{"id":8045,"date":"2024-09-19T08:58:51","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T15:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=8045"},"modified":"2024-10-21T03:59:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T03:59:37","slug":"digital-sales-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ap\/blog\/digital-sales-success\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Key Sales Takeaways from Dreamforce 2024, the Biggest AI Event of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re in the midst of an AI selling revolution, with 81% of sales teams<\/a> currently investing in AI. But how can sales teams make the most of it, ensuring predictable growth and competitive advantage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To answer that question, Dreamforce offered a firsthand look at Salesforce\u2019s latest AI-powered innovations \u2014 including Agentforce, a new collection of autonomous agents that fulfill the promise of AI and human collaboration \u2014 and how these, alongside community, power sales success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the highlights:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlight #1: AI is table stakes for sales productivity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As our State of Sales report<\/a> revealed, AI is everywhere. Roughly four in five sellers use it, and among those that do, 83% saw revenue growth last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: Why? The same report revealed some key benefits, echoed by Salesblazers during this year\u2019s Dreamforce: Improved data quality and accuracy, reduced manual work, streamlined customer research, lead prioritisation, improved forecasting accuracy, and personalisation for customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw this underscored during the Sales Cloud keynote<\/a>, which showed the time-saving work of Sales AI<\/a> action, highlighting big-win deal opportunities, automatically transcribing and analysing sales call, and updating deal records with the latest customer information \u2014\u00a0all inside Sales Cloud. (This is only a taste of what AI is already doing. Take a deeper dive into Sales Cloud\u2019s AI features here<\/a>.)

Of course, the benefits of AI can only be realised when the data feeding AI models is accurate and complete. Which brings us to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlight #2: Integrated data and simplified tech are the way forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While there were many AI innovations revealed at Dreamforce this year, the preface was clear: The only way to deliver accurate, impactful AI outputs is to make sure your data is clean and consolidated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That starts with an integrated tech stack. When you bring the functionality you need onto a single platform, like the Salesforce platform, you bring data into one place. That means whatever AI features you roll out will have access to the most complete customer information available. Clean, complete data = high-quality AI outputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even better, this consolidation makes your sellers\u2019 lives so much easier. No more swivel-chairing or tab juggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We chatted with some top-tier sales leaders at Dreamforce about this critical piece of AI use. They shared examples of consolidation in action, and how it\u2019s improved seller performance. Watch a recording here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlight #3: Humans + autonomous agents = the new formula for growth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, we saw predictive AI take the scene. Sales forecasters were giddy, watching artificial intelligence comb through heaps of data to find trends and tell us the future. Then, generative AI launched, creating emails from simple prompts and call scripts from simple outlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it\u2019s time for autonomous AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome, Agentforce<\/a>. This Salesforce-wide innovation, revealed at the main Dreamforce keynote, is a collection of autonomous Agents across the Customer 360 platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are these fully customisable Agents used for? Think of them in two distinct categories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n