As AI technologies advance, becoming more sophisticated and intuitive, they’re reshaping the sales landscape: from AI-driven chatbots providing real-time support to predictive analytics revolutionizing lead generation.
According to Gartner, within four years, 60% of the B2B seller’s work will be done using generative AI sales technologies. And McKinsey predicts that a fifth of the sales teams’ functions could be automated with AI. While estimates vary, the view shared is similar: AI sales technologies will have a revolutionary impact on sales.
Meanwhile, sales leaders, enablement professionals, managers, and sellers, are struggling to adapt. As they shared with us during RAIN Group’s recent research study on AI in the Sales Process,
“We don’t know where to start or what to prioritize—there’s so much out there. And then, there are the security concerns.”
“It’s overwhelming and unclear and seems too time-consuming to understand where to start.”
“There’s more work involved in the process than the vendor community communicates. The gap between the vision and actual is still pretty big.”
Understanding AI-related technologies and use cases, adopting AI tools, and integrating AI into current and emerging sales processes are among the challenges cited by sales professionals.
Many find themselves overwhelmed.
That overwhelm is understandable as anyone who has attempted to stay abreast of available AI tools and their capabilities will know.
Among the applications for AI in sales are:
And that’s just scratching the surface.
To better understand the current state of AI in sales, RAIN Group surveyed 251 sales leaders, sellers, sales managers, and sales enablement professionals across a range of industries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.
We wanted to know how AI is being used in the sales process currently and explore its impact on sales organizations, specifically:
AI Challenges
% Respondents
Sellers and sales leaders report difficulty keeping up with AI advancements (50%) and overwhelm from all the AI options and use cases (38%). Additionally, they’re concerned about inaccurate/misleading information (59%) and data privacy and security (45%). These challenges may be holding some sellers and sales organizations back from integrating AI into their daily workflow and realizing the benefits AI has to offer (see point #4).
When we looked at the respondents seeing the greatest impact from AI on sales performance and productivity—the 26% who reported significant or transformational impact—some differences emerge comparing them to everyone else.
For instance, those reporting the greatest impact are more likely to say their organization has a clearly communicated policy around the use of AI (31% vs. 17% for others).
Interestingly, even many of those seeing the greatest impact from AI on their sales performance say they’re overwhelmed by the AI options and use cases (45% vs. 35% for others). Perhaps because the more you go down the AI rabbit hole, the more possibilities you uncover.
By far the most popular AI tools and technologies currently being used in the sales process are chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, Copilot, Salesforce Einstein) (63%) and email automation and personalization (54%).
Which of the following AI tools or technologies do you/your sales team currently use in the sales process?
% Respondents
In addition, those reporting the greatest impact of AI on sales performance are 1.3x more likely to use chatbots. If you’re looking for a place to get started, chatbots are the go-to for most sellers and sales leaders. Need ideas for prompts? Start with our infographic below.
How would you characterize your/your sales team's use of AI in the sales process?
% Respondents
Most respondents don’t use AI in the sales process: 27% have never used AI and another 27% rarely use such tools. However, a notable 20% of respondents use AI tools frequently or daily.
Those reporting the greatest impact from AI on their sales performance and productivity are 3x more likely to use AI tools daily or frequently. It’s hard to get impact from it if you’re not using it, and the more you use it the better you get and the greater the impact it will have.
As sales organizations begin the journey of using AI in the sales process, a high percentage strongly agree or agree they get value from AI in ways including:
Importantly, those reporting the greatest impact on sales performance and productivity from AI are significantly more likely to strongly agree that AI:
Two core themes jump out to us regarding the benefits of AI.
First is the impact on productivity that AI can have. Imagine a tool that assists sellers with many of the manual tasks they’re faced with every day: data entry, opportunity creation, writing follow-up emails, recording meeting notes, personalizing outreach messages, etc. Let's say they spend three hours a day on these tasks and can reduce that to one hour leveraging AI. That’s two additional hours—or 25% of their day— they’ve reclaimed and can now use to focus on higher-value tasks that will move the needle.
Second is viewing AI as a teammate. This is a mindset shift that those who get the greatest impact out of AI are already making. Imagine having a teammate you can collaborate with, bounce ideas off, someone who will do research for you, edit your work, recommend solutions, summarize meeting notes, etc. Most sellers would love to have a colleague at their beck and call to do this with. AI can play the role of that teammate.
The use of AI is changing the way businesses interact with clients and manage internal processes.
Among the top benefits sales teams report are...
According to our survey, 85% of respondents haven’t received any formal training on using AI in their sales role. While that hasn't stopped some people from learning on their own, the vast majority—78%—want training on how to better use AI in the sales process. Clearly, there's an opportunity for sales organizations to address this need.
As noted above, those reporting the greatest impact of AI on sales performance are 1.3x more likely to use chatbots. But when it comes to chatbots, effective prompting is half the battle. In this infographic, we outline 10 use cases for AI and sample prompts you can use for each.
Click the infographic to enlarge.
The survey results underscore the potential for AI to enhance an organization’s sales process. It’s early days and, doubtless, the use of AI in sales will continue to rapidly evolve. Still, we believe it’s best that a sales organization proactively explore and experiment to uncover how AI might be able to improve the sales process.
Here are our top four recommendations based on the research findings:
This study indicates that AI is not only a tool for efficiency, but also for enhancing the quality of sales interactions and strategies. By handling routine tasks, personalizing customer interactions, and providing valuable insights, AI can enable sales teams to be more strategic, customer-focused, and ultimately more effective in their roles.
So where do you go from here?
Start with the four recommendations above. Try dipping your toes in with the sample prompts in the infographic. And be prepared for change.