How artificial intelligence can turn you into a superhuman sales professional
CLIENT: INSIGHTBEE
INDUSTRY: RESEARCH & ANALYTICS
FORMAT: Blog
MY ROLE: COPY
Imagine a future where human labour is hardly worth anything. All kinds of jobs that used to be done by humans are now performed by machines, and the state is forced to provide its human citizens with a guaranteed income to prevent unrest and chaos caused by mass unemployment.
Image credit: JD Hancock under the Creative Commons license
Stranger than fiction
It sounds like science fiction, but it isn’t. Rather, it’s the vision laid out in Rise of the Robots, winner of this year’s FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award – and it’s a real possibility.
It’s a startling prospect. But we’ve been discussing artificial intelligence (AI) for 50 years now, and for most of that time there has been no significant real-life application. Even the experts don’t seem to agree on how good AI and machine learning actually is, so it’s tempting to write off current predictions as the same old hype and jumped up sci-fi.
But if you work in sales, you need to start taking AI seriously. We’re already taking the first steps towards a world where humans wield intelligent machines, becoming super-productive, even superhuman. It’s now clear that the vast majority of a salesperson’s work will eventually be automated, and it’s going to happen sooner than you think. Research from the University of Oxford has explored which occupations might be automated in the future and it puts salespeople at ‘high risk’ – higher even than carpenters and dishwashers (see the appendix, pages 58 to 72).
AI is for real this time. And it’s going to create unprecedented change, and new opportunities, for salespeople. Here’s why:
A giant leap for AI
Machine learning and AI have come on in leaps and bounds, right under our noses. Services we use every day, like Google Search and Siri, and ones we hear about almost as often, like IBM’s Watson, are already powered by machine learning.
The likes of Google, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Facebook have all announced that AI will drive their businesses in the coming years. They are investing extensively in AI, and expecting to see returns in several years. Crucially, these brands are household names and they’re driving AI and making it more accessible. Google has open sourced its entire library of machine-learning software, which will spur the development of AI-based applications over the next few years.
It’s no surprise that AI is increasingly attracting the attention of investors: according to Playfair Capital, 93 AI-related deals were completed in the first half of 2015 alone.
Meet the first robots…
Young, vertical-specific companies are increasingly using AI-based applications to take over complete tasks. Take Amy, an AI assistant from x.ai who can schedule your meetings and handle your communication. Or Quill, an intelligent application from Narrative Science which can analyse structured data and create narratives using natural-sounding language. So far, Quill has written Forbes articles, Credit Suisse’s financial reports and marketing reports for Google Analytics.
Will this be the death of the salesman?
The fact that sales roles will increasingly be automated doesn’t have to be a cause for concern. Rather, AI has the potential to take time-consuming, manual tasks off salespeople’s hands and free them up to do what they do best: sell.
When you realise that salespeople spend only around a third of their time actually selling, you can see why sales force productivity is a top priority for every organisation. So, what else are salespeople doing with their time?
Over 50% of it is spent on activities that aren’t central to their role and which require skills you wouldn’t associate with a typical sales person:
31% of their time is spent searching for or creating content. Our research has shown that salespeople spend a lot of time using Google search to find leads and research prospects.
20% of their time is spent on administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings, writing detailed actions and summaries, updating CRM tools, and writing internal reports.
It’s easy to see that there’s room for AI to take sales automation to the next level in the next two or three years. But it’s likely to be another five years before machines can reliably take over complete tasks. Until then, automation and AI will continue to challenge the way sales and business development professionals work, and to help them become even more productive.
What does the future hold?
AI will probably continue to receive its fair share of hype, but we can expect a more realistic view to emerge before long. But even the most conservative scenarios present challenges and opportunities, which shouldn’t be ignored. There’s huge scope for a transformation in the way salespeople work over the next five years. Automation has already made meaningful improvements to productivity, but we think that, with the help of AI, salespeople have the potential to become up to five times more productive than today.
3 key areas where AI could help:
Identifying opportunities and leads
Automated tools could be used to keep track of opportunities and identify attractive targets (such as companies or executives) on the basis of similarity with existing customers. At InsightBee we are already bringing our mind+machine approach to bear on this area as technology continues to improve.
Administrative work
We might see more machines like Amy and Quill, which can coordinate with customers and schedule meetings, write detailed actions and summaries, update CRM tools and write internal reports. And look out for machines like Google’s Smart Reply, which can understand and reply to emails.
Customer support
Machines could prepare sales representatives, giving them information on their customers' preferences, and providing real-time tips on how to win a customer by analysing conversations, previous interactions, and public information about the person and the company. IBM Watson is already being trialed by a number of banks and consumer goods companies to support customer service reps.
Become a superhuman salesperson:
Adopt technology
High-performing sales teams use three times more technology than underperforming sales teams. As technology becomes more integral to the sales process, those who can’t use it will struggle to keep up with their super-productive peers.
Move up the skill curve
It’s more difficult to automate activities involving creativity and human interaction. Salespeople who are in charge of complex products or responsible for putting together a personalised service will continue to thrive. Salespeople should focus on activities that help build these skills while embracing technology and using it to take care of simpler administrative tasks.
