Artificial Intelligence for Sales: What You Need to Know for 2022
What Is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?
Sales heavily rely on human intuition, so when artificial intelligence (AI) enters the conversation, it’s only natural for salespeople to question its effectiveness.
AI has become part of the new narrative. Gartner reports that by 2025, 75% of B2B sales organizations will incorporate artificial intelligence into their sales playbook.
The term artificial intelligence is broad. It refers to several technologies, including machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). What defines these technologies as AI is their ability to learn from data, predict trends, and autonomously carry out tasks.
Machine learning is beneficial in sales. It takes existing customer data, builds algorithms, and generates new knowledge to make recommendations.
Not only does this help create a more data-driven sales process, but AI can also automate and learn from everyday sales activities, including:
Sales forecasting
Lead scoring
Data consolidation
Low-level sales activities
We’ll be covering some of these application points below. We’ll also discuss how AI supports sales teams, where CRM fits in, and what AI-supported sales tools are available today.
Want to give your sales team an edge on a few companies you’ve got your eyes on? Check out the prospecting feature on Owler Max to stay up-to-date on companies that are on your radar!
How Can AI Be Used in Sales?
According to McKinsey analysts, artificial intelligence will significantly impact marketing and sales enablement across world businesses, potentially generating $1.4 to $2.6 trillion in value.
What does this mean for salespeople using AI today?
By redefining traditional workflows, current AI technology extracts practical value from sales cycles and helps sales teams optimize the sales process.
Let’s review how this is possible with some common AI use cases for sales:
Sales Forecasting
Modern sales AI may not be the supercomputers of Hollywood sci-fi, but today’s technology can support sales forecasting. By analyzing data, AI for sales may:
Suggest opportunities to upsell and cross-sell
Target deals that are likely to close
Identify the next best action for high-value prospects
The accuracy of these predictions depends on many factors. Generally, however, the more quality data the sales team provides, the more credible the prediction. Sales leaders can then use these predictions to align sales quotas and team objectives with forecast expectations, improving overall decision-making.
Lead Scoring and Prioritization
One of the most significant challenges sales teams face is consolidating and understanding sales data. Given the sheer amount of data available today, prioritization is key to closing deals faster.
Not only can AI-powered sales tools simplify data entry through automated workflows, but AI can also find new opportunities by analyzing large datasets harnessed from various sources.
This will help you discover the best leads from your current pool of contacts. After which, AI-backed mechanics can streamline lead scoring, pinpointing your best potential customers so your team may prioritize objectives.
Sales Performance Enhancements
AI boosts sales productivity in other ways as well.
Whereas legacy tools require human intervention to define and carry out duties (better known as robotic process automation or RPA), AI autonomously builds onto these functions to deliver new value.
Here are a few examples of time-consuming tasks AI can both streamline and enrich:
Algorithmically schedule or suggest outreach based on customer interactions
Improve lead profiles and fill information gaps through independent research
Select the most relevant content and strategies to nurture leads
Automate social media accounts to increase engagement
Assess potential prospects across multiple touchpoints
By distinguishing between AI and RPA, sales managers can utilize tools that leverage both to increase their productivity.
The Future of Automation in Sales
As with many other business operations, companies incorporate AI into their sales workflows. In doing so, they build stronger customer relationships and leverage data to accelerate the sales process—two key advantages that are improving all the time.
Given these advancements, salespeople may be concerned about AI replacing them. Fortunately, that isn’t the case.
While AI can do many things humans can (and frequently better), it can’t step into customers' shoes. Whereas AI may aggregate a massive amount of data, salespeople can empathize, carry out strategic conversations, and solve complex problems that go beyond facts and numbers.
As a highly social field, AI is nowhere advanced enough to mimic a human being. Therefore, it’s better to view AI as a sales tool to increase sales performance rather than a direct replacement.
How CRM Systems Will Look with Sales AI
Sales AI has integrated into current sales operations via CRM platforms.
With some systems, you gain an AI assistant that offers recommendations in real-time, just as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri might. For example, the AI may suggest what products to pitch, when, and to who based on your interactions with prospects.
AI-empowered CRM may send updates on potential leads to ensure a sales opportunity doesn’t slip through the cracks. It can also organize CRM data for you. This way, you can stay on top of your pipeline without spending your day researching or following up with prospects.
Although very few CRM systems are this progressive, mid-level platforms will likely unlock greater functionality as AI advances. Meanwhile, top-of-the-line CRMs will continue to reimagine how we conduct sales.
Examples of Sales AI Tools
Now that you know what sales AI can do, let’s check out the tools companies use to build deeper connections with prospects and close deals faster.
Salesforce
In 2016, Salesforce released an AI known as “Einstein” as part of its Customer Success Platform.
Einstein employs machine learning to anticipate sales opportunities, prioritize leads, and analyze data to curate predictive insights. This has many uses.
For example, Einstein identifies where a potential customer may be in the sales cycle, what touchpoints they’ll likely respond to, and when to reach out according to buying signals you may otherwise miss.
Thanks to its various functions and availability across many Salesforce apps, Einstein has helped redefine what a data-backed sales process looks like.
Drift
Founded in 2015, Drift focuses on conversational sales strategies through its Revenue Acceleration platform.
Whereas some companies may hesitate to involve AI, Drift sees it as an opportunity to personalize every customer experience. In addition to other features, their platform offers scripted communication tools to eliminate friction and maximize involvement—even when salespeople are personally unavailable.
Drift’s conversation tools improve over time by using machine learning, so you don’t have to worry about stagnant or robotic conversations.
Crayon
Crayon provides an AI-backed competitive intelligence software. Its goal is to track, analyze, and extract value from data and give you an edge over rivals.
Crayon’s competitive insights can pull from over 100 data types to ensure your sales plan stays on point. Like Drift, Crayon also uses machine learning.
By studying, organizing, and learning from data, Crayon transforms credible information on competitor movements into a rich database you can use to refine your activities.
If you want to stay informed and receive daily updates on over 15 million companies, consider a plan from Owler. We can help you prospect for new business, keep tabs on your competitors, and track new updates happening in your industry.
Pair Your CRM with Competitive Data from Owler
Whereas CRMs with basic automation were enough to meet needs, modern sales activities now require more intricate sales tools.
By switching over to AI-driven CRMs, salespeople can transform their bottom line, streamline their workflows, and enrich the customer experience with actionable data.
Owler Max delivers the information needed to empower AI sales processes.
By pairing Owler with AI-led CRMs such as Salesforce, and HubSpot, your team gains access to competitive data from the same companies you’re interested in. Feed your CRM with this intelligence to stay informed and sharpen your AI-led predictions.
Contact us to learn more about how you can harness hard-to-find sales intelligence and empower your sales team today.