AI-powered sales enablement: 5 ways to boost AE performance & close more deals

‍67% of sales reps don’t expect to meet their quota this year (2024), and 84% missed it last year. 53% of sales pros say it’s harder to sell than a year ago. 

‍84% missed it last year.

While that’s certainly concerning, one has to consider all that AEs have to deal with day in and day out. 

Speed, precision, and deep product knowledge. That’s what AEs must deliver every day. Truth be told, achieving this consistently is extremely challenging without proper AI-powered sales enablement support. 

What are the top problems?

Despite their best efforts, many AEs find themselves bogged down by inefficiencies that eat into their productivity and slow down deal cycles. Here are their top problems: 

Scattered knowledge and siloed sales tools:

‍AEs need quick access to relevant information, be it case studies, sales decks, product specifications, or customer success stories. But the reality is far from ideal. 

Only 29% of reps say they are completely satisfied with enablement materials.

When a prospect asks for a specific case study or technical specification, AEs often find themselves asking which drive to open, who to ask, and when this was last updated - you get the drift. This digital sprawl means that finding the right information at the right time is a challenge, leading to delays and inefficiencies.

Keeping up with rapid product upgrades:

Product teams release frequent updates to stay competitive. The challenge? AEs often don’t get timely updates or contextual training on how these changes align with customer needs. This results in unprepared AEs, ineffective sales conversations, and missed opportunities to showcase the latest product benefits.

Unequal access to information across sales teams:

‍Not all AEs have equal access to product knowledge or internal resources. Some may have stronger relationships with technical experts or might have been in the company longer, giving them an edge. 

Meanwhile, others struggle to access the same depth of information, leading to knowledge gaps, inconsistent sales pitches, and varied win rates across the team.

Limited access to solution engineers (SEs):

‍AEs heavily rely on SEs to navigate complex technical discussions. However, certain solutions may only have one SE for every 5 or 6 reps. 

The bottom line is that SEs are stretched thin. This means that not every deal gets the technical support it needs, forcing AEs to handle technical questions themselves, often without the necessary expertise, which leads to slower deal cycles, lower win rates, and missed opportunities for larger deals.

The burden of creating personalized collateral:

‍57% of sales leaders and managers say competition has increased since last year, and hence, personalization is key as key executives in target accounts receive hundreds of emails pitching random products. 

AEs are expected to craft custom pitch decks, solution briefs, and battle cards for each deal. However, creating this content manually is time-consuming and detracts from core selling activities.

The future of sales productivity is AI-powered assistance

AI-powered sales enablement tools are essential, given how demanding the job of an AE is. These advanced platforms are transforming how sales teams operate by automating repetitive tasks, providing real-time technical insights, and eliminating inefficiencies. With AI-powered sales enablement, AEs can focus on selling, not searching. 

1. Eliminates scattered knowledge and reduces search time: AI-powered sales enablement assistants like SiftHub act as a centralized knowledge hub, instantly surfacing the right sales assets, be it case studies, decks, competitor insights, and technical documentation, right when AEs need them and on their daily communication platform (Slack, Microsoft Teams). Instead of wasting hours hunting across CRM and shared drives, AEs get real-time technical answers in seconds.
2. Keeps AEs updated on product changes automatically: With AI-powered sales enablement, teams no longer have to manually sift through product update emails or wait for quarterly training sessions. AI intelligently summarizes and contextualizes product updates, from major feature launches and integrations to minor improvements, so AEs always have the latest talking points at their fingertips.
3. Ensures consistent knowledge across the team: AI removes knowledge gaps by democratizing access to critical information. Whether an AE is a new hire or a seasoned seller, AI-driven sales enablement platforms ensure everyone has the same high-quality sales insights, eliminating inconsistencies in deal execution.
4. Provides instant technical support when SEs aren’t available: With AI-powered deal support, AEs don’t have to wait for a Solutions Engineer (SE) to answer technical questions. AI can generate real-time responses to customer queries, map pain points to product features, and even recommend the best possible answers, thereby helping AEs close deals without delays.
5. Automates personalized sales collateral in minutes: AI-driven content generation eliminates the need for AEs to manually create pitch decks, battle cards, and solution stories for every deal. AI tools can automate and tailor sales collateral based on deal stage, industry, and customer pain points, saving time while ensuring hyper-personalization.

In conclusion

With GenAI automating most procedural or routine tasks, sellers will have more time to do what is actually important: building trust-based relationships with customers. 

They can focus on functions that require empathy, deep critical thinking, and complex problem-solving skills, such as serving as customer advocates, supporting clients through complex decisions, and helping customers realize value from the products or services that they’re selling.

The future of sales is all about harnessing AI-powered sales enablement. It’s time to embrace these advanced tools and engineer your way to sales success.