7 Ways Conversational AI is Changing Sales & Customer Acquisition

Conversational AI, also known as artificially intelligent conversation or more commonly “Chatbots”, is automated conversation powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. It allows leads to communicate with brands through messaging apps like (Facebook Messenger) and receive instant responses, without the need for a human on the other end of the line.

The level of technology today has elevated the capabilities of conversation from mere “chatbots” with canned responses to complex engines that deliver tailored responses and learn over time.

This has huge implications for sales teams and customer acquisition processes. Here’s 7 ways that conversational AI is changing sales and customer acquisition.

1 Automate up-selling & cross-selling

Up-selling and cross-selling is usually up to the individual sales agent and is heavily manual. Conversational AI removes this obligation from your sales team and gives them tools to better manage existing clients or complex cases.

Conversational AI can up-sell or cross-sell automatically within a conversation based on the user’s profile and their interactions, offering similar or complementary products or services that might interest them based on their profile and behaviour.

Remarketing messages can also be automated to the user’s messaging inbox, offering product recommendations tailored to them even once they’ve left the initial conversation!

2 Lead scoring

Lead scoring is well known for helping sales teams to focus their time and energy on more qualified leads. With conversational AI, lead scoring can be automated to further save staff time.

3 End one-way marketing

Usually,companies post what they offer and potential customers search what they want. Conversational AI encourages a conversation to take place in order to meet leads where they are.

Further, contacting leads takes time and attention, especially when there are high volumes of leads to deal with. Conversational AI can act like a sales assistant and engage with leads in natural language with two-way conversations to reach every single lead, instantly. It’s always polite and consistent with brand tone of voice.

4 More conversions

With conversational AI, sales teams not only have more time to close deals, but they have less leads to manage, as more leads are converted automatically within the automated conversation.

This occurs because interactions are carefully designed for particular personas, in perfect brand tone of voice, with instant responses, 24/7 — simply put, the user experience is superior.

Leads get the information they need faster and can take action in the very moment they’re most interested, with less barriers to entry. This means leads that might otherwise have had to wait for a call or email back from a sales agent, are converted within the conversation. The ease of use and access can streamline sales funnels, leading to more conversions.

This doesn’t replace staff but empowers them to do a better and more thorough job with the leads and customers they do need to engage with — increasing the likelihood of conversting those deals too! Win win.

5 No more guessing

Data is automatically collected from leading profiling and conversation interactions. Human sales teams could never manually collect that much data from their sales interactions.

The analytics collected from implementing Conversational AI can then inform companies to optimise product/service offerings, marketing efforts, sales messages, even knowledge about who customers actually are.

6 Efficiency

I’ve already mentioned that AI allows companies to interact with sales leads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If a problem arises while your staff are asleep or busy, your chatbot is ready to go.

If the problem can’t be solved within the conversation, the lead can ask to speak with a human. The information already collected is handed to the human so that they have more time to better deal with the lead.

Regardless of whether a lead is converted within the automated conversation or by a human in the end, conversational AI delivers an enhanced customer experience while saving businesses time and money.

7 Personal relationships deepened — reduce the churn

Staff are freed up to build stronger personal relationships with clients. Sales teams can focus on customer satisfaction and reducing churn, instead of chasing new leads.

The effects of implementing conversational AI go beyond the direct purposes of dealing with more leads and streamlining customer acquisition, but filter through many other aspects of your business like customer retention.

Conversational AI can streamline your sales funnel and customer acquisition processes while also saving you time and money — this is great news for your bottom line.

Don’t delay capitalising on these potential gains — the best time to get started with artificially intelligent conversation is rigggght now!

Originally published at www.jrny.ai.