Artificial Intelligence in Sales
Artificial intelligence is helping companies improve lead generation, closing rates, and overall sales performance.
That’s because this technology automates and enhances much of the sales process. As a result, salespeople are free to focus on what’s important: revenue.
Visionary companies are seizing on this fact. According to the Salesforce State of Sales report, sales leaders want their AI applications to grow faster than any other technology.
Salesforce also found that high-performing teams are 4.9 times more likely to use AI compared to underperforming teams.
However, AI is not replacing salespeople. The vast majority of companies using AI or programs also plan to add employees.
That’s because AI is creating practical value for sales teams by automating, augmenting, and enhancing the way sales teams work, and several real-world use cases and tools are being used.
But there’s so much hype around AI that salespeople often ignore this fact. We don’t blame them. They have a lot of numbers to reach, and too much of the commentary about AI is aspirational rather than practical.
In this article, we’ll stick to practice.
We will outline a working definition of AI for salespeople that includes only the bottom line and does not contain any false or technical jargon.
Then, we’ll examine some of the top AI use cases for salespeople so you can get some ideas about how the technology can help teams make better quotas.
Finally, we’ll outline some of the top companies that use AI to empower salespeople with superpowers, so you have some tools to start your research.
What is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Sales?
Artificial Intelligence is an umbrella term that covers many different technologies, such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, deep learning, etc.
However, at the core of all these technologies is the ability to help machines perform specific cognitive tasks even better than humans.
For example, AI-powered computer vision systems in self-driving cars can identify obstacles as well as humans and allow the machine to take the wheel.
Your favorite voice assistant, such as Alexa or Siri, will understand your words like another human being and then respond in the same way using AI.
Amazon and Netflix use AI recommendation engines to deliver products and movies you might like, making assumptions about your preferences just like any other product or movie lover.
While there is a lot of complexity in the different types of AI, what you need to know right now is that “AI” describes many different types of intelligent technologies. Many of these technologies can impact your sales career and performance in far-reaching ways.
That’s because AI is more than just automation, although it may include elements of intelligent automation. Artificial intelligence tools go a step further.
These technologies analyze large data sets. However, they don’t just process numbers. They use advanced computer science techniques and superior computing power to extract insights from the data.
These insights can then be used to make predictions, recommendations, and decisions.
This type of artificial intelligence, known as “machine learning,” offers the most impressive capabilities in sales.
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that identifies patterns based on large amounts of data. The machine uses these patterns to make predictions. Then, over time, it uses more and more data to improve those predictions.
The result?
Technology-driven by machine learning gets better over time, often without human involvement.
This is very different from traditional software.
A typical non-AI system, such as your accounting software, relies on human input to work. The system is hard-coded with human rules. It then follows those rules exactly to help you pay your taxes. The system will only improve if the human programmer improves it.
But machine learning tools can improve on their own. This improvement comes from machines that evaluate their performance and new data.
For example, a marketing AI tool can write email subject lines for you. Humans use a sample of the company’s marketing copy to train the tool’s machine learning. But then the tool drafts its email subject lines.
A split test is performed, and then the machine learns on its own what to improve based on the results. Over time, the machine gets better and better, with little to no human involvement. This unleashes potentially unlimited performance potential.
Now, imagine this power applied to any marketing or sales technology that uses data. Artificial intelligence can make everything smarter, from advertising to analytics to content.
This means sophisticated AI can analyze customer and prospect data, predict which prospects are most likely to close, recommend the most important sales actions, predict outcomes, optimize pricing, and more.
Because of this ability to enhance and improve sales performance, McKinsey analysts wrote in the Harvard Business Review that AI could create $1.4 to $2.6 trillion in value in marketing and sales.
How can AI be used for sales?
So how can the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning help you sell more products? Check out the following key use cases for the technology.
Predictive Forecasting
Existing artificial intelligence systems can use historical data to predict or forecast outcomes to inform future results. Common predictions that can be made by sales AI systems include
The most likely deal or prospect to close.
The next target deal or prospect.
New customers who may be interested in the product you are selling.
Now, the accuracy of these predictions depends on the system used and the quality of the data. But the truth is that with the right inputs from the past and present, AI can show you the people who are most likely to buy in the future.
Predictive forecasting can also create value for inside sales teams.
Using the same type of data analysis, AI can help sales managers predict ahead of time how their team will perform during the quarter, so they can take proactive steps based on the numbers.
Lead Scoring and Prioritization
Artificial intelligence can calmly look at large data sets from multiple sources and tell you which prospects to prioritize based on the scores the AI gives them.
Human salespeople often score and prioritize prospects in an unscientific way, as Victor Antonio, a sales expert in the Harvard Business Review, points out.
“Typically, this decision-making process is based on intuition and incomplete information. With AI, the algorithm can compile historical information about the customer, social media posts, and the salesperson’s customer interaction history (e.g., emails sent, voicemails left, text messages sent, etc.) and rank the opportunities or leads in the channel their chances of successfully closing based on the following information.”
In this case, artificial intelligence can bring a level of logic and standardization to the process that humans cannot match.
Expert Advice
In addition to prediction and prioritization, some AI systems may actually recommend sales actions and even tell sales teams which actions the system thinks to make the most sense based on your goals and data insights.
These recommendations may include advice on how to price deals, who to target next, or which customers to target first through up-selling or cross-selling.
The result is targeted guidance for actions to be taken, so salespeople can free up bandwidth to close deals instead of thinking about what to do next.
Performance and Productivity Gains
AI can also automate or enhance your work to eliminate some of the drudgeries that distract you from higher-value tasks.
AI can help you do everything from managing your calendar to scheduling meetings to evaluating your sales team’s pipeline by either automating these actions for you or making them easier by using your historical usage data to make decisions.
This use case is very similar to how some consumer calendaring and productivity apps work, leveraging AI to dynamically recommend recurring events or to-do lists.
Will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Replace Sales?
You may be wondering if AI or machine learning tools will replace sales reps.
That’s a legitimate concern. After all, these technologies are becoming increasingly powerful.
At the Marketing AI Institute, we have a large number of sales reps in our audience. We regularly interview and interact with these professionals. We track thousands of AI tools in sales and marketing.
Overall, we’re not too worried that AI or machine learning will replace sales.
There’s no doubt that AI and machine learning will change the way sales teams work. But these tools will typically augment, not replace, human salespeople. AI tools are increasingly taking over jobs that human salespeople don’t have the ability or time to do.
For example, one of the tools we list below can follow up with prospects without human intervention, and can even engage in two-way conversations with them. Unlike what they often do, each prospect is approached, nurtured, and qualified, rather than falling through the cracks. Once the lead gets hot or needs human attention, the machine hands the lead off to a human rep.
Most AI sales tools don’t automate you, they empower you with superpowers.
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