We are joined by
two sales leaders,
Kirsten Rhodes of
Deloitte and Matt
Fano of GenPack to
hear how they're
reinventing the sales
cycle with agents.
Fresh data from our
upcoming state of
sales report reveals
that seven in 10 U
.S. sales leaders are
using agents today.
So let's talk about
what this looks
like in practice,
using agents to
grow pipeline
deals and revenue.
Okay. Thank you both
so much for being
here. So Kirsten,
let's start with you.
in a few words,
what does the human
and agent partnership
look like for you?
Well, that's just it.
It is humans and agents
working together to
build relationships,
but it's humans first
powered by AI. That's
incredible because
I just look at the
productivity gains that
I have in my own life and
especially in work too
now, but it is that
partnership and not that
automation. But when
you look at that
partnership, what does
that interaction between
humans and agents look
like for you matt
yeah i think it's more
i think it's it's
really about growth and
scale i mean scale that
we could never get to
with just people alone
or humans alone yeah
and when we were talking
about it yesterday
and it seems like
when you look at the
business processes that
everybody struggles with
it's it's pretty
consistent across the
board and you both talk
to a lot of organizations
um but building
relationships is also
important so when you
think about the challenges
you had before using
agents? How did you
solve that? What does
that look like for
you now? Yeah. So we
had desegregated data.
It was incredibly
generalized. So it was
about the enterprise,
not about the individual.
And I was asked by
our firm's leadership
to come in and really
think about how do we
build a relationship
over the entire career
arc, not just a
moment in time with a
particular individual. And
so we needed a platform
in order to allow us
to pull all of that
data together to create
really rich insights
about the individuals,
their preferences,
et cetera. And quite
honestly, as Matt said,
do it at scale. We've
got thousands of
clients. I have thousands
of partners that are
out activating that body
of work and interacting
with our clients.
And really, it was
about how do we do this
at scale? So what is
what is the just what's
the reaction been both
from your employees and
your customers? What
is their feedback
been to you about this
process? Yeah, well,
it's been remarkable,
because now we have
data in one centralized
repository that
actually gives real time
insights. And it's there's
a personalization that
we've been able to create
about the individual
again, how they
interact with us, What
are their preferences?
What are their buying
patterns? And so we
show up differently as
a result. Yeah. And I'm
sure they're thrilled
because now you're
starting the conversation
from a further point
instead of having to
recap and then continue.
So that's amazing.
So how have agents
helped? So to both
of you. So Matt,
let's start with you.
How have agents
helped your business?
Yeah. So I think, you
know, from a challenges
standpoint, I mean,
I would echo that
the insights are, you
know, huge and there's
a big opportunity
there. I think there's
also for us, there's
operational challenges,
right? Running any
sales organization is
like a huge amount of
admin work. And it's
totally necessary,
but nobody likes doing
it. And we run with
pretty lean support
teams, you know, as
well. And so we've been
thinking about a lot
of the opportunities,
like how do I drive
efficiency and effectiveness
at the same time
through some of these
things, right? So how
do I help, but how
do I drive up the
outcomes as well? And
so, you know, one
example is we recently
launched this conversation
agent. And so we
have this longstanding
practice where we
actually try to capture
centrally the conversations
that, you know,
frontline folks are
having with clients.
Who are they talking
to? Some of the things
that they're talking
about so we can better
sort of assess, you
know, where we need
to go in the future.
And it's hugely
cumbersome. So think about,
you know, thousands
of conversations a
week, somebody literally
filling out a little
form and you can
sort of see where the
problem is. So we want
to do it, but we want
to do it differently.
And so the conversation
age that we launched
now allows it. So
it scans people's
calendars and it says,
Hey, we think you've
got this meeting. You
know, you haven't, it
looks like you haven't
logged it. Do you want
to? And if you do,
then if it's, if
you have a meeting
transcript or you've
got a recording,
then it will take
that and it will use
that to log it. It
tags it. It kind of
logs it automatically.
If you don't,
then it will let you,
you know, copy and paste
in information. If
you've got handwritten
notes, you can take a
screen capture. It'll
do OCR and it'll use
that. Or if you're coming
out of a meeting and
you're like, I didn't
write it down. You can
do a voice transcription
on your phone, on
the cab on the way
to the airport. And so
that's obviously going
to save a huge amount
of time. But also I
think the really powerful
thing there too is
now because we're
capturing all this rich
detail about these
meetings, not just sort of
snippets, but detail,
we're building this
whole pool of knowledge
that we can tap into
later. So somebody new
comes into an account,
instead of going and
asking everybody what
happened, they can
say, tell me all the
conversations we've had
in the last six months
and who do we talk
to and what do we
talk about and get an
answer right away and
onboard in a day or
two, you know, or if we,
if we want to know
how many times we've
talked to Salesforce
with clients, if you
didn't think about that
question in advance,
you can go back and
look later. That's
great. So I think it's
been hugely, hugely
powerful. Wonderful.
And I spoke to one of
our sales leaders
yesterday, Connor Marsden,
and he said, you know,
CRM used to benefit
the sales leaders,
right? And it was
that input of data that
you all needed to help
run your business.
And now with agents,
the CRM is powering the
salespeople. And you
just described absolute
imperfection all
of the ways. And so
Kirsten, just quickly, how
have agents helped
your business as well?
Yeah, well, I think
Matt is spot on. You
know, there is a
seamlessness that has been
able to be affected as
a result of our agents.
So we've built two
so far, specifically
on CRM. One is a sales
assistant. So much
like what Matt talked
about, it is aggregating
very quickly abilities
to capture notes,
abilities to capture
those conversations,
and immediately create
an opportunity. And so
that is kind of an
always-on because we
have enabled it from a
mobile-first perspective
as well. And then we
are using Relationship
360. And so again,
aggregating all of
the data, both internal
to the firm on an
individual, but also
external data has been
remarkably powerful.
Getting that LinkedIn
feed, getting what the
market is saying, getting
what they're saying
out in the ether,
if you will, and having
all that personalized
information at their
fingertips, again, is
pretty powerful as
to how that data is,
like you said, enriching
and accelerating the
point in which they can
have a more impactful
and valuable conversation
with them. Now
all the employees that
are having conversations
with your clients
and your customers,
now they don't have to
spend all that time.
They can spend the
majority of the time
having that interaction
versus doing the
research. And then,
like you said, the input
after and voice first
and mobile first, that's
a game changer. As a
former salesperson,
man, I could imagine
what it would
be like today. So
just to wrap it up
here real quickly
to each of you,
why did you choose
Salesforce, Matt?
So I think we've
said data probably
collectively 50 times.
I mean, great agency,
great data. And so,
you know, one of the
things that we're trying
to do is build one
sort of data layer,
one semantic layer
that's going to power
our BI and our AI
together. And so, you
know, and Salesforce
helps us do that. So
we can pull the sales
and marketing data
we've already got in
Salesforce, obviously,
but our finance data,
our operational data
together. So when
I think about it.
We're not building for
just these two use
cases, probably your two
agents, but the next
200. That's right.
Well, I couldn't
agree more with Matt.
Look, we're thrilled.
We needed a flexible
architecture and we
needed plug and play
APIs. It's as simple
as that. And I think
there's tremendous
growth with Salesforce.
We're looking
forward to the
next 200 agents for sure.
And the ability
to extend that for
future growth for the
organization. Great.
Thank you both
so much for being
here. To learn more
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