Why You Really Need AI to Sell

Many people talk about Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) today, however few know how to get started using A.I. in a business environment. In the sales world, some even wonder if we really need AI to close deals. I’m here to tell you – yes, absolutely, you need it to sell. A.I .can make salespeople more efficient, make sure they are focused on the right opportunities and minimize time wasters.

In our latest XANT webinar, we discussed how AI can make life easier for sales reps and improve sales revenue and how to successfully implement it in the workplace.

How Big Data Helps You Up Your Sales Game

At XANT, the Artificial Intelligence system we call Neuralytics works with over 110 billion sales interactions from 30 million companies and 12 individualized profiles. InsideSales Labs, the research arm of our company, uses this data to answer the tough questions on sales best practices and maps out a road to success.

This data has allowed us to answer hard sales questions by using science, rather than just gut and intuition.

We can tell you, based on hard data:

• Which accounts and contacts should I focus on, to make sure I have the right targets?
• What are the methods of communication that are more likely to increase response rates?
• When should I contact my leads to make sure they are likely to respond?

Research has shown that within the last five years, quota attainment has dropped, and right now only 53% of salespeople are reaching their targets (CSO Insights data).

We all need to think about what we can do better to improve our sales game – and the answer will always be in the numbers, in the data.

Artificial Intelligence can tap into this data and offer sales reps insights that they wouldn’t naturally get just by using their CRM.

And for millennials, this will be a game-changing tool.

Millennial Sales Reps Are Changing the Workspace

I’m a millennial and I’m proud of it. If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of us out there. According to Nielsen, millennials now make up one fourth of the population. With a total of 77 million, we are starting to take over the workplace. Millennials will make up 35% of the workplace by 2020 and we are here to stay. Now, I’ll be the first one to admit that we bring some good and we bring some bad qualities.

One thing for sure is that millennials don’t put up with crap.

Some people think that may mean that we are lazy. I don’t think we’re lazy.

I think we are sick and tired of being able to be very efficient at home, while in the workplace we make little or no progress.

Millennials live and breathe technology, we use it every day starting the early morning and right until we go to bed. Artificial Intelligence is part of our lives every single day, here’s just a few examples:

• We use AI-powered navigation as Google Maps and Waze to get around
• Amazon has AI-powered recommendations for shopping carts
• Netflix shows lists are based on an AI-powered recommendations engine

Artificial Intelligence for Sales Teams

We can go on and on about all the applications that are helping us automate mundane tasks in our personal life. When we get to our professional lives, we are just not 100% there. XANT research shows that while 55 percent of consumers have used AI outside of work, at the office only 35 percent of consumers have had experience using Artificial Intelligence.

The millennial sales reps uses all of these applications every day, and he wonders why it can’t be the same in the workplace.

“Do I really have to guess which accounts and contacts I should focus on? Why can’t the system recommend them to me?“

“Why do I have to guess which method people are likely to respond to? Can’t the system send an email that’s most likely to get opened or recommend which communication method?”

“Why are one-on-one meetings with managers so subjective? Are we really hiring based on all this joke of an evaluation?”

“And then there’s the CRM, when is it going to empower me instead of me always empowering it?”

Life is so efficient for millennials as consumers, but when they get to work they are no longer efficient.

Again, we ask – why can’t AI help me at work like it does at home?

Do You Really Need AI to Sell? Yes, Really. Right Now.

Artificial Intelligence can improve contact rates and ultimately sales revenue significantly, if it is implemented in parallel with a sales transformation process. Millenials are not stupid, and if a system is not efficient then it will not be adopted.

Watch the full XANT webinar, where we dive in to the AI subject and discuss:

• How to successfully implement AI in your sales organization
• Why big data is key to Artificial Intelligence predictions accuracy
• How one CenturyLink increased contact rates 1.8X times using AI