Did you know? Researchers have been experimenting with the uses of artificial intelligence since the 1950s! Technology is everywhere, and whether you like it or not, it’s here to stay.
Thanks to the rise of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and automation, companies can focus on upskilling their workforce. While capitalizing on emerging technologies to remain current and competitive.
All good companies understand that adapting to change is the most significant defining factor of success. So read on below to explore 3 ways to use AI for sales training.
What is AI and Machine Learning?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in sales is an umbrella term for modern technology that effectively helps machines execute complex cognitive duties. There are numerous smart technologies in artificial intelligence for sales that directly impact the success of your business; for instance, AI includes technologies like deep learning, machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing.
When applied well, AI for sales can be an invaluable tool to help your sales company keep track of performance, optimize sales cycles and train sales teams in essential sales skills.
Also read: 13 Top B2B Sales Trends to Watch This Year (2022) & What Is Digital Sales Transformation?
How is AI Already Used in Sales?
Studies show that sales professionals spend about 34% of their time actually selling.
AI for sales solves this problem by automating everyday repetitive administrative tasks. Now, salespeople now have more time to do what they should be doing. Which is building relationships and selling solutions to prospects’ problems.
Not only is AI for sales making it easier to sell, but it’s also leveling up the entire process. From automated lead follow-ups, routine touches, and live engagement.
What’s the Role of AI in Sales Training, Learning & Development?
Today, most organizations have vast amounts of employee, prospect, customer, and product data available to them thanks to the rise of integrated AI software solutions such as chatbots and CRMs.
This valuable data can be repurposed and used to create a customized AI sales training program personalized to suit the individual needs of each sales rep by focusing on their skill and knowledge gaps.
Not only does this allow for a more targeted approach to upskilling and professional development, but it will help to predict learners’ training needs based on their role – helping your sales team stay one step ahead at all times.
Creating a high-performance sales team is becoming even more difficult with a traditional approach, so it’s no surprise that the days of each employee learning the same material at the same time and in the same place are changing. Making way for a more flexible, targeted, and convenient way to upskill dispersed and international sales teams.
How To Use AI for Sales Training
The convergence of AI and sales training presents a transformative opportunity, enabling us leaders to enhance the effectiveness of our sales teams, optimize processes, and ultimately drive revenue growth.
Delve into how you can use AI to revolutionize your sales training process below:
1. Sales Roleplaying
Conversational AI software presents a revolutionary approach to enhancing sales training by offering lifelike interactions and immersive opportunities for role-playing within sales scenarios.
Intricately designed talking heads are at the heart of this innovation, which serve as virtual avatars, closely mirroring real-life individuals.
These avatars lend unprecedented authenticity to the training experience, allowing sales professionals to engage in lifelike dialogues that encompass the challenges and nuances they would encounter in actual sales interactions.
Through conversational AI software, sales teams can immerse themselves in various lifelike scenarios, spanning initial customer outreach, objection handling, negotiation techniques, and closing strategies.
Also read: 4 Effective Exercises For Using Role-Playing As A Sales Training Tool
2. Sales Coaching
AI-assisted coaching software offers a data-driven approach to sales improvement by analyzing your team’s phone calls with clients, giving feedback on tone of voice, talking speed, customer sentiments, and much more.
It aggregates and analyzes vast amounts of this call data to identify patterns and trends, uncovering strengths and areas that need enhancement for individual salespeople and the team.
This analytical prowess empowers sales managers with actionable insights to tailor coaching strategies, allocate resources effectively, and measure the impact of coaching initiatives over time.
Top AI Sales Coaching Software: Cogito
Cogito is an AI sales call coach who brings the advantage of behavioral science to every sales call.
The AI sales software behind Cogito monitors speech patterns to detect the energy level, interruptions, empathy, the amount of participation, tone, and the speaking pace of all participants.
The software then analyzes these different aspects to offer instant feedback on how the sales can change the way he speaks to improve the experience for the prospect.
