How Can AI Help with Sales?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could contribute up to $4.4 trillion in annual global productivity as per a recent McKinsey report. With AI implementation becoming more easy and less costly, companies are rushing to integrate AI into each of their business processes. 

One of the high-impact areas is AI for sales which is set to increase sales automation through the use of various AI sales tools. This article assesses the various ways in which AI can be used to add massive value to different sales functions. 

Enhance Performance with Conversation Intelligence Software

Conversation intelligence software helps sales teams to identify trends and opportunities based on customer data. This can lead to an increase in sales performance by making data-driven decisions.

For instance, by identifying customer intent and emotions in calls and messages, sales teams can identify what features or benefits customers like the most.  They can then refine their sales pitch for similar customer personas to increase sales outcomes. 

What Is Conversation Intelligence?

Conversation intelligence helps to create insights that drive business action through the analysis of vast amounts of data from customer conversations using AI. 

Through the use of machine learning and natural language, conversation intelligence helps to precisely find out the keywords and topics in customer interactions. 

This can help to know more about customers in-depth and create strategies that lead to better conversions. 

Conversation Intelligence Tools and Software

One of the most popular conversation intelligence tools is Qualtrics. Their solution analyzes phone calls, chat logs, and more to get the full scope of customer feedback. 

Other software includes Hubspot’s conversation intelligence solution, Salesforce Sales Cloud, and Gong. 

Before investing in any conversation intelligence software, it is important to assess whether it can analyze customer emotion, help in identifying upselling opportunities, and provide industry-specific insights. 

Demand Forecasting 

Demand forecasting is the process of forecasting customer demand based on historical data that takes into consideration several relevant factors. With AI, the accuracy of such forecasts can improve over time as the machine learning algorithms learn from existing data. As a result, sales teams can get accurate forecasts which can help them to capture demand and plan accordingly. 

For example, the tool Aviso’s forecasting feature helps to analyze the deal portfolio based on geography, team, and product line. It also provides sales team members with their individual predictions for success in hitting sales quotas. 

Some other popular predictive sales AI tools include Hubstop’s forecasting software, ClosePlan, and Smart Demand Planner. 

Identify Niche Market

Recent research on the use of AI in identifying niche markets shows that tools such as ChatGPT help to analyze vast amounts of data, trends, and help suggest niche markets in a fraction of the time it previously took.  

Additionally, it can also spot the changing consumer preferences that help to provide relevant suggestions. 

For instance, businesses can use a tool such as Nichely that helps spot untapped content opportunities using cutting-edge AI. 

Overall, such tools can be used to quickly identify and fill demand for high-potential niche markets and increase sales. 

Improve Pipeline Execution

The use of advanced algorithms of Generative AI can be used to identify high-quality leads which helps to develop an effective sales pipeline. Using AI can help to shorten the time a lead spends in each stage of the pipeline as sales reps have access to detailed insights into the customers and what specific pain points they have.

The use of AI can also help in identifying clients who are at high risk of churn. Sales reps can thus reach out to these clients in the right time and provide offers that will help to retain them. 

Furthermore, it can also help by providing guidance in key parts of the sales stages. For instance, it can help with negotiation by looking at the historical transaction data and customer behavior of a customer segment to increase the likelihood of a sale. Such features are available in the AI sales assistant by People.ai. 

These tools also provide lead scoring and prioritization for sales reps through which they can understand the potential value each lead can provide. 

Automate Tedious Tasks with AI

Research indicates that only 32% of a salesperson’s time is spent in selling while the rest is spent mostly in non-revenue producing activities. Since increasing the productivity of salespeople is a constant objective that sales teams have, the use of AI for sales automation can greatly increase the time spent selling. 

This is feasible too since as per McKinsey & Company, a fifth of the current sales-team functions can be automated using AI. For example, tasks such as data scraping, scheduling meetings, and sending update emails can be automated with AI. 

Another key area where AI sales tools can save significant time is in automating data entry from various sources into the CRM. By using AI sales tools, sales teams can have higher productivity, reduce errors, and increase job satisfaction for sales team members. Some tools that can be used for sales automation include Automaited, Microsoft Power Automate, and Zapier. 

Generate Content with AI

There is a need for content of various types including creating new pages, blog posts, calls-to-actions (CTAs), and sales emails that can be created with quality using AI. 

Since AI can analyze customer behavior and understand preferences, it can create personalized content that engages audiences. For example, emails can be created to leads based on the specific pain points that the customer is facing. 

Furthermore, rather than manually editing sales pitch decks to customers, sales teams can use AI to automate this process while also ensuring the content is fully personalized. 

This helps in saving time too because the speed of content generation is very fast too. Some AI software for sales to use for generating content includes Hubspot’s AI Assistant and Einstein AI by Salesforce. 

There are also specific use cases such as writing Request for Proposals (RFPs) that previously took a lot of time to form. These can be created much faster and with high quality using an AI tool like RocketDocs. 

Summarize Business Calls and Materials with AI

Sales teams can gather insights regarding calls by making the AI create useful summaries of them. Additionally, various documents can be summarized while making sure all the key information is provided through the use of AI in sales. Especially for B2B sales, sales reps usually need to conduct research by going through long documents to understand what situation the client is in and what will work for them. 

Accenture’s Value Insights Platform (VIP) is a digital research assistant powered by AI that has been created to tackle this problem. It analyzes transcripts of earning calls of businesses and extracts the company’s key priorities much faster than the time it would take for a human to do it. This has helped many of Accenture to close deals faster and generate an additional $1 billion in sales within 2 years of using it. 

Scale Sales Prospecting

Among the key use cases of AI in sales and marketing is sales prospecting. Sales teams can use AI for sales prospecting by first using it in a high-impact and low-cost area such as automating prospecting outreach emails. 

As this can be done with personalization while also automating the process, sales teams have the opportunity to scale sales prospecting. 

Furthermore, AI-powered chatbots can be used to identify qualified leads. This helps to ensure that the sales prospecting initiatives are targeted toward the leads who are highly likely to convert into customers. 

For example, a tool such as ChatSpot can help generate personalized responses by connecting with Hubspot CRM. By using the knowledge base within the company, companies can gain a huge competitive advantage in increasing sales effectively. 

Conclusion

Overall, many areas of sales can be improved or automated with the use of the right AI sales tools. By investing in these tools, sales teams can help to increase their productivity and the job satisfaction of the sales reps. 

Additionally, these tools can provide a competitive edge in helping to increase sales conversions and engagement more effectively. It is important to research the tools and identify the ones that have high-impact potential for your sales team.