We’ve written several guides on AI and the potential it holds for sellers. Now, after being broadly available for a substantial amount of time, we’re starting to get a better idea of the benefits of AI in sales productivity.
According to a recent and comprehensive study conducted by HubSpot, a staggering 70% of sales professionals agree that AI tools will make them more productive at work — enabling them to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently than ever before. This sort of a seismic shift is worth taking note of – how can AI make your job easier and more fun?
There are a few key ways however that sellers can leverage AI. When used effectively, AI in sales can help your sellers to free up valuable time, identify your ideal customer profile, personalize your approach, and even enhance your team’s coaching.
Why human sellers are here to stay
But before getting into it, we have to say that even at this junction, it’s clear that AI isn’t replacing human sellers anytime soon.
Sales AI is exciting, and also a little terrifying. Many sellers feel like it might be coming for their jobs. However, it’s important to remember that sellers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The same thing that was true before the advent of artificial intelligence is still true today: in complex B2B sales, the human touch is indispensable.
As many attention-grabbing headlines readily proclaimed, AI isn’t actually able to do entire jobs yet. It’s certainly not doing even the bulk of the seller’s job. This is because we need sellers for many reasons, and the most important is making connections that matter.
Here are three core areas where human sellers make the greatest difference in successful sales engagements:
- Connections –We need to understand who we have relationships with, what their motivations are, and how they interact with other connections that are critically important within that organization.
- Clarity – We need a sense of understanding on how we’re looking at the business challenges they are facing, and how we are going to deliver successful change together.
- Collaboration – That’s not just how we interact with our prospects and customers, but it’s also how our internal revenue teams can align to demonstrate value much more effectively.
Human sellers are an integral aspect of simplified selling and are at the core of these three attributes – Connection, Clarity and Collaboration.
But what about the admin tasks and sifting through data that makes up for the lion’s share of the sales pro’s time?
That’s where sales AI comes in. When used effectively, sales AI can free up your seller’s time so they can focus on the things that really matter.
How to use sales AI to boost productivity
Now that we are clear on a few important points like the fact that AI is important, it’s here to stay, and it’s going to help sellers and not replace them, let’s get into a few practical ways savvy sellers can use AI in sales productivity.
Free up valuable time
Time savings is a huge plus in favor of implementing sales AI into your existing sales workflow. Sales representatives often get bogged down by repetitive administrative tasks like data entry and scheduling meetings. Sales AI can automate these tasks, freeing up valuable time for what truly matters – building relationships and closing deals.
Studies have shown that AI’s potential to augment these tasks is huge. In fact, according to that study we mentioned earlier, 78% of sales professionals agree that AI can help them spend more time on the most critical aspects of their role, and 74% agree that AI can help them spend more time on the parts of the job they enjoy most.
Of course, sellers are often resistant to change. They are so busy in a hyper competitive world so it makes sense they would be critical of anything that appears like busywork in disguise.
However, an important part of change management focused on bringing AI successfully into the organization should address these issues before they cause trouble, and show sellers that AI will only help them be better sellers, and enjoy their jobs more.
Artificial Intelligence can help you define your ideal customer profile
How well do you know your ideal customer profile? The reality is if you are a mature sales organization, you probably know it quite well. You’ve asked the right questions and understand your customers’ firmographics, problems, and the positive impact you can have on them.
However, what key pieces of information are you missing – information that your entire revenue team could use to bolster their effectiveness in helping you win that big deal or renewal on the line?
AI can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and pinpoint leads with the highest conversion potential. This allows you to focus your efforts on the most promising prospects, maximizing your return on investment.
AI can accelerate personalization
AI can analyze customer interactions and tailor your communication accordingly. This can involve personalizing emails, offering targeted recommendations, and adjusting your sales pitch to resonate with each prospect’s unique needs.
But will the impact of AI on personalization be all that big? Sellers think so. In fact, 69% of sales professionals strongly or somewhat agree that AI can help them personalize the customer experience.
While that all sounds good, you might still be wondering – what exactly does that look like in practice?
Here are two use cases for how AI can enhance seller’s ability to personalize:
- AI can help sellers come to an even deeper customer understanding thanks to AI’s ability to analyze data and go far beyond personas. Knowing your customer is vital to successful sales, and so much of what’s vital to a deal lies in countless details.
- Unlocking whitespace in accounts: whitespace is the opportunity for revenue growth in existing accounts, and it’s vital to your business’s success. Existing customers are more likely to expand into new areas and solutions from a seller they know, and AI can help identify these areas of growth and even make tailored product suggestions to help sellers succeed.
Gathering insights and data are where AI really shines for sellers, and sales professionals agree: 73% of sales professionals agree that AI can help them pull insights from data they otherwise wouldn’t be able to find. These aspects show the immense value of AI in sales productivity.
AI can enhance sales coaching
Last but not least, AI can analyze sales calls and provide valuable feedback to both new and experienced reps. This personalized coaching can help identify areas for improvement, refine sales techniques, and ultimately lead to improved performance.
It’s clear that AI is here to stay, with the majority of sales tools expected to include some sort of AI in the near future. But what’s good to see after all the excitement is that sellers are also here to stay, and working together, seller and AI can uncover new insights into their customer’s business challenges, forge connections, gain clarity, and collaborate internally and externally to provide meaningful value and become trusted advisors to their customers.