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Always Be Converting: AI Solutions for Quality Sales Meetings
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In 2023, Generative AI emerged as the prominent narrative within the technology landscape, capturing significant attention through a continuous stream of articles, announcements, and commentaries. Despite the sometimes overwhelming coverage, it is imperative not to dismiss the significance of Generative AI and the substantial role played by large language models (LLMs) in powering this technological advancement in business.
The Landbot team has been meticulously monitoring the potential and opportunities stemming from Generative AI. With the Landbot AI features, we have undertaken efforts to incorporate LLMs seamlessly into our product portfolio. These strategic integrations aim to democratize access to this cutting-edge technology, empowering sales teams across all levels of technological proficiency. As we delve into the following pages of this white paper, we invite you to explore the transformative possibilities and strategic implications that Generative AI brings to the forefront of sales development and innovation.
Introduction
The crossing of artificial intelligence (AI) with sales and marketing has ushered in unparalleled opportunities for businesses, especially with Generative AI emerging as a transformative force reshaping sales strategies. The latest McKinsey Global Survey, conducted annually to gauge the prevailing state of AI adoption, underscores the explosive growth of Generative AI tools. Remarkably, less than a year after their introduction, one-third of their survey respondents report regular use of gen AI in at least one business function.
More importantly, recent advances in AI have shifted its focus from being primarily of interest to tech professionals to becoming a central point for employees and leaders who may not be as tech-savvy. For example, McKinsey reports nearly a quarter of surveyed C-suite executives say they use Gen AI tools for their work, while over a quarter of respondents from companies using AI note Gen AI's integration into their boards' agendas. A whopping 40% of respondents express a commitment to increasing overall AI investments in the coming year.
Furthermore, the usage and integration of Gen AI tools are prominently present within the marketing and sales departments, positioning them at the forefront of adoption.
Keeping all of the above in mind, this whitepaper takes a deep dive into the transformative role Generative AI has on the conversion of leads into meetings and, subsequently, meetings into sales. As we delve into the intricate dynamics of this intersection between AI and sales, we aim to clarify the strategic imperatives and tactical considerations for businesses navigating this paradigm shift in the pursuit of enhanced sales efficacy and sustained growth.
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Why AI is Important for Sales Development
According to the HubSpot State of AI in Sales 2023 Report, a mere 37% of sales professionals' time is dedicated to building connections with leads and customers. The annual SalesForce State of Sales Report shows the percentage is even lower, with only 28% of time dedicated to selling.
This limitation is a direct result of the myriad manual, low-value tasks that demand their attention, such as excessive time spent inputting lead information into systems—a challenge that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the broader hurdles faced by sales professionals on a daily basis.
Sales professionals consistently grapple with:
- Slow response times, introducing delays in addressing lead inquiries and risking missed opportunities, stand out as significant impediments. This not only adversely affects customer experience but also disrupts the smooth progression of the conversion process.
- Appointment scheduling proves to be a substantial challenge, with complications arising in the coordination and arrangement of appointments with leads. This difficulty not only hampers the seamless flow of sales processes but also undermines the effectiveness of customer interactions, contributing to the broader challenges faced by sales teams.
- The lack of engagement with leads represents an ongoing struggle, creating difficulties in maintaining effective communication and subsequently diminishing the likelihood of successful conversions and customer retention. In addition, inefficiencies in regular communication channels pose yet another pain point, impeding professionals' ability to reach out and engage effectively.
- Internally, the challenge of information sharing persists due to still common data silos, which prevent seamless exchange of relevant lead information across teams or departments. While 81% of sales reps report that team selling helps them close, 83% say alignment with other sellers is challenging (SalesForce).
- The lack of technological resources in implementing new processes that involve technical knowledge, such as coding bots, proves to be a limiting factor. This constraint not only restricts the adoption of innovative solutions but also impedes the evolution of efficient workflows within professional contexts.
As highlighted in the SalesForce report, all of the above takes place in the backdrop of ongoing corporate battles against inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, regulatory uncertainty, and political disruption. Thus, sales representatives find themselves navigating an evermore complex landscape. In fact, an overwhelming 69% of sales professionals confirm that selling has become more arduous in the current environment.
