It was only a year ago that Ringostat introduced artificial intelligence for analyzing phone calls. Since then, we have seen many examples of successful use of the tool by various companies. Now we are training our artificial intelligence to meet the needs of a particular business. Thanks to this, the sales department can work even more efficiently, as Ringostat AI Supervisor completely replaces an experienced supervisor. Find out how the tool can help you improve service, monitor script compliance, and close deals faster.
- Benefits of using AI in sales
- Save your time
- Monitor compliance with sales scripts or methods
- Understand your customers better to improve and personalize service
- Pay more attention to valuable and promising deals
- Keep the initiative and stay engaged with potential customers
- Increase your sales: up-sell and cross-sell
- Stay ahead of the competition
- Train the team and improve sales skills
- Tips for managers: how to implement AI
Benefits of using AI in sales
Save your time
The Sales Mastery 2022 survey showed that employees devote only 32% of their time to sales, while 68% of their time is spent on non-profit-making activities. For example, for recording the results of communication with a client and entering data into CRM. From now on, it is possible to delegate some tasks to artificial intelligence — in particular, the analysis of conversations with customers.
If a company has its own call center or a large sales department that receives and fulfills dozens or even hundreds of calls every day, it is really difficult to do without the help of artificial intelligence. After all, even individual specialists whose sole responsibility is to analyze conversations and evaluate team performance cannot process the entire array of information. And not every company hires such specialists.
More often, the responsibility for monitoring is assigned to a department head, who can devote only a few hours a week to the task. Selective and random analysis of calls gives only a very rough idea of the state of affairs, making it difficult to draw accurate conclusions and make informed decisions.
Instead, artificial intelligence can perform such tasks almost instantly. You no longer need to spend hours listening to and manually evaluating conversations. It’s enough to see a summary by Ringostat AI Supervisor and get a clear picture of the team’s performance.
Thanks to this instant and accurate analysis, one of our customers, Hillel IT School, was able to reduce the time spent on call analysis tenfold. And this is just the beginning of working with the tool!
Monitor compliance with sales scripts or methods
One of artificial intelligence’s biggest advantages is its ability to learn. For example, Ringostat AI Supervisor can be trained on business-specific materials: scripts, regulations, and rules. It will be guided by your requirements by analyzing your sales and conversations. Therefore, it can really replace a control specialist who has understood your rules well enough, familiarized himself with the documents, and merged them into the workflow.
This is exactly how Ringostat AI Supervisor works for our clients — different businesses from different industries with completely different processes. For example, for the GoITeens online academy, artificial intelligence analyzes conversations between employees of three departments according to different checklists. And for the consulting company it monitors compliance with one of three scenarios used by a employee depending on the client’s request.
Artificial intelligence is trained and customized individually for each business. Below is an example of analyzing a store employee’s compliance with a script during a phone call:
Understand your customers better to improve and personalize service
Understanding the needs, intentions, expectations, and moods of your interlocutors is the foundation of effective sales. Conversely, a sales rep’s inability to identify a customer’s real pain or distinguish a note of embarrassment in a voice can negate all efforts. Even if you follow the conversation script flawlessly.
It takes years of sales experience to master this art. Or you can use artificial intelligence as an assistant. It automatically and quickly draws up a portrait of the interlocutor, and can also accurately identify requests, objections, and doubts, and recognize moods. This data will help sales reps find an easier approach to each client, personalize offers, and offer the most suitable product or service. And ultimately close more deals.
Sometimes, it’s the mood of the conversation that makes all the difference. For example, one of our clients, GoITeens, which sells online courses for children and teenagers, notes how important it is to keep the customer motivated to learn and not lose them because of doubts or disappointment. Therefore, the employee should maintain a friendly tone and good humor, not lose patience if the interlocutor is distracted, etc. This is essential when communicating with people of different ages. 🙂 And Ringostat AI Supervisor helps to keep track of this.
Such data collected by artificial intelligence will also be useful for a manager analyzing the performance of an entire team. Sometimes, the reason for losing deals is not obvious, but sentiment analysis will help to conclude. For example, it will help to notice the burnout of a certain employee or difficulties with processing significant objections and prevent the loss of potential buyers in time.
Pay more attention to valuable and promising deals
As already mentioned, Ringostat AI Supervisor is able to instantly analyze and briefly summarize each communication. It also identifies the key points of the conversation. This will help to segment transactions by:
- intentions;
- the reason for the application;
- end result, etc.
For instance, AI can efficiently filter conversations that contain specific key phrases such as “sign a contract,” “cost,” “invoice,” or “invoice.” This streamlined process aids in identifying the most promising deals, instilling confidence in AI’s capabilities.
Moreover, AI’s insights into the buyer’s intentions and the outcome of the last conversation empower you to focus more on those deals that promise higher profitability for the company, providing a strategic advantage.
