AI & Sales: greater efficiency, but what about the human touch?
09/16/2024
4 min
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According to Gartner (2023), AI is expected to fulfill 60% of sales tasks by 2028. Nevertheless, many salespeople and companies find it hard to discern how AI improves their decisions and practices.
Currently, various digital applications exist to aid salespeople with specific steps in the sales process. For instance, there are AI tools that will help salespeople collect information about their prospects or create a list of contacts that can then be exported into file to then be used for email outreach. Tools like Lavender can help craft emails and when powered with tools like Crystal can even adapt the tone of the email to the personality type of the prospect targeted. While these are just some examples of how AI can help the sales process, it is still perceived as being complex for salespeople and managers to use on a routine basis.
In our latest article, published in the leading academic sales journal, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, we interviewed 18 managers and sales professionals and also studied what other experts from around the world are discussing about the use of AI in sales. We then developed a practical guide to understand how AI can be used at each stage of the sales process. This enabled us to identify the opportunities and challenges that AI creates for salespeople, sales managers, the sales organization, and even the customer.
AI used in pre-sales (prospecting, pre-approach and approach)
AI is most quickly put to use in the sales prospecting and customer information research phase. AI optimizes lead generation by building personalized prospect profiles based on a variety of data. Once the profiles have been identified, AI will be able to qualify these leads thanks to predictive analysis and the probability of purchase of each prospect profile. A concrete example is Gong’s service to help salespeople “rate” and “evaluate” their prospects. Using AI to evaluate prospects thus limits the salesperson’s subjectivity in this respect by focusing on factual data.
Once the prospects have been qualified, thanks to generative AI, a personalized email can be generated to respond as closely as possible to these potential needs and increase the chances of obtaining a sales appointment. This has a direct impact on sales roles. This pre-sales stage is regularly carried out by less experienced salespeople. Some companies have even decided to restructure their sales force into a field sales force (outside sales) and a sedentary sales force (inside sales), often encouraged to seek out leads. With the emergence of AI, these activities of prospect research, and prospect information, which require data exploration and analysis, will take up less and less of a salesperson’s time.
Facilitating data collection
Marketing and social networking strategies also play a vital role in acquiring new B2B customers. Generative AI enables the writing of blog articles or posts for social networks, ensuring that sales reps have a presence with their target audience.
AI not only enables us to collect customer data upstream, it can also help sales reps during negotiations. Some AI-based tools play the role of an assistant, analyzing the prospect’s words in real time, and even going so far as to analyze the prospect’s feelings/emotions.
For example, a tool like Showpad provides real-time feedback on salespeople’s verbal and non-verbal communication. These conversational analysis tools can then be used to improve the skills of salespeople themselves and help their managers who don’t always have the time to coach salespeople.
Thanks to a better understanding of the prospect and his or her needs, AI offers the sales rep:
- real-time advice on how to respond to objections;
- suggestions for potential additional products or added value to offer the customer;
- optimized dynamic pricing.
Better use of CRM software
With the need to maintain long-term relationships, customer relationship management (CRM) software is developing rapidly in France and around the world. In the 2010s, much of the rejection of such software by sales staff was due to the extra work involved in manually entering information. However, AI has overcome this difficulty. The Modjo tool, for example, automatically summarizes and transfers information from a sales meeting to the customer relationship management software.
After the sales exchange, AI can transcribe the conversation and automate the sending of a sales follow-up email based on the conversation with the customer. In particular, this enables sales reps to self-evaluate and improve their future performance.
AI – Between opportunities and risks for salespeople
Although AI can both automate repetitive tasks and increase sales activities, it also raises ethical questions.
With AI comes data transparency for both sales reps and customers. The better-informed salesperson can better identify the customer’s needs and adapt the solution, which is beneficial for the customer. The customer, for their part, has access to more precise information on the offer, but also on the competition. However, regulations and policies governing the use of AI, particularly generative AI, raise issues of data confidentiality and can generate a feeling of vulnerability among customers.
By performing repetitive tasks, AI also requires salespeople to take on more complex tasks. This requires new sales skills, such as the ability to analyze data, but also emphasizes the importance of human skills such as empathy and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the amount of information distributed by the AI to the sales rep must be limited to what is strictly necessary, to avoid creating an information overload that would be counter-productive for the sales rep.
Finally, the customer’s point of view and perception of AI remains paramount to its use, particularly in the buyer-seller relationship. AI is already powerful enough to present a commercial offer, develop a customized solution, and answer customers’ questions. However, the human approach is perceived as more authentic and helps generate more trust.
Laurianne Schmitt, & Deva Rangarajan, IÉSEG School of Management.
This is an English version of an article originally published on The Conversation France.
How AI is shaping the world of sales:
Discover this video with Laurianne Schmitt and Deva Rangarajan from IÉSEG School of Management.