Put simply, sales professionals are grappling with the challenges of adapting to a business landscape that's become more cutthroat and resource-tight. This added complexity is pushing a shift in the importance of sales operations. According to SalesForce, back in 2020, only 54% of sales leaders considered sales operations crucial for shaping strategy. Now, that number has bumped up to 65%. Traditionally, sales ops worked behind the scenes, focusing on sales tools and processes. But things are changing – these elements are taking the spotlight as businesses strive for efficiency and cost savings.
For those putting emphasis on operational efforts, including sales ops in strategic discussions is a key move. It is needless to say, Generative AI has become a core element of bringing sales operations to the forefront.
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For both departments, WhatsApp automation falls behind the more traditional channels, including email, callcenter, SMS, and social media. However, WhatsApp is taking a clear lead when it comes to consumer preferences. And while professionals are making an effort to meet consumers on this channel, our findings reveal that adoption and implementation are slow. In other words, they are unable to keep up with demand.
Sales Operations in the Age of Generative AI
What advantages can Generative AI bring to your sales operations such as prospecting, scheduling, data entry and others?
In straightforward terms, automating routine tasks allows your sales team to concentrate on the human aspects of sales. By leveraging AI-driven tools, organizations can efficiently enhance the entire sales lifecycle — from discovery and meeting scheduling to conversion. As highlighted in the HubSpot report, an impressive 78% of sales professionals find that incorporating AI in various capacities helps them allocate more time to essential tasks.
Moreover, a significant 80% of sales professionals affirm that AI automation reduces the time spent on manual tasks like data entry, extraction, and meeting scheduling. In parallel, 73% acknowledge AI's capability to extract insights from data that may otherwise go unnoticed. Additionally, 69% of sales reps agree that AI contributes to personalized customer experiences, while 65% express confidence in AI's ability to deepen their understanding of customers.
Backing up these points, the most commonly used AI tools in sales focus on automating everyday tasks like data entry and meeting scheduling, making up 35% of usage. Data-driven applications come in a close second, but it does not stop there. AI tools are earning a spot at every stage of the sales process.
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The prevalence of these challenges has created a unique space for low-code WhatsApp automation tools and generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to solve them.
When we combine the powers of easy automation and conversational dialogue on a channel consumers prefer—WhatsApp—the possibility for a cohesive customer journey becomes more tangible.
The next year will tell us much more about how these compatible technologies evolve and their impact on the customer experience. The gap between consumer expectations and reality will be reduced extensively. But more on this later.
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Sales Professionals vs The Rise of AI
The rise of AI in sales operations prompts a critical question: Does this dominance extend to displacing certain jobs?
Given that sales are inherently about human interactions and interpersonal skills, the growing "humanization" of AI brings forth concerns regarding its potential negative impact on employment. Current statistics indicate a balanced divide in opinions regarding whether AI will indeed replace sales jobs in the future.
Still, upon closer examination of how sales professionals integrate AI — as discussed earlier — it becomes evident that AI primarily serves as a valuable productivity assistant, a dependable companion rather than a solo performer. Rather than supplanting human roles, AI excels in assuming the more routine and repetitive tasks within the sales process. This, in turn, frees human agents to redirect their focus towards tasks of greater complexity and intellectual satisfaction.
It is perhaps important to note that, when queried about the primary benefits of AI, top account executives and sales leaders also emphasize its core value in augmenting the productivity and efficiency of their teams rather than seeking tools aimed at job displacement.
Furthermore, as indicated by McKinsey, for businesses, the objective of cost reduction through AI applications is only partial (33%). Interestingly, the significance of AI in lowering business costs, often associated with labor expenses, diminishes notably among high performers (19%). These top performers prioritize increasing the value of their offerings and revenue growth.
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Although AI is anticipated to influence the labor market, its impact is likely to take the shape of restructuring and reeducation rather than outright job replacement.
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Marketers, too, differ in their concerns based on whether or not they have worked with WhatsApp before. Perceived challenges of those completely new to WhatsApp are more evenly dispersed among all categories, with “WhatsApp being too new and untested” making its way to top challenges at 21%.
