15 Ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) Can Help Sales
Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2024 4:44 am
If you think AI is a recent phenomenon, this nugget might amuse you. Although the term “artificial intelligence” was first coined in 1955, the concept of AI was first discussed in Ramon Llull’s Ars generalis ultima (The Ultimate General Art) in 1308 CE*.
That was a long time ago! Today, AI has touched many aspects of our lives. Everywhere, it seems.
Whether it’s recommending videos on YouTube, recommending products on Amazon, or predicting traffic on Google Maps, AI-powered algorithms help us every day. We all benefit from it in our personal lives in one way or another.
Artificial intelligence has also made strides – in improving buy Phone Number List business functions. In factories, AI improves safety and productivity. In HR, AI helps employees get real-time help with vacation and payroll issues. In marketing, AI can help target a campaign to the right audience. In customer service, AI provides answers to frequently asked questions in real time via chatbots and frees up agents’ time to deal with complex queries.
AI in Sales
Once we demystify AI, it’s easy to see why it can be effective in the sales process as well. AI is very good at reading patterns in historical data. Specifically, patterns in which a certain early behavior, along with a profile, can lead to a certain future behavior or outcome.
Let's consider the following examples:
Email Status: Whether an email will be opened or not when it is sent at a certain time.
Document: Did the document help move to a later stage, etc.
Now, every person and every customer is different. When you have thousands of them, and perhaps hundreds of data points for each one, patterns will emerge.
AI was built to read patterns and has advanced to the point where manual intervention is almost completely unnecessary.
AI systems can comb through huge amounts of data and repeat the process thousands of times to find patterns that lead to certain outcomes (such as winning or losing a deal). Some AI models have built-in mechanisms to improve accuracy by making predictions based on historical data, checking that the predictions match the actual results, and iterating and adjusting until the accuracy level is high.
Sales teams have already started to profit from AI-powered applications that ultimately help them close more deals and close deals faster.
Here are 15 key areas of sales where AI can win.
Lead and MQL stage
Profile enrichment
Sales reps typically spend time on LinkedIn or other resources researching prospects. Tools that can provide useful information with an email address or company name can be very convenient and save sales reps time.
The presenter scored
Sales reps waste a lot of time chasing unqualified leads. By analyzing interaction behavior and lead profile characteristics, AI applications can identify lead characteristics that lead to higher conversions. Engagement via email, website, social media, and profile data are all factors that can help predict the likelihood of conversion.
Show duplicates
No matter how sophisticated your system, duplicate entries will occur. Often, this is due to slight variations in the text used for the same contact, account, or deal. Software can track these duplicate entries and alert sales reps so that information is not scattered across multiple entries.
SQL stage
Best time for contact
Increase your response rate by sending emails or calling when your contacts are most likely to want to engage. Based on their past interactions with your team, the system can suggest appropriate time slots for a call or email.
Electronic assistant
When responding to an email, AI can suggest documents or templates that sales reps can insert with a single click.
Recommendations for documents
As a deal moves through various stages, certain documents such as case studies, comparison documents, or ROI documents can help your prospects evaluate your product. AI-powered applications can look at historical data on the success of various documents and make timely recommendations.
Idle Contact Reminders
Selling is a relationship-building process. It is important to continue to engage with your prospects, even those that are not necessary. Idle Contact Reminders can help sales reps stay in touch with their prospects.
That was a long time ago! Today, AI has touched many aspects of our lives. Everywhere, it seems.
Whether it’s recommending videos on YouTube, recommending products on Amazon, or predicting traffic on Google Maps, AI-powered algorithms help us every day. We all benefit from it in our personal lives in one way or another.
Artificial intelligence has also made strides – in improving buy Phone Number List business functions. In factories, AI improves safety and productivity. In HR, AI helps employees get real-time help with vacation and payroll issues. In marketing, AI can help target a campaign to the right audience. In customer service, AI provides answers to frequently asked questions in real time via chatbots and frees up agents’ time to deal with complex queries.
AI in Sales
Once we demystify AI, it’s easy to see why it can be effective in the sales process as well. AI is very good at reading patterns in historical data. Specifically, patterns in which a certain early behavior, along with a profile, can lead to a certain future behavior or outcome.
Let's consider the following examples:
Email Status: Whether an email will be opened or not when it is sent at a certain time.
Document: Did the document help move to a later stage, etc.
Now, every person and every customer is different. When you have thousands of them, and perhaps hundreds of data points for each one, patterns will emerge.
AI was built to read patterns and has advanced to the point where manual intervention is almost completely unnecessary.
AI systems can comb through huge amounts of data and repeat the process thousands of times to find patterns that lead to certain outcomes (such as winning or losing a deal). Some AI models have built-in mechanisms to improve accuracy by making predictions based on historical data, checking that the predictions match the actual results, and iterating and adjusting until the accuracy level is high.
Sales teams have already started to profit from AI-powered applications that ultimately help them close more deals and close deals faster.
Here are 15 key areas of sales where AI can win.
Lead and MQL stage
Profile enrichment
Sales reps typically spend time on LinkedIn or other resources researching prospects. Tools that can provide useful information with an email address or company name can be very convenient and save sales reps time.
The presenter scored
Sales reps waste a lot of time chasing unqualified leads. By analyzing interaction behavior and lead profile characteristics, AI applications can identify lead characteristics that lead to higher conversions. Engagement via email, website, social media, and profile data are all factors that can help predict the likelihood of conversion.
Show duplicates
No matter how sophisticated your system, duplicate entries will occur. Often, this is due to slight variations in the text used for the same contact, account, or deal. Software can track these duplicate entries and alert sales reps so that information is not scattered across multiple entries.
SQL stage
Best time for contact
Increase your response rate by sending emails or calling when your contacts are most likely to want to engage. Based on their past interactions with your team, the system can suggest appropriate time slots for a call or email.
Electronic assistant
When responding to an email, AI can suggest documents or templates that sales reps can insert with a single click.
Recommendations for documents
As a deal moves through various stages, certain documents such as case studies, comparison documents, or ROI documents can help your prospects evaluate your product. AI-powered applications can look at historical data on the success of various documents and make timely recommendations.
Idle Contact Reminders
Selling is a relationship-building process. It is important to continue to engage with your prospects, even those that are not necessary. Idle Contact Reminders can help sales reps stay in touch with their prospects.