In recent years, the productivity of sales teams has experienced a noticeable decline, posing challenges for businesses attempting to hit their financial targets. Automation and generative AI, which have advanced a great deal over the past year or so, do offer some potential for helping turn this trend around. These technological advancements could potentially revolutionize sales team performance and rejuvenate their productivity. By streamlining repetitive tasks, providing valuable insights, and enabling personalized interactions, automation and generative AI have the power to enhance sales team performance. In this post, we will take a look at the decline of sales team productivity, the potential of automation and generative AI, and how businesses can leverage these tools to enhance their sales performance.

With responsibilities ranging from prospecting leads to closing deals, sales teams are generally short on time. The administrative load on reps have continued to grow, taking away from the time they can spend selling. According to management consulting firm McKinsey, non-sales activities take up about two thirds of sales team time on average. In that same study, McKinsey predicted that using AI and automation could free up about 20% of the sales team’s capacity. Sales tech company Ebsta published a sales benchmark report earlier this year, and in that report they found:

• In 2022 only 29% of sales reps made quota

• 18% of reps didn't even have a quota to start with in 2022

• Win rates decreased by 15% in 2022

• Average deal values dropped by 32%

• The length of sales cycles increased on average by 32%

How can sales teams use new technologies to increase their productivity?

Lead Scoring and Prioritization

AI-powered lead scoring tools can analyze thousands of data points to accurately predict which leads are heating up. This allows salespeople to focus on high-potential leads first. Tools like Leadspace and ZoomInfo use machine learning algorithms to generate lead scores.

Conversational AI for Prospect Engagement

Chatbots like Conversica and Twilio’s CustomerAI can automate conversational interactions with prospects via email and SMS. This provides highly personalized, around-the-clock engagement at scale to nurture your highest probability prospects.

Predictive Analytics for Personalized Outreach

Leveraging data and AI, sales intelligence platforms like Gong and ZoomInfo’s Chorus equip salespeople with conversation insights and coaching guidance so they can have smarter conversations with prospects.

Deal Insights Through Data Analysis

AI sales assistants like Salesforce Einstein analyze customer data to surface insights that keep deals on track. Salespeople get notifications if a deal is at risk, enabling timely intervention. Spotlogic offers a different approach, by assisting sales reps to build out a full information position that leads to deep understanding of prospect needs.

Automated Data Capture and Entry

Sales engagement tools like Outreach can capture sales call information and automatically log details like follow-ups in the CRM, eliminating manual data entry, reducing the administrative load on sales reps.

AI-Powered CRM Assistants

Digital assistants like Salesforce Einstein and Clari CoPilot leverage NLP to provide in-context recommendations to salespeople right within their CRM. This makes accessing helpful information quick and easy.

Automation and generative AI offer sales teams many opportunities to increase productivity and sell more effectively. Sales tech can boost productivity in several ways, including:

• Generative AI can support interactions with customers, allowing sales reps to focus on building relationships and closing deals.

• AI tools can save time for sales reps by automating repetitive tasks, such as data entry and lead qualification, allowing them to spend more energy on selling.

• Sales automation, tailored to sales operations, can boost revenue and reduce costs for companies, customers, and sales reps.

• When automation is paired with AI, it can significantly reduce manual tasks for sales representatives, such as order booking, saving time and costs.

• Generative AI can help sales teams sell faster by gathering intelligence and enhancing their productivity, enabling them to do more with less

The key is selecting the right mix of AI-enabled sales tools tailored to your business needs. With the right automation stack powered by artificial intelligence, sales teams can be far more efficient, empowered, and intelligent. The result is more time spent selling and improved close rates for driving business growth.