How AI will affect business and social selling

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world of business in a myriad of ways. Businesses and brands are working to incorporate the emerging technology into their products and services for the benefit of their customers and employees. As the technology becomes more advanced, the greater impact it will have on every aspect of your business, including social selling.

As we mentioned in a recent article, social selling is the art of building relationships during the sales process, and it usually takes place on various social media platforms. In the current sales climate, social selling has become an essential step for salespeople, with 78% of sales professionals who engage in social selling outselling their peers.

AI is already impacting social media, with social media platforms using the emerging technology to improve customer experience with personalization. For businesses, it’s time to embrace AI and use it to better understand online customers and prospects. Incorporating AI into social selling will enable salespeople to create a more seamless experience for their leads and customers. Here’s how:

1. Analytics, smart suggestions, and personalization

Sales professionals understand the importance of analytics, but it can often be a frustrating part of the sales process. Interpreting complicated metrics can be difficult for humans, but AI is highly skilled at analyzing data and spotting patterns, which a sales professional could then use effectively, and clear up time for more important sales tasks.

78% of sales professionals who engage in social selling outselling their peers

AI could also help spot common buying behaviors and provide salespeople deeper insights into their leads. Social sellers can then learn which content is activating their audience, and which types of social media posts lead to the best results. AI can point sales professionals to leads that may be more likely to buy or customers who might be looking for help or at a competitor’s products. This extra information enables salespeople to reach out to the right people at the right time. When contacting leads and customers, salespeople can use AI to provide them with the right content, creating a personalized and engaging buying experience while achieving content optimization.

For example, if an AI finds that a specific piece of content leads to more sales, it would recommend your sales and marketing teams to further promote that content. A few tools that do this already include CaliberMind, CONCURED, and Datorama.

2. Listening tools

Social listening is a way for salespeople to dive even deeper into the world of personalization, as prospects are openly sharing their pain points and needs on social media. Social listening tools can help salespeople understand what is being said about their products and brand, as well as stay aware of emerging social trends and topics. Marketers can also use this information to create timely and relevant content. With all the information that social listening provides, sales professionals can give customers and prospects fast customer service, well-timed conversation starters, and helpful content.

If, for example, one of your customers is complaining about a product on social media, a social listening tool will alert you and enable you to reach out quickly to address and solve the customer’s problem. On the other hand, if a potential prospect is complaining about a competitor’s product, the tool would enable you to reach out and offer an alternative and potentially win new business.

There are several tools that are using AI to track social media trends and brand sentiments, including Talkwalker, Digimind, and Meltwater, among many others.

With all the information that social listening provides, sales professionals can give customers and prospects fast customer service, well-timed conversation starters, and helpful content.

3. Social media optimization

There are several AI-powered tools that can help sales professionals and marketers improve their online presence, but social media platforms are also turning to AI to improve users’ experience from the inside out.

Take LinkedIn, for example. The professional networking site has been using AI for years to create a powerful user experience for job seekers, recruiters, and salespeople alike. Nearly every LinkedIn tool is assisted by AI in one way or another, from curating your daily feed to providing job recommendations to predicting lead responsiveness. As algorithms improve and data becomes cleaner and more standardized, the entirety of social media could be optimized to provide the best results.

4. Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots are becoming the norm for global businesses, as around-the-clock customer service is now essential. At present, most chatbots provide quick answers and helpful materials to common questions, connecting customers to a human when needed. In the future, however, chatbots have the potential to be so advanced that they’re indistinguishable from a human.

Our HP Sales Central Chatbot is one example of an interactive AI that provides product information to our Partners and continues to learn with each new interaction. With its immediate responses, Partners will be able to enhance customer satisfaction through quick and efficient sales engagement.

How do you think AI will impact your business? Let us know in the comments! 👇