10 futuristic tech predictions for inside sales teams

What is AI?

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. I prefer automated intelligence. He is already with us in many forms. Artificial intelligence is intelligence exhibited by machines or software.

Algorithms that help make Google the smartest search engine in the galaxy.

Stock markets around the world use Algos, as they are called, which enable high-frequency trading using algorithms. It is estimated that as of 2009, high frequency trading accounted for 60-73% of all US stock trading volume. So Artificial Intelligence or AI has done away with human traders.

• Robots, at such a low price, you can afford one to mow the lawn or vacuum the carpets.
• Cars that drive without humans. Scary.
• Amazon algorithms that suggest what to buy next, the most successful cross-selling engine on the planet.

AI is already with us and is about to experience massive growth. Before we take a look at the predictions for ourselves, let’s take a quick look at the economics of it all, after all, it’s money that drives everything.

economic influence

The fundamental objective of all advanced economies is to increase productivity. In other words, producing more goods and services or gross domestic product (GDP) per person in the labor force. Gone are the days of cheap labor. In the UK we now have the living wage which has substantially increased the old minimum wage. Offshoring to the Far East does not bring cheap labor; in fact, labor costs in China are rising rapidly as its industrial growth continues.

• In the past, we have relied on innovations and inventions to boost productivity.
• In the 19th century, we had steam power.
• At the beginning of the 20th century we had electricity and the automobile
• In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, we had personal computers and the Internet.

All of these inventions increased the GDP of the countries that maximized their use.

AI is projected to increase GDP by 1% over the years 2020 and 2030. That’s when the changes I’m going to talk about will become widespread. Let’s go.

1. Brains in the sky

Or smart data in the cloud. Have you ever talked to Siri or Cortana? These are embryos of this prediction. In the future, all of our knowledge, experiences, and data will be kept in personal cloud storage accessible via voice control from our smartphones. It already is. But future knowledge will be able to learn and improve based on what we experience, do and learn.

Think about it. Everything you want to know or do, the answer will be in the personal cloud. You can ask the cloud any question… anything… and it will answer it in seconds.

The implications for the Inside Sales operation are enormous. Training is no longer necessary. Your cloud can advise you what you need to know, it can give you information, it can show you how to do things with a voice command.

No training is necessary as cloud storage will watch you and provide feedback to make you better at what you do. He is an automated mentor, a coach always available to help and assist.

And learn, improve, you can buy “boost” packs that enhance it. Can you imagine being able to act and do anything?

There is even talk of being able to map the human brain, digitize the result and put it in the cloud so that it is accessible at any time. To be able to “back up” your brain. Perhaps this is a few years further still.

2. Robotics

You will have a huge influence on the Inside Sales Operation. Robots to bring tea, cleaning robots. Your manager using a robot to ask how you are, almost like a moving avatar. Window cleaning robots, compliance robots roaming downtown, watching and recording all around you.

3. Internet of things

Each device will be connected to the Internet and will communicate with other devices.

In our house, the following items have chips and can communicate over the Internet:

• Our kitchen Aga. You can turn it on and off from a phone, and if it develops a power failure, it tells central Aga control about the problem.
• Our fridge that can tell Tesco’s when we’re low on milk.
• TVs, DVD players, Sky Boxes of course.
• my printer.
• My Microsoft Band.
• My car. The computer tells me my service is due and simultaneously contacts the local garage who emails me to schedule an appointment.
• Smartphones, Tablets, Kindles… but you knew they were connected.

The number of devices connected to the Internet is expected to increase tenfold, from 2 billion to 25 billion, between 2010 and 2020.

What are the implications for the Inside Sales operation? Anything that smells of electricity will be connected to the internet and will be able to talk to something else. I mentioned the vending machine, but this is a small ticket compared to the bands around your inside sales people’s wrists.

Imagine gangs giving you information about their mood, their motivation, their stress levels. Do they need a break, a conversation or just someone to advise? We all know that burnout among inside salespeople is high and staff turnover in a call center is terrible. Imagine being able to monitor your mood, how helpful that would be.

4.3D printing

Not necessarily AI, but something that will change the way companies and people buy products. Instead of buying them, we will use the 3D printer to make them.

From the Internet, the blueprint is fed directly into the 3D printer, which makes it on the spot, using some kind of polymer, liquid metal, or tofu food.

So when you need a piece of equipment, you order it online, pay for the blueprint, and print it on the 3D printer at the office or the shared resource with the owner, because they’re going to be very expensive at first.

5. Automated seller

This may sound very unusual, but you can get software that is smart and can read and respond to typed text. Imagine an email arrives, the automated salesperson named Lucy responds to it based on her programming algorithms and her ability to react to the written word.

It has access to everyone’s calendar, email systems, and the company’s data and intelligence cloud, so it can mimic the responses of a real human.

This morning I was using live chat to talk to HP about my printer malfunctioning. Questions arose from her, I answered, she reacted and told me how to fix the printer. It might as well have been human, it might as well have been an intelligent algorithm handling the job.

More and more of these roles will migrate to algorithms and in the inside sales of the future, much of the initial exchange of emails and live chats will be handled this way. Once the customer has been qualified by the algorithm or something I’ll call it from now on, it will pass the query to a human who can contact and handle the customer in the future.

Live video chats can be achieved with an algorithm. The something will look, sound and act like a real person on the screen in front of you.

6. Algorithms on websites

This is the most exciting innovation for the future of Inside Sales operations. Algos in action on websites. Amazon’s cross-selling engine will already recommend products to me, but I’m referring to the advice the algorithms give me.

Imagine you are an inside sales operation that sells mortgages and associated protection products. Many companies use humans right now to give advice and complete the sale. In the future, customers will log into the system looking for mortgage advice and get it from the algorithm.

The something will imitate the human being, will have all the necessary questions, will be called Dave or Umran and will provide a great service. I can see the voice being added to the mix in a way that is hard to distinguish from a real human being. A rigidly regulated sale made by a computer program.

Is it a person on the screen or is it a lip-synced avatar of something? We will never know.

7. Smart call monitoring

This is currently available. A call monitoring system can monitor and listen to the actual call and alert when a problem occurs. Perhaps an irate customer or keywords spoken by the customer or seller. This could be intercepted by the manager or recorded for training purposes later. A real time saver.

8. Unlimited Recruitment

It’s hard to recruit the right kind of people in the area where your Inside Sales operation is located, but the future will allow you to recruit from anywhere in the world and connect them to the hub via the Internet. It can now, but the future will allow this to be more effective than it is now with all the algorithms and AI in place.

9. Virtual Reality

It will become a reality and omnipresent. We already have the technology, but it will be cheaper and easier to move the mass of data over the ultra-fast connections that everyone has.

Your Singapore-based in-house salesperson can put on their headset and be in the training room in Milton Keynes, interacting with their colleagues. You can meet the manager for a one on one in meeting room number 4.

10. Holographics

It will be broadcast into these rooms and over time you will think that the person is actually there in front of you. But they are not, they are at the head office in the center of Singapore’s capital city.

Think about the impact with customers. With the ability to broadcast your hologram anywhere, Inside Sales will need to change its name back to Field Sales. Now there is a game changer.

Summary

All of these predictions are based on current events and trends that are already occurring. In the period 2020 to 2030, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will dominate our economies and contribute to a 1% increase in global GDP through additional productivity.

For inside sales operations, we’re going to see a huge increase in productivity, and by the way, the HP rep in the live chat this morning was human and she told me her name was Lucy.