Automation, CRM, AI – How Are New Technologies Improving B2B Sales?
Table of contents
- What do we mean by “Technology”?
- Sales Force Automation
- CRM for Continuous Improvement of Customer experience
- Artificial intelligence
How do new technologies contribute to B2B sales? What are the most common sales enablement tools? Do these tools give a competitive advantage?
We will try to answer these questions in this article.
What do we mean by “Technology”?
It’s a vast question.
Trying to answer it with precision and confidence would be a mistake because the term “technology” is far from simple, and no universally accepted definition exists across all academic schools.
According to Wikipedia, the term “technology” is polysemous, meaning it can take on multiple meanings or interpretations, even though the spelling remains the same. Do not confuse it with the term “homonym,” where two words are spelled and pronounced the same but refer to different things.
There is a wide range of definitions of the word “technology.” The one that caught my attention the most is by Robert Melancton Metcalfe, a computer scientist and university professor who contributed to the development of the internet in the 1970s.
He defines “technology” as follows:
Generally speaking, technology lies in our ability to take action, to deploy skills in transforming material, energy, and information from state A to state B, where the latter holds greater value.
In the context of B2B sales, this means that technology (or technologies) is aimed at:
- Enhancing time-consuming tasks by making them faster to handle.
- Providing more reliable information to salespeople and faster.
- Collecting large amounts of client data to support and guide the salesperson through their sales funnel and decision-making process.
- Increasing customer knowledge and gaining deeper understanding…
Our view as an offshore web agency: what does technology represent to us?
We share MetCalfe’s vision: for us, technology is a means of creating applications that will help you, in one way or another, to perform better, thus moving from state A to state B. Technology must bring added value to an organization or business.
Sales force automation
When several parts of the sales cycle are automated, a virtuous cycle is set in motion for the sales team.
Automating sales dramatically increases the reach and precision of the salesperson in their daily activities, reduces manual entry errors, and as a result, boosts the organization’s profit margins.
Automating the sales force correctly, with the right partner, such as Bocasay, means increasing the closing rate and, most importantly, significantly reducing misunderstandings and communication issues.
Among the sales processes that can be automated, we find:
- Data collection and reporting
- Data consolidation into reports
- Smoother information flow
- Data storage
- Improved appointment scheduling, sales qualification, and lead management
Automation has the power to reduce the time salespeople spend on low-value tasks, freeing them up to be in direct contact with prospects and clients.
CRM for continuous improvement of customer experience
CRM is the 4th most used tool in the marketing sector.
Like the term “technology,” there are dozens of ways to define CRM. This concept is inherently tied to your personal, even philosophical, view of the customer.
That’s why, as an offshore web agency, we recommend our clients develop their own CRM tools. Each company has its own vision of what a customer represents.
According to Salesforce, CRM is a technology that records all interactions with customers and prospects. Initially, CRM was used exclusively by sales teams to improve customer relations. Over time, CRM has become a technological tool also used by marketing, e-commerce, customer service, and IT teams.
If you’d like to learn more about e-commerce, check out our article: B2B E-commerce: The Competitive Stakes of 2024
CRM helps streamline communication with the customer by treating them as an individual with their own needs, habits, and problems.
However, be careful, studies show that only 20% to 25% of CRM deployments succeed. This underscores the importance of making your CRM decision with extreme caution and focusing on these three critical factors:
- Work with the right vendor for your needs.
- Ensure that upper management supports you 1000%.
- Have a solid change management plan.
Without deeply addressing these three pillars, you risk becoming one of the CRM failure statistics.
Artificial Intelligence
The rise and democratization of artificial intelligence enhances sales team performance in two major ways:
- Automating time-consuming tasks
- Improving decision-making
It’s worth noting that 40% of the sales cycle could be automated by AI.
As of 2025, we’re seeing the emergence of sales cycles that are up to 70–80% automated.
Limova.ai, a French company, offers fully automated, responsive customer support, complete with instant reporting, appointment scheduling via phone, 24/24 call reception, and call transfers to human agents.
A study also showed that 80% of businesses saw improvements in customer loyalty after deploying AI-powered chatbots.
Furthermore, AI-generated feedback is a highly valuable information source for salespeople. These insights help them perform better at their next appointment and better prepare for future interactions.
Advances in artificial intelligence, when integrated into a unified CRM that reflects the company’s view of the customer, significantly accelerate sales force automation, a key asset in the B2B sales world.
References
- Wikipedia: “Technology”
- Doctoral Thesis, University of Lyon – Franck Romain
- Salesforce: What is CRM?
