AI and Conversation Intelligence

A promising, and yet controversial, AI approach in B2B sales is called Conversation Intelligence (CI). AI tools have become increasingly strong at analyzing communication patterns between parties to identify opportunities for improvement for salespeople.

AI analyzes your communication and the communication of theprospect to help you gain insights that can improve your sales efforts.

AI can identify the prospect sentiment to offer an estimate of the likelihood of the deal closing. Leveraging Natural Language Processing(NLP) AI can detect buyer involvement and detect signals of risk that could compromise the deal.

The power of this approach is that AI can constantly learn from the recording of multiple conversations what works and what does not work, and help you garner insights that you could not otherwise see.

AI can also analyze your own speech and suggest opportunities for improvement.

This approach does not come with downsides, though. Thefirst is privacy. Companies cannot record conversations without the prospect’sconsent, and several times asking for consent to record a conversation does nothelp build genuine rapport. If they say no, you have made your call morecomplex. If they say yes, they might still feel slightly resentful, which alsodoes not help conversion.

Data collected may contain sensitive information, and if itis breached, there could be severe legal consequences.

While the approach is fascinating in theory, itseffectiveness may be reduced. Salespeople need to be trained in the use andinterpretation of the recommendations from AI; otherwise, overreliance on thesystem might lead to biased interpretations of the sales conversation.

However, I think the major limitation is another: We constantly tell salespeople that they need to build genuine trust and rapport in their relationships with buyers. Ask yourself a simple question: How do you think your buyers would react if they knew you were analyzing the conversation with AI, and whatever you are saying does not genuinely come from your idea, but it is a recommendation from AI? Would it help generate trust? I doubt it.

How would they know? You might wonder. Of course, they won’t. But doing something your customers would not like just because they don’t know you are doing it is exactly why salespeople are among the least trusted. That is not what brings sustainable success.

So, I personally recommend a limited use of AI for Conversation Intelligence. It could be effective in contexts where there are numerous calls within large sales teams. The company struggles to analyze all the data it can get from the calls, and AI could offer powerful insights. Once the insights are generated, though, they could inform your salesforce’s training, and then the conversation should be left to the initiative of the salespersons.

AI is good when it helps gain insights humans don’t see, but it should not replace human interactions with buyers.

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