The fundamental steps of making a sale are well documented, and standardizing those steps into a communications workflow centered on effective collaboration translates to increased efficiency, agility, visibility, and, in the end, an increased profit margin for the organization.
Leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance digital workflow
Today, digital workflows enable sales leaders to automate processes, gather data, monitor outcomes, and provide feedback to drive revenue and increase the bottom line.
As an emerging technology, AI has already started to boost productivity for sales teams with:
- Optimized customer communications
- Improved coaching and learning
- Strict regulation compliance
AI and digital workflow: Optimize sales communications
The ability to communicate well is at the heart of successful sales. Sales pros need to be able to collaborate within the organization as well as have the tools to effectively communicate with prospects and customers.
Using AI in sales communications means salespeople can sell “smarter”; for example, AI can help drive the conversation and surface relevant data salespeople need to close the sale. Companies can even tap into the rich possibilities of real-time voice transcription to ensure all key points of a conversation were recorded and notes are contextually relevant.
Insureon, the nation’s leading online provider of insurance for small businesses, provides coverage for more than 100,000 small businesses and needed an enhanced voice communications solution for their business needs. This included having an open platform that drives tightly integrated business apps.
Insureon also wanted to streamline its telesales operations nationally and provide sales agents with access to real-time feedback while they were on sales calls. The goal was to use AI and machine learning to enable sales agents to leverage the team’s collective knowledge in selling situations.
Once implemented, this AI-powered solution began producing immediate results. Customer conversion rates have increased by 50 percent, while call-handle times have decreased by 45 percent.
AI and digital workflow: Streamline and automate coaching processes
The best training requires access to current information, thorough analysis, and results that can be easily interpreted and applied. Gong.io’s self-learning conversation analytics engine, which integrates with the RingCentral platform, does exactly this.
The AI-enhanced application takes in all the conversations that sales teams have with clients and analyzes each one, picking out patterns and identifying speech behaviors that can be used to determine what makes a successful sales call.
Gong.io’s technology was installed at a customer site, and over 250,000 B2B sales calls were recorded, analyzed and matched with CRM records to determine outcomes. The results allowed the sales team to determine such things as the optimal talk-to-listen ratio, critical keywords, and even the best time to talk pricing.
AI and digital workflow: Ensure sales compliance
Compliance to government and industry regulations are critical but can be difficult to achieve—and the penalties for failing to do so can be severe. This is especially true in highly regulated industries, such as financial services. The retention requirements apply equally to emails, texts, audio, video—the whole range of today’s communications. With AI-powered and cloud-enabled applications, compliance risks can be identified automatically and routed to the appropriate compliance team.
Learn more about how RingCentral and its partners achieve compliance with AI and cloud communications.
Originally published Apr 23, 2019, updated Dec 30, 2022
