AI Blueprint for Sales Professionals → Time to aim for Top 1%

Learn how AI is transforming SDR/AE roles by improving conversions, shaping strategies, personalize interactions and forging stronger customer relationships.

May 06, 2024

Hey, Welcome to this week’s edition of “Future of Prospecting” Newsletter by “Evabot”.

We have been researching Generative AI Technology for the last 18 months and have been astounded by the use cases it brings in Prospecting through Hyper Targeting and Personalization. For Sales leaders and Revenue leaders, the main challenge with AI-led Prospecting is “How and What not?”

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AI is reshaping every corner of the sales world—from SDRs / AEs partnering with AI pods to innovative strategies ensuring you're not just keeping up but staying ahead.

If you are looking to accelerate your career in sales, here are some areas to explore:

→ AI tools that streamline tasks and free up your time for higher-value interactions.
→ Learn how your job as a sales professional is evolving and how to use AI to become a champion.
→ Practical steps you can take today to integrate AI into your sales process effectively.
→ Are you ready to move fast and embrace AI? Find out what’s necessary to stay competitive.

We’re going to cover following sections below:

Current Scenario
Changing job-role expectations.
Jobs with AI
Questions and Learnings
Immediate Actionables

Current Scenario

As AI continues to reshape the sales landscape, integrating it into each role can dramatically enhance performance and drive success.

Most SaaS companies feature a layered sales org structure designed to target various market segments efficiently:

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs):

Focus on generating and qualifying leads. With AI, SDRs can prioritize leads that are more likely to convert.

Challenges

Lead Overload: SDRs often grapple with high volumes of leads, making it difficult to prioritize and focus on the most promising prospects.
Quality of Leads: Not all leads have a need for your solution. Poor lead quality often results in wasted efforts on unlikely prospects.
Hit meetings quota in lieu of low response rates

Account Executives (AEs):

Responsible for converting qualified leads into paying customers. AI tools can assist AEs by providing insights into customer’s relevant pain points, enabling tailored pitches that resonate better and close faster.

Achieve monthly or quarterly sales targets.
Employ AI for real-time account insights and data-driven selling techniques.

Challenges

Misalignment Qualification: AEs sometimes receive leads that are not fully qualified or poorly matched, which results in lower conversion rates.
Long Sales Cycles: Complex negotiations and decision-making processes prolongs sales cycles, delaying closures and affecting quotas.

AI in sales is not just changing; it's revolutionizing. From its initial ability to analyze historical data to its current capabilities in generating insightful communication, AI's journey through predictive models to GenAI models for structured and unstructured data is a game-changer for sales teams.

Phase 1: Analytical AI (Before 2012)

Historical Data Crunching: Originally, AI was used to analyze past sales data, identifying trends and patterns that helped forecast future sales volumes and customer behaviors.
Impact on Sales: This enabled sales teams to understand what worked, helping to refine strategies and improve predictability.

Phase 2: Predictive AI on structured data (2012-2016)

Structured Insights: As AI technologies advanced, they began to predict outcomes based on data like call recordings and conversation databases.
Sales Applications: This allowed for more accurate forecasting and resource allocation, ensuring that sales teams were focusing their energies where they were most likely to yield results.

Phase 3: Predictive AI on Unstructured and Text Data (2016 - 2022)

Expanding Capabilities: The leap to understanding and predicting based on unstructured data (emails, social media posts, call logs) significantly broadened AI’s utility.
Advantages for Sales: Sales teams could now gain insights from a wider array of sources, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of customer sentiments and market dynamics.

Phase 4: Generative AI (2023 - Present)

Text Generation: The latest frontier, generative AI, can analyze data for insights and create content, from drafting personalized emails to generating call-prep notes or engaging customers through relevant insights..
Leap on Benefits: This not only speeds up communication but also ensures consistency and personalization in interactions, enhancing customer relationships and freeing up human resources for more human tasks.

AI is no longer just a supplementary tool; it's a pivotal part of the sales infrastructure that can significantly distinguish your team in a competitive market.

Leveraging its evolving capabilities can transform your sales process, making it more efficient, predictive, and responsive to customer needs.

Changing expectations

Traditional methods like cold calling, email blasts, and standard meetings are seeing diminishing returns. Let’s explore how the expectations (from sales teams) are shifting for improved connection, response, and conversion rates.

Current Challenges

Low Engagement Rates: Traditional methods like cold calling and generic emails are experiencing lower than ever response and connection rates.

