The impact of artificial intelligence on a myriad of industries, from software products to sales will forever change the way we conduct business and life. The days of estimating based on experience will be augmented with numerical proof. An era of using one’s gut will slowly give way to a new age of calculated risks and considered choices. These are just a few of the promises of artificial intelligence.
A huge innovation coming to sales teams is the power of AI to filter qualified sales leads and more closely monitor and align sales goals with current company needs and market trends.
Gone were the days of guessing and here is the future of data and analytics – not only will your sales team’s time be better spent on prospects that are more suited for your company’s offerings but also you will achieve more conversions every time if operating under the disciplined guise of AI.
Processing huge amounts of data to solve the world’s problems will be the next wave of the future, and startups that get in on the ground game now have a first mover advantage over those who stick with traditional methods.
The effects of AI in sales tech are far-reaching and equally dynamic in its landscape:-
Incorporating AI into Startup Business Development Framework
Startup mentoring should include helping a young business develop an approach to incorporating AI into its framework and there are a few packages from companies that offer solutions for firms of all sizes in the area of startups and sales. A startup mentoring solution can help take your company’s sales to the next level using these new big data methods and thus decreases monotonous work pressure, increases job satisfaction and most importantly strengthens overall rapport and relationships across the sales organization.
Analyzing and Forecasting Buyers Behavior and Perspectives
Prioritizing leads, or focusing in on those clients most likely to convert from onlookers to purchasers, is only one of the many areas that sales artificial intelligence will help firms in the near future. New AI algorithms can analyze a prospect’s past behavior and market profile to not only help you tailor your approach but also give you some idea of whether the prospect is likely to buy or not. AI will also be able to generate leads using this knowledge of a consumer’s preferences, bringing her to the market so to speak.
Eliminating Traditional Sales Processes
The quaint idea of a door-to-door salesman is being replaced with a new-age concept that utilizes a virtual door-to-door salesman that can cull the best, most promising prospects in any region, city, or country and present your product to them in whatever media format you choose through the power of targeted advertising. AI finds these people and your team relies on the data to do the rest.
What this does is it places the potential buyer at the center of all concern. The traditional method relies heavily on the salesman’s idiosyncrasies and penchant for sales. This is why skills differ so widely from person to person – some have it, others don’t. AI removes this process entirely and presents salespeople with prospective candidates, evening the playing field for those that have a “gut feeling” and those that do not. Who benefits when your salespeople have an easier job? A startup mentoring solution can help take your company’s sales to the next level using these new big data methods.
Another consequence of this is that big data is providing a more robust view of the potential customer, which can also assist in product development and iterative improvement upon existing lines using the data obtained from prospects and current clients.
Sales managers will also benefit from the advances in AI with regards to generating leads and converting targets into clients. Using a more robust set of AI, sales team managers will be able to best direct existing resources to generate greater gains.
Boosting Interpersonal Relationships
Another boon for sales professionals and of particular interest for startups will be AI’s ability to free up resources within an organization so that sales specialists can build stronger interpersonal relationships with clients, focusing on retention and customer satisfaction instead of constantly chasing a new lead that turns out to be nothing but smoke.
If you have a dedicated customer quality team, then AI will endlessly serve up your sales staff new potential clients that have been vetted by a data-backed process. Either way your sales staff, and your company will benefit from the advances of AI once applied to your segment. Also giving your team more time to focusing on developing customer relationships has a myriad of benefits for expanding the existing business, not just finding new business.
Automate Upselling and Cross-selling Function
Many people are so focused on attracting new customers that they forget the goldmine that sits before them in the form of legacy customers. Using artificial intelligence sales technology, you will be able to sort through this rarefied group to find those who are prime targets for upselling current services or introducing new services and products to them. Again, in the past, this was a manual process, but artificial intelligence will remove that burden from your sales team entirely, giving them the tools they need to bring in even more money from existing clients.
One frequently cited example is the benefit retail will derive from artificial intelligence-driven sales leads and generation. As so many retailers thrive on what is current, trendy, or a fad, being able to identify these before they hit critical mass would provide the retailer a competitive advantage over others in its segment.
Similarly, this kind of data could provide sales teams with new products or services that they need to begin pushing or start selling, to begin with in the first place. Big data helps businesses not only make decisions about who they want but also how they should get there. It is a continual process of improvement guided by data. This not only eliminates the uncertainty surrounding new sales strategies and directions but also hones your approach so that your team (and numbers) can weather any market.
Automation and artificial intelligence are not replacing people as current media would have you believe. Rather it is empowering teams of talented individuals across the world to make better, more effective choices. This will not only be a boon for society at large but a benefit to sales teams in particular.
Reference Link: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/12/how-ai-is-changing-sales.html