I got into sales for the same reason many of you did—I genuinely like meeting new people and helping them solve problems. I also like knowing a product inside and out, especially a product I believe in. And, last but not least, I love the rush of closing a deal.
What I hate about sales is anything that keeps me from doing all that stuff I just mentioned.
I did not get into sales to account for every minute of my time or have 3 layers of management grill me on every little detail of every deal. I did not get into sales to spend hours putting data into CRM, only to have my manager open a spreadsheet on Friday and make me recite everything over again. And I did not get into sales so I could spend 2 hours at a Starbucks after a day full of meetings to update deals.
Fortunately, thanks to AI and machine learning, these days I get to spend my time doing what I do best: selling. Here are three ways Clari helps me do what I love:
1. I'm "reclaiming my time." Seriously.
Manually inputting activity data into CRM fields (sometimes hundreds of fields) is soul-crushing, not to mention a colossal waste of time. Plus, the longer it takes me to update my opportunities, the less time I have to properly manage them.
Fortunately, Clari does a lot of the legwork for me. The platform captures my activity—every email, meeting, and file exchanged between me and my prospect—and it does it all automatically. In Clari, I only update what has changed and what is important and I can easily do it from my phone while I'm in the parking lot after a meeting. Plus, Clari reminds me about the things I need to do next, so deals are less likely to slip through the cracks. It's like having a personal assistant that keeps me focused on the deals that matter most.
2. I'm up-leveling my sales skills and becoming a better rep.
Because my deal data is always up to date, my manager and I are in sync. He doesn't have to chase me down for missing details and I don't have to waste time giving him the play-by-play—or worse, avoiding him all together.
That means that our 1:1s are shorter now and far more productive. We focus on deal strategy and progress instead of nitpicking activity. The added bonus is that we are all talking about deals and looking at them the same way, from the rep level all the way up to the CEO—so there is no time wasted when we strategize on what next steps to take. All the data we need is right there and accessible in real time.
The CRM score is an great way to gut-check deals. By applying artificial intelligence to historical data and trends, Clari predicts the probability of whether a deal will close. No more chasing dogs to the last day of a quarter—I know early on what is tracking well and what is at risk and can make decisions in time to affect my end-of-quarter results.
3. I'm staying connected and agile and getting deals done on the go.
They say that sales is a team sport. With Connect, Clari's intelligent real-time messaging app, it's easy to communicate and collaborate with the rest of my team, from anywhere and from any device.
So when I need to sync with internal stakeholders to execute and help push deals across the finish line, they're just a chat away. The ClariBot reminders also help with actionable insights that keep everybody on the same page, focused on deal movement and hitting our number.
There's never been a better time to do what I do. AI reduces administrative burden, gives me back selling time, and positions me for success.