It might seem counterintuitive to associate automation with personalization. If you ask a colleague about efficient communication, they may mention impersonal mass emails addressed to {first name}, {last name}. However, AI and NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities are only becoming more sophisticated and necessary for sales teams. According to SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd, the global sales intelligence market is expected to reach a value of USD 6.54 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate of 9.78% between 2022-2028.
Automation empowers sales teams to accomplish so much more; in fact, according to InsideSales.com, sales reps spend only 37% of their time on revenue-generating activities. Tools that employ AI and NLP free sales teams from repetitive administrative tasks and allow reps to actually focus on selling. Here are a few key ways sales reps can use intelligent automation to gain better leads, improve forecasting, and close more deals.
#1 – Efficient & Personalized Text Message Conversations
It is no mystery that customers increasingly engage with businesses via texting. According to SMS Comparison, 9 out of 10 consumers prefer to communicate with businesses through text message, whether through alerts, reminders, or back and forth communication, and 95% of text messages are opened and responded to within three minutes of delivery. Sonar helps sales teams close more deals by reaching customers on their preferred channels. Texting remains human since AI handles lead qualification, scheduling, follow ups, conversation routing, and more so that reps can focus on the most valuable and individualized parts of the conversation.
In addition, Sonar’s suite of bots utilize NLP to continually learn, adapt, and work to become better overtime. This helps reps provide customers an individualized experience without compromising the speed and quality of message replies. Some key tasks our bots perform include recognizing entities (example: recognizing North America as a location) and generation (example: chatbot generates various responses using customer information and sends the best option).
#2 – Set-up Workflows with AI
Workflows are a powerful framework that allow sales teams to set-up custom logic within their existing software applications. As an example, sales teams might create custom greetings, configure questions that are relevant to potential customers, construct messaging routing (eg. connect customers to specific teams), and prepare for failure (eg. send leads to customer support or politely end the conversation).
Lead scoring remains one of Sonar’s most effective workflows. Teams use information about leads collected with either Sonar’s lead qualification bot or information from their CRM to generate a score for each lead that comes through the funnel. Lead scoring helps teams to quickly determine consumer readiness and evaluate where prospects are in the sales process.
Another powerful workflow within Sonar is assigning a conversation or prospect to a specific team based on a property allocated with them. Customizing customer conversations from the beginning of every interaction is critical. According to a recent PwC report, 32% of all customers would stop doing business with a brand they loved after one bad experience. The bottom line is customers expect personalization; according to Telus International, when a business provides a personalized experience, 76% of Americans are more likely to complete a purchase.
#3 – Chatbot Training with Sonar
A key component of NLP and AI is continual learning and adaptation. Sonar provides analytics to help teams improve communication and better understand how both sales reps and chatbots are performing. By analyzing customer response time and average time to close, for example, sales teams can make informed decisions about the sales process. Sonar’s team also works with businesses to train AI Bots so that they understand the diverse ways that customers will ask questions and share feedback.
Conclusion
Automation no longer represents impersonal customer communication. With today’s advancements in AI and NLP, sales teams can interact with a high volume of customers without compromising personalization. Sonar’s AI chatbot texts customers and categorizes conversations so sales reps can focus on more valuable interactions. Workflow automation allows teams to efficiently communicate with large numbers of customers while providing personalized assistance. Lastly, Sonar helps businesses train chatbots so workflows and dialogues are tailored to individual sales teams. This ultimately makes conversations more human and natural for both sales reps and customers. For more information about how Sonar can help your team implement AI and NLP solutions, request a demo today.
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