Smarter selling: How to leverage AI to win more

In today’s competitive and ever-changing sales environment, the pressure is always on to move faster, respond smarter, and deliver more value to customers. Customers expect tailored solutions from suppliers that are easy to work with. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just hype; it’s becoming a vital tool that B2B sales professionals can use to sharpen their strategy, focus their efforts, and accelerate results. Forward-thinking sales teams are using AI to work smarter and faster and deliver better results. 

Here are five AI strategies to improve sales effectiveness. 

1. Know your buyers’ motivations

Great salespeople sell solutions, not products, and that starts with understanding what your buyers truly care about. AI research can help you uncover those motivations more quickly and accurately.

•  Use AI-powered intent data to track which companies are actively researching sustainability, speed-to-market, cost efficiency or other key drivers in the labeling and packaging space.

•  Segment your customers with AI tools that analyze purchase patterns, vertical-specific challenges or trigger events like product launches.

Buyers’ motivations are changing quickly. When you understand what’s driving the buyer and key influencers for a project, you can align your message with what matters most.

2. Create compelling sales content

Your emails, presentations and proposals need to break through the clutter and content overload. Buyers expect highly personalized and relevant content. Your content must resonate and demonstrate how your solution will impact their goals. AI can help you generate, edit and improve content quickly. 

•  Use generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini to improve emails and proposals tailored to customer concerns or buyer personas.

•  Optimize your sales materials with AI-driven writing tools that enhance clarity and engagement.

Better content that is relevant, anticipates objections, gets noticed, and generates a better response. By making content specific and concise, you improve the odds of breaking through and sparking meaningful conversations with prospects and decision makers. Always validate, proofread and edit before sending.

3. Summarize content to save time

Sales professionals are bombarded with RFPs, call notes and technical specs. AI can do the heavy lifting, giving you more time to sell.

•  Use AI tools to summarize lengthy documents like RFPs or product compliance sheets.

•  Automate meeting summaries with platforms like Teams, Zoom, Gong or Fireflies that capture key takeaways, objections and action items from calls.

•  Translate technical product data into business-friendly language using AI, making it easier to engage non-technical decision-makers.

With AI as your note taker and assistant, you’ll spend less time digging through documents and more time moving deals forward.

4. Make better data-driven decisions

Gut instinct has its place, but smart sales teams are supplementing intuition with insights from AI.

•  Forecast pipeline health using AI-enhanced CRMs that consider trends, deal velocity and historical close rates.

•  Rank deals with AI tools that calculate lead and opportunity scoring.

AI turns your sales data into actionable information. Many tools like Salesforce and HubSpot have built-in AI functions that help sales teams prioritize which deals are most likely to close.

5. Free up time for high-value activities

Perhaps the biggest benefit of AI is giving sales team more time. It handles the tasks that distract from selling, so you can focus on strategy, relationships and closing.

•  Automate early-stage lead nurturing with AI-based email workflows that educate and warm up prospects.

•  Delegate scheduling, data entry and follow-ups to virtual AI assistants integrated into your CRM.

The result? More conversations, better pipeline momentum and stronger customer relationships.

The bottom line

In Issue 1 of Labels & Labeling, I wrote about sales success by knowing each customers’ ‘why’. AI isn’t about replacing salespeople; it’s about amplifying their value. In the label and packaging space, where every order is unique and the stakes are high, sales professionals who embrace AI are better equipped to deliver personalized experiences, build trust faster and win more deals.

The tools are here, and the time is now. Smart sellers are already making the shift. Are you?

Lois Ritarossi is a certified management consultant and president of High Rock Strategies, an independent management consulting firm focused on sales and marketing strategies and business growth for firms in the print, mail, communications and B2B sectors. You can read more about sales strategies at www.highrockstrategies.com. Email Lois at Lritarossi@highrockstrategies.com