What’s Required?

The focus has shifted towards more strategic, personalized, and timely engagement with potential high priority customers.

Expectations from SDRs/AEs

1. Hyper-Personalized Communication:

Proficiency of using AI-powered prospecting tools like Evabot or Regie to craft personalized messages and using call-prep notes.

2. Early Engagement with Pre-intent Signals:

Identify and prioritize accounts showing early buying signals. Engage these potential buyers early to build relationships before they enter the decision-making funnel.

3. Capitalizing on Intent Signals:

Utilize tools like 6Sense to capture signals when prospects are actively seeking solutions. Engage these 'hot' leads promptly to maximize conversion opportunities.

4. Personal Branding:

Develop a personal brand that warms up and influences prospects, facilitating easier and more effective relationship nurturing.

5. Maximize Interaction Outcomes:

Focus efforts on high-value interactions such as talking, emailing, and direct communication with prospects, cutting out low-impact activities.

Call Efficiency Tools: Use power dialers and AI call transcription tools like call recorders and summarizers to enhance call productivity and provide useful recaps.
Prioritization and Intent Analysis: Implement AI tools for detecting pre-intent and intent signals (Evabot, 6Sense) to prioritize leads effectively.
AI-Driven Personalization: Use AI for hyper-personalization in emailing and call-prep to ensure tailored communications. This would leverage intent and pre-intent signals from the last step.
Sales Coaching and CRM Integration: Utilize AI for real-time call coaching and preventing data leakage from CRMs, ensuring all interactions and data are optimized for success.
Share Future of Prospecting

Will AI replace sales jobs?

What does AI innovations mean for sales professionals—are your jobs safe?

Evolving Sales Roles: The AI and Human Partnership

The future points towards a model where AI will elevate Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Account Executives (AEs) v. replacing them completely.

AI’s Role:

AI will handle the heavy lifting of data processing, routine tasks, and even some aspects of customer interaction (i.e. personalized exclusive resources and account specific landing pages) that don’t require the human touch. This frees up human counterparts to focus on strategy and relationship-building—key areas where human skills are irreplaceable. They can be more creative.

Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) in the AI-Enhanced Sales Role:

1. Collaboration for Maximum Efficiency:

By collaborating with AI, sales professionals can ensure all tasks (research, follow-ups, personalization, prioritization, analysis) are handled optimally, allowing them to direct their focus on more complex issues and strategies.

2. Relationship Focus:

With AI managing routine tasks, sales personnel can dedicate more time to personal interactions, understanding client needs deeply, and fostering strong relationships.

3. Personal Branding and Thought Leadership:

Establish yourself as an expert by building your personal brand and sharing insights on specific industry problems. Use LinkedIn to amplify your voice and connect with the right audience.

4. Enhancing Creativity and Analytical Experiments:

Use AI to test new strategies in messaging, call track and follow-ups, and analyze outcomes to identify creative solutions that differentiate you from competitors.

5. Social Media Engagement with AI:

Personalize social media interactions based on user data and engagement patterns, making your social outreach more effective and targeted.

6. Boosting Visibility:

Increase your professional visibility by engaging intelligently across various platforms, supported by AI-driven analytics and content suggestions.

Are Jobs Safe?

Complementary Roles, Not Replacement: AI is here to augment the capabilities of sales teams, not replace them. By automating routine and data-intensive tasks, AI allows sales professionals to focus on what they do best—strategize, innovate, and connect on a human level.
Skill Adaptation and Learning: As with any technological advancement, adapting to new tools and learning how to leverage them effectively will be key. Those who upskill and integrate these technologies into their workflows will find themselves well-placed in the future job market.

The future of sales looks promising with AI integration. Rather than replacing jobs, AI is set to enhance the roles of sales professionals, shifting the focus towards strategic, creative, and interpersonal skills that drive meaningful business outcomes.

Questions and Learnings

As an SDR / AE, Incorporating AI into your sales strategy isn’t just about using new tools—it’s about transforming your approach to ensure you remain competitive and efficient.

Here’s a guide to help you gauge your readiness for AI integration, understand its potential impact on your workflow, and identify areas for learning and improvement.

Essential Questions to ask yourself:

1. Future Readiness:
Innovations in Sales: Are you keeping up with the latest innovations in sales, especially those related to AI?

2. Competition:
Standing Out: With the capabilities provided by AI tools, can you distinguish yourself from your peers?

3. Personal Brand:
Social Media Engagement: Are you actively building your personal brand on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram? Consider how much time you dedicate to strategizing and promoting your professional image online.