However, both groups—experienced and less experienced marketers—share concerns over complex technical implementation (23-24%) as well as more creative roadblocks, including developing logical, conversational nurturing sequences (29%). It’s interesting to highlight that email was ranked as the most used channel for lead generation (70%).
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This begs the question: If marketers are used to building sequences to generate and nurture leads via email cadences, what makes creating cadences for WhatsApp campaigns so different? Our suspicion is that many are not prepared to handle the uniqueness and, sometimes, unpredictableness a WhatsApp conversation can bring. What happens if a person interacts in a way that’s not defined in the flow?
However, with the emergence of ChatGPT, we’ve reached a tipping point, and WhatsApp is ripe with opportunities.
Generative AI Automation & Landbot: Discover the AI Appointment Assistant
As previously explored, Generative AI's integration into sales operations proves to be remarkably versatile, delivering value across every facet of the buyer journey. Landbot emerges as a strategic ally within this landscape, consistently committed to infusing a human touch into diverse business processes, irrespective of inquiry volumes or resource constraints. This commitment extends to our approach to AI implementation.
In alignment with our vision, we introduce our latest advancement — the AI Appointment Assistant — a solution crafted to optimize lead management operations, with a targeted focus on accelerating the appointment booking process, allowing for hassle-free scheduling.
This feature allows you to:
1. Automate Lead Information Gathering: Streamline lead information gathering process, eliminating the need for extensive manual input into the system.
2. Deliver Quick Responses to Common Lead Inquiries: Provide prompt responses to frequently asked questions, ensuring timely engagement with leads and minimizing the risk of losing them to competitors or missed opportunities.
3. Enable Continuous, Precise, and On-Demand Interaction: Facilitate ongoing interaction by delivering real-time FAQ responses, offering on-demand support, and providing human-like responses in any language.
4. Address Appointment Scheduling Challenges: Simplify the appointment scheduling process, enhancing efficiency and convenience by overcoming complications in coordinating and arranging appointments with leads.
5. Communicate Through Preferred Channels & Augment Traditional Channels: Facilitate communication through various channels, whether by enhancing your website with a smart chat assistant or leveraging widely-used communication channels such as WhatsApp, known for its remarkable open rates of 99% and a response rate exceeding 40%.
6. Promote Seamless Sharing of Relevant Lead Information Across Departments: Foster collaboration by ensuring easy sharing and access to lead and appointment information through email notifications, facilitating efficient teamwork across departments.
7. Effortless Setup Without Technical Assistance: Streamline the implementation process with an intuitive interface, making it accessible to diverse audiences, particularly tailored for non-tech-savvy customers who may have limited time or inclination to delve into the intricacies of a technical product.
While Landbot is known for its easy-to-use visual chatbot builder, the new AI Appointment assistant goes beyond our usual dedication to no-code. This feature enables the creation of an assistant without engaging with the builder itself, thus offering a higher level of convenience. Accessible directly from the Landbot app dashboard as well as the left-side navigation tab, the configuration process involves navigating through six distinct sections:
1. Your Calendar: Integrate the Appointment Assistant with your Google Calendar, ensuring seamless reflection of appointments booked by customers. Customize event types, durations, slot availability, and related parameters.
2. Ask The Lead: Define the questions you wish the bot to pose to your leads or customers, fostering a discovery process for a deeper understanding and personalized meeting experiences.
3. Answer The Lead: Enhance the bot's capabilities by providing information to address any doubts or questions your leads or customers may have. Instant delivery of accurate information reduces hesitation and minimizes friction.
4. Customize Assistant: Personalize your assistant by assigning a human-like name and selecting the languages it should use. The flexibility to choose multiple languages enhances the conversational experience.
5. Notifications: Enable notification functionality, allowing you to send notifications via email to yourself or your team. This feature supports multiple recipients by including multiple email addresses separated by commas.
6. Preview: Conclude the configuration process by reviewing and interacting with the newly created assistant, ensuring a seamless understanding of its functionality.
To see the configuration in practice, watch this short tutorial:
The assistant allows for the streamlined collection and sharing of prospects' data while addressing their inquiries in an automated yet human manner. It facilitates a swift transition from idea to implementation, all without imposing additional strain on your resources. In a nutshell, its efficiency and human touch seamlessly converge for enhanced productivity.
