A recent article by Steve Woods discusses how artificial intelligence technology can help sales departments become more efficient. Instead of using AI to send automated email blasts that come off as cold and robotic, AI should be used to do mundane grunt work like crunching data and monitoring pipeline to help keep the salespeople on task.
The key is to perform due diligence when trying to find AI-based apps for a sales team. Something too complex most likely won’t be effective, and it’s better if the software can be used to make the job easier as opposed to being a brand new system to learn.
How to Use Artificial Intelligence for Better Outbound Sales and Telemarketing
What makes a salesperson successful? A combination of drive and determination, incentive, understanding of pain point, and the ability to make a connection with people.
There is a similar thread running through that list; they’re all very human traits based on emotion. Companies can create automated emails and pre-recorded sales calls, but these strategies are never as effective as a real, human salesperson making a call and creating a connection with the client.
These traits are crucial to success in a sales capacity, so it makes sense for a human to handle the role. Contact centers that focus on telemarketing and outbound sales do their best to hire people with these traits so they can provide the best ROI for their clients.
However, there are certain things that should be handled by artificial intelligence so that human agents can focus on connecting with customers. Some examples of this include capturing and managing call data, routing leads to agents with appropriate skill sets and experience, and acting as virtual assistants when the sales agent is on their call.
AI can help agents prepare for important calls by pulling up information from the CRM, such as the lead’s history with the company and previous call data. AI can automatically remind agents when customers have hit certain milestones (e.g., “x amount of days since customer purchased this product. Customer might be interested in making another purchase.”)
In addition to the immediate benefits related to outbound calls, AI can help telemarketing agents by providing customers with self-service through machine learning. Many contact centers don’t have agents specifically for sales without handling inbound calls as well.
AI can help this through automatic routing based on customer need and agent skill set. The customers get the assistance they need while the agents most skilled in sales can focus on what they do best.
This blog post is based on an article from CustomerThink. To read the article, please click here!
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