Shieldbase
Aug 28, 2024
In the competitive landscape between startups and established players, success often hinges on which side achieves critical milestones first. For sales technology, it might seem that incumbents like Salesforce and HubSpot have a distinct advantage. These companies are deeply integrated into organizations as essential "systems of record," making them resistant to replacement. Moreover, they are not passive observers of the AI revolution; they are actively integrating AI features to preserve their competitive edge.
However, we contend that AI is poised to transform the core systems of record and sales workflows to such an extent that no incumbent is immune to disruption.
The Emergence of Multi-Modal Sales Platforms
The sales platforms of tomorrow will transcend traditional text-based databases. The future core system will be multi-modal, encompassing text, image, voice, and video. This evolution will integrate comprehensive customer insights from across the organization, offering a depth of understanding far beyond current capabilities.
AI-native platforms will excel in extracting actionable insights from customer interactions and behaviors. Instead of manually gathering and analyzing data, AI will streamline the process, providing immediate and valuable information.
Revolutionizing Sales Workflows
AI will fundamentally alter sales workflows. Sales teams will no longer need to spend extensive hours researching leads or preparing for calls. AI will handle these tasks rapidly and efficiently. Instead of manually evaluating customer readiness, AI will continuously compile and update a ranked list of potential buyers. Personalized marketing materials will be automatically generated, and live tips during calls will assist in closing deals.
The Shift from Traditional Systems
Incumbent sales technologies, such as Salesforce and HubSpot, were built on relational databases and cloud solutions. Their core infrastructure is based on structured sales opportunity data. However, as point solutions have proliferated, data has become fragmented across various tools and activities.
With the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), future sales platforms will integrate unstructured and multimodal data. These platforms will aggregate information from diverse sources, including emails, conversation transcripts, sales materials, and more. The LLMs will constantly update this data to provide the most relevant context.
New Sales Workflows
The introduction of advanced data infrastructure will redefine or even eliminate traditional sales activities. New workflows will emerge, enabling tasks that are currently unimaginable. The interactions between sellers and buyers will undergo a significant transformation.
Early Innovations in AI Sales Solutions
AI-native sales tools are not merely enhanced versions of existing solutions. They are pioneering new approaches and serving diverse use cases. For instance, tasks like converting inbound leads and automating outbound campaigns, which were once separate, are now becoming interconnected through AI agents. These agents are expected to expand their capabilities to manage entire sales pipelines across various channels.
Categories of AI Applications in Sales
Intelligent Pipeline: AI-driven approaches will automate pipeline building, using tools like Clay’s enrichments and AI research agents to generate high-quality lead lists. AI will also personalize messaging for outbound efforts.
Digital Workers: Many AI solutions aim to oversee the entire sales process, from lead qualification to deal closure. For example, tools like 11x currently automate the SDR role up to meeting booking, with potential future expansions to complete deal closures.
Sales Enablement and Insights: AI will enhance deal-making by providing valuable context and information beyond traditional sales activities. Tools like Naro will sift through emails and documents to provide relevant information for responding to buyer inquiries.
CRM and Automations: Effective sales platforms will capture and organize unstructured data in ways that benefit both human and AI workers. For example, Day captures conversation context to continually update its knowledge base, while People.ai’s SalesAI product automates sales activities across multiple CRMs.
Market Impact and Future Directions
Blending Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success: AI will foster greater integration and collaboration among sales, marketing, and customer success teams. With a unified source of truth and AI-driven guidance, job functions may blend, leading to more team-based quotas and collaborative sales cycles.
Dynamic Go-to-Market Strategies: AI will enable more flexible and customer-centric go-to-market strategies. Companies will be able to adapt their resource allocation based on the most effective approaches for closing accounts, potentially redefining brand positioning to serve a wider range of buyer personas.
Pricing Models in an AI-Driven World: The shift to AI-native software could render traditional seat-based pricing obsolete. Companies may need to adopt outcome-based pricing models, aligning costs with the value delivered. The challenge will be determining appropriate metrics for billing, from unqualified leads to fully automated deal closures.
Conclusion
AI is set to revolutionize sales processes and workflows, fundamentally altering the relationship between sellers and buyers. As AI technology advances, sales software will evolve to accommodate new strategies and capabilities. The future of sales will be marked by a complete reimagining of how sales functions are performed and managed.