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Conclusion
In navigating the dynamic terrain of sales, Generative AI emerges not just as a technological trend but as a strategic cultural shift. Beyond the noise of headlines, it represents a subtle transformation — a fusion of technology and human touch that reshapes how businesses connect with their audience. Imagine a landscape where Generative AI seamlessly blends with the art of selling, allowing professionals to delve into the human nuances that define meaningful connections!
Landbot's embrace of Generative AI speaks to a commitment to making cutting-edge technology accessible. By integrating large language models into our offerings, we aim for a future where sales teams of varying tech proficiencies can tap into the transformative potential of AI. This isn't just about automation; it's about empowering individuals to focus on the human side of sales, creating experiences that transcend algorithms.
Reflecting on the shared insights, let them inspire your exploration into the opportunities that Generative AI unfolds. The commitment to increased AI investments isn't a fleeting trend but rather a recognition of AI's pivotal role in shaping business trajectories.
Welcome to the era of always converting, where AI solutions pave the way for quality sales meetings, and the canvas of possibilities is yours to navigate!
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The main reason it has been released to the public is to allow the AI engine to learn and improve. At this point, ChatGPT is not ready to be a holistic customer-communication solution that can be responsible for high-stakes tasks.
However, there are ways you can begin to leverage the GPT-3 language model, regardless of those limitations, as a supporting element within automated WhatsApp conversations.
A fully-GPT-3-driven chatbot is not foolproof, yet!
However, it is possible to start experimenting with the large language model to fulfill supporting functions and fill in the gaps that are known to block communication flows. In other words, while we can't allow the AI to roam freely, it can have some autonomy if given a very specific goal and rules to complete the task.
For example, integrating a GPT-3 model can help collect information on the number of guests that will be staying in a hotel. The user is allowed to answer freely—be it by providing a numeric or text value—“two guests” or “2”—and the chatbot will be able to interpret those values.
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Once the task is completed, the conversation returns to the structured flow defined in your builder with the data extracted. The AI made the interaction natural, and you have the data needed to process the action—in this case, booking a hotel room.
The implications of these experiments are far-reaching. "Controlled humanization" of conversational sequences and lightning-speed-development for customized flows are game changers because they can help:
Shorten the time-to-value when automating operations
Create more fluent, natural flows while following a set structure and maintaining control
Get buy-in from leadership by being able to present a chatbot flow within hours/days
These advances in no-code chatbot builders and AI ensure that the conversationalization of business communication is here to stay. There have been challenges in implementing WhatsApp-led growth strategies for lead generation and customer support. However, the release of the GPT-3 model is one of the key elements that hold the potential to diminish, if not eliminate, the top concerns by both profiles.
Consumers worldwide are increasingly accustomed to faster service and demand better, more personalized experiences regardless of industry.
WhatsApp automation and the introduction of ChatGPT only add fuel to the growing fire of demand.
Marketers and customer support operatives alike aspire to satisfy consumer needs, often with multichannel experiences. Still, the gap between expectations and reality remains wide.
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When questioned about channel preference regarding customer support, WhatsApp is, without argument, a consumer favorite. However, most companies continue to provide their customer support via email (79%), call centers (45%), and social media (35%).
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There’s a reason consumers have given the green “tick” to WhatsApp. Its popularity is clearly reflected in the perceived benefits. Consumers, from Generation Z to Baby Boomers, unanimously voted 24/7 availability during non-business hours (45%), convenience (42%), quick response times (42%), and personalized conversations (35%) as the main draws of the channel.
Interestingly, the above benefits can all be associated with chatbots in general. But, why is WhatsApp succeeding where other web-based conversational automation hasn’t before?
Its appeal lies in offering a unique brand-consumer connection that promotes:
Comfort and security: Conversations take place on an encrypted platform that is already integrated into consumers’ daily lives.
Continuity: Interactions and the data exchanged within the chat never disappear, allowing for more seamless personalization and minimizing needless back-and-forth.
