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Gartner Predicts B2B Sales Will See Widespread Adoption of AI
The sales process has many moving parts, and failed sales initiatives often happen because one part of the process was neglected. Whether it’s follow-up with the customer, prompt response to a customer’s initial outreach, wrong information being provided to the customer or something else, there are many ways sales can go wrong, often due to human error. Increasingly, sales organizations are taking steps to make sure some non-human intelligence catches the errors before they can result in a lost sale.
A new report by Gartner is predicting by 2025, 75 percent of business-to-business sales organizations will augment their efforts with selling guided by artificial intelligence (AI). Despite current low adoption rates, increasing pressure created by massive amounts of data available to sales organizations and revitalized budgets is driving many sales leaders to invest in AI and machine learning technology to analyze data and recommend next best actions.
“Advancements in sales technology, particularly in the areas of AI and ML, are forcing sales enablement leaders to rethink seller skills they will need to teach and enable,” said Steve Rietberg, senior director analyst in the Gartner Sales practice. “Sellers can no longer exclusively rely on intuition-based selling to push a deal over the finish line. Tomorrow’s sellers must learn to use data today to effectively manage their sales cycles as the use of information will become more critical to their success over time.”
AI, of course, can never replace human sales teams. The personal touch, as well as human intelligence, are too central to the most complex aspects of the process. But AI can act as a virtual assistant to maintain workflow, set reminders and carry out the most basic tasks in the process. AI can also provide significant help when it comes to sales training.
Gartner research shows sales training will become more than just teaching seller skills, evolving to include more critical thinking skills, specifically in the area of data literacy. This will require the development of new sales playbooks that clearly define how to use AI/ML sales tools in daily sales activities.
“AI guided selling also enables the multithreaded customer buying experience. In fact, progressive sales organizations are already using AI to determine what content resonates with buyers and then recommend tools and content to share with the buyer at the moment,” said Elizabeth Beard, director analyst in the Gartner Sales practice. “This helps to connect buyers with information to better answer their questions – filtering out the noise – and provides a better customer experience.”
Edited by Luke Bellos