Generative AI Is Your New Virtual Assistant — How Can You Win Together?

With generative AI, every sales rep has a virtual assistant. But to maximise its use, you need to understand the precise generative AI prompts and top questions to ask of it. Let’s see what they are.

Imagine if you switched your bike to a rocket. Think of how much quicker your commute would be. Combustion power. Warp speed. New heights! It really would make a world of difference. But first, you need to know how to fly your new machine, which buttons control what, which parts go where. It’s not going to be much use if you don’t … you won’t even get to leave the spaceport. But with the knowledge and tools, the possibilities of where you can go and what you can achieve are endless.

It’s the same with AI.

Generative AI has the potential to propel businesses to new heights. It’s a virtual assistant that takes productivity to the moon. Indeed, our Generative AI Snapshot Research Series found that 84% of global salespeople using generative AI say it helps increase sales. But it won’t do this by itself. And just like with your rocket, you need to know how to get the most out of it. You must know the precise generative AI prompts that generate tailored, accurate outputs that resonate with your target audience and maximise your sales potential.

So, what are the benefits of generative AI? How does it support sales? And what are the top AI questions to ask to ensure your output is relevant? Read on to find out.

Meet your new sales assistant: generative AI

Generative AI is pushing the productivity frontier of all businesses. It serves as a virtual assistant, someone working with you to take notes, draft emails, and summarise calls, so you can get on with more important business tasks. At Salesforce, we understood early that this was a paradigm shift; and we introduced our first AI solution back in 2016.

New Slack research shows that 80% of workers globally using AI say it’s already improving their productivity. For example, our Einstein 1 AI-powered CRM supports data insights, forecasting, personalising customer interactions, and workflow automation. Below are some examples of how this looks in practice:

1. Emails and calls: Prioritises your inbox with actionable intelligence and automates time-consuming tasks such as writing emails and summarising calls.
2. Lead capture: Selects the leads and opportunities most likely to convert.
3. Pipeline trends: Determines which opportunities with close dates in the current month are unlikely to close in the month.
4. Sales forecasts: Analyses large datasets and interprets real-time signals for accurate forecasting.
5. Data capture: Automatically captures data and adds it to your CRM.

Given these advantages, it’s unsurprising that Forrester’s report The Journey To AI-Powered CRM found 89% of global business decision-makers believe an AI strategy is important when partnering with a CRM vendor — it’s the key to staying competitive and avoiding obsolescence in today’s market.

Writing generative AI prompts for your new assistant

Generative AI has brought the AI discussion into the mainstream, with anyone being able to use it. Yet, the basic questions you ask of your AI might generate responses that, while impressive, are unusable. Why? Because they’re not grounded in your CRM data to enrich the responses with dynamic, relevant customer information.

Once grounded, your assistant needs guidance, in other words, good generative AI prompts, which give it:

1. Context: What’s the background of this outreach? Provide background information (cause, setting, circumstances, events).
2. Objective: Why are you creating this content? Clearly define the purpose (to inform, persuade, entertain, solve a problem).
3. Language: What language do you want for the writing? Specify the language and tone (English, French, Arabic; formal, informal, technical, conversational).
4. Sender: Who’s the creator? Describe the persona of the sender (expertise, profession, personality).
5. Recipient: Who are you generating the output for? Determine the intended audience (demographic, occupation, interests, knowledge level).
6. Length: What’s the format of the content and how detailed do you want it to be? Specify the desired word count (short paragraph, article, essay, social post).
7. CTA: Clearly state the desired action expected from the audience after reading the content (signing up, making a purchase, sharing the information).

So, now that you’ve crafted the right prompts, how do you ensure the output is secure, private, and compliant?

Learning to trust your new AI assistant

Trusted AI is everything. Forrester’s report The Journey To AI-Powered CRM found that 96% of global business decision-makers say that trust is critical when considering an AI vendor. You need to ensure your AI is designed and implemented to be ethical, safe, and unbiased. 

At Salesforce, we take this seriously with our Einstein Trust Layer solution. The Einstein Trust Layer is an AI architecture equipped with best-in-class security that keeps your data secure, private, and compliant. This is done through:

1. Secure data retrieval: Securely access and ground your generative AI prompts and automatically shield sensitive data from external large language models.
2. Dynamic grounding: Add domain-specific knowledge and customer information to give your AI the relevant context it needs to respond more accurately.
3. Data masking: Mask the data used in your prompts to add an additional layer of protection.

Trust can take time to build, but with consistent use and practice, the AI learns to understand you, and you learn to understand the AI.

Why generative AI is good for business

Generative AI is proving to be an invaluable asset. Indeed, according to Forrester’s report The Journey To AI-Powered CRM, 40% of global business decision-makers plan to implement AI to identify new sales opportunities. Below are some of the ways this is achieved:

1. Drives engagement: Serves personalised content for increased customer interaction and satisfaction.
2. Increases sales: Reaches potential buyers quickly to boost sales and revenue.
3. Future-proofs your business: Works with AI tools for CRM that’ll be used in the future and keeps you ahead of competitors.
4. Creates an innovation culture: By engaging with cutting-edge technology, upskilling existing talent, and providing continuous training, you foster a culture of innovation.
5. Improves data quality: AI-powered analytics enhance data quality to ensure accurate insights for informed decision-making.
6. Removes manual processes: Automates repetitive tasks to reduce errors and improve efficiency. Reallocates resources to more strategic initiatives.