Businesses now use artificial intelligence (AI) for far more than just automation and data analysis. With AI, companies can use chatbots to answer basic customer support queries, more accurately predict the quantity of materials needed in supply chains, get prototyping and design support for products, discover potential cases of fraud in financial transactions, develop customized treatment plans for patients and so much more.

Sales training is another area where AI is changing how things are done. The technology now offers real-time feedback, personalized coaching and adapted learning pathways to guide where training efforts should be concentrated. This article delves into the three ways in which AI is redefining how organizations can approach sales training to drive greater sales performance.

AI-Based Call Analysis

Call analysis is a useful tool to train and develop any employee who engages in phone-based interactions, including sales, customer service agents and customer support teams. It enables organizations to more accurately assess and benchmark the language and tone used on calls and employees’ problem-solving, conflict-resolution, persuasion and objection-handling abilities.

Using speech recognition algorithms, these tools can transcribe voice calls into readable text, analyze the content and provide recommendations on areas of improvement and best practices. Once you know how employees handle their calls, building tailored training and workshops that address skills gaps is easier.

Some of the applications for this class of tools include:

• Determining the sentiment or mood of the speaker (happy, angry, frustrated, etc.) based on the tone, pitch and choice of words to ensure that the speaker is delivering the right experience.
• Identifying keywords or phrases in a conversation to help map the sales process and identify objections and success keywords.
• Ensuring compliance by detecting when certain mandatory statements are made or when prohibited information is shared.
• Producing a summary of calls to help identify trends and identify sales agents that need additional training or managerial oversight. This information can also be used to identify emerging trends/inquiries that can feed into the sales training program.

There are several AI-based call analysis tools on the market:

• Meeple.ai transcribes Zoom calls and extracts information like problems, pain points, solutions and next steps, generating a one-page summary and follow-up templates.
• Wonderway’s AI-powered sales coaching listens to calls, identifies key areas for improvement, creates a scorecard and shares feedback with reps.
• Frejun transcribes calls and uses AI to understand customer needs and improve the quality of your communication.

Call analysis also helps identify common customer queries, complaints or issues during calls. This allows trainers to develop learning strategies that prioritize the biggest areas of need. Finally, call analysis tools make identifying improvements easier and reward employees who have made progress.

AI-Based Sales Content Generation

AI-based sales content generation tools allow sales teams to analyze vast amounts of data to generate targeted, personalized and high-quality content to meet the audience’s needs. Whether used for writing sales emails, sales proposals or sales training content, these tools can quickly build high-quality, relevant and personalized content at scale.

When used in employee training programs, content generation tools can teach employees how to write better and more targeted personalized emails, call scripts, proposals and other content pieces that support the sales process. They also reduce the time and effort required to create tailored training content that is adapted to the learner’s individual preferences, role, needs and goals.

Examples of AI-based sales content generation tools include:

• HyperWrite is an AI-driven tool that can help write business proposals and email responses as well as edit content you already have.
• Ezsales.ai allows you to load your list of prospects and it analyzes their company websites and social media profiles to write highly personalized cold emails.
• LeadiQ uses AI to create three complete, personal email drafts and subject lines after you provide an email and value proposition that target a pain point.
• Taskade distills dense information in .docx, .pdf, and .txt files, turns key points into concise action items and transforms them into organized projects. The tool also uses AI to draft high-level meeting agendas, co-author documents, generate ideas during brainstorming sessions and build mind maps and flowcharts.
• LearnExperts.ai uses AI to take documentation from your subject-matter experts to create the content for sales presentations, eLearning, instructor-led training and microlearning courses.

AI-Based Role-Playing

AI-based role-playing training tools simulate a myriad of customer interactions and enable salespeople to practice their pitch, handle objections and refine their techniques in a controlled, low-risk environment.

They are designed to help sales teams better adapt to different and real-world sales scenarios by introducing variability and unpredictability, providing real-time feedback, highlighting areas of improvement and suggesting response strategies. They can also reduce the time to train new sales reps, boost confidence and competence, improve adherence to company and product messaging, increase objection-handling ability and ultimately, improve win rates.

This class of tools works by evaluating visual and verbal interactions and communication, analyzing responses and behaviors, and delivering personalized insights on how to improve. Look for capabilities like:

• Conversational avatars or situation simulations that act as a sales engagement and respond to visual and audio input from the learners.
• Analytics on the learner’s sales skills, including rapport building, knowledge and messaging.
• AI-based coaching to provide recommendations on how to enhance behaviors.

Examples of AI-based role-playing tools include:

• Quantified uses AI-enabled generative video, speech-to-text, synthetic voice, a chat engine, language model analysis, language model script, and trained machine learning to analyze audience perception.
• Uptale is an immersive learning platform that creates, distributes and tracks training experiences in 360-degrees and virtual reality (VR).
• SecondNature offers AI-powered role-plays, providing sales reps personalized feedback and guidance, and it scores their interactions.
• Alelo allows sales to reps engage in conversations with avatars, and uses AI to generate personalized instruction on how to better engage with clients.
• Abstrakt delivers real-time recommended responses during sales calls. The tool also offers call scoring, real-time transcription and call feedback forms.

These examples demonstrate that AI is helping sales teams augment their existing training methods by introducing tools that deliver more ongoing and personalized support. In the coming years, we will see even more innovations that will allow sales teams to engage more effectively and close more deals.