AI and Sales Transformation: Unleashing Human Potential
Highlights
AI is playing an increasing role in a wide range of business processes, including sales.
Already, AI is being used to help sales reps avoid hours of mind-numbing administrative work, giving them more time to focus on hitting their targets.
Training and education are needed to prevent misuse of AI and the potential for bias.
In any list of recent technological advances, artificial intelligence (AI) figures prominently. From self-driving cars and voice enabled digital assistants to algorithmic stock trading and diagnosing health conditions, systems that appear to act with human-like capabilities are making their presence felt in our everyday lives while also working behind the scenes to transform core business and organizational functions.
One area of business that is unquestionably being impacted by AI is sales. In this series of articles on AI-Powered Sales Transformation: Teams, Processes, and Technology, we’ll look at various ways AI can be used to streamline sales outreach efforts and make them more effective.
In this article, we’re focusing on how AI empowers sales teams and enhances human potential. In subsequent articles in the series, we’ll look at how AI is transforming key sales processes — from customer segmentation to retention — as well as the actual AI-based solutions that can be used in sales efforts today.
The Changing Role of Sales Teams in an AI-Driven Environment
While AI is typically portrayed in film and fiction as highly futuristic, the reality is that it’s already making its impact felt across business operations, including a wide range of sales processes:
Making better use of data to enhance customer acquisition and retention strategies
Providing customers with personalized product recommendations and next-best actions
Enhancing the accuracy of sales forecasts
Delivering personalized customer interactions at scale via conversational chatbots
IMPACT ON SALES REPS
The use of AI to power conversational, customer-engagement chatbots is now well entrenched in marketing, with analysts predicting a three-fold increase in investment in AI-powered chatbots in the coming years.
In the day-to-day activities of individual sales teams, the impact of AI is likely to be just as dramatic.
According to the CRM Impact Report by Sugar, 86% of respondents said their organization’s sales teams use AI to augment one or more business processes. An increasingly common use of AI in sales is to reduce administrative work.
A sales rep could use an AI-based tool to listen in on sales calls, take notes, and then complete the task of entering relevant data in the CRM. The sales rep never needs to touch the keyboard.
AI can also function as a 24/7 virtual assistant, offering sales reps tailored recommendations, reminders, and feedback, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.
A survey by HubSpot found that AI and automation tools are already saving sales teams over two hours a day handling activities such as scheduling meetings, taking notes, and doing routine CRM data entry.
USING GENERATIVE AI TO CREATE CONTENT
The form of AI known as generative AI goes beyond streamlining administrative activities and can actually generate entirely new content to support marketing outreach.
A sales rep might use a generative AI solution to sort through CRM data, emails, social media, etc., and auto-generate a set of personalized emails to prospects and clients — then repurpose all of those emails into LinkedIn messages.
According to the HubSpot survey, nearly three-quarters (74%) of sales pros are currently using some form of AI and automation, and 31% are using generative AI tools for writing sales outreach messages or creating sales content.
It’s not just sales reps who gain from these capabilities. Sales management also benefits. For example, AI can be used to sort through recordings of sales conversations and identify which strategies are working and which are not. Sales managers can then use this data to adapt training and staffing efforts, including onboarding.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR AI ADOPTION
Being successful with AI requires new ways of thinking to understand the limitations of the many open-source AI tools available today and implement checks and balances to ensure quality and prevent misuse.
As Gartner notes: “Currently, there are very high expectations that open-source models can replace sellers, but they can’t. They can help summarize conversations or content. They can simplify the creation of a title or email or even create content that the enablement or marketing team can utilize.”
But sales reps need training to understand that creating content using generative AI is a multi-step process. Content must be verified for accuracy, appropriate personalization, and consistency with overall branding messaging.
CULTURAL SHIFTS AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
The impact of AI will be powerful, but it’s likely to unfold over time. One of the most significant aspects of AI solutions is their ability to learn and get better with repetition — a big part of what makes them “intelligent.” Organizations are well advised to embrace the practice of continuous improvement and focus on continuous, incremental changes to processes, products, or services. Expect to keep iterating and improving them long after the initial introduction.
As employees experience AI’s direct impact (for example, eliminating routine administrative tasks), leaders can use that opportunity to encourage the experimentation that can lead to new ways of increasing productivity, efficiency, and customer experience. Help work teams embrace AI by enabling them to take ownership and increase its potential for improving their performance and jobs.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND THE HUMAN TOUCH
As you increase your use of AI — which is inevitable — you will need to consider the guardrails needed to support ethical use. What measures are you putting in place to govern the gathering and use of personal data? How are you ensuring that the algorithms you develop are not inadvertently perpetuating biases and leading to discriminatory outcomes?
For these reasons and more, many major companies have banned teams from using AI tools they find online.
Perhaps nothing is more important to a brand’s reputation now than its handling of data and respect for consumer privacy. Up to 81% of respondents agreed that how an organization treats personal data indicates how it views and respects its customers, according to a 2022 Cisco survey. This is the highest percentage since Cisco began tracking it in 2019.
HOW PRIME 8 ENHANCES AI INTEGRATION WITH A PEOPLE-CENTRIC APPROACH
We are at the earliest stages of the AI revolution. Given the extra level of intelligence that AI brings to the table, it’s easy to underestimate the amount of preparation and ongoing support needed to make it a success.
That’s where Prime 8 comes in. We bring unique strengths to the AI preparation process, including:
Expertise in change management: Prime 8 has a well-established proficiency in managing the human aspect of technological change, which is critical for ensuring smooth adoption of AI in sales teams.
Organizational restructuring support: As AI transforms roles and functions, resources inevitably need to be shuffled. Rely on our expertise in organizational restructuring to help lead the way.
Tailored training and development: As noted earlier, being successful with AI requires new ways of thinking about using technology and data. Through our digital learning services, Prime 8 can design customized training programs to upskill your sales teams.
Diversity: Bias can creep into AI models in so many ways, making the long-sought goal of greater diversity in IT more important than ever. As a woman-owned company, a commitment to diversity is literally in our DNA.
To learn more about AI in sales, including how AI is transforming underlying processes such as customer segmentation and retention, read Revolutionizing Sales Processes with AI Integration.
When you’re ready to put AI to work in sales or other business processes, talk to Prime 8. Let our business Intelligence consultants help get your AI strategy on the right track.
