As the AI buzz sweeps across the globe, the B2B sales sector cannot remain alienated from this technological advancement. A leading indicator of the fact that AI (Artificial intelligence) has made inroads into B2B sales is Salesforce’s research insights. It states that organizations excelling in sales are 1.9 times more likely to tap into AI’s potential. But what inherent capabilities does AI have that can change how B2B businesses sell?
Let us dive deep to understand AI’s profound impact on B2B sales.
The B2B ecosystem is embracing artificial intelligence with great vigor, owing to which the global AI market valued at USD 196.63 million is expected to reach USD 1.85 trillion by 2030.
The amalgamation of artificial intelligence and sales for a profit-driven B2B business means creating new capabilities to process huge amounts of data in real time and gain deeper insights. These deeper insights include eye-opening facts about user behavior, buying patterns, and more that let businesses comprehend what’s brewing in their audience’s minds.
Certain processes, like reading subtle cues of body language, inferring the tone of voice, or interpreting emotions, are some aspects that human brains have mastered. However, there are specific tasks that B2B businesses must not shy away from delegating to AI.
AI can efficiently handle daunting data-heavy tasks that are time-consuming. By using data analysis algorithms, AI can process cognitive work and deliver the best outcomes that immensely benefit the sales team.
Considered an umbrella term, AI encompasses a multitude of technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, smart process automation, and more. The stark difference between AI and other software is that AI can improve by itself, whereas other software can improve only when there is a human intervention. Every AI tool serves a unique function, smoothing the sales processes for B2B businesses.
Here is an overview of some of the prominent types of Sales AI in use:
NLP is a type of AI technology used to innovate digital assistants. Like humans, it understands and responds to verbal and written human speech. NLPs can interpret the intentions behind the words. NLPs are used extensively in speech-to-text dictation programs.
AI analytics is the best bet for businesses that typically handle and use enormous amounts of data. AI analytics undertake real-time analysis of data to detect anomalies and interpret patterns that empower the sales teams to make the right decision.
Smart process automation is a combination of robotic automation and machine learning. As an AI, SPA identifies the need for human intervention during an automation process and loops in the relevant human touch points. Then, utilizing human-made decisions, similar solutions can be predicted for various future scenarios.
Conversational AI analyzes a text or a voice interface input given by the user and delivers an instant response. Conversational AI in sales gives users interacting with a business a perception that a human is actually responding to them, even though a computer program is at the helm of the process. Ex: Chatbots and voice assistants
Using the power of algorithms, predictive sales AI analyzes massive amounts of information pertaining to users’ buying signals and sales numbers. After analyzing the data, the AI creates models that enable sales teams to plan investments and supply-demand pipelines.
Undoubtedly, a human touch is a must in a sales process to seize the deal. The focus of AI in B2B Sales is to free up the sales team from the burden of repetitive tasks, automate them, and let them channel their efforts toward winning deals.
This powerful technology offers several advantages for businesses, including:
AI in B2B sales can become a powerful tool, acting as another ear to listen to calls, i.e., monitoring sales calls. When the sales team has a bandwidth crunch, conversational AI can monitor sales calls, and create real-time transcripts for data analysis. Businesses can make use of these transcripts to coach their sales teams and fix existing glitches in their operations.
Businesses can leverage AI in B2B sales to track their competitors effectively. By using conversational AIs, businesses can gather useful insights about their competitors. Conversational AIs monitoring a telephone interaction between a user and a sales representative can recognize the mention of an enterprise’s direct competitor whenever the user speaks about it. The AI stores this revealing moment of the discussion, allowing the business to examine and analyze the information about the competitor.
AI processes expansive information, the latest trends, and past sales data and collates the findings together to predict how the enterprise’s sales will fare in the future. As a crystal ball for B2B sales, AI sales forecasting allows businesses to make more accurate data-driven decisions and avoid the risks associated with gut instincts or hunch-based decisions. Besides this, as AI predicts the sales pipeline for the future, the sales team can streamline their endeavors and free up some bandwidth for building valuable customer or user relationships.
Using AI tools, sales teams can initiate lead scoring and sales forecasting, effectively streamline their endeavors, and optimize the sales processes with data-driven insights. While AI does the heavy-lifting job of data analysis, the enterprise’s sales team can focus on other value-based endeavors much needed for revenue growth.
Prospecting for leads is a daunting task that demands massive time drain from the sales teams. Using AI for sales prospecting smoothens processes, making discovering and identifying potential prospects easier. As AI interprets the behavioral and purchasing patterns of users and deciphers the best potential lead, the sales teams can avoid sifting for prospects through mounds of data. By utilizing AI for prospecting, sales teams can focus on their core goal of winning the deal and adding more users rapidly to their client base.
With the advent of AI, sales teams can automate several tasks, ranging from data analysis to data entry, and focus only on selling. According to HubSpot’s research insights, sales teams can save approximately 2 hours and 16 minutes daily by automating manual tasks. Automation allows businesses to fast-track the sales cycle, utilize their resources, budget wisely, and gain higher ROI.
Sales teams can leverage AI to craft sales pitches for prospect outreach communication. Using AI tools, sales representatives can repurpose messages or adapt them to different formats using AI t. For instance, they can transform an email into a LinkedIn message. They can leverage AI and convert a promotional message initially created to target a small business owner into an email suited to prospect with a c-suite executive. Sales teams can save time and churn out appealing content that syncs with their audience in a jiffy.
In the ever-evolving competitive B2B turfs, staying ahead of the curve is vital for enterprises to survive. AI bestows unique capabilities to an enterprise’s sales team, empowering them to unlock unprecedented success.
Here are some of the top use cases of AI in B2B sales:
By integrating AI with CRM, sales teams can gain a 360-degree overview of each lead. This integration provides impactful insights about lead behavior, transaction, and communication history and suggests the next best action for sales teams, like sharing relevant content, scheduling a product demo, sending a welcome message, and more.
By incorporating AI-powered Chabots, sales teams have enhanced their company’s customer service by leaps and bounds. As AI-powered chatbots are available round the clock to engage with leads, answer queries, and provide information, sales teams can ensure that no prospect goes unattended. Such on-time response create a positive perception about a brand, positively impacting the lead conversion rate and allowing sales teams to close the deal swiftly.
Customer churn is a real-time challenge that sales teams must overcome, as retaining existing users is a more cost-effective strategy than acquiring new clients. AI tools assess user data, identify customer dissatisfaction or a decrease in purchase activity, flag potential churns, and suggest proactive measures to the sales teams to retain valuable clients.
AI in B2B sales is inevitable for businesses striving to taste success. With around 50% of businesses across the globe using AI, sales teams are latching on to this technological advancement. From reinventing content creation to automating manual tasks and forecasting sales, AI in B2B sales is forging ahead a path of innovation and making businesses more equipped to navigate the path to success in the digital world.
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