Sales adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) is climbing as teams push for productivity and personalisation, according to Salesforce, a cloud-based software company.
According to the company, despite the AI adoption surges, there were concerns regarding integration, security, and customer distrust meaning the technology’s full potential for the profession has yet to be seen.
This information is contained in the latest report, titled “The State of Sales”, sharing insights from 5 500 sales professionals across 27 countries, including South Africa.
The report revealed that 85% of sales teams in South Africa have fully implemented or are experimenting with AI. An additional 11% of teams are evaluating the technology.
Sales Cloud general manager Ketan Karkhanis said: “This report shares how sales teams are focused on training and enablement, which is the number one tactic for growth.
“They’re using AI to boost productivity, consolidating tools to simplify their tech stacks, and investing in complete CRMs like Sales Cloud that drive growth — from pipeline to paycheck,” he said.
Karkhanis said the results speak for themselves. Growth is up, turnover is down, and teams using AI are outperforming the rest.
According to the report, four in five sales teams are experimenting with or have fully implemented AI. As adoption becomes widespread, sales teams are taking stock of the gains.
“The top improvement from AI is to sales data quality and accuracy — for example, by syncing customer interaction data across systems to ensure that it’s always correct and up-to-date. Sales teams are also addressing the top challenge of meeting customer demands by using AI to personalise their communications — for example, by generating emails grounded in customer data,” it said.
About 83% of sales teams with AI saw revenue growth in the past year, versus 66% of teams without AI.
The report found that there were roadblocks on the journey to implementing AI, however.
“Many organisations have struggled with supplying the budget, headcount, and training to effectively implement it. Nearly a third of sales ops professionals also have concerns about data security, completeness, and accuracy.
“The same amount expressed concerns about having sufficient human oversight of AI, for example, monitoring AI outputs to ensure they’re correct. Sales ops professionals also point to customer distrust as a common obstacle they’ve faced while implementing AI,” it said.
According to the report, only 55% of business buyers trust AI to be as accurate as a human.
The report found that before their teams adopt AI, sales ops professionals are taking steps to overcome challenges and maximise benefits.
“For instance, over half of teams with a full AI implementation updated their tools and tech stack. More than half are also enhancing data security measures to protect customer data. Ensuring that sales professionals can properly and effectively use AI is also a priority, with many sales teams creating training programmes for employees ahead of AI adoption.
“However, fewer than half of sales teams are setting ethical use guidelines. These are possible oversights: Nearly half of sales pros say they don’t know how to safely use generative AI at work, and most business buyers are concerned about the ethical use of AI,” the report said.
The report revealed that there was an increase in employee retention, budgets, and headcount for most sales teams surveyed, as well as employee compensation.
“… 81% of sales professionals say their pay has increased over the past year,” it said.
Some of the highlights of the report include:
- Changing customer expectations is the number one sales challenge worldwide, but it’s hard to find the time to connect.
- Sales reps in South Africa spend an average of just 28% of the work week connecting with customers.
- 52% of sales professionals in South Africa say changing customer expectations is more of a challenge than last year; only 18% say it’s less of a challenge.
Looking ahead, the report said sales leaders were working to improve the use of tools and technologies — no surprise, considering the productivity gains that many sales teams are already achieving with AI.
“In the face of customer scrutiny and with competitors closing in, there’s much work to be done. But if the past is any guide, then sales pros are already rolling up their sleeves,” it said.
* Maleke is the editor of Personal Finance
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