AI’s Impact on Sales and Tips for Success

In this article by Patrick Dougherty, Product Marketing Manager at Vendavo, discover the game-changing potential of AI in sales. From boosting productivity and improving win rates to enhancing personalization, explore the expert tips and strategies that will empower your sales team for success.

In 2022, Gartner forecast generative AI as one of seven technology disruptions impacting the sales function through 2027. Less than a year later, the generative AI application, ChatGPT exploded onto the scene and surpassed 1.6 billion global visitors in March. 

In the 2023 Accenture Tech Vision study, researchers point out AI is reinventing work and every role has the potential for disruption. This is particularly true for sales teams. The possibilities for AI to increase sales casts a wide net and it continues to grow as more use cases are defined and refined. But the best possible outcomes come at the intersection of AI and human collaboration. To sell and price products effectively and best serve customers, a hybrid approach is needed. 

AI, the Sales Team Co-Pilot 

As machines become capable of performing work previously done by humans, some worry AI will lead to job displacement. Instead, AI can automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks like data gathering and analysis to support timelier, data-driven, human decision-making. Sales teams and their organizations benefit most from intelligent teamwork with AI. Some of the most compelling areas include:  

1. Sales productivity – Generative AI has the ability to tailor digital interactions to how the user wants it to go, points out Harvard Business Review. This can also apply to sales teams. With its ability to generate code and analyze large datasets, AI can bring disparate information sources together and quickly facilitate a short cut to a prompt like ‘who are the contacts I have not called in 90 days?’ for example. Or ‘when is the next time I have a client meeting in New York?’ No longer does the salesperson have to go to multiple applications and navigate drop down menus. These are great examples of AI and sales teaming up for time-saving efficiency boosts.  

2. Sales Negotiations – AI can support more productive sales negotiations with timely price and profitability guidance. Here, sales will find success using the hybrid approach with AI because individual salespeople are often more effective when they understand what’s driving the price suggestions and can add their own wealth of experience and nuance on a case-by-case basis. 

3. Improve win rates – AI can help sales teams improve win rates by offering customer-centric cross sell, up sell suggestions. It quickly combs through transaction data to find what similar customers are buying, raises recommendations, and directly adds them into the sales quote tool. Inclusion in the customer quote is decided on by the salesperson. For more, see Vendavo Sales Optimizer.  

4. Personalization – AI is a crucial element in the delivery of the personalized, finely tuned experiences customers expect today. Pulling together data from past transactions and events and profiles from other similar customers, sales can offer up engaging, ongoing campaigns. 

AI Resources and Further Reading

The ways in which AI has the power to drive improved sales and bigger bottom lines seem to multiply with each passing day. Check out additional interesting use cases in Forbes Magazine: 10 ways AI is revolutionizing sales.