AI can perform mundane tasks, allowing sales professionals to focus on more important

work.

Most sales teams spend a bulk of their time doing repetitive tasks. Things such as qualifying
leads that take them away from more valuable endeavors like closing sales and meeting sales
goals.

In fact, advanced research and a lot of phone and email hours are spent just to qualify leads,
taking up over 80 percent of sales reps’ time on average, This leaves only 20 percent of the
salespeople’s time for closing.

Artificial Intelligence revolutionizes sales by taking over the repetitive tasks of finding and
sorting leads, monitoring the required orders, and communicating with customers and potential
customers (among others) so your sales team can focus on increasing their conversion rates.

AI can provide valuable assistance to salespeople.

Certain sales and marketing AI tools can crunch numbers, identify patterns, and analyze vast
amounts of data in a very short amount of time. These qualities make AI function as an
extremely useful assistant to salespeople by providing them appropriate content and supplying
upsell and cross-sell suggestions that are specifically targeted to each customer.

Because AI can analyze all sorts of information, including existing business relationships and
new opportunities, it can help you tap into valuable areas that would have been unexplored
otherwise.

AI is able to process more data.

On some level, sales is intuitive. Salespersons usually have an idea, no matter how vague, about
which customers are likely to buy their products.

This instinctive knowledge is usually based on both actual sales experience as well as plain
guesswork.

New sales and marketing AI tools, however, trump the way sales professionals identify potential
leads by taking the guesswork out of the equation.
They do this by analyzing the buyers’ profiles, which allows AI to pinpoint not only leads but
also predict solutions. As well as suggest products that the potential customers need or might be
interested in.

Data available to salespersons without the use of sales and marketing AI tools is limited to their
own experiences, intuition, and perhaps the strategies your company prescribes, but all of these
come up short, especially when you consider that a sheer amount of data relevant to sales has
been created over the last year alone.

AI can improve sales without adding more sales personnel.

If you are like most companies, you’re always on the lookout for ways to increase your bottom
line.

One way to do this is to hire more salespeople who perform key sales activities. However, doing
so means a corresponding increase in costs, which can drive your revenue down.

AI provides the solution. Apart from allowing sales reps to devote more of their time closing
sales, AI can analyze how top performing salespeople work and share the information with the
rest of the sales team.

This gives everyone the opportunity to contribute, and provide the poorly performing individuals
the tools they need to improve.

AI can help companies explore all areas of opportunity.

An artificial intelligence program can go through and analyze literally millions of data and see
correlations and patterns that you could possibly overlook.

For example, it may discover that sending a follow-up email weekly can produce results for up to
eight weeks after the first contact.

Or it might see a link between sending a particular pitch deck to potential customers before
giving them a call, leading to more conversion.

These details may seem small but they can contribute to a better overall performance in the long
run.
AI can pave the way for “hyperpersonalization.”

Perhaps the biggest way AI programs can transform marketing is their ability to come up with
highly personalized messages. Messages based on in-depth knowledge of the behavior of
potential customers, which allows you to anticipate the needs and desires of your customers.

Gone are the days when customers would tolerate impersonal auto-response emails. For some
buyers, particularly B2B customers, a company that doesn’t personalize its communication with
them is not worth their business.

This “hyperpersonalization” of messages doesn’t just pertain to email or chat messages. But also
to all sorts of content (more on this below) and dynamic websites and landing pages.

Another advantage of having access to customer’s profiles is the ability to gather data. Data that
you can use in predictive marketing. Predictive marketing places you in a position where
customers will be receptive to your message.

It gives marketers an edge over the competition who are still using traditional marketing methods
and channels.

Marketing AI can generate brand-specific content that appeals to customers.

Artificial intelligence tools won’t be taking the place of writers anytime soon. But AI writing
programs are already available so you can produce useful content that can increase your site’s
traffic.

They are particularly useful for reporting on regular events that focus on specific data. Things
such as market analysis, quarterly earnings reports, and even sports matches.

Last year, “WordSmith,” which is an artificial intelligence writing tool, was able to create 1.5
billion pieces of content. This is an example of an AI program that is only expected to grow. And
will likely become more popular in the coming years.

Again, “WordSmith” won’t be able (yet) to write opinion columns or blog posts concerned with
advice on industry-specific best practices, but it wouldn’t be too surprising if the software learns
to do so in a few short years.

