. To build a complete AI-enabled tech stack, they can employ the following tools.<\/p>
Chatbots are generally used for customer service and lead generation, but they can also serve as a mechanism for direct selling if a customer is ready to make a purchase decision.<\/p>
Mainly, they eliminate the need for sales reps to engage with customers for simple, repetitive tasks, such as:<\/p>
Since they are software components that integrate with the company website, they deliver immediate responses to customers 24 hours per day while freeing up valuable time for sales teams to focus on more complex tasks.<\/p>
Chatbots are meant to integrate with CRM, email marketing, and e-commerce platforms to create a seamless sales funnel. They can also collect and analyze data about how customers use and feel about the product, which sales and marketing teams use to improve their efforts.<\/p>
In the context of AI in sales, machine learning algorithms are often trained on historical sales data. They learn from past transactions, customer interactions, product information, and many other variables to understand patterns and correlations.<\/p>
Once these algorithms digest this data, they can forecast future sales, identify promising leads, or suggest products to show customers. Machine learning algorithms continuously learn as they are exposed to new data, meaning they get \u201csmarter\u201d every time the company uses them.<\/p>
Sales reps and managers use the insights generated by machine learning to inform their strategies and make data-driven decisions. For instance, a sales rep might use a machine learning-powered tool to prioritize leads based on their predicted conversion likelihood.<\/p>
NLP analyzes text data from unstructured sources (such as customer emails, chat logs, social media comments, and product reviews) contextually. It identifies and extracts customer sentiment and intent, as well as entity segmentation, including names, dates, and locations.<\/p>
Sales teams can use this data to see which products customers are interested in buying, what kind of response they got from prospects during conversations, or how satisfied customers are with their product.<\/p>
For instance, an NLP algorithm might analyze customer emails and categorize them based on whether they contain positive or negative sentiment, or whether they mention certain products or features.<\/p>
Alternatively, they might use an NLP-powered Zoom plugin to search through sales calls and identify trends in customer conversations.<\/p>
AI visualizations serve several purposes in the sales process:<\/p>
Augmented analytics is the future of data-driven decision-making. It combines NLP, machine learning, and text mining to enhance data analysis processes.<\/p>
It aims to improve user experience by removing manual efforts from the process. Augmented analytics platforms ingest vast amounts of data from multiple sources and analyze it in near real-time.<\/p>
The insights generated by these platforms are used to create predictive models and generate actionable recommendations for sales reps.<\/p>
From 2018 to 2022, AI adoption in sales has\u00a0increased by 76%<\/a>, with high-performing sales teams 2.8 times more likely to use an AI-integrated\u00a0sales stack.<\/p> There are several benefits of AI for sales, including:<\/p> One of the biggest points of contention between sales and marketing teams is which organization\u2019s touchpoints had a greater impact on a sale.<\/p> In smaller organizations, it\u2019s fairly easy to determine who is responsible. But as the sales cycle<\/a> becomes longer, sales performance becomes increasingly difficult to attribute to any one source.<\/p> According to research from Rain Sales Training<\/a>, it takes an average of eight touchpoints for sales reps to land meetings (or other forms of conversion). In some B2B sales processes, it can take upwards of 20 touchpoints to close a sale.<\/p> Machine learning models learn to analyze the impact of each touchpoint more effectively, giving credit where credit is due. And more importantly, sellers are more aware of which sales strategies actually improve the chances of closing a deal.<\/p> Sales managers need to report projections to executive leadership and use reliable data points to determine whether their sales team is on track. With software that uses deep learning models based on historical sales and customer data, accurate forecasts and reports can be generated at the click of a button.<\/p> AI also automates the creation of regular internal reports so that managers can check in on team performance without having to manually compile spreadsheets every week or month. This way, AI can save reps and managers time that they would otherwise spend on manual report consolidation and\u00a0sales forecasting\u00a0processes while ensuring the accuracy of its projections.<\/p> As these projections move their way up the rungs of the company hierarchy, executive leadership and investors can make better decisions about the future of the company.<\/p> Buyers want personalized interactions. For B2B sellers (i.e., the majority of sales reps in this context), personalization isn\u2019t just about the product\u2014it\u2019s about how the customer is treated. 73% of B2B buyers\u00a0say they want personalized experiences like those B2C customers receive, but only 22% say that sellers are meeting that need.<\/p> Enlisting the help of AI means SDRs can access valuable insights that enhance their lead engagement. They can use this information from the lead\u2019s website use patterns, current solutions they use, and past digital interactions to personalize content recommendations based on their preferences and needs.<\/p> Before AI, sellers needed to frantically sift through emails, social media DMs, and CRM notes to prepare for their product demos and intro calls. With artificial intelligence handling the data, these data points are brought to a single source of truth.