Do Managers Believe in AI Sales and Marketing?

According to surveys, sales and marketing managers are not only intrigued by artificial intelligence, they’re also believers in it.

And if sales is the lifeblood of all businesses, and AI does increase sales, then it might be difficult for sales and marketing managers to avoid adopting an AI marketing software solution. The research might help you decide on moving forward with AI adoption. Let’s check the pulse of the AI sales ecosphere now.

A couple of reports, one from Blueshift and another from InsideSales are reporting sales success using AI. If you’re a late adopter, you’re likely looking for solid proof for your own business case, or you’re waiting for an appropriate, affordable AI marketing software solution to learn.

AI Marketing Case Studies

If you’re dubious about the value of artificial intelligence platforms for marketing and AI, why don’t we at least take a look at some case studies and reports.

InsideSales offers an AI-powered SaaS platform to guide sales teams to build a better pipeline and close more of the right deals.  That’s the point of AI systems too, to identify the best prospects and be better prepared to close those easier, most qualified leads. As you read the survey results, keep in mind the power of AI testing, lead scoring, and predictive analysis which is very tough to conduct manually. AI’s power is compelling.

State of Artificial Intelligence for Sales and Marketing Report

InsideSales.com released its State of Artificial Intelligence for Sales and Marketing Report. The survey revealed that businesses intend to use it more, are believing in it more, and are seeing better success.

Is this a business cultural trend or are AI tools themselves generatig better results? That’s hard to determine, but regardless, it seems more sales and marketing managers are finding justification to begin their AI marketing journey.

InsideSales surveyed over 600 respondents to understand what trends in AI have them most concerned, about which they’re most optimistic.

At this time, sales automation, adoptiing artificial intelligence, getting into social selling, colloborating with marketing, and capturing value from Big Data is most important to respondents.

Why Don’t Manager’s Use AI Already?

The survey reports that managers don’t understand how AI works, that they don’t trust it, or they think it’s too expensive. The solution then is to shine some light on AI marketing solutions.  With big challenges facing sales and marketing teams today, they will turn to AI to keep pace with competition. After all, clients and customers may demand AI guided solutions.

What’s surprising is how many respondents are saying they currently use AI. Those using AI at work all the time jumped by 77%.

Respondents believe strongly that AI is improving performance with 39% saying definitely, and 52% saying probably. Their companies are expecting AI to increases sales performance by 34% with some expecting up to a 50% increase in sales. Over half believe sales will gain most from AI adoption while 44% expect marketing will benefit most.

52% of companies are apparently not using AI for sales so it appears there is a good sized pool of marketing managers who need to create a business case for it, and begin testing out AI marketing solutions.

41% say they will be using AI for sales in 2019, however 50% say they probably aren’t. That might be due to the fact that AI marketing software companies haven’t built solutions for SMBs, only the large corporations.

With respect to sales in particular, Respondents rated Sales Operations as the most affected by AI, followed by Sales Leadership Inside Sales was thought most likely to be “Significantly” impacted along with Sales Development. Field Sales was thought to be least affected.

Most respondents felt sales reps would never be replaced by AI, however AI is a guide to improved performance for all marketers and sales reps, not a replacement.

Forecasting is thought to be most affected by AI, followed by sales pipeline management and pipeline development. Forecasting, research and prospecting are the big 3 helpers for sales people.

You can register at the Insidesales.com website to download the full State of Artificial Intelligence Report.

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