Will Sales change in the future?what is the role of AI in Sales?

AI, customized chatbots, hyper-functional SRM systems, video conferencing have become the norm… It’s hard to imagine that ten years ago only very rich corporations could afford all these tools, time has passed and now almost everyone can now set up their own chat bot with AI functions ..What awaits the sales sector? Let’s try to partially lift the curtain

AI will level out the playing field

AI is transforming sales process, making it more efficient and impactful. Sales teams are utilizing AI to automate tedious tasks, allowing team members to focus on closing deals and driving business growth. The use of AI in sales has become a game changer, providing insights, improving metrics, and enhancing overall team performance.Sales professionals use generative AI tools for prospect outreach, including writing emails, social media messages, and call scripts.

Sales professionals need to become influencers — kind of

Social media presence is no longer optional for sales professionals. Building influence online has become essential for establishing credibility and trust with prospects. Social media, especially LinkedIn, has become a primary channel for lead generation. Salespeople are now seen as information amplifiers, sharing valuable content to educate and build trust with their audience.

Personalization will become the new normal

Personalization is a key factor in elevating sales conversations. Sales professionals recognize the importance of tailoring the buying process to each prospect. AI is aiding in buyer research, enabling the creation of personalized messages that resonate with prospects. While AI streamlines personalization at scale, finding the right balance is crucial to avoid overwhelming recipients and overspending resources on research.

future is self-service, and salespeople must adapt

Buyers are increasingly knowledgeable about products and services even before the first interaction with sales professionals. Salespeople need to transition into more consultative roles, understanding the specific problems prospects want to solve. Providing insights, experiences from similar industries, and introducing additional solutions or partnerships will be crucial in delivering value beyond what buyers can find on their own.

More buyers will want to try before they buy

The “try before you buy” mentality is becoming prevalent in both B2C and B2B markets. Offering freemium options, such as free trials or consultations, is highly effective in converting prospects into paying customers. Sales reps recognize the power of providing a hands-on experience, with free trials being the most preferred freemium option. While not suitable for every business model, a well-executed freemium strategy can be a potent acquisition tool.

How Sales Teams Use AI

Automating Manual Tasks

Sales professionals, constituting 35%, leverage AI tools to automate manual tasks, leading to a daily time savings of approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes. This involves streamlining processes such as data entry, note-taking, and scheduling. For example, connecting ChatSpot with HubSpot CRM allows reps to automate email data capture, import information accurately, enrich contact details, and eliminate redundant data. Tools like Apollo.Io and Gong further aid in automating the capture and transcription of sales calls, providing crucial context and accelerating deal closures.

Offering Data-Driven Insights

Among sales reps, 34% utilize AI for data-driven insights, encompassing sales forecasting, lead scoring, and pipeline analysis. AI sales forecasting tools, like HubSpot Forecasting Software, address the common issue of inaccurate pipeline forecasts, with 57% of sales reps reporting inaccuracies. These tools enable accurate revenue forecasting and pipeline monitoring. AI lead scoring tools, such as HubSpot’s Predictive Lead Scoring, utilize thousands of data points and custom criteria to identify high-quality leads within pipelines.

Generating Content:

The third prominent use case involves 31% of sales reps using AI tools for generating content, with 86% deeming them highly effective. Generative AI tools like Surfer, QuillBot, ChatGPT and Wordplay, play a pivotal role in writing sales content and crafting prospect outreach messages. This extends to various applications, such as creating messages for prospects, developing sales collateral, repurposing content for diverse audiences and platforms, and refining messages for maximum impact. Noteworthy is the importance of adding a human touch to maintain authenticity despite the effectiveness of these AI tools.

35% use AI for automating manual tasks: Saving an average of 2 hours and 15 minutes per day on tasks like data entry, note-taking, and scheduling.
34% use AI to offer data-driven insights: Including sales forecasting, lead scoring, and pipeline analysis.
31% use AI for generating content: Using generative AI tools for writing sales content, prospect outreach messages, and more.

10 Best AI Sales Tools to Help You Reach Your Goals

HubSpot: Offering AI features like lead scoring, sales forecasting, and a native content assistant.

Rich AI features like lead scoring and sales forecasting.
ChatSpot’s integration with HubSpot streamlines sales processes.
Native content assistant eases content creation.
Ability to automate time-consuming tasks like adding contacts to CRM, transcribing sales calls, and more.

Apollo AI: A sales intelligence platform with a massive database, now equipped with an AI assistant for personalized emails.

Extensive database of 60 million companies and 270 million contacts.
End-to-end sales platforms for B2B companies.
Advanced search and filtering options.
AI-powered writing assistant that helps craft hyper-personalized emails. Apollo AI also helps craft follow-up emails that match the sentiment of past responses.

Drift: An AI-powered conversational platform for personalized customer experiences and real-time site analytics.