<\/p> With a 360-degree view of their customers, sales reps are more organized and productive.<\/p> A high\u00a0churn rate\u00a0holds companies back from sustainable growth, and often sales reps don\u2019t have the data they need to spot customers at risk of churning.<\/p> Based on historical\u00a0customer responsiveness, engagement, and consistencies among past customers that churned, AI-powered customer success models provide insights on which customers are likely to renew their subscriptions or contracts, as well as any that need extra attention.<\/p> Likewise, AI-powered customer segmentation models help sales and marketing teams discover patterns in customer buying behavior that indicate churn risk.<\/p> Using this data, SDRs can reach out to\u00a0at-risk customers\u00a0and offer discounts or other incentives to keep them from leaving.<\/p> AI in sales gives reps real-time feedback during discovery calls and product demos. It picks up on small conversational nuances like their talking speed, tone of voice, and facial expressions, and provides feedback on how to adjust their approach, helping reps become better at building relationships with prospects.<\/p> AI also helps sellers understand their potential customers\u2019 sentiments and body language. It can also guide their focus to the most important parts of the conversation to generate a more accurate picture of customer requirements.<\/p> AI also converts sales calls into written transcripts in seconds. Individual reps can review these to learn and find improvements, and sales leaders can use them to measure the overall performance of their sales team.<\/p> The average rep spends\u00a0less than one-third\u00a0of their time on sales activities\u2014a clear indicator as to why\u00a079%\u00a0of sales team members report disengagement.<\/p> According to Salesforce<\/a>, the three most common time-wasting activities are:<\/p> AI-driven sales processes practically eliminate these tasks.<\/p> Logging activities like\u00a0sales pipeline\u00a0movement, customer interactions, and follow-ups can be automated. Notes are created and stored automatically in CRM. And email autoresponders can handle the first line of engagement from prospects, freeing reps to focus on more important tasks.<\/p> Artificial intelligence systems exist that can predict or forecast outcomes using historical data to inform future results. Common predictions that sales AI systems can make include:<\/p> Now, the accuracy of those predictions depends on the system in use and the quality of the data. But the fact is that, with the right inputs in the past and present, AI is capable of showing you who is most likely to buy in the future.<\/p> Predictive forecasting can also create value for sales teams internally.<\/p> Using the same types of data analysis, AI can help sales managers forecast their team’s performance for the quarter well in advance, so they can take proactive steps based on the numbers.<\/p> Beyond prediction and prioritization, some AI systems may actually recommend sales actions, going so far as to tell sales teams which actions the system thinks make the most sense, based on your goals and insights from the data.<\/p> These recommendations may include advice on how to price a deal, who to target next, or which customers to target first with upsells or cross-sells.<\/p> The result is targeted guidance on what actions to take. With it, salespeople can free up bandwidth to close deals, rather than deliberating about what to do next.<\/p> Artificial intelligence can look dispassionately at large datasets from a number of sources and tell you which leads you should prioritize, based on the scores the AI has given them.<\/p> As noted by\u00a0Victor Antonio in the Harvard Business Review<\/a>, human salespeople usually approach lead scoring and prioritization in an unscientific way:<\/p> “Often, this decision-making process is based on gut instinct and incomplete information. With AI, the algorithm can compile historical information about a client, along with social media postings and the salesperson’s customer interaction history (e.g., emails sent, voicemails left, text messages sent, etc.) and rank the opportunities or leads in the pipeline according to their chances of closing successfully.”<\/p> In this case, AI can bring a level of logic and standardization to the process that humans just can’t match.<\/p> AI can also automate or augment your work to take away some of the drudgery that distracts you from higher-value tasks. It can also help with everything from managing your calendar to scheduling meetings to assessing a sales team’s pipeline by automatically doing these things for you or making them dramatically easier by using your historical usage data to make decisions.<\/p> This use case is very similar to how some consumer calendar and productivity apps work, recommending recurring events or to-dos dynamically thanks to AI.<\/p> Want to start implementing AI sales tools for your organization? Here are a few tips for successful implementation.<\/p>More accurate sales attribution<\/strong><\/h3>
Accurate sales forecasts and reports<\/strong><\/h3>
Higher degree of customer engagement and personalization<\/strong><\/h3>
Lower churn rates<\/strong><\/h3>
Real-time feedback on sales calls<\/strong><\/h3>
More time for sales activities<\/strong><\/h3>
Use cases of AI in sales<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>
Sales forecasting<\/strong><\/h3>
Expert recommendations<\/strong><\/h3>
Lead scoring & prioritization<\/strong><\/h3>
Sales automation & productivity<\/strong><\/h3>
Tips for implementing AI in sales<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>
Recommended Articles <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>
References<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>