One of the best ways to understand generative AI is to see it as a productivity tool. Adopting AI doesn’t mean replacing your sales team with robots; it means enhancing their productivity, so they can accomplish more with fewer resources. Here are three main ways in which artificial intelligence can help sales teams speed up the selling process:

1. Reducing Time Spent on Administrative Tasks
Time spent on non-revenue-generating activities is a major pain point for sales teams. Although 77% of salespeople report working more hours than they did a few years ago, these additional hours don’t always translate into more sales. According to recent research, 41% of a salesperson's workday is dedicated to administrative tasks such as internal meetings, emails, prospect research, writing cold emails, updating the CRM, and scheduling. Many salespeople feel that management doesn’t fully understand how time-consuming these tasks can be.

The same research found that 81% of salespeople estimate they could hit their quotas and generate 38% more revenue if administrative time were reduced. So, how can generative AI help sales teams reduce this time?

• Taking Notes from Sales Calls: Most salespeople enjoy speaking with potential clients, but writing down notes after each call to input them into the CRM? Not so much. Generative AI can connect to sales calls, transcribe them, and generate notes and next steps for you automatically. Many AI tools integrate directly with CRM systems, adding notes and action items automatically, acting as a virtual assistant.

• Writing Outbound Emails: Even with a library of templates, drafting a personalized email for a potential client can take over 10 minutes. You need to ensure the recipient's name and company are correct, make a connection, and tailor the pitch to their company profile. Generative AI can pull data from your CRM or a research tool and craft a prospecting email based on the parameters you set. Within seconds, you can adjust the message, request a rewrite, or save templates. With CRM integration and grammar checks, the chance of human error is reduced, minimizing the risk of losing a significant deal due to a simple mistake.

2. Improving Sales Outcomes through Personalization
Beyond saving time, generative AI can lead to better results for sales teams. Many professionals who use AI in sales believe it makes their prospecting more effective, helps increase response rates from cold calls, and builds stronger rapport with clients. One of AI's most promising capabilities is its ability to personalize interactions.

Research has shown that by adding 20% personalization to sales emails, professionals have increased their email open rates by over 40% and doubled their reply rates. Personalizing each email manually takes time and effort, but AI makes it possible to scale this personalization for entire teams.

Here are a few ways sales teams are using AI-driven personalization to boost conversions:

• Sending personalized emails based on contact history
• Analyzing the content and sentiment of sales calls or emails to recommend relevant next steps
• Personalizing landing pages and demo pages
• Sending key points from sales calls to prospects to keep the conversation moving

AI can also analyze historical data and identify patterns that predict how likely a potential client is to convert, helping sales teams focus on the leads with the highest potential.

3. Generating Better Insights
In addition to improving the sales process, generative AI can provide real-time insights for sales managers into effective strategies, revenue forecasting, and performance feedback for their teams.

• More Accurate Forecasting: AI tools can offer predictive data-driven projections for sales managers, providing a clearer picture of future results.

• Feedback and Coaching: Generative AI can extract insights from calls to offer both general and individualized feedback. It can identify common objections and best practices, creating personalized coaching materials for salespeople. In some cases, AI can even create interactive simulations to help sales teams practice different scenarios.

Conclusion
Generative AI is transforming the way organizations approach sales by improving team productivity and optimizing their potential for success. AI tools allow salespeople to save time, personalize interactions at scale, and deliver more value to clients, leading to better results and stronger relationships. Check out our sales blog posts for more useful insights.