How to use AI to scale and improve sales training

We don’t need to remind you that artificial intelligence (AI) is an industry-defining opportunity for both sales and enablement teams. It promises to transform everything about the sales process — onboarding, sales training, coaching, meeting prep, content personalization, and so much more.

But it’s hard to know where to start and even harder to know how to use AI for sales training most effectively. Is it worth the effort? Will the quality be up to par? What AI sales training tools should you be using?

We’ll explore all that and more in this blog. This way, you can master using AI for sales training and impress anyone who asks you about it, too.

What is AI-powered sales training anyway?

AI-powered sales training uses advanced AI and machine learning to deliver personalized onboarding, training, and coaching to sales teams at scale. This helps every rep develop skills, improve competency, and gain confidence quickly.

Why should you explore AI for sales training instead of more traditional methods?

Before we get into the practical applications of AI for sales training programs, let’s talk about why the benefits of AI far outweigh sticking with more traditional training methods.

• Increased productivity: Productivity is generally the biggest benefit that most people see when implementing AI for sales training. According to Seismic’s Generation Enablement Report, 79% of go-to-market (GTM) leaders surveyed believe that AI-powered technology is enhancing their workplace productivity.

• Better personalization: Traditional training is one-size fits all and typically set on a fixed pace. Of course, online sales training has made self-paced training more of the norm, but AI takes it a step further. Now, reps can get personalized learning paths and training content based on their individual skills, roles, and performance.

• Faster feedback: Without AI, you’d have to wait for managers to get around to reviewing practice pitches. It’s a slow and imperfect process. AI can offer real-time feedback and more objectively analyze practice pitches, role plays, and more.

• Easier scalability: Traditional training and coaching is limited by trainer and manager availability, but AI delivers personalized training to everyone with significantly less effort.    

• More data-driven decision-making: Manually sorting through data to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional training programs can take months.With AI-powered sales training, AI can do the heavy lifting for you by identifying knowledge gaps, suggesting follow-up content, and more.

• Higher knowledge retention: Most sellers forget 84% of what they learn after 90 days with traditional training, according to HubSpot. AI makes automating follow-up lessons and content a reality so that sellers retain everything they’ve learned.

• Better performance metrics: Traditional training provides broad but often inadequate performance results, which isn’t helpful if you want effective reps. With AI-powered sales training, you get detailed metrics and insights to make impactful changes that boost individual and team performance.

How can you use AI for sales training and coaching specifically?

Nearly half of sales professionals believe  their organization doesn’t provide the sales training they need to succeed.

Think of the barriers that stop you from developing the training, coaching, and content your team needs to succeed. In most cases, it’ll be time, resources, and effort. These pain points are often where AI can supplement your sales training programs the best. Here are a few common ways to use AI to support your in-person or online sales training efforts:

• Sales roleplaying: Traditional roleplaying can be an effective way to practice selling skills and build confidence, but it can be hard to find a willing partner that’s available when a rep needs them.
  
  That’s where an AI sales role play can sit in as a substitute. Some AI training software solutions that offer role playing simulate lifelike interactions with avatars that react and pose objections like a real client would. Others use AI to grade practice role-play scenarios after the fact, reviewing for active listening cues, filler words, keywords, conciseness, and more.
   

• Sales coaching: Less than half of sales managers spend over 30 minutes a week coaching their reps, according to CSO Insights. But it’s a proven strategy when executed consistently. An Aberdeen study found that both quota attainment and win rates improve by double digits when a sales coaching program is in place.
  
  So what’s the disconnect? Time. And to make the most of it, AI sales coaching software gathers data from sources like CRM systems and sales calls, analyzes patterns and trends, and delivers tailored feedback and recommendations to each rep. It also suggests a personalized learning path and tracks performance over time to see if it’s effective.
   

• Personalized onboarding and ongoing training: One-size fits all training is easy to implement, but rarely works. AI-powered sales training software takes every reps’ strengths, weaknesses, knowledge gaps, and learning styles into account. This way, every seller closes knowledge gaps and gains the confidence they need to close more deals, too.
   

• Content optimization: Your sellers need training on how to most effectively use content to engage with buyers. AI uses customer behaviors and deal context to suggest the most relevant and impactful content for sellers to send.

It’s important to remember that implementing AI effectively is a marathon, not a sprint. Start small, scale gradually, and choose AI sales tools that align well with your current tech stack and tout strong strategic support for maximum success.

Seismic’s expertise in AI sales training tools

That’s where we come in. Seismic’s rich history of innovation in AI sales tools started in 2015, when we introduced a first-to-market AI-guided selling innovation called Predictive Content. Predictive Content surfaces content recommendations based on deal context such as sales stage, industry, and persona.

We didn’t stop there. Since then, we’ve launched Aura, our AI/ML engine that fuels AI-powered enablement across the Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM. That includes just-in-time enablement with an intelligent Q&A bot that applies natural language understanding to answer reps’ questions. It also powers AI sales coaching that auto-scores practices, reviews and analyzes recordings, and more. This way, your entire customer-facing team can more consistently practice, master new concepts, and gain confidence.

Scale and improve with Seismic Learning

Interested in learning more about Seismic’s sales training software specifically? Read how one customer streamlined and automated their onboarding and ongoing sales training with our sales training software, Seismic Learning. Or, get a demo and see Seismic’s AI capabilities in action today.