Generative Al for B2B Sales The Official Guide - 2024 Edition © all rights reserved
Foreword: Lars Nilsson on B2B Sales' Major Al Moment ......... 3 The Al Evolution ........................................................................ 4 The Time is Now ....................................................................... 7 Two Truths and a Lie About How Al Will Impact Sales ............. 9 How to Level Up Your Sales Game With Generative Al ..........10 From simple automation to Al automation From templates to prompts From content generation to task execution Al to the Rescue ...................................................................... 15 In Conclusion, We Ride at Dawn ............................................. 16 The Human Minds Behind This Guide ..................................... 17
Foreward Welcome: A Major Moment Has Arrived Generative Al - artificial intelligence that can generate text based on human prompts and execute entire workflows- has already demonstrated the potential to be hugely value-additive to sales teams across all industries. The sales technology space has changed drastically over recent years, and more tools, channels and platforms exist to reach buyers than ever before. And we've all had a front row seat to another defining moment in time for sales technology over this past year. Thanks to Al, salespeople of all career levels are now crafting compelling, personalized messages that pique interest and get responses. RevOps teams are fully automating the repetitive parts of their sales team's workflows. Sales leaders have a new way to propel their teams forward to achieve ever-increasing quotas in a complex global economic landscape. And marketing teams have a line of sight into what is and isn't working with sales messaging. As you'll discover in this guide created by my friends at Regie.ai, there are so many ways that Generative Al can help you and your team continue to increase sales efficiency and productivity, earn greater results, and stretch your skills. But truly, what I love most about Regie.ai is that their platform removes many roadblocks that stifle the passion and effort reps want to put forth, but often don't have the time to do successfully. That passion - or "Fire in the Belly" as I call it - that drives success is greatly magnified for a rep when you supercharge your tech stack with Generative Al. There's no denying it - Generative Al has arrived, and if you learn to harness it for sales success, it's going to be major! Lars Nilsson VP Global Sales Development, Snowflake CEO, Sales Source Former VP Global Insights, Cloudera Advisor, Regie.ai 3
Generative Al for B2B Sales - The Al Evolution The Al Evolution This guide maps out the obstacles to securing outbound-sourced revenue and how they stand to be removed with the help of Generative Al. With Generative Al at work alongside your sales motions, you could be looking at a little less grind and a lot more zing as a sales professional. Ready for a helping hand? Lars is right. Sales is having a major moment thanks to Generative Al. Al has quickly become indispensable to businesses because of the efficiency and revenue predictability it offers. For some, it may feel like Al popped up out of nowhere, but the truth is, artificial intelligence has been evolving since the 1980s. But no matter how you look at it, there is no denying that 2023 will forever be known as the year of Al. The surge in adoption is certainly the case across G2, a peer-to-peer software review site. Check out the growth of Al from their latest State of Software Report: Q4 2023 The State of Software - G2 Al has arrived Al is fueling software market growth 2x higher than second highest Vendors now in the Al category on G2 with most buyer traffic on G2 fastest growing category within Al market
If it feels like all anyone talks about lately is Al, just wait. As more companies adopt new Al technologies and tools, the conversation will only heat up as everyone will be in Al ramp-up mode. The faster you and your team can get up and running, the greater your early mover advantage is in this exciting new world of Al-automated selling. But to understand where we are headed with these exciting advancements, it's important to understand the road traveled to get here. Let's review a brief history of this increasingly powerful technology in relation to the evolution of sales outreach. /-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \ NEXT The Al Evolution Timeline X___________________________________________________/ Q regie.ai
6 The Al Evolution Evolution of Sales Al Advancements Smile & Dial Era Artificial Neural Networks inspired by the human brain The popularization of telemarketing as a way to scale sales outreach beyond the field Email Era - 1:Many Outreach Speech and image recognition With computers and the internet becoming a staple in most companies, email becomes a channel to rely on for mass outreach Full Cycle Reps Full cycle sales reps responsible for orchestrating all manual workflows of the sales cycle Automation Era - 1:Few Outreach Apple launches Siri, pioneering voice recognition at scale Sales engagement platforms like Outreach and Salesloft are founded - the proliferation of persona-based email at scale begins Role Specialized Sales Teams Google introduces Deep Neural Nets; increases in Al R&D Software and automation streamline sales workflows between top of funnel SDRs and closing AEs, further specializing sales roles Insights & Data Google acquires DeepMind; efficiently identifies cats across images Intent platforms like 6sense and Terminus are founded, and more prospect and company data is available to personalize sales outreach Account Based Sales Era -1:1 Outreach OpenAI launches as a nonprofit to democratize Al Teams adopt more targeted