How do you create consistency among your sales team? AI could have the answer

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In TV and film, the best sellers are mavericks. They're the ones who ignore the rules and step to their own beat, closing sales through the sheer force of their wit, charisma, and charm. 

You may even have top performers in your organization who display some of these traits. But in reality, across most sales teams, it's consistency and structure that lead to the best results.

According to Harvard Business Review, 50% of organizations that are high performers in sales have closely monitored, strictly enforced, or automated sales processes. Only 28% of under-performing sales businesses can say the same.

In fact, a standardized sales process can drive revenues by as much as 28% if it is clearly defined, with effective pipeline management and comprehensive training. 

Consistency. Automation. Good training. These are areas of sales where AI can help. I believe that by harnessing the power of AI for sales training, organizations can empower their teams, helping them to become more consistent and reliable across the sales cycle. 

Why is consistency important? 

So why is consistency so important compared to the ‘maverick’ route? I've touched on a couple of the benefits of consistent sales processes – better performance and higher revenues – but let's drill down a little deeper. 

Consistent messaging is not only important for sales teams specifically but across a brand more generally. More than two-thirds (68%) of organizations say that brand consistency has contributed to revenue growth of between 10% and 20% or more. 

And in the sales process, there are certain things you need your reps to be consistent about when trying to improve their chances of closing deals. Product information and technical details, for example, or issues regarding consumer privacy and security. All your sales reps need to be singing from the same hymn sheet.  

That's not always the case, though. Around a third (32%) of sales managers believe their teams failed to hit their quotas in 2023 because of an unstructured sales process. 

Conversely, providing consistent messaging leads to a more consistent sales cycle, and you can then refine what works and what doesn't before scaling that across the entire team. 

Consistency in sales means leaving less to chance, so that you can have a more predictable, repeatable sales cycle, with more accurate reporting and sales pipeline forecasting. That means your reps can act as better representatives for your company, helping to build trust and rapport among sales prospects.

Your brand team will be delighted!

How AI sales training provides consistency

Like any other type of learning and development, sales training is often expensive, and the results aren't always what you might hope. 

A whopping 90% of executives believe current employee training methods need to be more effective, which is hardly surprising when people only remember 10% of what they are taught after a few weeks. 

You also can't always rely on the consistency of sales training itself. The quality of training may vary from provider to provider, and even trainers within the same company will have differing skill levels and approaches. Not to mention, of course, the odd bad day or two! We're all human after all. 

Well, perhaps not if you're a digital human. Which is why AI has the answer to the question of inconsistency among sales teams. Organizations can now use digital humans for learning and development in a variety of ways to make their sales cycle and practices more structured. 

Consistency often comes down to practice, and conversational AI can provide this in a controlled environment where sales reps are free to make mistakes and improve their craft without risking potential customers. 

For example, digital humans can offer sales teams role-playing scenarios, where sales teams can practice their pitches across a range of skill sets, including objection handling, product knowledge, and more. 

This means sales reps can rehearse what they need to rehearse in realistic conditions, fine-tuning their pitches and other abilities until they're second nature. 

Digital humans are also available 24 hours a day, across a variety of devices and in dozens of languages. And they don't have 'bad days’.

The power of generative AI for learning and development

"But how can a chatbot reflect how a real customer behaves?," you may be asking. 

Unlike a traditional chatbot, a digital human isn't reciting a pre-programmed script (unless you want them to). Instead, they use generative AI to provide a near-infinite variety of conversational outputs, offering lifelike responses and dialogue. 

To ensure digital humans stay focused on the task at hand, digital humans can be loaded with your specific company guidelines, as well as product information, and sales and brand playbooks. They're then controlled by Synapse™, our intelligent AI orchestrator, which means they can deliver dynamic yet structured sales training with effective guardrails to prevent going off-topic. 

AI sales training can be especially useful for new recruits, allowing them to build up their confidence and skills quickly and consistently during the onboarding process. 

Providing a structured environment is important, given that 60% of poor-performing sales reps say they struggle because their internal processes are inadequate. Around 30% claim they haven't received any formal training at all. 

What's more, using digital humans for sales training aligns with how sales reps like to learn. Three-quarters of new starters claim they prefer to 'learn by doing', compared with just 32% who favor in-class learning or reading through training materials (38%). 

Digital humans allow your employees to practice in realistic scenarios – learn by doing – without jeopardizing crucial sales leads. 

The results speak for themselves; our research shows that 95% of people who try digital human learning and development would recommend it to others. For traditional text-based learning, the figure is just 31%.

Consistency is key

No one wants to speak with a sales robot. Open dialogue, discussion, personality, rapport – all these are traits displayed by your best sales reps, and that's the way it should stay. 

This is why digital humans can play an important role in your sales process by delivering AI-powered training in immersive, conversational environments, so your reps can become more consistent in how they pitch. 

Of course, being consistent doesn't mean your employees shouldn't have the freedom to show their personality. Your best people still need to be able to work their magic on customers.

However, digital humans with conversational AI can help them build on their strengths and address any weaknesses without the stress and anxiety of practicing on real customers, in real situations, with real consequences.

And as sales managers, we know being able to oversee staff performance in these areas is crucial to helping them develop into sales superstars. 

To learn more about how conversational AI can support your sales staff training, book a meeting to discuss the UneeQ platform with one of our specialists.