5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming CRMs

2019 has already unfolded as a banner year in terms of the union between artificial intelligence and Sales. While 2018 saw the artificial intelligence Sales revolution beginning to gain momentum, the applications were limited. In 2017,51%of enterprises leveraged some form of artificial intelligence. In 2018, the percentage increased by a mere 2% to 53% adoption.

This year, artificial intelligence will increasingly play a vital role in sales organizations. One of the most profound implications will be in the context of CRMs. CRMs have long struggled to gain the favor of sales professionals. Less than40%of businesses report a CRM adoption rate in excess of 90%. This year and beyond, we're sure to witness a marriage between artificial intelligence and CRM systems, a transformation that amplifies the capabilities and effectiveness of antiquated CRMs.

Many individuals have predicted that artificial intelligence’s foray into the sales landscape poses a threat to the human sales profession. Yet the belief that artificial intelligence signals the demise and replacement of the human sales function entirely, is tremendously short-sighted. 

Artificial intelligence promises to enhance, not replace, the human component of sales. The sales professionals of the future will use artificial intelligence to complement their efforts and skillsets. When it comes to CRMs, this starts with data ingestion and retrieval. As it stands, sales professionals spend17%of their time entering data—the equivalent of nearly one work day per week. Indeed, manual data entry is theprimaryobstacle that inhibits CRM adoption.  

Artificial intelligence not only empowers sales professionals to eliminate manual data entry, it also bolsters their ability to centralize disparate Customer databases and, in turn, capture the complete Customer lifecycle—whether it has transpired via email, phone conversations, chatbots, etc. CallMiner Eureka, for example, uses artificial intelligence and machine language to capture and transcribe customer interactions. Transcriptions are tagged according to key topics and a rich categorization schema. When this data is ingested into a CRM, it can surface key insights, including objections, specific data with respect to competitors, and ideal use cases. Salespeople can search transcript metadata for keywords, phrases, or even acoustics such as increased voice intonation that may signal excitement and increased interests. With the air of topic clusters and frequency maps, salespeople are equipped to detect vital customer trends. 

It's critical that salespeople develop high levels of trust and rapport with their customers. According toresearchby Salesforce, 79% of business buyers state that it’s absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor. We have a long way to come. A mere3%of buyers trust sales reps. 

With the vast majority of customer interactions occurring virtually, via mediums that conceal revealing body language and facial expressions, it's become more and more difficult for salespeople to develop trust and a strong rapport with their customers. Fortunately, artificial intelligence offers a powerful antidote. Using sentiment analysis, AI-powered tools can analyze conversations and assess customers' emotional states. Cogito, for example, provides in-call voice analyses that help salespeople understand customers’ emotional states and how best to respond. A color-coded meter serves as a gauge of how effective a specific conversation is. If a customer—or salesperson—reacts too abruptly, the color changes from green to yellow or red. Cogita assesses several key aspects of any given conversation, including energy, interruption, empathy, participation, tone, and pace. Analyses as sophisticated as this empowers salespeople to proactively redirect conversations. 

When all this historical in-call data is integrated with CRMs, the benefits are far-reaching.