Top Sales & Marketing Priorities for 2019: AI and Big Data, Revealed by Survey of 600+ Sales Professionals

44% of Respondents Plan to Leverage AI in 2019 for Sales
Productivity, Pipeline Building, and Revenue Growth; 90% Expect
Significant Impact to Performance

SILICON SLOPES, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–InsideSales.com,
the AI sales platform powered by Collective Intelligence, released the results
of research into the technology adoption plans of over 600 sales
professionals across all industries in 2019. The data shows respondents
across the board are bullish on advanced technologies to drive
above-market growth.

When asked about the most important trends in B2B Sales right now, 21.5
percent named “Supporting Reps with Sales Automation,” followed by
“Capturing Value from Big Data” at 21.3 percent and “Adopting Artificial
Intelligence” at 15.6 percent, indicating a major emphasis on using
technology to extract insights into prospects and increase sales
efficiency.

“As pressure to grow intensifies, businesses are increasingly aware they
need to take advantage of artificial intelligence and analytics
technologies to drive higher sales performance,” said David Elkington,
CEO and founder of InsideSales.com. “Our research shows AI has moved
beyond the hype stage, with respondents representing companies of all
sizes who expect to see significant benefits applying AI in the coming
year.”

More Than 90 Percent of Respondents Expect AI to Improve Sales
Performance

More than 90 percent of respondents stated they expect AI to improve
sales performance, however, only 30.6 percent of companies are currently
using some form of AI for sales. Additional highlights of the survey
into emerging B2B sales and marketing trends include:

• AI is currently in use at 30.6 percent of companies and moving
  beyond the hype stage: 43.6 percent of respondents currently using
  AI in the sales process are leveraging it for scoring and
  prioritization, 33.1 percent for contacting and qualification, and
  31.3 percent for social selling. 44.1 percent plan to adopt AI for
  sales in 2019.
• Sales will benefit from AI the most: Sales was the clear
  frontrunner when asked about departments that will benefit most from
  AI, chosen by 51.6 percent, followed by marketing with 44.4 percent
  and customer service with 25.5 percent.
• AI expected to drive increased sales performance: 85.4 percent
  predicted AI will improve sales performance between 1-50 percent and,
  on average, respondents expected a 33.8 percent increase. Almost half
  of the responses fell between 11-30 percent.
• AI will most impact pipeline management and forecasting: 51.1
  percent said pipeline management and forecasting would benefit
  from AI most, followed by account and contact research at 48.9
  percent, prospecting with 43.2 percent, administrative tasks at 27.5
  percent, and general follow-up at 26.9 percent.
• Knowledge is the biggest roadblock to AI adoption: Respondents
  indicated the top challenge to using AI is they don’t understand it
  (25.7 percent), they don’t trust it (20.5 percent) and the technology
  is too expensive (19.4 percent).
• AI will enable, not replace sales professionals: Only 9 percent
  firmly believe AI will replace sales reps in the next five years, but
  58.5 percent of respondents think inside sales roles will be
  significantly impacted, closely followed by 58.4 percent who think
  sales operations will be the most impacted.

About the 2018 State of AI for Sales & Marketing Survey

The 2018 State of AI for Sales & Marketing Survey polled 633
individuals, asking various questions about their understanding, usage,
and expectations of artificial intelligence, especially its application
at work. Respondents are segmented by 2018 Revenue, Title Level,
Industry, and Company Size (Number of Employees). The typical (median)
respondent worked for a company with between $20 -$49.9 million in 2018
Revenue and 11-50 employees. 24.8% of respondents reported a title level
of Front Line, while the other 75.2% reported Manager or above (Manager,
Director, VP, or C-Level).

The full research is available at www.insidesales.com.

About InsideSales.com

InsideSales.com accelerates revenue growth by 30% with the only
full-stack AI sales platform powered by Collective
Intelligence–exclusive insights from 120 billion global buyer
interactions. With Amazon-like buyer recommendations informed by the
actions of billions of buyer behavior data points, InsideSales.com
delivers unprecedented B2B buyer insights to triple productivity and
improves the buyer experience. Fast-growth brands like Caesars
Entertainment, Cisco, CenturyLink, T-Mobile, Fidelity Investments, West
Corp., Broadridge, Ten-X, Waste Management, and others rely on
InsideSales.com to deliver significant measurable improvements to sales
and marketing visibility, productivity, and effectiveness. For more
information, visit www.insidesales.com.

Contacts

SHIFT Communications for InsideSales.com
Sarah Babbitt
InsideSales@shiftcomm.com
617-779-1803