Categories: Sales Leadership | Artificial Intelligence
The AI revolution is coming fast – it’s reshaping industries, redefining workflows, and promising unprecedented growth to sales organizations. Yet, many leaders are hesitant to make a big bet on AI. The wrong move could cost you time, revenue, and credibility.
With the right foundational strategy and the right tool, AI should be a sales force multiplier enabling your teams to sell faster and more proficiently, bringing more value to customers and more impact to revenue. Our recent webinar on AI in Leadership brought together a team of experts to discuss AI, sales productivity, and what top companies are doing right now. Joining the conversation were Eldad Postan-Koren, CEO and co-founder of Winn.AI; Rob Moyer, Director of Partnerships at Gong; and Sriharsha Guduguntla, CEO and co-founder of Hyperbound. Their discussion with Force Management’s Head of Community Joe Huber revealed the common mistakes leaders are making today with AI and how they can take proactive steps to ensure successful implementation of these new technologies.
Mistake 1: Implementing AI Without a Clear Value Case
One of the biggest mistakes revenue leaders are making right now is implementing AI outside of existing workflows and without a specific problem in mind. Sriharsha Guduguntla defines this error with a piece of advice: “Never go searching for a solution in search of a problem.”
Instead, leaders should start by identifying what key outcomes they are trying to drive, as Rob Moyer advises. Rather than implementing AI to “increase sales,” “get more pipeline” or “increase efficiency,” identify specific seller behaviors that will produce those outcomes. Then, search for tools that can enable those seller behaviors at scale.
Hear some of Rob Moyer's insight on how leaders can approach AI by prioritizing change management:
Mistake 2: Not Defining What Good Looks Like
Defining “what good looks like” is an essential part of improving sales performance for your organization. A blueprint for sales execution helps sellers and managers know what they’re striving for in the sales process — and the same is true for AI tools. Ensuring you input the maximum amount of data into your AI tools will grant you access to AI solutions customized to your customers and your goals. “The more data you get in there, the better the outcomes and results will be,” Rob asserts.
It’s important to ensure that the data you’re inputting into AI tools is validated and scalable. Luckily, AI can also help with defining successful behaviors. AI-powered systems can analyze past success, identify common patterns, and best of all, transfer those new insights to newer reps at a faster and more efficient pace. Before integrating AI into your go-to-market process, ensure that the process is well-defined, proven successful and relevant to your cross-functional teams, so the AI has clear data on your ideal customer engagement journey. By eliminating inefficiencies and streamlining workflows, you'll lay the groundwork for AI to produce better outcomes. The more refined your inputs are, the more effective AI will be in shaping what “good” really looks like for your company.
Hear some of Sai Guduguntla's insights on creating a success playbook for your team with AI:
Mistake 3: Waiting to Implement a Full AI Strategy
The biggest mistake leaders are making today is not acting on a robust AI strategy for their go-to-market motion. “We are in the middle of a revolution, and companies that don’t understand that we are in a revolution will be left behind. Every leader should take this into consideration,” says Eldad Postan-Koren.
Some leaders have added a few AI tools to their existing strategy, without fully integrating and recalibrating their GTM strategy. Other leaders are still resistant to change. Mounting pressure from markets and advisory boards, combined with a sea of AI tools to choose from, can be overwhelming. Combine that with general tech tool sprawl and you’ve got organizations that are paralyzed and hesitant to act.
The answer is to approach AI in a strategic, measured way that places the focus on specific outcomes; where AI is used to drive tangible value. While you wait for the “perfect moment” to integrate AI fully into your GTM process, your employees are developing their own AI-enabled workflows that will be even harder to break down and retrain in favor of an aligned, unilateral approach that accelerates your sales goals.
Hear more of Eldad-Postan-Koren's thoughts on the AI revolution:
An Approach to AI That Drives Revenue
It’s time to embrace AI in your full GTM motion. By defining clear business outcomes, establishing success benchmarks, and fully integrating AI into your business strategy, you can build an AI-powered sales motion that drives meaningful revenue. Watch our panel discussion to dig deeper into how elite sales leaders are finding success in integrating AI into their companies. Our three industry expert guests describe how to navigate AI and build the foundation that will help AI become a true force multiplier for your business.