3. Onboarding New Hires
When it comes to onboarding new sales team members, AI for sales training plays a pivotal role in streamlining and enhancing the process.
Imagine a scenario where a freshly recruited sales professional enters the organization – it can indeed be a rather overwhelming experience.
This is precisely where AI-driven sales training steps in to create a more seamless and engaging onboarding journey.
Have AI do the time-consuming work of reviewing phone calls and pitches while providing feedback so new hires can get onboarded with less effort.
4. On-Demand Learning
With AI, on-demand learning becomes a sophisticated tool for refining skills like sales pitches and customer conversations.
The real magic happens when AI analyzes your team’s interactions. It can dissect their sales pitches and customer conversations, evaluating their effectiveness based on various factors.
Were they able to address objections confidently? Did they use persuasive language effectively? AI examines these nuances and provides insightful feedback.
Think of it as a personalized coaching session with a digital mentor. As your team engages in on-demand learning activities, AI tracks their performance and identifies areas where they excel or need improvement.
It then tailors subsequent learning materials to address these specific points, ensuring their growth is targeted and efficient.
Challenges of Adopting AI for Sales Training?
Like all new technology-based implementations, there will be some potential obstacles organizations need to address before getting started with AI software for sales training. Barriers can appear in any of the following areas:
- Management: It may be necessary to build demonstrable use cases to persuade executive buy-in from key stakeholders if your budget is on the lighter side.
- Data: Organisations will need to ensure they possess robust data to secure a 360-degree view of their customers.
- People: Sales teams stuck in their ways might find adopting new processes difficult or even fear becoming redundant in their role as ai for sales technology continues to develop.
How to Prepare for AI-Assisted Sales Training
Whether you’re excited, nervous, or indifferent, artificial intelligence for sales is very real, and it’s here to stay.
Not only is it becoming the go-to answer for sales leaders, trainers, managers, and coaches to solve challenges, but it’s also helping organizations make better business decisions and train sales reps better.
If you’re all in on adopting new technology for sales into your sales training process, discover how to prepare below:
Evaluate Current Sales Training Tech
When considering how ai for sales training can help your organization, the best starting point is to assess the sales training tech you already have. Begin your preparation by conducting an audit of your current sales training tools to get a holistic view of your in-house capacities.
Next, identify any knowledge or skill gaps within management – then educate yourself and them on current ai sales training tools available by reading blog posts, analyst reports, and user reviews to understand the current landscape.
Encourage a Data-Driven Mindset
When preparing to adopt ai for sales training, you must be explicitly clear about the metrics you want your team to measure and report.
By doing so, you’ll be able to determine where the sales team’s knowledge, skill, and experience gaps lay. To achieve this, you should always start meetings by reviewing metrics as a team as part of a larger conversation about deals in progress.
Talk to Teams
When salespeople hear about the idea of AI for sales training, they often react in one of two ways. They’re either both feet in, enthusiastic, and ready to get started. Or they’re nervous, hesitant, and worried that the ai revolution will take over their jobs.
That’s why when preparing to invest in AI sales training solutions, you need a complete team buy-in for it to achieve a successful return on investment.
Also read:
- How To Leverage Artificial Intelligence For Sales & Prospecting
- Using Sales AI to Qualify and Engage Leads with Gabriel Lim
Final word: Simulating the Real World is the Future of Sales Training
Artificial intelligence for sales training is only one segment of the available technology for businesses. While VR technology might have been born from gaming, the reality is that virtual reality innovations are shifting more and more into business applications like sales training.
Some VR sales training software incorporates artificial intelligence to analyze the learner’s tone of voice, eye contact with different prospects in the room, the number of filler words used, and speech pace.
Overall, taking away the need for a trainer or coach to be present to give feedback – only requiring the leader to read the report from the AI to decide what further development might be needed.
Discover more in our full article “Is VR Training in the Workplace The Future Of Upskilling Sales Teams?” below: