As the name suggests, Gen AI, or generative AI, is a form of artificial intelligence that “generates” content. This can encompass a range of formats, including text, images, and even video content. The primary advantage of utilizing Gen AI is that it streamlines tasks and processes. It can handle the mundane, repetitive tasks that divert you from more strategic projects.
This is especially crucial for individuals in sales roles or sales-oriented businesses. From data entry to updating CRM systems, scheduling meetings, and analyzing reports, Gen AI is available to optimize your existing sales processes. While Gen AI can’t close a sale for you, it can minimize the time and resources spent on routine tasks. Here are three ways to boost sales using Gen AI.
1. Personalized Outreach
Consumers are inundated with messages and advertisements from brands vying for their attention from the moment they wake up. Social media is filled with sponsored ads aimed at capturing scrollers’ interest. Promotional emails from stores work to grab attention with flashy sales and discounted offers. YouTube advertisements are tailored to users to divert their focus from the video and engage them directly.
Amid this sea of advertisements, it can be tough to stand out as a brand that genuinely values its customers. One way to distinguish yourself is through personalized outreach. Rather than sending generic emails to everyone on your mailing list, include their first name in the subject line. Sending a text message after a purchase to inquire about their satisfaction with the product indicates that you care.
Gen AI is designed to create customized content for hyper-personalized outreach and marketing campaigns. This technology can examine vast amounts of customer data in moments and generate unique, personal messages that resonate with them. These communications can be sent via email newsletters, LinkedIn messages, or webchats. They can also be adapted and refined based on real-time interactions. For instance, automotive sales solutions equipped with Gen AI capabilities can respond to nuanced inquiries and direct leads to the appropriate resources almost instantly.
It might not appear significant, but the quicker and more sincere these interactions are, the better businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors. Consumers want to feel valued by a company and do not want to wait for a car salesperson, for example, to respond just to schedule an appointment. Personalized touches can be the deciding factor between securing a sale and losing one.
2. Lead Generation
Examine your lead database. If you’re like most companies, the list is far too lengthy for you to tackle alone. You have leads visiting your site and signing up for newsletters. Someone following your brand on social media represents another lead. Those who search for your local business on Google and input it into Google Maps are yet another example of a lead.
Gen AI can assist by sorting through your extensive lead database and prioritizing them accordingly. It can score and qualify leads based on website behavior analysis, social media interactions, and other relevant data points. Rather than wasting time pursuing a lead only to find they are uninterested, let Gen AI evaluate their likelihood of converting for you. You and your sales team can concentrate your efforts more effectively by identifying which leads are more likely to result in conversions.
Moreover, you can also leverage Gen AI to determine how to nurture new leads best. AI tools can discern patterns and trends in your existing customer pool, offering suggestions on how to target new potential customers. These insights can boost your targeting efforts and enable you to be more strategic in your campaign messaging and targeting tactics
3. Forecasting
Nobody can predict the future, but Gen AI can get pretty close. Forecasting is how companies best estimate how much is predicted to sell in a given amount of time. This is important for key selling moments, such as holidays or yearly promotional pushes, where you’re expecting a rise in sales. However, proper forecasting is also essential throughout the year so you’re not left with a product that just isn’t selling or not having enough product to sell in the first place.
With its analyzing capabilities, Gen AI can help analyze data to look at prior selling trends and anticipate future ones. Using real-time data, it can adjust or pivot forecasting accordingly based on new customer information and/or new emerging trends.
Gen AI is taking existing forecasting tools to the next level. Its ability to sort through massive amounts of data makes it unparalleled to any other capabilities. It provides a more dynamic picture of what is ahead while also taking in outside factors, such as market trends, economic conditions, and seasonality. Also, Gen AI’s speediness shouldn’t go unmissed. Being agile is important in sales, particularly when it comes to forecasting, and taking in real-time considerations is a necessary part of the process.
Conclusion
Gen AI is infiltrating into the sales world and for good reason. Its capabilities are assisting sellers find consumers, attract them, and nurture them through the entire sales journey. It’s also enhancing how many sales tasks are completed.
That said, there’s so much more to learn about Gen AI as a whole so you don’t want to rely on it completely. That said, it’s best to think of Gen AI as a junior employee on your team. You may need to check their work and look over their shoulder from time to time, but they’re getting the work done and doing it well.
