In a guest appearance on Donald C. Kelly’s podcast “The Sales Evangelist”, Absolutdata CEO Anil Kaul discussed “Using AI to Close Sales Deals Faster”. During the podcast, Anil explored current sales practices and talked about how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance sales teams.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence have enabled businesses to circumvent slow conversion and identify the most effective data to give to sales teams. This sets sales reps up for faster lead conversion and greater efficiency.

Below are the key takeaways from the interview, with links to each Q&A podcast segment for your listening pleasure:

  • Why do you feel companies have such a hard time converting leads?
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When salespeople don’t have clear objectives, it’s difficult to convert leads. The lack of clear sales objectives often signifies that reps don’t have enough relevant data. By providing the right information to the right person — customer or salesperson — the entire process moves forward much more smoothly.

However, bombarding prospects with information can disrupt the sales flow. Companies need to have a strategic approach to what they share with leads and how.

  • How does the AI-enabled sales leader make sure that all the sales issues are addressed?
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Sales leaders need to enable sales automation and lead scoring for the team resulting in prioritized prospects. They must provide the team with effective data science tools. Also, sales leaders can never ignore the human side, the “art of sales”. The sales leaders still need to spend time coaching and training their team members. They should never lose sight of the fact that Sales is not about selling, but about helping.

  • What are some of the ways sales teams can take advantage of AI?
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AI can process huge amounts and all kinds of data. It can drastically reduce the time sales team spend deciding what details are important. Right now, most salespeople are forced to sift through a lot of information. When they use only what is relevant to them, it can make quite a difference.

  • How can you utilize AI to address sales issues today?
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Companies need to change their mindset about sales information. They need to stop leaving the entire burden on sales reps and start using AI at an organizational level. There needs to be a partnership between sales and organizational leadership around integrating AI into the sales approach. This will lead to better outcomes and more effectiveness. AI will be guiding actions, prioritizing leads, managing campaigns, and helping create a weekly action plan for each rep.

  • How can business see immediate impact from AI?
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Absolutdata’s AI-enhanced sales tool focuses on the salesperson. It looks at what they need to do and what insights can be discovered from the data they have. It gives them the information required to prioritize their reach-outs and plan successful actions, including who to contact, what to talk about, and why a customer might be interested in a recommended product.

  • How does the AI tool work?
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At the heart of the system is the organizations own data. Most businesses have CRM systems, which means they have a lot of data just sitting around in databases. They have their individual customer histories, the histories of similar customers, and a record of what their best salespeople have done. By combining these three sources, Absolutdata’s AI tool can provide smart recommendations to reps. This means teams can focus on selling rather than on figuring out what to do next or how to become more effective.

  • Which kinds of companies can benefit most from Absolutdata’s AI tool?
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Larger sales teams and organizations generally have access to more data, so these recommendations become more robust in less time. However, Absolutdata can also help smaller organizations. They can use the same infrastructure; as more data comes into the system, the AI guidance matures and becomes even more effective.

To summarize:

  • Clear sales objectives make it easier to convert leads.
  • The more relevant data sales teams have, the clearer their objectives and strategies become.
  • AI systems installed at an organizational level can benefit the sales team enormously.
  • Absolutdata’s AI-based sales tool can make reps more effective by giving them accurate, targeted data and a plan of action for each lead.
  • Extract the most out of the data you have