The Hidden Advantage of Structured Data in the Age of AI

Imagine a day in the life of a B2B salesperson. Someone skilled in the art of conversation, has business acumen, skilled in the art of bringing customers in your door. They walk in the door of their office on Monday morning, and what is their next action?

In the old days, the salesperson would pull out their rolodex, crack their knuckles, and start making calls. If they were great at their job, they’d instinctively know who needed a call, where to find prospects, what to do next to bring the next big sale home to roost. If they were new, or “not cut out for” the work, they might flail about (go get coffee in the break room, talk to a colleague for a while, stew on their poor numbers from last month), send some generic emails (log those activities!), call an enthusiastic prospect they like talking to (but who is never going to buy), and then go to lunch, promising they’ll start making those cold calls later.

In the age of AI, structured data is both easier, and rarer, than ever before.

Now, imagine a salesperson in a modern, highly competitive, well-structured, well-supported B2B sales environment. Regardless of their level of experience, their numbers from last month are robust, their pantry is full thanks to their healthy and sustainable income, and they sit down knowing what to do because they’re fully supported by:

• A formal Way of Selling
• Workflows that guide them through key milestones and minimizes mistakes
• Insights that show them the most valuable tasks and digital footsteps of prospects
• In-product access to external data to enrich information about customers, stakeholders, and relevant research
• Structured information that delivers high-quality contextual suggestions
• Stakeholders to identify and contact, and conversations to have
• On-message emails to send to the right stakeholders at the right time
• Training and coaching support at their fingertips for when they get stuck or want to level up

Imagine the sales team around each of these types of salespeople. Which team is most effective? Which team consistently brings in new customers and revenue? Which team is motivated, equipped, and ready every day for whatever is next?

Which one is your team?

Most companies are somewhere in between. And if you’re ready to move your team closer to the effective, highly competitive side of the equation, what you need isn’t more AI, more technology, more data, “the right people,” or even more training.

It’s structure. And, in the age of AI, this is both easier, and rarer, than ever before. Here are 5 ways to structure your data, amplify insights with AI, and nudge your team to become the one that brings in the wins.

1. Free Up Wasted Time
   Everyone has been guilty, at some point, of wasting time with the wrong prospects. Sometimes, even when we know, in our gut, they’re not a good fit. But we feel good when we call them, without reflecting on the fact that we’re wasting everyone’s time.
   
   With the right tools, you can structure your customer data to show you the meaningful differentiators between a prospect you’re likely to win and one you’re not. Coupled with AI trained on those insights, your salespeople can be prompted directly when a prospect or project is unlikely to move, freeing the salesperson’s time to focus on the projects that can.
2. Prospect Faster, Better
   The holy grail we’ve all been chasing since the beginning of time: High-value prospecting lists you don’t have to hunt down. Historically, we’ve purchased data from companies that promise every contact has been vetted and then import these lists into the CRM. We’ve subscribed to data we can mine for likely opportunities. Salespeople then spend tons of time researching such companies and chasing better-quality contact information, and the system gets bloated with duplicates and companies that aren’t even in the right industries for our ICP.
   
   When our data is structured and accompanied by an embedded AI, you can skip all of that. The holy grail: Direct access to company information, stakeholders with contact names, email addresses, and phone numbers, delivered directly to Membrain. Then have Membrain quietly analyze every project in the background, identifying the key features that represent likely wins, do automated research, and then match those criteria with live data from potential prospect companies.
   
   Your salespeople get insights into valuable calls to make… without having to wade through sludge first.
3. Know What to Do, At All Times
   Stop asking your salespeople to log activities as if being busy were the key to winning. Instead, you can have timely prompts delivered straight to them, in real-time, to take the actions most likely to lead to wins.
   
   Based on your process, it may prompt them to take the next step with a particular company. It may identify that you’ve only contacted one or two people at a particular company, and nudge you to contact more–and tell you who, with contact details. It may show you that you haven’t moved a project forward in a while, and suggest the next action to take.
4. Know Where to Focus Your Time, and How
   When your win/loss data is structured effectively, an embedded AI can proactively highlight current projects with insights based on previous wins and losses. It can prompt salespeople with information like, “This is an industry we’re strong in. Here’s how to keep it moving forward,” and “Here are the tactics that work best with projects like this one.”
   
   You replace the old practice of mining your data for win/loss information, laboriously going over it together in a meeting, and then trying to remember constantly which insights apply. And instead, simply receive the insights you need in real time, based on that same data.
5. Communicate Better, Faster
   Emails, texts, social media, phone calls, collateral: All of these play a role in the success of your company and your sales team. How you communicate, and how your salespeople do, can make or break your brand cohesion, customer experience, and sales outcomes.
   
   Well-trained, integrated AI tools combined with well-structured information can supercharge every aspect of this.
   
   Imagine a tool where you have embedded branding, marketing, and sales information like:
   
   - Your ICP
   - Your value proposition
   - Your company's tone of voice
   - Your sales methodology
   - Up-to-date research
   - Samples of successful communications
   
   And imagine this intelligently embedded into the salesperson’s workflows. They sit down after lunch, open up their workflow tool with its AI assistance, and it pops up reminders about who they need to contact to move their projects forward. They open up their email tool within that workflow, and it automatically populates a draft on the basis of that embedded information and insight.
   
   An email worded in a way that is in tune with your company’s voice, says what it needs to say to get to the next milestone and takes this laborious task off the salesperson’s plate. Now, all they have to do is review the email, make sure it really does say what needs to be said, and that they’re happy with the tone… and hit send.
   
   This is a far cry from the days of shotgun automated emails. These are emails targeting very specific individuals, at very specific places in the sales process, with very specific needs… all of which data is structured within your workflow in a way that makes that email not only easy… but right.

Conclusion

Remember that salesperson walking in their door each morning, cheerful and ready, knowing that the work ahead of them will be targeted, effective, and profitable. Imagine them having powerful conversations, building strong rapport, and deepening relationships because they know exactly how to bring the right value at the right time in the right way to each contact they reach out to.

This is what’s possible now, and it’s what will be necessary to continue to be competitive. We’re proud, at Membrain, to have already built the platform that automatically structures your data and your approach in this way. And now, we’re proud to be launching Insight Engine (sign up for the launch webinar,) our AI and data add-on that brings the vision to life.

In the comments, tell me where your sales team is on this spectrum, from sink-or-swim to sustained flight. And tell me where you want to be this year.