When it came to implementing digital technologies, sales had always been slower compared to other areas. Until now, sales was mostly “human-driven” where personalisation, context, and relevance were key to success.
Yet, in just the past few months months, new disruptive AI sales tools have emerged. For example, Microsoft and Salesforce both made significant moves by launching Viva and Einstein GPT, allowing sales reps to craft personalised customer emails at scale, gain valuable insights about customers and prospects, and generate useful recommendations for pipeline prioritisation. Shortly after, we’ve seen other players in the Sales Enablement space push their own versions of Generative AI, most recently with Amplemarket launching their LinkedIn extension for hyper-personalised cold messages.
Yet, in just the past few months months, new disruptive AI sales tools have emerged. For example, Microsoft and Salesforce both made significant moves by launching Viva and Einstein GPT, allowing sales reps to craft personalised customer emails at scale, gain valuable insights about customers and prospects, and generate useful recommendations for pipeline prioritisation. Shortly after, we’ve seen other players in the Sales Enablement space push their own versions of Generative AI, most recently with Amplemarket launching their LinkedIn extension for hyper-personalised cold messages.
Sales is now on the verge of becoming a frontrunner in adopting generative AI.
And this is no surprise: Generative AI models align perfectly with the requirements of sales. Selling involves extensive interaction and transactions, often via emails, phone calls, or video calls. In each of these conversations lay tons of insights about the market, objections from customers, feedback about the product, or even your competitors mentioned. These forms of unstructured data are precisely what models like GPT are best designed to work with. The dynamic and organic nature of sales presents immense opportunities for generative AI to make sense of this data to interpret, learn, establish connections and personalise output at scale.
What can Generative AI tools offer sales organisations?
1. Less admin work, more selling
As companies grow in size and success, sales reps face an increasing load of admin work. Yet, reps' focus still remains the same - selling. Gen AI tools can help reps focus on selling and assist them in more tedious, admin tasks like note-taking in meetings, writing followup emails based on actual meetings’ discussions, logging CRM, and writing meeting summaries
2. Coaching insights
Because AI models are able to digest a lot more information than humans, they can analyse data that would otherwise be overlooked. With more data to draw conclusions with, these models can provide ultra-relevant coaching recommendations. In the context of a sales meeting, these recommendations can be based on customer behaviours, emotions felt, engagement levels, talk ratio of the prospect compared to the one of the rep, as well as past interactions. For instance, Flair analyses customer sentiments expressed through language cues and facial expressions to suggest areas of improvement in the rep’s pitch. Since the platform has a strong focus on enabling peer-learning, these coaching insights can then be spread across the team and be replicated by other teammates to mimic success and drive higher sales results.
3. Assisting Sales Leaders
When an AI model assists every step of a deal, from discovery call to demo and beyond, it gathers enough data to create an accurate statistical picture of deal health and likelihood of winning the deal. This can help sales leaders being more accurate in predicting quarterly revenue and take action if the team is not on track of hitting revenue goals.
When an AI model assists every step of a deal, from discovery call to demo and beyond, it gathers enough data to create an accurate statistical picture of deal health and likelihood of winning the deal. This can help sales leaders being more accurate in predicting quarterly revenue and take action if the team is not on track of hitting revenue goals.
Flair AI automatically extracts action items and writes summaries from sales meetings.
Embracing Generative AI in Sales
Generative AI is an emerging and rapidly evolving technology that presents both opportunities and challenges for sales orgs. However, the shortage of talent in defining its role, training models, and implementing applications poses a significant hurdle. It's crucial to find effective pathways that quickly realise value and deliver results while managing costs.
Choosing the right solution:
While generic AI models like ChatGPT can bring some degree of results in a sales context, it was not at all trained for that purpose. When considering options, choose a provider that has trained their AI model specifically for sales. Success is a lot more likely when efforts to bring AI to sales are supported by providers that possess a deep understanding of both the technical and the sales side. By bridging the gap between these two worlds, you can ensure that solutions are tailored to be usable and useful for you while remaining implementable and sustainable over time.
Product-led vs. Sales-led solutions:
The exponential growth of generative AI allows for quick realisation of value within weeks, rather than months. When it comes to implementation speed, opting to "buy" existing applications always outpaces "building" in-house custom AI-powered systems, as it reduces the reliance on scarce in-house expertise and keeps pace with rapidly evolving technology.
Going further down the line, self-service products are your fastest go-to solution as they take down the barriers that other more traditional solution providers have put in place. For instance, opting for solutions such as Gong, Chorus or Wingman also means going through months of sales cycle and implementation before getting started, and agreeing to costly upfront and binding annual contracts. To fight against these barriers, new self-service tools have emerged. In Europe, Flair is the first tool built with a complete plug-and-play approach that makes it possible to bring AI to your sales org in just a few clicks.
Going further down the line, self-service products are your fastest go-to solution as they take down the barriers that other more traditional solution providers have put in place. For instance, opting for solutions such as Gong, Chorus or Wingman also means going through months of sales cycle and implementation before getting started, and agreeing to costly upfront and binding annual contracts. To fight against these barriers, new self-service tools have emerged. In Europe, Flair is the first tool built with a complete plug-and-play approach that makes it possible to bring AI to your sales org in just a few clicks.
AI is rising. Are salespeople at risk of loosing their jobs?
At least not immediately. Generative AI is meant to become a valuable assistant for every salesperson and sales manager. It has already demonstrated its ability to enhance productivity in other fields, such as assisting copywriters and software developers. In today's digital landscape, consumers increasingly rely on technology for independent product research, and B2B e-commerce is on the rise. While digital and inside sales handle tasks like lead generation and product information sharing, complex sales still require skilled salespeople who can identify needs, tailor solutions, and navigate intricate buying processes. AI will undoubtedly automate tasks and narrow the scope of salespeople's roles, particularly in complex situations.
In conclusion, embracing generative AI in sales will unlock significant value, but it requires navigating challenges related to accuracy, implementation speed, and cost control. With the right approach, sales organisations can harness the power of AI to enhance productivity, improve customer interactions, and adapt to the evolving sales landscape.
In conclusion, embracing generative AI in sales will unlock significant value, but it requires navigating challenges related to accuracy, implementation speed, and cost control. With the right approach, sales organisations can harness the power of AI to enhance productivity, improve customer interactions, and adapt to the evolving sales landscape.