AI-powered engagement score, helping sales teams prioritize their efforts and focus on high-potential leads.
Real-time notifications, empowering sales reps to initiate timely and meaningful conversations.
Wide range of integration options.

Gong’s Sales Enablement Software: A revenue intelligence platform providing AI-based insights, automation, and CRM integration.

Flows. Automate your outreach using a predetermined series of actions to engage with prospects at scale.
Dialer. Auto-dial contacts from Gong and get your hands on AI-generated call highlights and outcomes.
Emails. With the help of Gong’s AI and context from customer interactions, sales reps can create and send deal-closing emails.
Account view. Sales teams can view all account information, like AI-recommended contacts, action items, and activity timelines, in one place.
CRM updater. The ability to view and edit CRM fields for open deals instantly without requiring sales reps to bounce between tools.
Recommended actions. Get a list of AI-recommended tasks for moving closing deals.

Hippo Video: An AI-powered platform for creating personalized videos in sales outreach.

In the last few years, the use of videos for sales outreach has spiked, with over 60% of sales professionals using video messaging in their sales process. Hippo Video, an AI-powered platform, helps sales teams create videos at scale with added personalization.

The platform offers a wide range of pre-built templates, allowing the users to stitch personalized intros with pre-recorded videos, and more. You can also build custom flows based on your specific need. You won’t have to start from scratch every time you need a video

Exceed.ai: A sales assistant automating lead engagement, qualification, and meeting scheduling.

Automatically schedules meetings in sales reps’ calendars.
Automatically assigns leads to salespeople.
Integrates smoothly with a website in the form of a chatbot or email.

people.ai: Providing AI-driven insights, analyzing data from sales interactions, and automating tasks like data entry.

Providing AI-driven insights to help sales teams make well-informed decisions and qualify/derisk the pipeline.
Analyzing data from previous sales interactions to identify patterns and automatically predict what deals have the highest probability of closing.
Automating time-consuming tasks like manual data entry in CRM, empowering sales reps to focus on important business activities.
Complete access to account information, helping sales teams get a better view of their history, touchpoints, and more.
AI-driven CRM data entry.
Sales forecasting.
Helps sales reps manage their pipeline.

Dialpad: A cloud-based communication tool using AI for real-time assistance, sentiment analysis, and analytics.

Real-time AI assistance.
Advanced AI coaching, which includes sentiment analysis, QA scorecards, and in-call modes like barge-in, listen-in, and takeover.
Robust analytics to provide deep insights into sales performance.

ChatGPT: OpenAI’s chatbot for tasks like drafting emails, creating sales proposals, and generating content.

Draft emails.
Create sales proposals.
Generate sales scripts.
Create SOPs and sales documentation.
Repurpose messages or emails for different audiences.
Ground-breaking technology — nothing like we’ve ever seen before.
Can be used for a wide range of tasks like creating sales proposals, video scripts, and so much more.

Zoho’s Zia: Zoho CRM’s AI assistant for predicting outcomes, automating tasks, and enriching CRM data.

Real-time detection of anomalies in sales trends and activities.
Note-taking capability.

Recommendations from professionals for Using AI in Sales

Adopt a Centralized Sales Platform: The goal is to avoid a disjointed sales tech stack. Instead of having your sales team juggling tools like ChatGPT, Gong, and HubSpot separately, opt for a centralized platform like Apollo.Io. This streamlines activities such as lead scoring, content creation, and conversation capture, providing a unified hub for efficiency.
Infuse a Human Touch: While AI tools like, Surfer, QuillBot,Gong, and HubSpot’s Content Assistant excel at creating compelling sales content, it’s crucial to inject a human touch. Despite their effectiveness in generating emails, pitches, or proposals, these tools lack the nuanced understanding of human emotions. Customers can discern AI-generated content, so always personalize and add that indispensable human touch.
Cultivate a People-First Culture: The rise of AI has sparked concerns about job displacement. To allay fears among employees, prioritize a people-first culture. Make it clear that AI tools are meant to assist, not replace individuals. Fostering this culture ensures that employees embrace AI, unlocking opportunities for enhanced efficiency and growth.
Invest in Comprehensive Employee Training: Given the widespread availability of AI technology, some sales reps might already be well-versed, while others could be novices. Ensure comprehensive training to bridge this gap. Although platforms like Gong and Apollo facilitate customer onboarding, providing thorough training and support is crucial for widespread adoption across your sales team.
Selective Adoption of AI Tools: While we’ve highlighted the top 10 AI sales tools, it’s paramount to tailor your choices to specific needs. Carefully assess options based on your objectives. If you seek a generative AI tool, consider tools like ChatSpot or Zoho’s Zia for AI sales assistance. Evaluate integration capabilities, user-friendliness, pricing, and security measures implemented by AI tool providers before making your selections.