Many claim Artificial Intelligence (AI) will disrupt the traditional commercial model but we, at Haig Barrett Partners (HBP), argue AI will serve to augment the many talents of our marketing and sales colleagues. 

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The application of AI remains a work in progress and holds tremendous potential.  It provides the ability to connect multiple data points from diverse sources to draw real time insights at each stage of the buying journey.  Market analysts suggest companies adopting AI are seeing a 3%-15% jump in sales.

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On the downside, we concur AI is not sufficiently mature to make unsupervised decisions.  Care needs to be exercised to ground segmentation schemes and predictive modeling on curated data.  Self-checking algorithms are needed to address intangible human factors.  Human judgement is needed to manage customer engagement.  And interventions to mitigate “garbage in, garbage out” risks remain essential.

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Forward-thinking marketing and sales leaders are considering how to best apply and invest in AI.  Many are conducting pilots and rolling out AI for lower-risk, moderate value-added activities such as customer segmentation and early-stage potential leads.  Wider application questions are being investigated:

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• Do we have a good grasp of AI “Use Cases”? Do our pilot programmes demonstrate value?

• Do predictive analytics and the content creation aspects of generative AI work as advertised?

• Can we demonstrate AI value?  What applications are priorities? What is the risk / reward estimate?

• Do we know what we are looking for? How do we mitigate data integrity, bias, and ethical risks?

 

Haig Barrett Partners helps clients with AI planning, design, governance, and implementation.  We concentrate on use cases and solution selection.  We look at set objectives and scope, identify curated data from reliable sources, perform internal and external data mapping (ingestion, push), determine update sequencing and formatting, define system architectures, organise pilot programmes, and facilitate roll-out.

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Samples of AI use cases relevant to sales and marketing transformation are highlighted below:

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• Sales Productivity:  A considerable amount of time is spent on account planning drawing large quantities of dynamic data (i.e. SEC filings, prospect data).  An inordinate amount of indirect time (65%) is also spent on administrative tasks.  AI’s ability to collect and synthesise research data, help prospect, prepare messaging, and update CRM are examples of the value to the sales professional. 

• Lead Generation and Triage:  AI analysis of large data sets can identify patterns, preferences, and behaviours to set lead generation priorities.  Chatbot Avatars can mimic human interactions to qualify incoming buyer enquiries and expedite follow-up.  Lead generation is the fastest growing AI sales application with high potential to expand beyond the early stages of the customer journey.

• Market Intelligence:  AI can augment traditional research tools such as surveys and customer interviews.  Advances in tokenisation enables clarity and the codification of data from diverse sources such as websites, social media, journals, IP filings, and user reviews to discern market developments, customer preferences, and opinions.

• Customer Segmentation Schemes:  AI can scrape multiple data sets to identify distinct customer groups, detect purchasing patterns. and product preferences.  This data can then contribute to the development of directed marketing strategies and campaigns. 

• Competitor Intelligence:  AI analysis can provide a keener view of competitor offerings, behaviours, and how their leaders think.  When this data is combined with prior sales situations, insights can be drawn to aid in the design and conduct of sales campaigns and pre-empt competitor actions. 

• Account Development Planning and Outreach:  With market and competitive intelligence, segmentation schemes, and account data in hand, call plans and messaging can be crafted with higher degrees of precision.  Account playbooks can be tuned and “what-if” scenarios gamed.

• Emerging and Competing Technologies—Open Innovation:  Mining of public data sources, technical journals, conference proceedings, and other sources can assess technology maturity, reveal breakthroughs, and opportunities for new product and production method development.

• Sales Call and Proposal Support:  Dynamic pricing, performance benchmarks, and related value creation citations are striking examples of how AI can support field sales operations in real time.  In addition, the increased deployment of interactive conversational avatars in sales situations supports sales teams by providing technical content in response to buyer questions on virtual sales calls. 

• Personalised Messaging:  Coalescing sales call reports and other data sources can help marketers communicate with the right customers, develop personalised messaging with content, and determine the customer preferred communication medium and follow-up frequency.  Hyper personalisation throughout the buyer journey is an emerging competitive imperative.

• New / Enhanced Revenue Streams:  AI can identify new value-added offerings by identifying unmet account needs by examining shortfalls and gaps arising through the sales cycle.  Examples include providing clinical trial support, upstream testing services, professional services, and others.

 

Artificial Intelligence is taking hold at breath-taking speed.  The recent launch of ChatGBT, OpenAI, Google’s Search Generative Experience and PaLM 2 for Bard as well as other platforms have faster adoption rates than smartphones and social media platforms.  Wall Street is rewarding AI plays and venture capital AI portfolios are expanding and looked at as strategic investments.

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With the AI race underway, companies have the choice of investing in technologies applied over the last 5 years or technologies to be deployed over the next 5 years.  We can help you navigate through the use cases and decision-making where AI can be effectively leveraged for competitive advantage.

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Haig Barrett Partners brings extensive industry knowledge having supported leading innovators and emerging companies spanning the BioPharmaceutical, MedTech, Digital Health, Industrial Products and Health Care Delivery ecosystems with their market and business strategies and Go-to-Market programmes.

We provide you with an objective, unbiased point of view, and “hands-on” support to help you apply Artificial Intelligence to achieve your market expansion and Go-to-Market goals.  We welcome the opportunity to learn more about your situation, your needs and priorities, and to share insights.

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