The Key to Having a Successful Sales Process
One of the greatest business management challenges in the 21st century is figuring out how to keep up with the continuously evolving technologies. Technology is growing at an exponentially fast pace, meaning businesses are needing to radically rethink their business models to adapt as technology continues to drive how businesses function.
How do slow-changing organizations bridge the gap in a rapidly changing technological environment?
The answer is to create and implement digital strategies focused on closing the gap that exists between technology and businesses’ adoption of tools, while also optimizing the marketing and sales processes to accommodate these changes. Businesses who effectively use technology in their sales process have seen 5X’s the growth in comparison to businesses who aren’t using digital tools.
However, it’s not just about adopting technology, it’s about finding the right tools and implementing the right strategies that make a business successful.
What’s the secret to having a successful digital sales process? Human touch. Customers still want a human experience.
Companies that add the human touch to digital sales consistently outperform their peers. They achieve five times more revenue, eight times more operating profit, and, for public companies, twice the return to shareholders.
Technology has greatly impacted the way we connect and communicate with others. The difficult part for many businesses is figuring out how to find the right balance between optimizing digital processes while still bringing in human interactions.
The solution? Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI in sales helps sellers focus on the people who make decisions. Automating processes and forecasting, artificial intelligence is humanizing business.
Businesses are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve their sales teams’ adaptability in today’s continuously changing market. AI helps sales reps achieve their business objectives by providing them with the tools and insights they need to work more efficiently and create better connections with customers.
6 Ways AI Can Streamline the Sales Process
1. Improve customer experience
Use AI tools to collect consumer data based on your prospects’ previous interactions with your business to create a personalized experience that’ll improve the overall quality of leads. Eighty-six percent of businesses have reported that personalization strategies have resulted in improved business performance. Engage with your prospects by scheduling automated, targeted and relevant messages based on the data gathered, including contact and demographic information, topics of interest, webpage visits, email engagements, resource downloads, etc.
AI and automation strategies guarantee there is an ongoing interaction between your business and prospect at all times as prospects move through the buyer’s journey, creating a great human experience for users.
2. Save time
According to Forbes, sales reps only spend 36% of their time actually selling. By using AI to relieve the sales team of repetitive, low-ROI tasks such as scheduling appointments, tracking activities and qualifying leads, the sales team can instead focus on building relationships with high-opportunity prospects and generating more revenue for the business.
AI can also help shorten the sales cycle because sales reps’ first personal interactions are with prospects who are already sales-ready. Using automated messages, prospects are nurtured down the sales funnel and are only connected with a sales rep when they’ve met the necessary qualifications.
3. Sales forecasting
AI can gather historical consumer behavior and real-time data to identify patterns to accurately forecast sales. Using a tool such as lead scoring, businesses can easily rank a prospect’s sales-readiness by assigning points to different business interactions. Based on the lead score range determined for each stage, sales teams can quickly define where a contact falls within the buyer’s journey, and using historical data, can predict how long each prospect will take to move through the funnel.
4. Qualify leads
Use AI tools like chatbots, smart forms and lead scoring to qualify potential opportunities before they ever reach your sales reps. By qualifying leads ahead of time, sales teams can prioritize their time selling to the prospects with a high probability of closing.
5. Find more opportunities
Create more opportunities for your business by increasing the number of ways people can interact with your business and convert. Gather lead information with the use of chatbots, integrated CRM contact forms and dynamic search ads.
6. Optimize the sales process
Consumers today are all about instant solutions. Use AI tools like automated email workflows, dynamic appointment scheduling, and online transaction software to streamline the sales process and generate leads when the contacts are actively engaged.
Work with a Digital Transformation Expert
Because AI is such an integral part of today’s sales model, consider hiring a consultant that has experience successfully executing AI strategies and tools for sales and marketing teams.
Hiring a digital consultant will aid with the digital transformation of your company in the following ways:
- Expert understanding of how AI and other technologies can help better engage and qualify potential opportunities.
- Review the current sales process and provide recommendations on short-term tactics and long-term strategies for transforming the selling model.
- Utilize diverse marketing knowledge from previous experiences to help understand what other businesses are doing to be more efficient and productive.
- Knowledge of a variety of digital tools and processes to accommodate your business’s unique needs.
- Implement strategies to automate and streamline much of the sales process while still creating good human experiences for your users.
- Support and train your team on the tools and processes needed to become efficient and effective.
Takeaway
To be competitive in today’s digital world, AI is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. The biggest takeaway is figuring out how to best utilize AI to streamline the sales process while still providing a good human experience for your contacts.
With something as impactful and essential as AI, consider working with a digital consultant expert to analyze your current business operations to find the right digital tools for your business needs and implement the right strategies to improve business growth.
Contact Maybank Advisors today for a quick consultation to discover how we can leverage AI to streamline your business process and accelerate revenue generation.
