AI Advances Sales Forecasting in Powerful Ways if Foundations are Ready

We have been building award winning AI SaaS products for sales professionals that leverage the Salesforce platform for over ten years. As a result, we have learned a great deal about the realities of AI in bringing true value to Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and sales operational teams.?

Unfortunately, today there is a great deal of hype regarding AI like a holy grail to guide sales professionals. Let me assure you these claims are often exaggerated unless sound data and effective sales operational foundations are established first.

This article shares some insights and lessons learned that continue to guide us and our customers in the right direction.?

First, it is critical to understand CROs are failing in meeting their sales revenue targets. Research from a variety of sources say 70% of CRO’s on average are not meeting their quota attainment goals. Despite these disappointing statistics, CROs always remain optimistic about the future outlook and continue to make technology investments. Other research studies on revenue leakage also show that over 25% of revenue leaks in areas like renewals and upsells that had processes been more timely, top line revenue could have been realized.

However, even though we are experts in CRM technology and in advanced methods using AI, technology is not always the answer.?

We have seen time and time again that Salesforce utilization and adoption rates are still a chronic pain point for the majority of sales organizations. Hence, our approach is human advantage first and technology enablements integrated with how sales and adults learn, bringing in a blended balance of sales process know-how augmented with AI, the cognitive sciences, and visualization expertise so often missing in solutioning. Adults learn in different modalities and one size does not fit all in achieving comprehension and ensuring learning retention.

We all know data matters and data visibility patterns are critical to shine a spotlight on good data management (DM) behaviours vs poor DM behaviors. This is where SalesChoice differentiates itself from the pack as we use AI to provide unique visibility dashboards to manage sales organizational usage of Salesforce. We also partner with companies like IntroHive which enable relationship intelligence so our SalesInsights AI software can mine even richer account-related data.

The second approach we take is to ensure our customers have a smart sales workflow that is intelligent and creates a mandatory operating process that leverages best practices. We have consistently seen poorly designed sales workflows in Salesforce as many CROs or Sales Operational leaders simply don’t deep dive into process and key performance indicators. Often when they do, they go too far and complicate the lives of sales professionals when there are only so many significant inputs needed to predict future sales outcomes. Balancing the science and the art of selling requires experience and knowledge.

The third approach we take is we track every sales move and provide real-time guidance on whether the chess moves add value to a future outcome or simply hold a steady state, meaning the odds have not improved of a sales conversion. For example, sometimes we think that offering a steeper discount it will help us convert, when it fact your odds remain the same, as there are other insight factors based on the customer responsiveness from your interactions, or the language they use is not relationship positive. Many signals can be mined in terms of sentiment, or competitive positioning that give you greater insights on a conversion odds.

The fourth approach is we stand behind our predictive accuracy call outs and have an audit trail visible to our customers communicating what we said would happen, and check off if we were right or wrong transparently. We want our customers to have confidence in our AI methods. Plus it allows our data scientists to sharpen our approaches by adding in additional methods or retraining the AI model. AI model cannot stand still and many times they are not set up right for ongoing machine learning, so buyer beware.

The fifth approach is we have built a state of the art architecture that is multi-modal in structure so we can squeeze out unique patterns and insights for different markets or product lines that drive more precision in sales forecasting. Think of different pumps at a gas station for different vehicles. To get the best performance models segmented makes a big difference in predictive accuracy.

The sixth approach is we use high-impact visualizations and enable our customers to pull our insights easily into their analytical dashboard, whether its Einstein or Power BI etc. After all, sense-making is paramount, and without confidence and key performance indicators to guide goals in a weekly cadence, organizations will not perform well. Clear guardrails are important.

The seventh approach is we are advancing humanity into our workflow logic by providing daily health and wellness integration methods into the sales process as we are very concerned about the declining productivity of sales professionals, increasing sales turn-over rates, and rising depression rates.?

Did you know that 20-30% of employees world-wide wake up sad or angry every day?

The eighth approach is our cognitive sciences approach as we know that over 20% of sales professionals suffer from attention deficit disorder, in other words they are easily distracted. So we have provided a number of interactions and nudges to guide them in simple ways that allow them to understand and take action.

The ninth approach is we regale from leading sales organizations that deeply understand sales operating processes and practices. We know the different personas of sales professionals and what it takes to hit a home run consistently on the playing field.

The tenth approach is we advocate listening and mindfulness in all our customer or prospect interactions. We have learned that having the right customers is what makes the difference in life. Life is not about financial transactions and when the chips are down, good customers stay with you through ups and downs and good suppliers also change their cadence to support their customers when they are up and down. Relationships really matter and this what makes us uniquely human.?

In summary, AI is only as good as the work process and the quality of the data and access to diverse data sets that are accurate, otherwise all AI does is propagate bad practices. We are very proud of the advanced work we have done with global sales organizations in diverse industries, including telecom, transportation and logistics, professional services, manufacturing, technology, and health care.

If you want to ensure you advance effectively and efficiently with AI in Sales Operations, ensure you start with facts on your sales operating processes and practices and get those right with trusted experts before you jump into AI operating expenses and are disappointed about what it really reveals.?

Too many technology vendors push technology first when the foundations are simply not right or ready. Finding the balance is key, and ensuring the right journey milestones are set in motion. We know how to get you to the other side with proven sales and AI operating practices.

If you would like to talk to me, shoot me a DM!