Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the modern world. Many people use AI in their daily tasks, but even more people have realized its various benefits in a business context.
AI's Impact on Sales Forecasting
You might be wondering how AI-driven sales strategies can help with sales forecasting. Consider these five ways AI in sales forecasting can benefit your business:
1. Real-Time Forecasting and Analysis
AI analyses data in a fraction of the time a human can. Machines can also work 24/7, allowing for real-time changes in the sales forecast and adaptations made in the moment. Generally, AI is much better at analyzing the information you feed and turning it into an accurate forecast.
AI can quickly comb through large sales forecasting datasets. For example, you can input past sales records for a specific product, allowing AI to recognize trends and create more accurate forecasts. You can also input how previous market changes affected your sales so that you can better anticipate future challenges.
2. Lead Generation
Your sales process will only succeed if you're trying to sell your product or services to the right people, which means that lead generation is a critical step in your sales funnel. However, this phase often takes up much time without yielding many results.
Fortunately, you can use AI in your sales forecasting techniques to determine which people are most likely to purchase your offering. You can then use artificial intelligence to come up with strategies to target your ideal audience. AI uses past sales data and customer behavior to assess your leads and forecast which ones are likely to convert. Your sales team can start contacting this group, as they have a higher chance of closing the deal.
3. Personalized Experience
People are more likely to support a business if they feel that it cares for them, so taking the time to adapt your sales process to each unique prospect can make a big difference. AI can segment your customers into different categories so that you can create a personalized approach to each group, allowing for precise predictive analytics than if you were to analyze all your clients as one group.
Once again, AI can use sales forecasting to look at past trends, see which approaches worked best for your clientele, and factor that into your future analysis. More specifically, a growing trend in artificial intelligence is the use of chatbots. The chatbot industry has a market value of over $15 billion, so it's clear that it's becoming increasingly popular. This innovative software allows customers to interact with your business and receive personalized answers to their queries — without your team having to craft responses.
Chatbots and sales prediction using AI intersect because artificial intelligence can use information from these chats to determine how likely an individual is to convert into a paying customer. Your team can use this information to contact leads or upsell to existing customers, leading to a more positive forecast.
4. Better Training
While AI has revolutionized how businesses approach sales forecasting, your company still needs a team of humans for that personal connection. Artificial intelligence may be helpful on the administrative side, but humans are more likely to close a deal than robots.
AI can also assist you by leveling up your training and overall efficiency. Machine learning can easily identify gaps in your sales process and recommend training solutions to help your team perform their best. Training increases your employees' engagement at work, which can increase their productivity by 17%, so it's a worthwhile investment.
5. Task Automation
By having AI do your repetitive tasks, you're giving it first-hand experience collecting data and seeing what works. Over time, the AI will learn which approach is best for which type of customer and adapt these tasks. This real-time information gathering also gives your artificial intelligence a more in-depth look at the data, creating the opportunity for more detailed sales forecasting.
Overcoming Challenges With AI Integration
You can use AI sales forecasting to overcome certain obstacles, such as:
- Wasted time: Sales forecasting is a time-consuming process. Your team needs to analyze past information to make an informed decision. AI does this quickly, while your team completes other important work.
- Repetitive tasks: If your sales team has to split their focus between administrative tasks and sales, they could be missing valuable connections. Instead, why not have AI handle your repetitive tasks and let your team do what they do best — sales.
- Large datasets: Examining spreadsheet after spreadsheet of sales data is a big task, but AI specializes in combing throught large data sets to identify actionable insights.
- Human error: Machines make much fewer mistakes than humans, so implementing AI in your systems reduces the risk of error and the related consequences.
How to Integrate AI Into Your Sales Process
Now that you have a better idea of why AI is such an integral part of the modern-day sales forecasting process, you might have questions about how to effectively implement it into your process. The following five steps are an excellent start:
- Determine where you want to use AI:
You need to look at your sales procedures and forecasting and determine the best areas to start using AI. Are repetitive tasks taking up your team's time? Use AI to lessen the workload and free up some time. Are your sales forecasts inaccurate? Use AI's predictive capabilities to produce more realistic results. Look at where your sales are struggling, and then find ways to implement AI to boost them.
- Collect your data:
Once you've implemented AI, you can use it to start collecting data for real-time reports. Before then, however, you need to collect historical information so that the software has something to work with when predicting trends and forecasting sales.
- Choose the right artificial intelligence:
With multiple AI solutions, you must choose the best option for your business needs. Look at what they offer and select what aligns best with your requirements, whether predictive forecasting or chatbot technology.
- Train the model:
One of the most significant advantages of AI is that you can train it based on specific datasets. Once you've selected and integrated your preferred AI tool, you can train it by feeding it the data you want it to use so that it can start identifying patterns and developing strategies.
- Monitor and improve:
The only way to find out if your AI works how you'd hoped is to launch it. You can then monitor its forecasting to see its accuracy and find ways to improve areas where it might be lacking. You can feed it more data or tweak the settings to increase accuracy.
Use Clari for Your Sales Processes
Clari streamlines your sales process and gives you the results you want. We're a leader in sales automation, and our revenue platform can improve your forecasting accuracy by leveraging predictive and generative AI to enhance revenue processes.
Clari is up and running within a month, unlike other platforms, which often take much longer. Because of how quickly our products launch, most customers see an increased return on investment within 90 days. Take a product tour or request a demo to learn more about how we can help you.