Marketing AI can also help with content curation. It’s is a great way to engage site visitors by
presenting them with content that they would be interested in.
Subscription businesses, such as Netflix, are some of the companies that benefit most from
content curation. The more a customer uses the service, the more data the AI tool has to use and
the more accurate the recommendations become.

Another advantage of artificial intelligence is in ad targeting. AI can get at immense amounts of

historical data and analyze which ads work best on which people as well as at what phase in the
buying process.

As a result, you can accomplish more effective content and ad placement compared to traditional
methods.

AI can help marketers make timely decisions.

Timing is crucial in both B2B and B2C sales situations. But identifying the right time to engage
potential customers to get them to buy has been a challenge to both marketing and sales teams.

This is where artificial intelligence tools come in; they can help pinpoint when the right time is
and assist you in making crucial marketing and sales decisions.

In addition, AI helps marketers quickly adjust to messaging and products, allowing you to create
personalized messages and prevent a higher number of potential customers from slipping away.

AI allows better communication between customers and businesses.

A majority of customers today communicate through mobile devices and messaging apps. AI can
help make it easier for you to connect with your customers through various tools, such as
chatbots.

These types of online software interpret the buyers’ questions and can even complete orders for
them.

The advantage of marketing AI over human marketers is that artificial intelligence can respond
to all messages, making the customers feel valued. All which results in repeat business and
continued engagement.

AI can help with predictive customer service.

Predictive analytics can be used in various ways, such as in analyzing the actions and features of
customers who don’t make repeat buys or who unsubscribe from a service.
Understanding these behaviors will allow you to reach out to those customers through prompts,
offers, or assistance and prevent losing them.

AI can empower marketers.

Artificial intelligence can perform routine, time-consuming tasks. Leaving the other tasks that
require the “human” touch to you, the marketer. For example, sales and marketing AI software
can screen emails as well as organize schedules and prioritize communications.

It can also collect, structure, and interpret data. This data can help you predict the best time and
situation for delivering content across various channels.

Furthermore, AI can develop strategies that you can implement better since you have more time
to devote on them. Additionally, you will have more opportunities to engage with your
customers wherever they are.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around us. It’s how Google answers our searches, Amazon recommends
products, and Pandora plays another song.

For marketers, AI enables scalable growth, drives revenue, and personalizes customer experiences.
Savvy marketers are discovering that AI is an exceptionally powerful strategy. It empowers them to excel
in their roles by engaging with their audiences through personalized, targeted messaging—all at scale.

AI technologies are also creating key internal opportunities that drive better alignment between
marketing and sales resulting in an increase in revenue and a healthy pipeline.

Let’s look at five ways AI can help marketing and sales continue to tear down silos.

1. Support Sales with Relevant Customer Experiences

Customers have come to expect personalized experiences and interactions through their preferred
format or channel. Nothing says, “I’m not listening” like getting an automated email about a free trial
that a lead already signed up for with a sales rep. In fact, “irrelevant content” is the #1 reason that
customers disengage.
Engaging thousands of prospects and customers through personalized content is impossible without
arming your marketing forces with artificial intelligence.

AI-powered predictive content tools are empowering marketers to be more strategic, while
simultaneously lightening the workload. These AI-powered marketing programs can crawl your site for
blog articles, case studies, white papers, ebooks, videos, etc. Once the content arsenal is assembled, AI
predicts which collateral will appeal to—and ultimately convert—each audience segment. Insights can
be used to engage visitors across email, web, social, and mobile channels for a full omni-channel
approach. The result is one-to-one value marketing that businesses weren’t previously able to achieve
without considerable scaling.

A marketing engagement platform powered by AI technologies equips marketers with data-driven

intelligence that aligns company-wide strategies for a unified brand conversation.

2. Agree on Qualified Leads and Accounts From the Beginning

Now more than ever, closing deals requires an orchestrated alignment between marketing and sales.
Historically, one of the most difficult areas of alignment is agreeing on what qualifies a lead, or in an
account-based marketing scenario, what makes for an “ideal customer profile.”

Of course, marketers are equipped with a wide range of lead and account scoring tools and strategies,
resulting in an automated qualification process, but even automation has its limitations. It can be
difficult to set up scoring in a meaningful way that aligns broad audiences, product offerings, and sales
tactics.

