{"id":50800,"date":"2019-11-08T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T18:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=50800"},"modified":"2023-03-06T14:56:23","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T03:56:23","slug":"4-creative-ways-to-make-ai-the-new-team-member-your-sales-reps-will-love-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/4-creative-ways-to-make-ai-the-new-team-member-your-sales-reps-will-love-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Creative Ways To Make Ai The New Team Member Your Sales Reps Will Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For many businesses, AI is like a new star recruit who everyone feels nervous around and a bit wary of. This is largely because of the myths that still persist about AI<\/a> taking jobs, requiring employees to become data scientists, or snooping on customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet AI has the potential to empower employees and drive sales success<\/a>. What it needs then is a proper introduction, not a sudden announcement at a staff meeting or hastily circulated memo that makes sales \u2013 arguably one of the lively parts of any business \u2013 feel like it\u2019s turning into a technical process rather than a valuable and talented team. The results can be damaging if those on the sales team fail to adopt or take advantage of the AI capabilities in their CRM<\/a>, or try to find ways to work around it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So rather than let your technology investment go to waste, figure out an approach to AI onboarding that isn\u2019t threatening and can integrate usefully and naturally into the sales team\u2019s day-to-day life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Build trust before the introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you were introducing a new team member to a client, would you bring them to a meeting unannounced, tell everyone their name and expect the relationship to thrive? No! You\u2019d lay the groundwork \u2013 selling your new hire to the client before they ever meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, instead of calling your team into a meeting, telling them AI is now here, and launching straight into a discussion about the technology itself, lay the groundwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start by discussing the team\u2019s own data: win rates, losses, goals and progress. These should be numbers the team already trusts and values, so they\u2019ll be sure to pay attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only then should you move the discussion into a business case about how AI might improve those numbers. Develop your best forecast or estimate based on how AI could identify additional opportunities, avoid costly mistakes or predict otherwise unforeseen events. This positions AI as a tool useful to the team\u2019s success<\/a> \u2013 not something that will undermine success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. It\u2019s always a race \u2013 demonstrate AI\u2019s time-saving benefits for sales reps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sales reps don\u2019t love admin, whether it\u2019s creating and submitting reports, scheduling meetings, answering emails or updating customer records. The reality is, that admin also takes them away from the one thing they\u2019re all good at and the very thing they earn commission on \u2013 selling \u2013 and the average sales rep spends just 34% of their time selling<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show, don\u2019t tell, your team how powerful reclaiming some of that time back would be. Most sales reps love a little competition \u2013 they thrive on achieving a goal! So set up a game with reps racing each other and the clock. Choose two reps with healthy egos that won\u2019t be bruised by losing, and give them a bunch of data to input into a spreadsheet to create a sales report, and a stack of emails to answer and correlate with calendar information to book meetings \u2013 ask them to ensure they update customer records as they go. Use a stopwatch and give them 20 minutes to complete the task. Meanwhile, have a third rep complete the same task using Einstein Voice \u2013 you\u2019ll need to make sure they\u2019re familiar with using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n