The pandemic fundamentally changed the way businesses operate, with many sales activities moving online. Companies that were not well-suited to this shift had to adapt in order to survive. According to a report by McKinsey and Company, digital interactions are more important than ever, with most meetings now being conducted online. In this new landscape, emotion AI has become a powerful tool for boosting sales across a wide range of industries. With the ability to analyze and interpret customer emotions, emotion AI can help sales teams better understand the factors that influence customer behaviour and make more informed sales decisions.
Pursuing sales in the B2B SaaS sphere is a more challenging endeavor, as it involves selling a software solution to small, medium, and large businesses, the target group being C-suite executives, and a digital sales ecosystem aids the scheme for sales reps.
Emotion AI can help boost sales for B2B SaaS companies by incorporating emotional intelligence in the sales process making it easier for sales reps to identify areas of interest and follow up on them.
And that’s just the leading edge of benefits that come with emotion AI. Here are 5 inherent benefits of adding Emotion AI to your B2B SaaS sales process.
1. Selling with a Personalized Approach
Monitoring a digital sales meeting with emotion AI gives the sales rep the upper edge. Because as the conversation unfolds and the sales rep tries to gauge the prospect’s interest by introducing a solution to their problem, emotion AI keeps track of all facial and head movements, along with the voice and tone of the prospect to help uncover the emotional reaction to the proposition. The sales rep can revisit the recording later and correlate it with the emoṣtional insights to identify parts of the conversation that led to positive feedback, and then personalize the second approach based on the uncovered insights.
Moreover, by analyzing the emotions and sentiments of customers, emotion AI can assist sales teams in adjusting their communication to better align with the specific desires of each prospect. This can ultimately lead to a more personalized and satisfying customer experience.
2. Enhanced Sales Team Output with Emotion AI
Selling B2B SaaS products requires persuasion and persistence, as sales often involve navigating multiple channels and presenting to C-level executives. It’s crucial to make a strong impression at every stage of the sales process, from initial meetings to final presentations to top decision-makers. Only by consistently hitting the mark and effectively climbing the sales ladder can one hope to close the deal at the highest levels. Missing to address the pain points at any stage ruins the effort of the entire team that turns a prospect into a Sales Qualified Lead(SQL).
With emotion AI, the pain points and sweet sports can be identified and worked upon from the first meeting itself, as the algorithm analyses expressions through modern AI techniques like FACS, eye tracking, and head positioning, this makes it exponentially easier for the sales rep to identify pain points and address them across channels to climb the sales ladder and make the sale. Although B2B SaaS sales require coordinated efforts between the sales and the marketing teams, the impetus for the actual sale lies with the sales rep who interacts with the prospect and having a detailed emotional profile of the prospect surely boosts the likelihood of a sale.
3. Lead Filtering with Emotion AI
As a result of the pandemic, many brands have turned to remote selling, which has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective alternative. By conducting sales remotely, both buyers and sellers can save time, and brands can achieve better results without the need for costly in-person meetings. The shift to remote selling has become the norm for many brands. The report by McKinsey and Company reveals that B2B brands across US and India voted for the new framework as more effective, with 60 and 68% of respondents voting in favour of remote selling.
But even with a more effective framework, the average conversion rate in the B2B SaaS markets lingers around 5-10%. Emotion AI can help increase the conversion rate by filtering the leads based on the emotional profile of the prospects and their reaction to the proposed offer. This way, the sales team can prioritize their efforts towards more sale-worthy prospects and increase the output per unit effort of the sales team. This will inevitably lead to more conversions and therefore a higher conversion rate.
4. Building and Nurturing Relationships with Emotion AI
Brands that build meaningful relationships with clients end up turning them into repeat customers and that’s the best way to boost profitability, because repeat customers solicit no extra effort from the brand, exponentially increasing the ROI on the initial investment. Emotion AI can help sales reps build long-lasting relationships with prospects and nurture them.
Emotion AI can help sales reps understand the emotional state of their prospects, it can also be used to provide personalized recommendations or suggestions based on the prospect’s emotional state. For example, if a prospect is feeling anxious or uncertain, a sales rep could use emotion AI to recommend a product or solution that is specifically designed to address these emotions. This can help sales reps build trust and credibility with prospects, and ultimately lead to more successful sales
Overall, emotion AI has the potential to significantly improve the way that sales reps build and nurture relationships with prospects by providing them with insights into the emotional state of their prospects and helping them tailor their approach to better connect with and serve their needs.
5. Sales Forecasting Made Easy with Emotion AI
Forecasting sales requires a thorough understanding of factors(sentiments and emotions) that drive customer behaviour. Emotion AI offers a gateway into the emotional heatmap of the customer and helps sales reps better understand what the customer wants and then nurture these needs through improvised sales strategies.
Let’s consider an example to better understand the point:
If emotion AI identifies that a customer is feeling frustrated or annoyed during a sales interaction, the sales team might be able to take steps to address those emotions and improve the customer’s experience. This could potentially lead to better outcomes for both the customer and the company, such as increased customer satisfaction and higher sales.
When the sales team takes into consideration the enhanced efficacy of the sales process due to incorporating emotional intelligence in the sales process, they can accurately predict the sales.
The First Step Towards Emotional Intelligence
Emotion AI is a comparatively new technology and we understand your reservations if you don’t want to directly integrate this technology with something as pivotal as sales, without testing it out. So the obvious first step for you should be to analyze the efficacy of the technology by integrating it with processes like market research, or regular surveys and focus groups, and then move on to more vital processes like sales.
We already have a detailed extract on how emotion AI can help you in market research. You can refer to it to better understand the advantages that come with it and how to use it in market research.