However, predictive lead scoring and predictive account scoring provide value where other solutions
may not, resulting in a strong foundation between sales and marketing. Predictive scoring programs
scan digital signals from across the web to find prospects who match your brand’s ideal customer
profile. All you have to do is get together with sales to identify those “perfect” customers or clients.

3. Personalize and Scale Messaging With AI Insights

Google has been using AI and machine learning longer than most marketing teams, and they’re more
heavily invested in it than most of us combined.
Google’s machine learning program, RankBrain, monitors user engagement 24/7/365 in order to provide
the best search results for every query that someone types into a Google search bar. The results of that
constant investigation is displayed in every search engine results page (SERP).

If your company develops EHR software, for example, data-driven insights into your audience are one
Google search away. Search “EHR” and look at the answers Google’s AI is providing. Is it a definition?
Are they product pages? What related searches are listed at the bottom?

Those are all keys to understanding the language your audience is using, the questions they’re asking,
and the key criteria that define your ideal customer profile—which is crucial information for both
marketing and sales. You can get this vital information by reverse-engineering organic search results.

4. Make Analytics Actionable

Leveraging data to design better customer engagement strategies is key to winning your customer’s
heart. This means testing, measuring and analyzing.

The irony lies in the fact that marketers use artificial intelligence to drive more meaningful human
interactions. AI-powered platforms are not only capable of collecting and aggregating marketing metrics
—they empower marketers to draw meaningful analytics and applications out of that data and apply it
to being more personal with their customers.

A great platform will monitor the metrics, flag anything that needs attention and makes some basic
changes or adjustments as necessary. Sales and marketing can align on these powerful data points and
insights to apply creative solutions and meaningful engagement.

5. Focus on Creating a World-Class Strategy

AI and machine learning-powered programs effortlessly offload monotonous tasks resulting in more
time reserved for strategy development.

AI can consolidate data, hone customer profiles, select and send next-step content to leads, and more.
This results in a marketing and sales team focused on doing what they do best – developing strategies
that create valuable customer experiences.

AI for Marketers + Sales Reps

AI is opening a lot of doors for marketers, and there is still time to get on board before your
competition.

Machine learning should never live solely within the marketing department. Sales and marketing will be
better equipped to orchestrate coordinated impactful efforts by leveraging AI. Whether it’s improved
collaboration on qualifying leads, content delivery, messaging, analytics, or strategy, AI technology
serves up excellent opportunities to align internally and drive meaningful customer engagement.

The area of sales and marketing is no stranger to the use of AI tools. In fact, more than half of the
leading marketing companies are already using AI while the rest are planning to do so in the next few
years.

There are many reasons why sales and marketing AI works so well, and here are just some of them:

Artificial intelligence tools used in these fields are based on longstanding marketing strategies and
techniques, such as product recommendations and predictive lead scoring.

Intelligent software can contact 100 percent of leads, maximizing a company’s revenue potential.

AI allows for more customer-centric campaigns, which makes the customers feel valued because of
highly personalized messages and targeted ads.

1. Nurture Leads

Chatbots--which leverage AI to create meaningful and informative conversation with current and future
customers--are an incredible tool for customer engagement. You don't ever have to worry about
customers dropping off because they are sick of waiting in a queue to speak with a sales representative.

At any hour of the day, a chatbot can guide customers through the marketing funnel and answer their
questions. They can even offer personalized suggestions based on customers' buying history.
Real-life customer service agents will be able to deal with more complex questions while chatbots offer
more basic (scripted) support. This will lead to increased productivity for those agents and allow
prospects to experience more fluid service. Overall, chatbots automation efforts are estimated to reduce
your customer service costs by 30 percent.

2. Enhance Customer Experience with Personalization

You can use AI to gather data about customers' behaviors through every touchpoint of the customer
journey. This rich data allows you to create a personalized experience for each customer.

Businesses without AI spend a great deal of time and manpower collecting this data rather than
developing a better experience for customers. If AI gathers the data for you, your team can concentrate
on building a powerful strategy that improves customer experience and leads to higher engagement and
sales.

