BY Jessica Helinski
Is AI in B2B sales becoming the new normal? SalesFuel’s Voice of the Sales Rep study found that AI is primarily used by sellers for customer and business intelligence (cited by 31%). Additionally, 28% use it to assist with conversation intelligence. A quarter also say that they use it to help prepare for presentations and proposals.
Are you using AI in B2B sales?
It’s clear that many sellers have embraced AI to help in their roles. But if you’ve been hesitant, now is the time to get started.
“AI is not a wait-and-see technology,” writes Kayleigh Moore.
“You’ll get no advantage in waiting to see how it ‘shakes out, or whether the ‘AI bubble’ pops.”
As she explains, waiting can lead to these consequences:
- You delay learning how AI can benefit your team.
- You miss discovering which AI tools best fit your organization.
- You let competitors gain the advantage of compounding knowledge while you fall behind.
Plus, you’re missing a big opportunity to optimize your process, as well as improve how you connect with both prospects and clients.
As SalesFuel CEO C. Lee Smith points out, one of the biggest advantages of using AI is the power to save time.
“Team members can learn to use tools to automate certain parts of their job,” he writes.
For example, AI tools can vastly improve the writing quality in sales emails. This aspect of technology saves time. And that extra time can be directed toward interacting with prospects and accounts and strengthening personal relationships.”
How to get started with AI
When approaching integrating AI into B2B sales, don’t think of it as a race. You don’t have to do all of the things all at once. And you don’t need to wait for perfect conditions. Begin small and build gradually. First, focus on low-risk integrations.
Automation
You can use AI to summarize calls by feeding the recording or transcript into the tool. The AI tool can extract key points, decisions and action items, then generate a clear, organized list that you can then act on. This makes it easy to review meetings quickly and ensures that important follow-ups are not missed.
Enhancing communication
For example, as Moore explains, you can let AI draft the initial version of a follow-up email or a blog post and review it before sending or publishing. AI adds value by saving time, sparking new ideas and providing options you might not have considered on your own.
Once the variations are ready, test them manually using A/B testing to see which performs best.
Tasking AI with just these two basic functions is an easy way to familiarize yourself with these tools, as well as see what works best for your own needs.
“Empowering not replacing”
When using AI in B2B sales, it’s important to keep in mind that, as Jacqueline Dooley notes, the point is to empower instead of replace. You should view these tools as a way to enhance your process rather than fully replace your own involvement.
“Combining human expertise with AI can lead to transformation rather than replacement,” she adds.
And as always, follow these best practices to ensure that you are working with AI in a responsible way.
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