Over the past decade, the development of Artificial Intelligence has accelerated rapidly, and this has resulted in the emergence of a plethora of business applications that leverage the power of automation to improve internal processes. Sales is a key area of innovation, with an increasing number of enterprises leveraging cutting-edge AI tools to increase the velocity of their sales pipelines and boost profitability.

In this article, we'll discuss some ground-breaking technologies that are changing sales, explore the benefits they bring, and provide some insight into how you can go about utilizing them effectively at your enterprise.

Empowering Sales with AI

There is a wide variety of AI sales applications available nowadays, but we will focus primarily on three key technologies: engagement platforms, CPQ tools, and sales enablement software:

●       Building Foundations with Engagement Platforms

A key challenge of running a thriving enterprise is managing customer journeys effectively. While you may be able to be very hands-on in the initial stages of your business's development, this becomes increasingly difficult as you scale your operations. This can be extremely detrimental to your business, as failure to properly identify and nurture prospects comes with a considerable opportunity cost. The answer here is to leverage AI, of course, and more specifically, engagement platforms such as that of Cliently.

Engagement platforms utilize AI to automate a wide variety of processes to help optimize prospecting. By providing real-time engagement monitoring and the ability to create custom filters, for instance, these platforms can enable sales teams to rapidly identify, analyze, and qualify leads that warrant their close attention. This expedites the prospecting process so that sales teams can avoid wasting time chasing lost causes and focus on making more conversions.

In addition, engagement platforms can empower more effective and efficient outreach. For example, engagement platforms allow sales and marketing teams to sync contacts from their CRMs and create automated workflows. This means that laborious, time-consuming tasks like email content send-outs can be set up to trigger automatically in response to specific behaviors. Moreover, these workflows allow for personalization, meaning that not only do they free up valuable time for reps to focus on other tasks, but they also enable your enterprise to respond more dynamically to the needs and preferences of its prospects, driving greater engagement.

By optimizing the effectiveness of outreach efforts and giving sales teams the freedom to focus on strategic initiatives, engagement platforms can play a major role in both customer engagement and sales productivity. As such, leveraging this technology can help you to boost conversion rates and consistently build on your existing revenue base.

●       Streamlining Cycles with CPQ Tools

In most cases, the company that is first to provide an accurate quote is the one that wins a potential client's business. That means that success often depends on the ability of your sales teams to configure products and produce accurate quotes in a timely fashion. However, this is something that can be particularly challenging when dealing with high volumes of complex products, such as in the B2B sphere. Once again, there is a clear opportunity cost here, so it stands to reason that you should seek to streamline the quoting process as you endeavor to increase your pipeline velocity. This is where CPQ software can be a major asset to your business.

CPQ, or Configure Price Quote, applications are designed specifically to help sales teams generate accurate quotes more quickly. An integrated quote tool will typically display product information through an interactive graphical interface, allowing representatives to configure complex products in a much faster and more intuitive manner.

CPQ can also enable sales teams to create convenient templates to save time on frequently ordered product configurations and automate approvals workflows to drastically reduce the time required for administrative processes. Additionally, as CRM integrations, CPQ tools can leverage the data of your company's existing Customer Relationship Management system, ensuring access the up-to-date information on products and customer interactions.

As it enables sales teams to produce more accurate quotes in less time, CPQ software can play a major role in converting prospects into customers. Moreover, by leveraging the data of CRM systems and streamlining approvals, the software can enable reps to create custom quotes that include discounts and offers based on customer history. This results in greater customer engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately retention. In this way, CPQ can help your business consolidate recurring revenue while also shortening sales cycles to ramp up pipeline velocity.

●       Driving Performance with Sales Enablement Software

To maximize your enterprise's sales potential at the macro level, you must take a holistic approach that aims to enhance the global output of your entire sales department. That means getting the most out of every member of your sales team, chiefly by ensuring that each individual is proficient in utilizing the various resources at their disposal. This is exactly what sales enablement solutions have been developed for.

Sales enablement refers to the provision of all resources sales teams need to sell better and more efficiently, technological and otherwise, and sales enablement platforms exist to aid businesses in this endeavor in a variety of critical ways. By leveraging AI and machine learning technology, sales enablement platforms are capable of providing employees with bespoke training experiences, analyzing historical data to provide feedback on performance and key areas to target for improvement.

Using AI algorithms, sales enablement platforms can also analyze data on customer behavior and purchasing patterns for trends and leverage predictive analytics to offer content recommendations for building engagement. This provides both sales and marketing teams with data-driven insights that will inform their initiatives, allowing them to engage in more efficient targeted outreach and selling.

By fostering continuous improvement and providing actionable insights on the sales process, sales enablement software can empower your sales teams to sell smarter and more efficiently. As such, they can become simultaneously more productive and effective, generating significantly more conversions in proportion to leads, and this increase in output will naturally translate to greater velocity in your sales pipeline.

Overcoming Obstacles to Succeed with AI Sales Tech

While AI-powered technologies certainly offer immense potential in sales, there are some key challenges you will need to overcome in order to implement them effectively. So, what are they, and how can you tackle them? Let's discuss.

●       Integration

The inherently data-dependent nature of Artificial Intelligence means that any new AI-powered tools will need to be integrated with your existing systems, such as your CRM, if they are to operate as intended. However, legacy systems may not always align with new tools, which can disrupt data flow and lead to subpar performance.

In such cases, investing in APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) is key, as they help to facilitate the interaction between your existing systems and your news tools. This will help to regulate data flow and maintain functionality to ensure seamless integration.

●       Data Compliance

When seeking to implement new AI solutions, data privacy and security should be your priority. While AI tools have the power to process immense quantities of data, allowing AI to access sensitive customer data can put your business at risk of violating data protection regulations. As such, the onus is on you to ensure that AI tools handle data securely.

The key to ensuring regulation-compliant AI use is to establish comprehensive data governance policies. Implementing detailed, strict standards on how data is collected and utilized will help to regulate the use of AI tools. Moreover, data governance policies should be coupled with a clear framework for auditing to ensure that AI technologies are routinely assessed for vulnerabilities or biases.

●       Change Resistance

As you strive to evolve your business, you are likely to encounter some degree of change resistance from your workforce. This is to be expected, especially in digital transformations involving AI, where the vision for new technologies is not always immediately evident to employees. By approaching the implantation of AI tools in a thoughtful manner, however, it is possible to overcome this issue.

Change resistance is a natural response to what is not understood, so education and communication are key. Before implementing AI tools, relevant sales staff should be primed by management so that they fully understand the role of the new technologies and how those technologies will into their daily responsibilities. Additionally, you can combat change resistance by providing informational resources and establishing dedicated communication channels for employees to ask questions and discuss potential misgivings about the implementation of new AI solutions.

The Upshot

All told, it's nigh impossible to overstate the transformative power of AI in sales. Engagement platforms, CPQ, and sales enablement software can each contribute immensely to the productivity, skills, and success of your sales teams, enabling them to accelerate your enterprise's sales pipeline like never before. Though there are some key challenges to consider before attempting to implement AI-powered sales tools at your business, they can be surmounted by prioritizing seamless integration, data governance, and employee support.

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