3. Boost Conversation Rates and ROI

Email marketing and AI go hand-in-hand. AI can analyze data from your email campaigns and suggest
the best times to send emails. It's possible to take this even further and automate emails to individuals.
Rather than emailing your entire list, you can select different times for individuals based on their past
engagement, demographics and buying history.

Another way you can personalize emails with AI is by using it to recommend products to customers.
Keep in mind, personalized email marketing generates a median ROI of 122 percent.

Some businesses might be intimidated by implementing AI-powered software. But the truth is, AI is one
of the best ways to make your business more efficient and create personalized experiences for your
customers at scale. The relationships you build with your customers become the backbone of your
business.

1. Customer Targeting And Developing Buyer Personas

Every customer segment is different — wildly different, in fact. They have distinct values, beliefs,
feelings and experiences.

Sending all of your customers the same messages is a definite way to pour your budget down the drain.
Marketo found that 78.6% of the more than 2,200 consumers it surveyed "said they are only likely to
engage with a brand using coupons or other offers if those promotions are directly tied to how they
have interacted with the brand previously." In other words, consumers want personalization.

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AI is capable of discovering which customer profiles generate the highest engagement and conversions.
It can tell you customers' location, age, device, behavior, etc.

The first step to adopting AI software for this purpose is ensuring that your current and past campaigns
are integrated. Include customer data from tools like Google Analytics as well. This gives the software as
much data as possible to find the highest converting audiences.

Second, be patient. Once new customer profiles are discovered, test them. Target these segments in
new campaigns, and conduct an audit to determine whether they have higher conversions and key
performance indicators (KPIs).

You can use this data to retarget audiences that your brand's product and messages resonate with.

2. Campaign Monitoring
Do you ever hover over marketing campaigns like a worried parent? It's good to keep tabs on things, but
it could be taking time away from important things like nurturing relationships and managing your team.

According to a HubSpot study, marketers spend around 16 hours per week on routine tasks. That's
nearly half of a full workweek. What's a marketer to do? Take advantage of AI.

First, integrate the AI software of your choice into your marketing and advertising campaigns so it learns
average behavior. This is as easy as connecting Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager and other channels.

You then operate as usual until you see a spike in data or unusual activity. These can be both positive or
negative: ads driving more revenue than forecasted or declining click-through rates, for instance.

Investigate each case from the top down, meaning that you prioritize the biggest spikes in data first.
Then, notify the appropriate team, such as analytics, sales, etc.

Your organization can use these findings to allocate more time and budget to campaigns that move the
needle. Perhaps more importantly, you don't have to play whack-a-mole with bad campaigns.

3. Sales Forecasting

While looking into the future to see how campaigns perform seems like something out of a sci-fi movie,
it's available right now. AI marketing software has the ability to use predictive analytics to forecast sales.
This allows teams to work as usual while getting a glimpse of what their activities will return to them.
This also prevents spending weeks to months on something before you determine that it is (or isn't)
worth scaling.

If you're interested in leveraging predictive analytics for sales, I suggest starting sooner rather than later.
The technology uses machine learning to train models with historic and real-time data. Thus, it becomes
more accurate and beneficial the longer you use it.

Once you get started, the key is to forecast sales KPIs that matter to your business. These may include:

• Conversion rates
• Cost per acquisition

• Customer lifetime value

• Customer churn/retention rate

• Average sales cycle length

Use the AI predictions to determine whether specific channels or strategies are contributing to reaching
KPIs or missing them.

4. Chatbots

Have you ever landed on a website and a chat immediately opened up? They probably asked if you
needed help with anything, right?

I'm sure you had a great conversation, but I'm sorry to tell you that probably wasn't a real person. It was
a chatbot developed with AI.

These chatbots are designed with human-like scripts and are able to answer questions before handing
interactions off to actual sales representatives. Many times you honestly can't tell the difference or
when the swap happens. This allows you to use chatbots to automate lead generation and sales funnels.

To begin, choose AI marketing software that has a customizable chatbot feature. Then, create prompts
based on behavior like reading-specific content or interacting with page elements. Tailor the
conversation and questions to your buyer personas to maximize engagement. For instance, if customers
use certain keywords, automate the chatbot to send links to relevant product pages, demos or forms.

You can then have live sales representatives take over the chat to offer a discovery call or consultation
to close the deal.