Generative AI for sales: The power and the potential
Generative AI for sales promises to revolutionize B2B sales by accelerating and fine-tuning customer engagement for better outcomes.
Machine learning may be a buzzword now, but what could it actually mean for business and sales down the line? Will salespeople be replaced by Rosie from The Jetsons, or a more frightening HAL? Doubtful. But AI and sales is a big deal.
The ability to automate sales tasks could mean massive changes on the horizon, and it’s all about how you could leverage it. With the right, high-quality data, machine learning could have an undeniable impact on how business is done.
We accept that data is the key to designing successful, personalized engagements with our customers. Many of us have already spent time and set up systems to collect and track customer data that we know will be useful. And with machine learning, we may finally be able to easily and effectively make use of that information we’ve collected in ways humans alone cannot.
AI and sales: Driving the future of revenue
Being able to sift through and analyze years of customer data to pinpoint trends and tailor your actions is something we’ve been building towards for a long time. And now, it’s a task that tends to fall to our sales staff.
But with machine learning, your advanced CRM and sales solutions can learn over time to forecast and score deals with greater accuracy, freeing up sellers to focus on building and nurturing relationships that add value to the business.
Sales reps will more easily reach their numbers, managers will see teams meeting and exceeding revenue goals. Machine learning offers the ability to simplify your organization by leveraging all this data you’ve collected.
Deal scoring, for example. Imagine if you could look at data behind a prospect – the company size, the number of stakeholders, the types of solutions they’re looking at – and compare it to historical data you’ve collected from hundreds of past deals (both won and lost) to determine just how likely it is to close.
Machine learning and AI in sales could open the door with definitive deal scores by:
- Letting you more accurately predict how the deal will go
- Assisting with forecasting by predicting how long the deal will take
- Provide analysis on the likelihood of it closing
- Sales reps will more easily reach their numbers
- Managers will see teams meeting and exceeding revenue goals
- Machine learning can simplify your organization by leveraging all this data you’ve collected
You could tailor how you approach the deal to prime it for the win. Or, if it’s not looking so hot anymore, you could then realign your team to focus them on deals more likely to close. All without the need to rely on the intuitive gut decisions.
More options. More conditions. More stakeholders. More circling-back.
Modern selling is anything but simple.
Intelligent sales enablement starts HERE.
Training and empowering sales teams with the help of artificial intelligence
What about sales training? What if you could pair your new sales reps with a guided coach or assistant that could walk them through tasks one by one – reminding them when to reach out to a client or nurture a customer based on timelines that have worked in the past? And what if you could do this without having to have a second sales person there, when they could be off working on their own deals?
With this technology, sales leaders will be able to provide accurate forecast predictions at a macro level, to understand trends segmented by sales organizations, sales reps and sales stages. As more deals close, the system will re-learn and evolve to improve its future forecasts.
Since the machine has no vested interests other than improving its own accuracy, it is largely independent of management pressures, and removes sandbagging and gut feels from forecasts. Managers will have a clearer, more objective picture quarter-to-quarter of the health of the pipeline, and will be able to adjust in real time when needed.
The human element is still the most important element
Now, all this automation doesn’t happen automatically. It requires a lot of setup, a lot of thought into how you’re going to use it, and it absolutely requires accurate data. While machine learning may still be a ways away, you can start preparing yourself now so you’re ready when the time comes. The research provided by Aberdeen shows us that Best-in-Class organizations “invest in data accuracy around their prospects’ and customers’ behavior.” Right now it’s about thinking big-picture: How can you transform your organization now to be ready for the changes when they happen? To be able to react faster and have the systems in place?
And then, it’s about changing how you think about what you’re doing – changing the business mindset.
Business is no longer about the company – it hasn’t been for a while now. It’s about the customers, and helping each customer live better and easier.
When we can be proactive, and anticipate their issues, addressing them before they escalate, before they ever have to wait on a hold line, imagine how much better that relationship would be.
When we go down this line of thinking – of automation, machine learning, AI and sales – it’s easy to jump back anxiously at the thought of robots taking over business. But worry not, sales folks. People aren’t going away – human relationships are not going away.
If anything, if machines start crunching numbers on these scales for us, it will be more important than ever to engage personally with our customers and prospects. Sales reps will become relationship managers. Marketers will become industry experts, forecasting customer needs before they come up. Automating processes is a means to an end.
After all, there’s a personal side to selling that no technology can ever replace.
