In today’s highly competitive world, increasing sales effectiveness is not just a goal; it's a necessity. Business leaders can’t sit back and wish for sales problems to get better. They need to take proactive measures to enhance the performance of their salespeople.
Taking a lead role by identifying new tools and process improvements that enable improved sales execution is a critical step for your business.
The advancements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based sales tools have created powerful sales effectiveness resources that must be evaluated by every business owner and sales leader. As cited in a recent Forbes article, the AI market is anticipated to climb from $118 billion in 2021 to nearly $300 billion by 2026, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
While the opportunities for your business can be transformational, I’m finding that most top executives in my small and mid-sized business target audience are sticking with what they know.
They realize they are missing out on opportunities but tell me they feel uneducated and overwhelmed by the influx of AI sales enablement tools hitting the market. This lack of understanding leaves them with several concerns including how the tools can be practically applied to their sales departments.
To help senior leaders navigate the evolving AI landscape, my Fractional VP Sales colleagues and I custom developed a process to help you cut through the noise to pinpoint practical AI tools that will improve your business. We showcase resources that enable powerful sales execution improvement.
From our significant time spent researching, testing, and refining use of AI tools in live selling environments, like ChatGPT, Claude, Fireflies & more, we have found several high-impact sales execution areas ripe for advancement.
We hope the steps below offer a roadmap to leery business owners to which sales execution processes can be dramatically improved by AI tools available today.
First, focus on Sales Efficiency and Speed
Optimizing the performance of your sales representatives is a critical element of growing your business. It's essential to eliminate what are called, “non-selling activities” which deny your salespeople the time to sell. Identifying the non-selling activities which consume the majority of your sales team’s time is your first target.
Additionally, many organizations struggle after hiring new sales talent, with an extended onboarding time before revenue production becomes consistent.
Business leaders need to focus on minimizing this transition time. The faster and more effectively current and new members of the team are able to focus on sales execution, the more revenue flows into the business.
It’s important to remember that long-term success will depend on your ability to adapt not only to new sales tools but new technologies and market changes in general.
Second, assess Your Current Prospecting Performance[ST1]
When you assess your prospecting performance, ask these important questions:
· Are your sales reps wasting valuable time on prospects that aren’t a good fit?
· Is there a clear and proven prospecting approach that your team can easily follow and communicate?
· Is your outbound messaging creating responses, or is it regularly ignored?
· Do your prospect calls create a clear and fast next step toward closing the deal?
To overcome these challenges and many more, my Fractional Sales Leader partners and I have developed a custom Sales Efficiency Quiz which focuses on the common sales execution areas that we’ve found most sales representatives need help with. From there, we correlated proven AI tools that we’ve had personal experience using and that we have seen successfully adopted by sales teams we have managed.
These vetted AI resources will bring immediate efficiency and value to a range of sales execution areas. This has been true in a vast pool of sales reps ranging from tenured to entry-level, and also in a wide range of industries and markets.
Take my Sales Efficiency Quiz and discover AI tools that can make a major impact today!
CLICK HERE or click the Sales Efficiency Quiz visual below to drop me a message if you’d like to obtain the working model of our quiz deliverable.
Finally, find the Right AI Sales Tools
Choosing the right AI tools is vital. While many options exist at no cost, not all will meet your specific needs. Focused selection and execution, after you have identified your biggest challenges, is key to your success.
Your strategic identification of the right AI tools for your business will not only lead to significant cost savings and improved sales strategy advancement but will create the confidence to inject future AI tools into the business.
As you progress through the quiz, you'll uncover ways to cut through the clutter of available options and identify tools that can genuinely enhance your sales operational efficiency. Recognizing these specific gaps in your team reinforces the importance of picking the right tools to address those weaknesses.
It’s important to note that AI tools are evolving at a rapid rate and more valid options are around the corner. That said, you may have unique needs beyond the foundational sales execution areas we featured in the quiz.
Given these variables, I welcome you to get in touch if you feel you’d benefit from personalized help with developing your sales improvement initiatives.
As a Fractional VP of Sales, I leverage multi decades of sales leadership experience that includes reshaping sales teams. I do this by pinpointing areas for improvement and leveraging a variety of resources to swiftly enable achievement.
The new age of Artificial Intelligence brings a new set of potential tools you can leverage, even if you are a late adopter!
I highly encourage you to embrace AI for your selling processes, and don’t let the overwhelming number of AI Sales Tool options deter you from making impactful changes.
Contact me and together we can identify tailored solutions to make a swift and significant impact on your business. (713) 907-6310 or mprive@salesxceleration.com, or book a call.
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I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.
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