New survey research from Gartner has found that salespeople who effectively partner with AI tools are 3.7 times more likely to meet their targets than those who do not.

“AI partnership involves leveraging technology skills-use-case selection and prompt engineering- to automate and augment key tasks and responsibilities. Use case selection is about knowing how and when to use the right AI technology to complete sales tasks. For example, a seller highly proficient in this skill would finish a sales call, identify the value of using AI for follow up, and select a conversational intelligence to get a transcript from a call, synthesise notes, and draft a summary for the client,” said Michael Katz, senior director, research in the Gartner Sales Practice.

The latest Gartner survey also found that nearly three quarters of sellers are overwhelmed by the number of skills they need for their job. Half of salespeople are further overwhelmed by the amount of technology they need to perform their job.

With this data in mind, it is no wonder that turning to AI tools is an option to assist staff which getting work doing and performing their job successfully.

The survey also found that those who are overwhelmed are 45% less likely to attain their targets. Utilising AI tools may be a necessity to help sellers succeed and perform their job as usual.

“Prompt engineering involves effectively translating ideas into a set of instructions for Gen AI to produce. A seller highly proficient in this skill would know how to effectively prompt a virtual assistant by providing the right persona, context, and specific questions to produce output like an overview of the market landscape for competitors. Sellers who are highly proficient in these skills seamlessly identify and utilise the right AI to more effectively complete key tasks and responsibilities,” Katz continued.

“By prioritising the competencies and skills that drive commercial results in the current buying environment, Chief sales officers (CSOs) can refine their talent strategy to augment these skills and drive long-term skill adoption through targeted training, compensation, and career pathing,” said Antra Sharma, principal, research in the Gartner Sales Practice.

In addition to AI partnership, other top competencies can help sellers to meet quotas.

The ability to adjust, adapt and innovate on sales approaches (termed by Gartner as tactical flexibility) increases the likelihood of meeting sales targets by 3.4 times. The salesperson’s ability to infer unspoken beliefs, feelings and intentions in order to predict and influence buyer behaviour (termed by Gartner as mentalising) increases the likelihood of meeting sales targets by 2.9 times.

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