4. Outcomes:
Building Human Connections: Are you able to establish a rapport with prospects within the first 60 seconds of interaction?

5. Productivity:
Time Savings: Evaluate how much time you are saving by using AI tools in your prospecting workflows.

6. Experiments:
Innovative Sales Tactics: How often are you experimenting with new sales tactics influenced by AI insights?

Key Learnings to Elevate Your AI Sales Proficiency:

Evaluating Sales AI Tools: Understand the features and benefits of different sales AI tools. Learning how to choose the right tools for your specific needs is crucial.
Effective personalization Techniques: Master personalization strategies through Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) to enhance your content creation and customer interaction.
Advanced AI Tools Utilization: Be proficient in AI tools for account research, prioritization, and hyper-personalization. These tools can dramatically improve how you target and engage with prospects.
Personal Branding Across Platforms: Develop your personal branding on various social media platforms including Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Twitter etc
Mastering Storytelling: Effective storytelling can captivate prospects and clearly communicate the value of your offerings.

Quickly understanding and efficiently implementing AI in sales requires a blend of continuous learning, personal initiative, and strategic experimentation. By asking the right questions and committing to learning about AI’s capabilities and applications, you can excel in the evolving landscape of tech-augmented sales.

Immediate Actionables

Here are concrete steps you can take using AI to streamline your sales process, prioritize effectively, and personalize your approach to stand out from the competition.

1. Detailed Account Research:

Utilize AI Tools: Implement AI tools to gather and analyze detailed account information. These tools can provide confidence scores that help gauge the potential success of account engagements.
Action Step: Integrate platforms like Evabot to automatically pull in detailed data and insights about prospects and accounts.

2. High Priority Account Identification:

Leverage Pre-Intent Signals: Use AI to identify high-priority accounts based on internet signals and pains mentioned in 10K Reports, Quarterly filing reports, news, social media, and interviews.
Action Step: Set up filters and keywords in AI tools like Evabot to continuously monitor and flag high-priority accounts.

3. Drafting Hyper-Personalized Messages:

Personalization at Scale: Employ AI-powered tools like Evabot or Regie to create tailored messages that resonate with individual prospects, significantly increasing your response rates.
Action Step: Segment your prospect list with insights and utilize AI to draft personalized email or social media messages catering to the specific needs and interests of each account.

4. Optimizing Dialing Time:

Use Power Dialers: Implement power dialers to automate and streamline your calling process, allowing you to reach more prospects in less time.
Action Step: Integrate a power dialer like Orum or Nooks with your CRM to ensure data sync and efficient calling schedules.

5. Efficient Note-Taking and Analysis:

Automate Note Processes: Utilize AI tools for real-time call transcription and summarization, ensuring you capture every detail without manual note-taking.
Action Step: Enable AI transcription services during calls and meetings, such as those offered by Otter.ai or Gong.ai, for accurate and accessible call recaps.

6. CRM Auto-Update:

Sync Across Platforms: Ensure all communications, including emails and calls, are automatically logged in your CRM, keeping customer records up-to-date without manual entry.
Action Step: Use tools like Zapier to connect your email and communication platforms with your CRM to automate data entries and updates.

7. Social Media Analyzing and Engagement:

Enhanced Interaction: Apply AI tools to analyze social media activity and engage with prospects on platforms where they are most active.
Action Step: Employ AI-driven social listening tools like Hootsuite Insights or BuzzSumo to track mentions, analyze trends, and engage effectively based on data-driven insights.

Taking these immediate action steps can drastically improve your sales efficiency by harnessing the power of AI.

Each step not only helps streamline various aspects of the sales process but also ensures that you (as an SDR / AE) remain relevant and competitive in an evolving sales landscape.

What’s Next?

Move Fast or Be Left Behind—The Choice Is Yours

The integration of AI into sales processes is not a distant future—it's here, reshaping how we connect, engage, and close deals.

Why does speed matter to you?

Competitive Edge: Early adopters of AI in sales gain a significant advantage, leveraging insights and efficiency that others lack.
Customer Expectations: Today’s customers are more informed and expect interactions to be quick, relevant, and personalized—capabilities that AI enhances.
Innovation Cycle: The speed of technological change means delayed adoption could leave you behind your competitors.

Make the choice to innovate and lead, rather than follow and catch up. Your career in sales depends on being proactive, informed, and strategically ahead of the curve.

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