For the past 25 years, we have been conditioned to believe that Customer Relationship Systems (CRM) would help salespeople sell more deals. In retrospect, why did we think that?
Does the CRM tell the salesperson what to do in any given circumstance? Does the CRM leverage past experience with a customer, contact or region to provide any insights that might accelerate sales cycles?
The answer to both questions (unfortunately) is a resounding, "NO!" So what good have CRM systems been to us? What, exactly, do they do to contribute to sales success?
The reality is that CRM systems do provide value, but in the end, they are merely configured databases designed to store contact, account and deal data as well as report the sales results. Unfortunately, they don’t generally tell us anything we don’t already know; however, as long as our CRM expectations are low as it relates to providing deal guidance, CRM data is quite useful.
So how do we help the salesperson sell more deals if the CRM isn’t going to do it? Sales managers can’t be everywhere providing knowledge and insight in every sales situation.
Systems, such as Gong, provide a stenographer-like function designed to memorialize salespeople’s interactions with customers. However useful that data is, it doesn’t directly provide guidance; it merely reports what was said.
That takes us to the promise of AI and where it fits in this equation.
In our world, through COMPASS by MOIC, it serves as a translator — connecting proven methods with the specific fact pattern of a prospect. Think of it as a virtualization of accumulated experience; the outcomes of countless prior experiments. Instead of rerunning tests, we can present today’s situation to the sum of past knowledge and ask: is this buyer ready to move?
You don’t have time to rerun experiments that were already settled. The value of AI here is not in rediscovery, but in applying what’s already known to the deal at hand.
Beyond the obvious benefit of increased sales, COMPASS offers a significant financial advantage by reducing new salesperson ramp-up time from as long as six months to nearly immediate — benefiting the seller’s company.
If your company is struggling to leverage AI to accelerate sales and salesperson ramp-up, please email dave@moicpartners.com for guidance.
