Discover how the sales department can benefit from using artificial intelligence to streamline tasks such as team management, scheduling follow-up meetings, data handling, and automating analytics. Konstantin Chervyakov, Commercial Director at Ringostat, provides practical examples to help sales leads who lack the time or foundational knowledge to implement these strategies effectively.
1. The Art of Multilingual Email Campaigns
If you’re planning to run an email campaign in a language that you’re not fluent in, one approach is to use AI to create an initial draft of the email in English. Once the text has been reviewed and approved by one of your colleagues or editors, you can then consult ChatGPT for translation into the language you require for your email.
I spent 10 minutes writing an email to the participants of a Bulgarian conference. Afterwards, I took another 10 minutes to have my Bulgarian-speaking colleagues proofread the email. If I had done this alone, it would have taken me at least an hour and a half.
Let’s look at a real-life example of a three-email campaign that I created using the paid version of ChatGPT-4. The purpose of this campaign is to invite potential customers and partners attending the conference in Bulgaria to a personal meeting.
Crafting an Effective Prompt
It is recommended to communicate in English when using ChatGPT since the AI model is developed in English and has a larger volume of information in that language.
First, provide a brief introduction to your company. For example:
- how your product helps customers;
- how customers evaluate it;
- notable clients associated with the company.
Second step:
- specify your position at the company;
- provide the name of the conference you are attending;
- include a link to the conference website and request the AI to explore further context.
If your company operates in a foreign market, as mine does, and you’re attending a conference, such as the one in Bulgaria, direct the AI to the local website. This ensures that information presentation and descriptions of products or services are tailored to the local audience.
Most likely, the AI will need to be corrected several times. For example, I asked it to:
- shorten the text;
- make it more precise;
- add more advantages to the meeting with my company.
Much has been said about AI helping overcome the “blank sheet syndrome.” This is especially beneficial when crafting a series of emails. It’s not just about the content but also about breaking down the messages into multiple parts in a way that encourages the recipient to take action with each subsequent message.
2. Streamlining Work with Data and Formulas
As a manager, working with tables and formulas is essential. However, not all managers are tech-savvy enough to write formulas effortlessly. Sometimes, they may have to Google or recall how to write a formula, understand its syntax, and even seek advice from colleagues. Additionally, finding errors can be time-consuming, taking up considerable time.
With AI, you can use a simple command like “calculate the value of N in columns A, B, C,” and AI will provide a ready-made formula. For example, if you need performance data on each employee:
- the total number of records assigned to a specific sales rep;
- the number of “Had a phone conversation with a potential client” where the column indicates “Yes.”
AI not only provides the formulas but also explains where to insert them.
If you’ve written a formula, you can verify it using artificial intelligence. Drop it in the chat—no need to provide any prompts. In response, ChatGPT will generate the correct formula and explain what was incorrect in your version.
Indeed, an analyst or an assistant could do this for you. However, with AI, you can do it instantly, independently, and without needing specifications or tasks—without even holding dozens of formulas in your mind.
3. Sales Team Oversight
AI-powered solutions that are capable of performing mechanical tasks such as initial call analysis are already starting to emerge.
As a company, we have a process where we actively search for customer calls that mention our competitors. However, before the AI era, this process was quite time-intensive, as it could take several hours to identify just 3-4 relevant conversations. This was particularly challenging if the calls were made in different time zones and languages.
Thankfully, our company already benefits from AI in terms of productivity and time efficiency for our global teams. Our in-house development, Ringostat AI, assists team leads and supervisors by transforming audio calls into text and translating the dialogue into English. This allows us to monitor call handling in languages that management may not speak. Additionally, the AI compiles a concise conversation summary and suggests the next steps.
I will illustrate how AI is useful for sales reps with practical examples.
Example 1: The sales department is tasked to make calls using the company database. They need to follow a specific conversation script to convey certain information. For example, a promotion has started, a new product has been released, etc. To check if the sales team followed the script, one can review conversations among team members by copying the instructed phrases and verify if the sales rep delivered them.
The tool helped to check the conversations of four employees in an hour. Previously, it would have taken at least three hours.
Example 2: Checking how the team handles objections. The most common objection in any business is when a customer says, “Your product is good, but I saw a similar one from your competitor, and it’s even cheaper.” If a employee needs to learn how to respond effectively, the deal will likely fall through in 90% of cases.
Previously, the sales lead would have to listen to numerous calls to come across the conversation where a potential client compares with a company’s competitor. With AI, you can quickly find such conversations without even listening to the dialogue.
To do this, go to the AI call report, set a filter for “Contains [competitor’s name],” and you already know which dialogues to analyze.
Moreover, AI captures the mood of the conversation, so it makes sense to listen to calls where the customer’s mood is “Disappointed.” Although it’s not always the salesperson’s fault, there’s a higher chance of finding mistakes this way than selectively listening to calls.