outreach strategies to speak to accounts on a 1:1 level but it's still a challenge to reach the people at those accounts on a 1:1 level Google builds BERT, an early version of Al that can imitate human writing Open Al releases GPT-2 Microsoft invests in $1B in OpenAI Regie.ai is founded by Srinath Sridhar and Matt Millen J ( Al Sales Assistant Era - 1:You Outreach OpenAI releases GPT-3 and Regie.ai gets access to these early Al models True personalization at scale arrives, as teams start to use Generative Al to feed company and buyer insights into personalized prospecting platforms like Regie.ai OpenAI releases ChatGPT, making Generative Al widely accessible and application mainstream Al Automation Era - 1:You Outreach OpenAI releases GPT-4 Al Agents change the role of the human in the sales process, by understanding autonomously who to target, in which channels and with what message, for optimal engagement regie.ai
Generative Al for B2B Sales - The Time is Now The Time is Now We know that when it comes to B2B sales, there is nothing artificial about the need to scale outbound-sourced revenue, especially when it's getting harder to do so. In fact, a recent study by GTM Partners shows that 50% of companies are missing their pipeline targets. So what stands in the way of sales and operations leaders propelling their teams forward to meet their aggressive pipeline targets? It boils down to four things: 1. Lead sourcing and prioritization - it's time-consuming to sift through intent signals, identify the right audience to go after and build those target lists. Then, once the rep burns through their lists, they lose the leads to marketing for continuous nurture if not sales-ready. 2. Technology trap - on average companies spend around $6-7K in tech per rep. With many disparate systems in a rev tech stack today, teams need help unifying their technology to deliver better buying and user experiences to maximize ROI. Furthermore, much tech does not fit seamlessly into the workflow of a rep which hurts adoption. 3. Channel ineffectiveness - diminishing engagement returns especially in the email channel. To compete, teams must personalize, but there is a time-intensive tax on true personalization. 4. Talent rollercoaster - productivity decline leading to seller burnout, and / or macro headwinds causing team downsizing means, like a college coach, sales leaders now have a short amount of time to assess and develop winning sales talent before they are gone. Now, ironically, technology has been the promise to solve many of those challenges; there is tech to find and sort leads, there is tech that helps us open up new channels for engagement, and so on. regie.ai
8 But advances in technology are often a double-edged sword; they provide solutions to very real challenges but also expose new areas that need attention. In this instance, the success of revtech has always been dependent on human execution. Humans have been the perpetual bottleneck that this tech has had to pass through when it comes to owning a comprehensive, and coordinated prospecting workflow. execute with machine support execute tasks with human guidance Now, thanks to GenAI, tech can begin making decisions on our behalf, absolving ourselves of legacy human-reliant prospecting. This now completely shifts the work required by an SDR in the sales process, making Al an imperative for sales teams to lean into. You may know it as "artificial" intelligence, but today's Al tools and capabilities are as real as it gets. "This is a big deal for everyone in sales. Al is going to change everything. And the people who start using it early are going to have a big advantage, the same way we saw early adopters of Outreach have an advantage. Having early experience with Generative Al is going to have huge implications for SDRs in their careers." Sam Nelson Founder, SDRLeader.com Founder, Agoge Former SDR Leader, Outreach.io Advisor, Regie.ai
Two Truths and a Lie About How Al Will Impact Sales GenAI will reduce the amount of time spent on prospecting and meeting prep by 50%+ TRUTH! Gartner® predicts that by 2026, B2B sales organizations using GenAI-embedded sales technologies will reduce the amount of time spent on prospecting and customer meeting prep by over 50%. Generative Al can increase leads by 35% LIE! The increase is actually larger! Harvard Business Review cites that companies that have pioneered the use of Al in sales rave about the impact, which includes an increase in leads and appointments of more than 50%. Add to that the value created by having human reps spend more of their time hitting the phones and closing deals, and the appeal of Al grows even more. One of the greatest benefits of using a Generative Al platform that's designed for sales teams is that it can lighten the emotional load and alleviate the stress associated with the job. It's funny how Al can influence human emotions in such a positive way. "Sales has an especially high rate of burnout. Al sales tools help remove mundane tasks which then makes space for more exciting, engaging work. In sales we face a high rate of rejection, so leveraging a tool that can increase our win rates, makes the job more rewarding. The best way to use Al is by removing or expediting low-value tasks so we can spend more time being creative, intentional & strategic with our work." Generative Al can prevent seller burnout TRUTH! As our Head of Product Tom Tobin put it, "The reality is, sales development can be brutal. Think about how it would feel to write 100 emails and get only one or two replies. A career in sales can be more emotionally draining than many people realize." iQi regie.ai Leslie Venetz Founder, Sales Team Builder Top of Funnel Sales Coach, SalesQualia Advisor, Regie.ai 9
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