How to sell more effectively with AI

Where do I begin?

Start by using AI functionalities that are already integrated into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. 

“When we talk about AI and sales, we’re talking about CRM or ERP from the outset. These usually contain useful information about your customers and their journey through each stage of the sales funnel,” says Dorianne Deshaies.

There are two conditions:

• Volume is needed for machine learning to perform this analysis
• Information on current and prospective clients must be properly updated in order to obtain reliable analyses.

If your business needs are sporadic and you don’t need to do a lot of analysis, it’s usually more beneficial to use your current CRM and pay for access to its AI functionality.

“If you want to make more accurate forecasts, extrapolate or anticipate trends, you have to retrieve source data and apply other AI or machine learning models over it,” explains Deshaies.

4 practical ways to use AI in sales

1. Improve your sales forecasts

By analyzing past sales data as well as external trends, such as changes in purchasing behaviour or macroeconomic indicators, AI predictive models can estimate demand and future sales.

For example, if you find that a certain customer base is more likely to buy certain products, and that some members of your team are more efficient at selling them, you can restructure your team accordingly. “AI enables you to better calibrate your efforts and qualify future customers. It helps not to sell in uncharted territory,” says Deshaies.

2. Generate quality prospects

By analyzing large external data sources (websites, social media, participation lists at fairs and conferences), AI tools identify potential prospects, create complete profiles and qualify them based on their purchase intentions and conversion potential.

This information helps you customize your prospecting messages and create relevant and effective lead maturation campaigns that maximize your conversion chances.

3. Personalize the purchasing experience

Generative AI can also help optimize your sales tools, relieve your teams and improve their performance.

• Standardize sales presentations and service offerings
  By setting up a query that is standardized and directly integrated into your IT tools, all your teams can use the same sales or service presentation template.
  “This is a must for any business, regardless of size. If every member of your sales team works in their own way, your approach and brand will be inconsistent,” adds Deshaies.

• Centralize information from the field
  At trade shows and events, your sales team collects information such as business cards, notebooks, phone texts, emails, photos, etc.
  “At the end of the day, everything is scattered. You don’t know how many customers or prospects you have, which ones are really interesting, or where to find them. Consolidation becomes painful and you lose value,” says Dorianne Deshaies.
  Properly configured AI tools can allow you to automatically centralize everything in your CRM. Your sales teams will save time and simply need to validate the information.

• Respond to tenders
  AI can help consolidate all the documents needed for tenders, help answer questions (clauses, risks, requirements), and quickly structure strategic analyses to maximize your chances of success. But make sure the processes are in place to check the answers for quality and accuracy.

• Summarize client meetings
  While each salesperson has their own way of approaching prospects, the whole team is looking to get the same information. The outcome? Inconsistent reporting that makes internal teams have to work harder and makes follow-ups more difficult.
  With meeting recordings, AI can generate structured summaries in the same format, ready for sharing.

• Consolidate business intelligence
  AI tools connected to your CRM can help you prepare for conferences or trade shows by checking attendee lists. You can identify contacts that you already know, and plan who you want to meet, which conferences to target, which relationships to relaunch, etc.
  “That’s the kind of analysis you don’t usually do because of time,” says Deshaies. “AI makes the trade show you paid for a lot more profitable. You can show up with a clear strategy and a list of the right people to meet.”

Avoid these common errors in using AI for sales

Skipping or accelerating the exploration phase

Before deploying an AI tool, make sure it’s a solution you really need and that time and efficiency are worth the cost.

Spreading out and investing in too many solutions

Too many tools create a mental load and can stress your team. “AI must not become a “free-for-all.”  The cost may still seem intangible, but the bill is coming,” says Deshaies.

She gives the example of a video generation tool, where a $500 credit can be used up in four minutes. 

Moving forward without validating results

Don’t accept the results without checking them first. It’s important to measure the impact of AI and ensure that the benefits are real. 

Fully relying on AI and eliminating human validation

AI can speed up, simplify and standardize, but it should not replace the personal touch of your sales teams. “Always check the information and the work done with AI. Don’t let AI completely dilute your company’s personality. People are starting to be turned off by 100% AI approaches,” says Deshaies. “Continue to build authentic relationships with your customers. Your teams will always make a difference.”

Next step

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