AI has taken the world by storm, and especially since the launch of ChatGPT just over a year ago, it has significantly changed the way we work – and sales teams are no exception.
But don’t worry, the rise of AI in B2B sales will not replace you.
For success, all B2B sales cycles will always need human interaction and guidance throughout the funnel. AI can simply empower you with extra help to reach your sales quota. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of B2B sales organizations will incorporate AI within their traditional sales solutions. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that businesses are viewing AI tools as a must-have tool to impact their bottom line.
Given that AI is on the rise and here to stay, we’ve rounded up the top five ways you can leverage AI to hit your sales targets.
Jump ahead:
Why Use AI in B2B Sales?
The sales journey from initial lead identification to a successful sale involves plenty of time-consuming tasks. From lead generation, administrative duties, crafting outreach messages, and scheduling demos, sales teams’ attention is pulled in different directions, consuming their valuable time that could be dedicated to sales demos and finalizing deals.
Statistics show that a whopping 97% of sales leaders and sales operations professionals say AI gives reps more time to sell. By leveraging AI, you can streamline these tasks at a faster rate, dedicate more of your valuable time to selling, and hit your sales targets.
5 Ways to Use AI in B2B Sales
From ChatGPT to sales tools that integrate AI into their software, there are many different ways you can use AI in B2B sales. Here are our top picks:
Generating content
Yes, you guessed it. The most straightforward way you can use AI to meet your sales quota is to create valuable content – quickly and at scale. With so many aspects of the sales process to focus on, AI can significantly speed up the writing process to help you focus your efforts elsewhere.
According to a study by Gartner, 41% of SDRs cited “messaging” as their biggest challenge. Whether it involves crafting personalized outreach messages, writing email cadences for effective prospect nurturing, or composing engaging social media posts for an impactful social selling strategy, AI emerges as a powerful tool that can significantly reduce the time traditionally spent on content creation.
All you need to do is input the information AI needs to create the content (such as the topic, asset type, and target audience), and AI can handle the rest – a dream.
By leveraging AI, you’ll be able to create content at a higher volume while saving time, helping you reach a wider audience on social and nurture more prospects to meet your sales targets.
A piece of advice we highly recommend you take on board: don’t let AI take over your human voice. Once AI has crafted the content for you, make sure to read through it to make sure it’s personalized, compelling, and sounds like your voice.
Sales prospecting
Sales prospecting takes a lot of time, and when the prospects you find don’t yield the results you’re wishing for, it can feel like getting close to hitting your sales quota is slipping away.
But with AI-driven tools, the excitement of finding a prospect that ticks every box of your ICP can come around more often. Sales prospecting tools, like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, are integrating AI into their platforms to help you find more leads and gather key information about target accounts easily.
With AI, you can streamline the sales prospecting process, uncover more quality leads faster, and focus on what matters most: building relationships with your prospects and closing more deals.
Lead scoring
Once you’ve found leads that fit your ICP, the next stage is scoring your leads to determine which leads are most likely to convert. However, this can also be a time-consuming process.
An AI-powered lead-scoring software system (including Akkio and Pecan.ai) can help you accurately identify high-scoring leads quickly, and also reduce the chance of human error in missing out on certain criteria.
AI lead scoring uses advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to predict the likelihood of a lead or prospect converting into a customer. Rather than scoring your leads manually, AI lead scoring efficiently automates the process and eliminates human bias.
Depending on your company size, some sales teams might have hundreds of leads to score at once, taking up valuable time. By automating the process, AI can analyze high volumes of data to enhance your lead-scoring efforts, helping you to easily and accurately identify which leads have a higher likelihood of converting into a customer.
This helps you focus your time and efforts on the right people, aiding you in reaching your sales targets.
AI notetakers
Between multiple sales demos each week, sales prospecting, and writing follow-ups, it becomes increasingly challenging to remember the conversations you have with your leads. Recording and taking notes during sales demos are quick fixes, but even then, time constraints prevent you from finding a spare hour to rewatch sales calls, and typing during a sales demo disrupts the flow of conversation.
Sales software with incorporated AI capabilities (such as Clari or Novacy) can record your calls, write a transcript of the conversation, create a summary, identify deal risks, and list the follow-up action items discussed on the call for you to take.
By automating this process, you can ensure your attention is focused on your prospects during demos to address their challenges and present your product as their solution.
As well as this, the recorded calls and transcriptions can be used for training purposes. Sales managers can analyze successful calls to identify best practices and use the calls that fell short as learning opportunities. This feedback loop helps the ongoing development of the sales team, helping each member reach their sales targets.
Chatbots and virtual assistants
Having a chatbot powered by AI on your company website can help you engage with more leads at a time, even after you finish for the day.
For example, a virtual assistant can answer basic questions your leads may have and schedule demos with your team, freeing up your time to focus on the demos itself.
This way, a virtual assistant can boost your lead generation efforts, provide constant communication with leads around the clock, and empower your team to focus on the sales cycle by automating tasks and answering common questions for your leads.
Maximize Your Sales Efforts with AI to Hit Your Targets
AI is revolutionizing the game for B2B sales, and if you want to keep up with your competitors, it’s time to start incorporating it into your sales strategy.
The capabilities of AI are endless and its impact will only continue to grow. From creating content to sourcing leads and engaging with leads for you, AI works with you to automate administrative tasks and speed up necessary processes to help you close more deals.
If you’re interested in learning how you can craft content for your social selling strategy with integrated AI tools in Oktopost’s advocacy platform, contact us today.
