AI will transform Sales & Marketing - Not a question of IF? any more, but HOW?
From sarcastic and brilliant Siri to Tesla’s self-driving cars to Google AI that can learn video games in mere hours, Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing industries one by one. Just as the telephone a century ago changed business, and the personal computer and the internet have done so more recently, we don't need to think AI is the end of all. It's not a matter of whether or not artificial intelligence will change the future of sales, but how and to what extent it will change it. Here are six ways artificial intelligence will impact sales. Therefore, and sales and marketing professionals shouldn't hide from it; they must embrace it.
Let’s see in what ways artificial intelligence will possibly impact digital marketing in 2018. Below are some of the potential areas where AI can tremendously boost digital marketing. These possibilities are only in the fetus stage now but 2018 could prove to be path-breaking for AI-powered digital marketing.
A recent McKinsey study found that AI will have the most impact in marketing and sales, supply chain management, and manufacturing. This conclusion was drawn by mapping traditional analytics and newer artificial intelligence techniques, and the problems they can solve to more than 400 specific use cases in companies and organizations across 19 industries. This is exciting news for marketers and business professionals alike.
How can AI support sales and marketing?
1. AI will help marketers to move from Intuition based decisions to Data based ones
All sales professionals have some idea of what their clients and prospects are interested in. You use your experience and your intuition to decide which prospects to reach out to, what products to recommend and which channels to use for communication.
But the problem with this is that it's not based on cold, hard facts. Your intuition may be good, but it won't be 100% right all the time. That's where artificial intelligence comes in. AI allows sales professionals to base their decisions on data. And by focusing on data, your decisions and choices will be more accurate.
With artificial intelligence, you can target the right customers based on an analysis of their profile and data. You won't just be guessing whether or not a customer is right for your product; you'll know.
2. Marketing Decisions Simpler & Less Riskier with AI powered Customer Behaviour Predictions
Each time a user browses on the internet; new data is generated and collected for AI analysis. This data can reveal information such as user needs, behaviors, and future actions. Based on this information, marketing can be optimized to supply the most relevant information. Social media outreach also reveals personal information about the prospect making it easy for marketers to create a targeted campaign.
This further reduces the sales-cycle as the relevant information is handed over to customers on a silver plate. This “predictive” campaigns can significantly reduce customer research on the product and makes decision making easier. As for marketers, they can continue to analyze the buyer through data and even make the customer return!
Not only will you be able to better target your customers with AI, but you'll also be able to better understand them. Artificial intelligence can give you a wealth of information about your prospects and what they're interested in.
And that data leads to better results for you and your team. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that companies that use artificial intelligence in sales said they increased leads by 50%.
The reason is because artificial intelligence goes deeper than just surface-level data. "Predictive analysis in AI is going beyond the 'what' in data and delves into the "why,"
3. AI will maximize a companies ability to Personalize their Market Offerings
Two of the marketing and sales areas McKinsey identifies where AI tools can be used to immediately improve performance are customer service and personalized marketing.
Personalization can be a company’s competitive advantage by using customer demographics, past transaction data, and social media monitoring to offer “next product to buy” recommendations. For example, Amazon uses AI to send daily emails with product recommendations and Netflix uses AI to curate your viewing homepage with tv shows and movies you’re likely to be interested in. In both cases, these companies have seen a substantial increase in their rate of sales conversion thanks to AI.
For customer service, call center management can also be streamlined using artificial intelligence. For example, a combination of chatbots and speech recognition can be used to identify if customers are frustrated talking to a machine and forward them to a human customer service assistant, instead. Together they can offer more efficient processing and a more seamless customer experience.
4. Shorter sales cycle / Faster closing
With more information on prospects, sales professionals can expect the sales process to go a lot smoother in the future. Lead generation and qualifying will be automated, which will give sales professionals a head start. You'll no longer need to start from scratch. Artificial intelligence will give you the boost you need to push the prospect through the funnel faster.
Plus, with less time spent on administrative tasks and many tasks automated, sales professionals are free to focus more on closing. They'll be better able to nurture a lead and get them closer to closing faster.
5. Faster, Better and More Personalized Customer Service
We're already seeing the impact of artificial intelligence in customer service. Many companies now employ chatbots as a means to answer basic questions from customers. Using chatbots means sales and customer service professionals don't have to waste time on these simple questions and are free to help other customers with larger issues. This means businesses can cut customer service costs and save money in the long run.
Plus, customers receive responses faster, which means they are happier and and issues are dealt with before they blow up. Customers are more satisfied and feel more positively toward your business - and more likely to do business with you again.
6 Marketers will have more time for relationship building as AI will automate all paper-work and analysis
A McKinsey Global Institute study found that 40% of time spent on sales work activities can be automated. Think about that for a second. 40%. That means artificial intelligence could free up almost half of a sales professional's time.
The time sales professionals spend on tasks like prospecting, finding qualified leads, managing leads, processing transactions and other mundane tasks will now be spent focusing on relationships. After all, a machine can't replace the human aspect of sales. Sales professionals can put more time, energy and resources into building relationships with key clients - nurturing their most profitable customers.
In an interview with Reply, Mike Restivo of Bullhorn said, "If they can embrace artificial intelligence and integrate it seamlessly into their daily operations, they'll gain an unprecedented competitive advantage and see dramatic improvements in customer engagement."
Conclusion
Thanks to social media outreach and big data, we now know customers better than we ever did. Artificial intelligence and its associated technologies should bring marketers and customers closer in the coming years. Customers have a better understanding of a product and marketers have a better understanding of consumers.
With artificial intelligence as the connecting link between them, it would be interesting to see how digital marketing turns out in 2018. Optimized decision making, better sales-cycle and ‘predictive’ buying and selling processes are sure-shot outcomes of this robotic war. But this time both customers and brands would be on the winning side.
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