Is it time your sales team took advantage of AI?
In the midst of the artificial intelligence (AI) hype and doomsday predictions, it's important to recognise that AI has actually been working its way into our everyday lives for quite some time already. McKinsey has been tracking AI adoption for the past five years and has seen its uptake double since 2017, with those companies investing heavily in AI seeing themselves nudge ahead of their competitors. In the US, a remarkable 30-37% of marketing, advertising, consulting, and technology businesses have already embraced AI (Statista, 2023).
Worldwide, a majority of enterprises now use artificial intelligence to drive process and cost efficiencies, and to support strategy and change. One thing these progressive companies using AI usually have in common is they have a history of using data analytics in a smart and effective manner to gain efficiencies and competitive advantage. They have fostered a data-driven culture, built architectures around data capture and storage, and have developed expertise to extract and leverage this data to their advantage. More recently, by extending their capabilities using generative AI, these companies can supercharge their existing data analytics foundation and continue to compete and innovate more successfully in their industries. For those companies not currently adopting AI, the transition requires a substantial change in their operating models beyond simple transactional data capture, to gathering vast amounts of information in order to leverage insights effectively. And here lies the problem for many New Zealand businesses who simply don’t have the expertise, resources or finances to plan and implement such capability. The consequence is an ever-widening disparity between the innovators and the laggards.
Unlocking the Power of AI in Sales
While the prospect of integrating AI into your business overall may seem daunting, starting off in the sales team might be a good place to begin as it can deliver tangible value by enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, and deal closure rates. Let's explore the benefits AI can provide to sales teams:
- Sales Forecasting and Demand Planning: By harnessing AI-powered algorithms, businesses can analyse historical sales data, trends, and relevant factors to generate accurate sales forecasts. This empowers businesses to plan stock, production, and resource allocation more effectively, reducing costs and minimising stock shortages.
- Lead Generation and Qualification: AI-powered algorithms can analyse vast amounts of customer data, website interactions, and historical sales patterns to identify and prioritise high-potential leads. This streamlines the lead generation process, improves lead quality, and enables sales teams to focus their efforts on leads with a higher likelihood of conversion, resulting in increased sales efficiency and higher return on investment (ROI).
- Sales Process Optimisation: Through the analysis of sales data and customer interactions, AI can identify patterns and insights that optimise the sales process. By automating routine tasks, providing real-time recommendations, and guiding sales representatives through the sales cycle, AI boosts sales productivity, shortens the sales cycle, and improves conversion rates, ultimately leading to higher sales volumes and improved outcomes.
- Sales Performance Monitoring and Coaching: AI provides real-time insights into sales performance metrics, such as activity levels, conversion rates, and deal progression. This empowers sales managers to identify top performers, coach underperforming team members, and optimise sales strategies based on data-driven insights. By improving sales team performance, businesses can deliver better results.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Enhancement: Data analytics and AI integrations with CRM systems offer sales teams valuable insights and predictive outcomes. This comprehensive view of customers enables sales representatives to understand customer preferences, anticipate their needs, and deliver personalised experiences, fostering stronger customer relationships.
By starting the AI journey with the sales team, businesses can experience tangible benefits and showcase the value of data analytics and AI to other departments in their companies. This approach lays the foundation for a data-driven decision-making culture that can be extended to areas such as marketing, operations, and finance.
Preparing for AI Integration in Sales
If you’re ready to explore AI further within your sales team, here are five key steps to prepare for a successful integration:
- Create a Comprehensive Plan: Seek advice at the outset to craft an architectural roadmap for AI that aligns with your strategic objectives, both within sales and across the organisation. The AI roadmap should break down the implementation process into manageable phases or milestones, ensuring interoperability with existing systems. Making early technology choices without considering the big picture may lead to dead ends. By having an overall plan, businesses can prioritise and tackle one step at a time, reducing the complexity and risks associated with large-scale AI adoption. Additionally, a well-defined plan aids in forecasting costs and determining budgets, providing a clear path for successful implementations.
- Identify Sales Processes for AI Integration: To harness the power of AI, businesses must first assess their sales processes and identify areas where AI can have the most significant impact. Look for tasks that are repetitive, create sales friction, are data-driven, or time-consuming. These tasks can be automated or optimised using AI technologies. Lead generation, customer segmentation, sales forecasting, and personalised recommendations are examples of areas that can benefit greatly from AI integrations.
- Capture Data: Clean, accurate, and comprehensive data is essential for effective AI implementation. Ensure that your sales team is equipped with tools and processes that require them to capture and store data in a structured format. Every activity, call, interaction, opportunity, sales information, and customer record should be stored as data, since AI relies heavily on this to provide powerful analytics and insights.
- Take Small Steps: Transitioning into AI can be overwhelming so it's advisable to break the plan down into manageable components to test, learn, and apply. Start by evaluating your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and ensure that it can support your sales processes whilst having the capability to take advantage of native or third-party AI integrations. Seek independent and unbiased advice on the best CRM and apps that align with your current and future needs. Remember that not all CRMs are created equal, and some lure in customers with free or low-cost versions but sharply increase prices when specific features are needed later on.
- Ensure Return on Investment (ROI): Technology costs can quickly spiral out of control with the multitude of cloud-based products, integrations, and enhanced service offerings available. Assess how new AI features or functions will deliver tangible improvements, and be clear on what is truly valuable and what is merely a nice-to-have. Quantify the benefits in dollars, track the anticipated returns diligently, and hold yourself accountable for delivering to them.
In today's rapidly changing business landscape, companies must embrace AI and leverage its potential to drive organisational growth and efficiencies. Those yet to treat the collection of business data as essential should consider the benefits derived from it's use. By following a strategic approach that includes identifying sales processes for AI integration, capturing clean and comprehensive data, taking small steps, ensuring ROI, and creating a comprehensive plan, businesses can successfully navigate the AI landscape. The time to leverage AI in your business is now, as it offers immense potential and is fast becoming a necessity to compete in the market.
5 Essential Steps for Sales Leaders to Adopt AI



