5 Ways Conversation Bots Are Changing Sales Funnels

With artificial intelligence growing more accessible, hybrid workforces consisting of humans and conversation bots are becoming the norm. Competitive business leaders should explore this option and take advantage of the ways this is changing sales funnels.

Some businesses have already taken steps that have had major impacts on the bottom line. In 2017, revenue from the global chatbot market exceeded $250 million. According to a survey from Oracle, 80 percent of businesses want to implement chatbots by 2020. While that’s a good goal, technology is evolving at digital speed. Conversation bots

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Why Businesses Need Conversation Bots

This isn’t some hope for the far-off future. The tech is within reach.

Companies that added less innovative chatbots to their workforce are already outperforming competitors in areas like customer service, process efficiency, and sales volume. 1–800-Flowers, one of the most popular floral brands in the world, found that

But conversation bots are different than your normal, everyday chatbots — AI-powered conversation bots are the next wave of innovation. Advances in AI and NLP technology are creating central cognitive engines for customer experiences that are more efficient and dynamic than ever before. They’re powering conversational marketing and sales automations.

Just as smartphones with touchscreens replaced the old clamshell cell phones, shoppers will soon view conversation bots not as luxuries, but as necessary parts of their buying journeys. Within the next 5 years, people will seek conversational commerce experiences for everything — and they’ll be less likely to give their business to companies that don’t provide them.

How B2B Companies Will Benefit From Conversation Bots

Much of the talk about automation focuses on the B2C arena. But, B2B companies have just as much to gain from integrating conversation bots into their tech stack. Here are five ways interactive conversation bots will help B2B companies improve:

1. Speak to customers through the channels they prefer

Today people prefer to text and message each other. They don’t want to communicate solely through email — they want instant, relevant communication when they’re ready to talk. For example, recent research from Twilio found that 90 percent of people in North America, Europe, and Asia want to message directly with businesses, but most businesses don’t have the infrastructure to do that.

And this need doesn’t just apply to B2C businesses. Many people who do the shopping at home are B2B buyers at work, so expectations of service carry over from one arena to the other. Nearly half of shoppers in the U.S. would prefer to talk to conversation bots instead of humans if the conversation bots were competent. If B2B businesses want to stay relevant, they must rethink their digital experiences to allow current and future customers to reach them through the channels that feel natural to them.

2. Provide an extra layer of support

Humans sometimes drop the ball. They leave their desks, let inquiries sit in an inbox for too long, or go on vacation without creating a plan for when they’re out of office. Who will do their job while they’re away? Who will tend to their clients? AI-powered assistants can. Conversation bots are always alert and ready to interact, and today, B2B companies must be available for their prospects and customers.

As prices standardize across industries, the customer experience is quickly becoming the differentiating factor between brands. Recent research found that 77 percent of shoppers have chosen a product or service because of a good experience, while 64 percent avoided doing business with a brand because of a bad experience. With conversation bots, B2B companies can reduce the burden on human employees while providing a personalized, VIP service to increasingly discerning customers.

3. Reduce reliance on lead forms

Lead gen forms are a relic. Web forms, as they are technically known, are one of the first user interface elements that businesses used to capture information about prospects. However, web forms weren’t actually able to receive any relevant information about leads until the launch of Facebook in 2004. Consider, though, that it was only 10 years ago that smartphones changed the way we do everything. Innovative, tech companies are designing everything to create friction-free, digital experiences on mobile devices.

So why have web forms stayed relatively the same? Most B2B website visitors don’t want to spend time entering contact information into forms even if an informative white paper is a reward for it. Furthermore, if you are asking for more than 5 pieces of information, web forms can hurt your conversion potential.

Enter conversation bots. This fascinating new technology can collect the information that’s used to qualify leads through an interaction that feels natural. This reduces the friction that webforms introduce into the lead generation experience and increases the likelihood that the person will provide their information in exchange for content.

Additionally, AI-powered conversation bots can enhance your sales team’s response time and efficacy. A prospect who shares their work email address with a conversation bot could be fast-tracked to a salesperson, while a person who enters a personal email address and declines to submit a budget would be placed lower on the list. If a visitor requests something specific, like a demo or discovery call, a conversation bot can set that up on its own — no human intervention required.

4. Close deals faster

Enterprise sales deals can take months or longer to close. Long sales cycles, while normal in B2B circles, are begging for innovation. Why is this process still so inefficient and slow in our digital world? Sales cycles don’t need to be so long. Everyone on the buying committee has access to the internet.

This is why a trained botforce must enter the scene. An army of conversation bots that are trained to accomplish goals can arrange calls, deliver content, and do whatever else it takes to generate and nurture a lead. With a trained botforce qualifying leads and interacting with web visitors, companies can reduce long sales cycles from months to days.

Prospects can find exactly what they need by interacting with a conversation bot. Whether they’re the product acquisition champion or the decision maker, the conversation bot can nurture them with personalized communications that are informed by the purchaser’s detected intent. And when they’re ready to buy, the conversation bots can add human advisors to the conversation if needed.

5. Create personalized, differentiated commerce experiences

Amazon and other big companies have normalized personalized recommendations. B2B should follow suit. According to Demand Gen Report, tailored content delivery increases sales opportunities by 20 percent.

On a large scale, manual personalization is almost impossible. With conversation bots, however, personalization is not only achievable but easy to implement. Today’s conversation bots can identify prospect needs, strengthen their interest in the brand, and motivate them to set up a meeting with a salesperson. Equipped with the person’s intent and interests, salespeople enter every call in prime position to close the deal.

Conversation bots are not chatbots, nor are they coming to put salespeople out of jobs. Thanks to more advanced conversation bots, today’s B2B companies have the power to provide prospects and customers with better experiences and empower their sales teams to close deals faster. To spark revenue growth, companies don’t have to hire more people. They can simply add a botforce to digital channels. All it takes is opening the door to the idea that a delightful brand experience is just a bot-mation away.