Sales and Fulfillment
The impact of artificial intelligence on contemporary sales solutions
As technology advances and customer expectations evolve, the landscape of sales management is also constantly evolving. As companies have embraced digital transformation, sales technologies have also changed significantly. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most valuable sales management tools for modern businesses, with the global AI software market set to reach $1,094.52 billion by 2032.
Global sales leaders believe leveraging AI in sales is the solution to overcoming inefficiencies in manual sales management. But how can they achieve this? Let us explore.
The need for AI in sales
AI in sales refers to using different AI solutions to simplify and optimise various facets of the sales process. This helps sales teams leverage data-driven insights, understand and respond to customer demands, and sell more efficiently.
Currently, most sales teams spend only 33% of their time interacting with customers and actively selling the company product. Administrative tasks, meetings, or looking through customer data can distract them from prospective customers, hampering overall sales performance.
Using AI in sales offers the opportunity to overcome this challenge, automating certain tasks and decision-making functions, using predictive analytics to guide sales strategies, and mimicking human interactions across different channels. As a result, the sales team can get real-time data insights, quickly adapt to changing customer needs, and personalise offerings, making AI tools an integral part of contemporary sales solutions necessary to succeed.
Benefits of leveraging AI in sales
AI and machine learning in sales have proven valuable assets in the efforts to automate sales processes and improve sales management efficiency. 63% of sales leaders today believe AI can help them stay competitive, and 69% are planning to invest more in AI-based technology and sales process management solutions.
The major benefits of AI in sales that are driving this trend include:
Enhanced efficiency
Data-driven sales automation is one of the most significant advantages of using AI in sales. AI-driven solutions can not only automate repetitive manual tasks—freeing up the sales team to actively engage with customers—but also ensure scalable and flexible sales operations. This also facilitates resource (time, personnel, and operational costs) optimisation across different facets of the sales process, improving productivity and efficiency.
Enhanced sales planning and prediction
Incorporating machine learning and predictive analytics in sales can inform sales decisions with data-driven insights. Moving away from the forecast based solely on historical data, using AI in sales can help sales teams access real-time data insights, resulting in enhanced sales planning and predictions and a sustainable competitive edge.
Increased job satisfaction
Taking the burden of administrative tasks away and allowing your team to actively focus on their core expertise and interact with customers can positively impact the sales team’s morale. This can result in enhanced performance and increased job satisfaction.
Enriched customer engagement
Engagement across every stage of the customer journey is an integral part of sales management. AI-powered sales tools can revolutionise the way businesses interact with customers. From humanised conversations with chatbots to personalised sales pitches and follow-up emails, AI can enrich customer engagement at every stage. Natural language processing capabilities of AI-powered tools can help you redefine sales conversations by understanding customer needs and generating human-like accurate responses.
Effective ways of using AI in sales
Although sales leaders are increasingly focusing on AI and machine learning in sales, 45% of sales professionals report that the number of tools available in the tech stack often overwhelms them. Although there are many ways to leverage AI in sales, here are some simple and effective ways to use AI to improve your sales management:
- Automate day-to-day administrative tasks and optimise sales enablement.
- Use generative AI tools to craft compelling emails and proposals faster.
- Use AI-powered tools to understand industry trends and identify potential pain points that can affect your sales strategy.
- Navigate complex conversations at the initial stages of the customer buying journey using AI-powered chatbots.
- Analyse individual employee performance and craft personalised sales training for them.
- Analyse data from different sources (historical data, customer behaviour, market trends, and more) to enhance sales forecasting and revenue prediction accuracy.
How can Infosys BPM help leverage AI in sales management?
AI-powered sales process management solutions have played a key role in transforming how businesses approach sales management, helping them leverage the prowess of data and redefine sales conversations. Infosys BPM sales process management solutions offer a diverse technology landscape, spanning the entire order-to-cash cycle. We offer solutions encompassing master data management, customer invoicing and billing, order receipt and entry, order administration and fulfilment, and order analytics. Serving a range of industries, we can help you leverage AI in sales management to standardise processes, enhance scalability, offer uniform customer experience, and ensure enhanced governance for enhanced sales efficiency.
