Using AI in B2B Sales - Gartner

Gartner use a prism framework to display potential AI use cases in different industries and functions.

On one vector it describes the business value of a use case - from low to high

On the other it describes the feasibility of the idea - from low to high.

When they consider feasibility that are including three dimensions:

Technical feasibility - do you have the technology and data to make this idea real?

Internal feasibility - are your internal people and processes ready to adopt the idea?

External feasibility - are your customers and other external stakeholders ready to adopt the idea?

Here is their B2B Sales AI prism.

As you scan from the top use case - price optimisation, down to the bottom - relationship intelligence, consider which of these you are using today and which are opportunities for the future.

There are three ways you’ll see these ideas surfaced:

Existing tech: a new module in a tool you already have such as your CRM or Marketing Automation platform

New tech: a raft of AI-powered startups have arrived to help your sellers craft the perfect email or research their accounts

Build: increasingly sales teams are building their own tools to follow their standard operating procedures using ChatGPT, Claude and other models

What’s missing?

For me, most of the items on Gartner’s prism relate to optimising the current process.

Whereas the biggest opportunity for a Chief Revenue Officer or head of sales is in developing new or improved value propositions and new products and services built on AI.

Consider where you would add these on the prism:

• Selling into new customer segments (size, industry or channel)

• Selling into new territories (language, legal frameworks)

• Selling self-service (automated sales and support)

• Selling AI-powered products (built off the data you sit on)

The opportunity for AI in B2B sales is not in optimising the current process - but in building new ones.

How are you using AI in your B2B Sales team?

How are you creating new AI-powered value propositions for your customers?