Mobile first, desktop friendly: Conversations are notlimited to a specific place and are fluid across devices.
Asynchronicity: Conversations are not limited to a specific time. While you can provide immediate responses, users can take their time and contact you at their convenience.
Availability: WhatsApp provides a reliable channel to those living in areas with limited internet connectivity making it widely accessible.
A short time ago, Landbot’s CEO, Jiaqi Pan, emphasized the importance of adopting a new mindset when it comes to building a WhatsApp-led growth strategy, focusing on the following:
Retention instead of acquisition
Building relationships instead of chasing transactions
Enabling team collaboration instead of competition
He theorized that to leverage WhatsApp automation to the fullest, it can’t work in silos but rather span across departments and work in harmony with the entirety of the customer journey. Hence, the question is not whether it is better to use WhatsApp for marketing purposes or customer support. Instead, you need to ask where you are lagging when it comes to fulfilling customer expectations. Which gaps in the journey can WhatsApp help you bridge?
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Consumer responses corroborate his theory, as most respondents are open to using WhatsApp to communicate with businesses in a wide range of instances. Access to customer support (49%) and receiving delivery notifications (36%) are the most popular uses.
Interestingly, providing feedback (31%) and receiving promotional content (27%) are just a little behind. This is an important observation.
The top choices favor the customers, but the runner-up use cases provide a more direct value to businesses.
In saturated markets, reviews are crucial and notoriously hard to get, while promotional content is often overlooked. This begs the question of whether—beyond convenience—it’s the personal, more informal nature of WhatsApp communication that makes users more likely to engage. It’s a way to stand out amongst the noise.
The responses in the graph on the right only provide a general snapshot of consumer preferences for WhatsApp use cases. Their tendencies can differ largely depending on the context.
For instance, Plum (employee benefits platform that provides group medical insurance) based its entire WhatsApp-led growth strategy on allowing customers to use the channel to file claims.
This use case naturally involves uploading a lot of sensitive data and documents—an interaction that ranks last with only 9% of votes.
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Even so, Plum achieved an 85% opt-in rate from users wanting to file claims via their WhatsApp channel, uploading personal information. In fact, Plum continues to process 80% of all claims via WhatsApp. This use case reiterates the importance of building your WhatsApp-led growth strategy, thinking first and foremost of the pain point you're alleviating for customers. The results might surprise you.
Choose the right
WhatsApp BSP partner
All major challenges related to WhatsApp adoption circle back to finding the right WhatsApp BSP that has the supporting tools needed for success.
Issues related to the high complexity of implementation, slowed time-to-value, or lack of easy-to-connect, built-in integrations are often within the scope of specialized low or no-code providers. While professionals show interest in WhatsApp, there seems to be a disconnect between expectations and actual market offerings and opportunities.
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Consider a complete WhatsApp-Led growth strategy
Consumers eagerly embrace WhatsApp as a channel to communicate with businesses and brands. However, most companies miss out on the hidden growth opportunity by being too wary of adopting WhatsApp.
Moreover, when they do adopt WhatsApp, oftentimes, use cases are created in silos. Implementing a WhatsApp-led growth strategy from a company-wide perspective can alleviate pain points from end-to-end, providing continuity throughout the entire customer experience.
Leverage
no-code tools
Low-code and no-code solutions have been gaining in popularity, making a particularly big splash during the pandemic, when time was of the essence. While many associate no-code with website development, the variety available is virtually endless, extending to the realm of WhatsApp automation, as well.
Whether you are working with a BSP or going solo, you can leverage no-code tools to manage campaigns and build chatbots to stay within budget, reduce complexity, and speed up time-to-value.
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Keep your eyes open for
what's to come
The rise of ChatGPT is a step forward that cements the place of conversational automation in business.
While this technology is still in experimental stages, it offers a strongpoint of inspiration—a peek into what the future holds for consumer-business communication!
Professionals interested in WhatsApp automation should neither ignore this trend nor rush into it. For the time being, GPT-3 is an LLM model that allows us to experiment and leverage the technology by allowing you to design support functions such as bot-flow generation or humanization of low-impact conversations.
What does the future hold for WhatsApp-led growth? We're excited to find out.
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