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Continuous growth in sales comes down to one thing: understanding your customers’ needs and expectations. And manual market research to understand those things just isn’t cutting anymore. Instead, companies are turning to the power of AI and sales intelligence tools.
Using technology to increase sales is not a new practice. AI and Machine Learning have been the first avenue of choice when a CEO wants to boost sales in an IT company. However, the increasing sophistication of AI models has made this area more accurate and valuable in recent times. One can take up pg in ai and machine learning to enhance their technical skills further.
Let’s have a closer look at how Artificial Intelligence is used in sales.
AI for Sales: Forecasting
Almost 90% of businessmen are planning on integrating AI into sales processes. Take a closer look:
Source: Statista
Make the User Experience Better
There are several ways your company can use AI software to increase your sales. One of them is a better user experience.
How can we upgrade user experience? Make the online shopping experience more personalized. This can be achieved through personalizing available products based on aspects like location, customer’ size, etc.
Another way is through guided processes, such as virtual assistants and chatbots. Equipped with data from your CRM system, these technologies can improve customer communication, and increase cross- and upsell sales, thus differentiating your company from your competitors.
We cannot talk about improving the customer shopping experience without mentioning virtual search. It has grown from a novelty only the biggest companies had to something customers almost expect. Virtual search makes it easier and faster to search for products, and with the new 3D and VR features, your customers can better see what the products look like in real life.
Get Better at Targeting Your Customers
Surveys show that personalized content leads to a 20% increase in sales. This is driven by the fact that 77% of consumers choose to buy recommended products, and 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that personalizes their offering and communication.
This isn’t news for most marketers. But even though personalization has been a topic in marketing for many years now, most businesses haven’t utilized its full potential yet. The main reason has been the lack of technology and challenges of adoption, but that’s where AI can help.
Most companies sit on a sheer amount of data about their customers — past purchases, website activity, social media interactions, etc. AI can analyze all this data, segment your client base into more accurate segment groups, and come up with truly personalized offers and communication strategies for each one.
A more targeted audience for your marketing campaigns will not only increase the likelihood of sales but will also free up more time to spend on other activities. This can be especially crucial for small business owners who don’t necessarily have the resources to hire additional staff and need to save time.
Automate Parts of the Sales Process
Many companies also use AI to increase sales through predictive analytics. This area of AI looks at past sales decisions and available customer data and suggests the next best steps. This can be anything from adjusting the lead score, adding a priority tag, or suggesting to reach out to the customer. This way you get the most out of your sales team as they spend less time making more data-driven decisions that rely less on intuition, and trial and error. With predictive analytics, you can distill the customer data down to a set of actions that your sales team can use to close the sale. It will help your sales team build relationships that last.
Better lead scoring isn’t only for sales teams. Marketing teams can use lead scoring for their customer database as well. One area is to minimize the efforts used on retargeting campaigns that often are based on one metric alone: whether the customer opened the previous email or not.
Find Cross- and Upsell Opportunities
Using technology to increase sales can also be achieved through a boost in the conversion of online shopping. All you need to do is to identify customers who are ready to buy more. Several data points can reveal the intent to buy — even when they aren’t directly shopping on your websites.
Data points such as how your customers use your product or service, what content they are seeking out, etc. can help you identify the right moment to send out a promotional email or take a phone call.
For example, a company that wants to stay on top of the current trends in eCommerce can use this information to optimize their “Frequently bought together” section on their website based on the customers’ demographics, rather than the whole pool of clients. After all, the purchasing habits of a 25-year-old will differ greatly from the purchasing habits of a 45-year-old. With this information in place, it’s easier to target your audience and cater your services or products to them. For data analysis and even client segmentation, you can use AI.
To Draw the Line
Slowly but surely AI is changing sales. To build strong relationships with clients and generate more sales, you’ll have to embrace AI. Placing trust in the technology, you’ll reap immense benefits such as routine task automation, cost drop, price optimization, automated lead generation, sales analysis and planning, and more. All of that makes the job of sales managers easier and technology-wise. Outsourcing some tasks to AI, they can focus on sales, not some sales-related tasks that take much time but don’t bring any benefits.
Source: InData Labs (a data science consulting and custom AI-powered software development company).