For example, for one of our clients, Hillel IT School, artificial intelligence collects data on the conversation’s outcome in a separate report block: whether the deal was closed, whether the invoice was issued, etc. This greatly simplifies control, as you don’t even need to analyze the entire conversation — just look at the summary. It also speeds up deal closing, as you can see at what stage each client is and what further actions will help you achieve the ultimate goal.
It’s up to each business to decide which phrases or actions of the interlocutors indicate the deal’s success. We teach AI to recognize this in conversations and set up the collection and recording of such data in a separate block of the call card. Below is an example of a brief summary of a conversation made by artificial intelligence.
AI will even be able to estimate the likelihood of a sale based on the content of the communication. You will be able to pay more attention to deals that are most likely to be profitable. You can also investigate the factors that influence wins and losses to scale successful cases.
Keep the initiative and stay engaged with potential customers
No conversation should end in nothing — the sales rep should offer the interlocutor the next step that will bring them closer to the purchase. For example, a second call in a few days to give time to think and consult, send product samples, and prepare a contract for review. Lack of initiative on the part of a employee can lead to the loss of a client.
The reason for the loss can be not only indecision but also simple forgetfulness or a sales rep’s workload. It is good that artificial intelligence helps to reduce this risk. For example, Ringostat AI Supervisor determines what the employee’s next steps would be after each conversation and provides recommendations. This helps to keep in touch with customers until the deal is closed.
Increase your sales: up-sell and cross-sell
To upsell and cross-sell, you need to have extensive sales experience or good intuition. You can also use artificial intelligence tips.
Just look at the transcript of the conversation or the keywords that were used during the conversation. This can serve as a clue as to what other additional products you can offer the customer. For example, if the person is choosing between a more expensive and a cheaper product, consider buying several related products or asking about a product that is not yet in stock. This will help you offer a product that is more likely to interest the customer next time.
Stay ahead of the competition
Artificial intelligence will also help you better understand how potential customers make a choice among similar offers on the market. For example, if customers often mention your competitors during dialogue with sales rep.
Conversation analysis will also be useful for this. Finding mentions of other companies or similar products is much easier and faster when you have a ready-made transcription of conversations with selected keywords. Otherwise, you’d have to listen to calls yourself or ask sales reps to take detailed notes while communicating with customers.
This is how artificial intelligence can help you analyze and systematically work with competitor-related objections and strengthen your own market position.
Train the team and improve sales skills
Your team may consist of the best salespeople in the world, but they also need constant training and skill improvement. Using artificial intelligence is like having a real expert in the team who constantly gives employees tips and tricks to improve their work.
The sales rep will also have a tool to monitor team performance. In addition to general Ringostat reports on productivity and the number of calls handled, you can analyze the progress of each deal. You don’t need to listen to call recordings, collect data bit by bit in CRM, or ask employees. It is enough to look at the results of communication performed by artificial intelligence to understand how your subordinates work and what results they achieve.
Ringostat AI Supervisor, trained on the basis of your processes and materials, will analyze in real time whether employees follow scripts, ask all the mandatory questions, and answer customer objections and doubts correctly.
In addition to phone conversations, you can send video and audio recordings to artificial intelligence for review. For example, interviews, video presentations, and trial lessons recorded on a dictaphone. This allows you to control all company communications, as well as train your staff on exemplary conversations.
If you notice recurring mistakes or difficulties with certain aspects of work, you can quickly provide employees with the necessary feedback to improve their skills.
For example, for one of our clients, the Hillel School of Computing, Ringostat AI Supervisor was trained to analyze conversations and give the team a score based on a complex system. It depends on whether they followed the script and said all the required phrases. The scores for each conversation form the overall rating of the specialists.
Tips for managers: how to implement AI
HubSpot’s Smarter Selling with AI study found that 60% of sales pros already use AI tools in their overall sales strategy. There is nothing to suggest that artificial intelligence adoption will stop — on the contrary, it will become an integral part of all processes. According to AIBusiness, 19 out of 20 customer interactions will be supported by AI by 2025.
Therefore, we recommend testing different tools and gradually introducing the technology into your processes. Here are some tips on how to do it most effectively.
- Choose AI tools that meet your goals. For example, business growth, increased brand awareness, better service, or even a reduction in the time it takes to get a manager to respond.
- Establish pragmatic AI goals that are in line with your business objectives. At Ringostat, we’re committed to surpassing your expectations. For instance, one of our clients anticipated a few months for tool implementation, but we delivered all the settings within a week and a half. However, it’s important to note that significant revenue growth through AI may require patience.
- Ensure AI is tailored to your business context. For instance, Ringostat can be trained to handle your priority tasks, enhancing its relevance and effectiveness for your business.
- Collaborate with leading experts. Seek solutions from a platform that offers not only an off-the-shelf product but also personalized customization, integrations, and technical support.Analyze and improve your processes. Artificial intelligence is not a magic wand that works wonders. But it is a convenient and truly useful tool that will help you create these miracles on your own.
