What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and How does It Improve Sales?

AI is a subfield of computer science that enables machines to imitate human thought, decision-making, and behavior. According to massive data sets, these technologies learn and adapt, allowing them to make insights, forecasts, and recommendations. This technology has been gradually introduced into several aspects of our everyday life, including internet chatbots, facial recognition software, and self-driving cars.

The potential for AI in sales is huge, but yet to be fully unlocked. It can be used by businesses to improve lead volume, closing rate, and revenue performance by helping automate much of the process. Salesforce also found that high-performing teams are 4.9X more likely to be using AI than underperforming ones.

How is AI Used in Sales?

Artificial intelligence (AI) in sales has several advantages, including how it aids in the discovery of new prospects. Finding good prospects is a time-consuming procedure for many companies, and getting access to all of the necessary data from multiple sources is difficult. It necessitates that an organization look for connections between each data point, assess any potential relationships between them, and then evaluate the prospects. Only after this stage can they properly qualify a prospect.

AI is well suited to deal with the volume and complexity of this task, given the significant amount of data required to qualify a prospect. For example, firmographic and technographic data might eventually help you locate a large number of high-revenue, mid-market businesses interested in your product or service at your location. AI may also help you identify which leads are best suited for your business. While you may want to target large companies, you could discover that smaller organizations with similar technologies are a better indicator of lead quality.

Sales intelligence tools are the best solutions available for those who are looking to achieve this goal of finding and qualifying prospects quickly. Tools such as Triggr will help B2B sales & marketing professionals generate highly targeted lead lists at scale, complete with contact details of decision-makers who matter.

Other ways that AI can be used in sales:

• Predictive Forecasting – Artificial intelligence systems may already predict or anticipate outcomes based on past data to help shape future results. Sales AI technologies are capable of making predictions like if a sale will close depending on previous consumer patterns. Having a better understanding of what the future demand of your business looks like, will allow you to appropriately allocate resources where it is best spent. Further, another key benefit is being able to holistically understand your customers better – knowing why they have certain behaviors. Having and using this information will greatly improve customer retention in the future. Examples of such tools are Xactly Forecasting and Salesforce.
• Lead Scoring – AI will help you determine the behaviors of leads and in turn the probability that they turn into a paying customer. This means that with AI, you will better be able to improve your lead generation because you can score your prospects and effectively determine how you want to approach and prioritize them based on their level of interest. Examples of such tools include Marketo.
• Content Personalization – Understanding your priority leads will help you curate personalized content to attract them. Content may be in the form of webinars, white papers, and blogs. Examples of such tools include Trendemon and Personyze.
• Recommendations – AI can help provide recommendations on the best action based on a combination of the lead themselves and your company goals. Actions that it may recommend include the probability of making the sale and who to prioritize. This can save the time of your sales team, allowing them to spend more time building relationships with prospects. Examples of such tools include Highspot.
• Automation – AI can help automate repetitive tasks for your sales team. This includes tasks such as inputting data into your CRM, setting up meetings, and answering generic questions via a chatbot. Examples of such tools include PersistIQ.
• Analytics – AI can give your sales team strong analytical data. One example is that you can better understand the success of your sales team by using AI to give proper attribution to each sale. You can also use AI to analyze customers, your tool, and your pricing. Examples of such tools include Chorus.

It’s clear that your sales team will not be replaced, but rather the role of your sales team will change. Previously, the role of sales would have been spent trawling through lists to find prospects that they should prioritize and follow up on. Now, with AI, they can better spend their time on building stronger relationships with prospects.

What are the Key Benefits for Your Sales Team?

• More tailored leads for your sales team
• Increasing time for salespeople to spend more time on selling and develop better relationships
• Reduction in time to close
• Reducing costs through more automation
• Better management and allocation of time with forecasting
• Easier to upsell and create tailored pricing

Increase Your Sales with AI

Sales processes that are highly optimized by AI and machine learning technology aren’t a distant prospect; they already exist. Adopting the sales tools that use AI will increase the sales your team makes, putting you ahead of your competitors. To get started, you can trial Triggr free for 7 days to predict buyer intent and find the best opportunities for your sales reps.

Thomas Rielly

Thomas Rielly, founder of sales intelligence SaaS tool, Triggr. Triggr helps to empower your sales reps with sales intelligence data and real-time alerts of web based events that turn prospects into highly motivated buyers. Create precise prospecting lists, find lookalike customers and get real time notifications to sell first.