Using AI for this purpose can save a significant amount of the company’s budget. For example, it eliminates the need for a bilingual supervisor.
4. Analytics Automation
In July, ChatGPT introduced a new feature called Advanced Data Analytics, previously known as the Code Interpreter plugin. This AI-powered assistant allows you to upload a dataset and assign tasks such as performing statistical analysis, creating graphs, identifying insights, and more. In other words, this digital assistant replaces the need for an analyst, as you don’t need to have any formula knowledge or analytical skills to work with data. Let me provide a few examples.
Example 1: Suppose we have a list of deals won and lost, along with all possible data columns from the CRM. If you want to know more about your company’s performance, you can ask the AI to compile statistics based on the following criteria for each sales rep:
- conversion rate to a won deal;
- the average value of a won deal;
- median value of a won deal;
- total number of won deals.
The AI will describe its actions and how it intends to calculate the statistics. You can analyze its process to ensure it understands your requirements correctly. Finally, the AI will provide statistics for each employee.
Example 2: We provide AI with data on lost and won deals. However, the task is different this time: we need to calculate how specific parameters influence conversion and average check. To do this, we ask the plugin to gather statistics for leads with the category “Interested in cooperation.” We are interested in conversion to a deal, the average deal check, and other similar metrics as in the previous example.
In conclusion, AI provides us with statistics in CSV format and makes a simple but valid conclusion: leads with the status “Cold” have lower indicators than others.
5. AI bridging the code gap for non-tech employees
Working with scripts is not limited to programmers only; it involves other team members who may not possess in-depth coding knowledge. At Ringostat, an operations manager in the sales department is responsible for optimizing sales processes by improving the tools used by sales reps, such as Zoho CRM, Zoho Bookings (for appointment scheduling), and Zoho Analytics (for data analytics and visualization). Code manipulations are required to accomplish these tasks, which is where the AI Advanced Data Analysis mentioned earlier comes in handy.
Ringostat utilizes ZohoCRM to streamline our business operations. We create tasks within the platform and automatically log calls associated with deals. However, for more intricate automation, coding becomes a necessity. This is particularly true for tasks like setting up recurring tasks periodically, maintaining contact with partners, and other similar operations.
AI-powered Advanced Data Analysis technology can understand almost all coding languages, including Deluge, used in Zoho. To operate, the operations manager must copy the Deluge code into ChatGPT and describe the function and related tasks. For instance, the manager needs:
- to specify the purpose of the function and the problems it solves;
- identify the code section where the automatic task should repeat, and determine the part of the code that requires amendment or deletion.
This ensures the task is not repeated or deleted when the deal reaches a particular stage.
6. Scheduling follow-up meetings
According to sales etiquette, it is a mauvais ton (bad tone) if the interaction with a client or partner ends with “silence.”
After a meeting, it is essential to send a summary after the meeting and outline the next steps. However, writing such a follow-up can take 10-15 minutes, adding up to a few hours if you have several meetings in a day. To address this issue, there are specialized services available, such as FireFlies.ai. This service integrates with platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, records video and audio from the meeting, provides text transcription, and automatically generates follow-ups using AI.
It would greatly benefit teams working with English, German, French, and Spanish to have a solution enabling them to craft follow-ups in various languages tailored to each client. However, the current AI assistant must improve when translating into less widely used languages worldwide.
As a temporarily solution, when processing conversations in Bulgarian or Ukrainian, I upload audio recordings of meetings to our Ringostat AI and generate follow-ups based on concise call summaries.
Bonus: Convey warm wishes professionally on important dates
I have over 100 work-related contacts who must be congratulated on their birthdays and work anniversaries. These contacts include subordinates, other team leaders, clients I work with, colleagues from different organizations, etc.
So, I need to generate 100-200 unique greetings, which should differ from last year’s. This seemingly straightforward task can also take up a considerable amount of time. That’s why I use AI to get a template for the greeting, based on which I then write a fully personalized message.
What to include in the prompt for this:
- The person’s job title.
- The occasion for the celebration: birthday, work anniversary, promotion, wedding, etc.
- Ask for the greeting to be written immediately in an informal and friendly tone; otherwise, the text will be too formal.
Of course, you’ll need to rewrite the text and partially add something personal later.
However, this approach already saves about 70% of the time.
Wrapping up
AI is already a must-have for the sales department. Primarily, it allows the sales team to free up time for their main task – sales. Secondly, AI enhances the quality of work. It quickly finds insights and is not prone to errors in calculations and analytics.
However, don’t think that AI will completely relieve you of your responsibilities. It can calculate, gather statistics, write formulas, and point out a sales rep’s mistake. However, the main analytical work still falls on humans. This is both bad and good news – because a machine cannot replace a specialist who can think critically and make informed decisions.
