Unlocking profitable B2B growth through gen AI

B2B leaders are accustomed to using technology to help them achieve profitable growth. Lately they’ve been looking at a technology that has the potential to accelerate sales transformations across the entire seller journey—gen AI. Gen AI can help drive outsized, profitable growth by boosting revenue generation, increasing sales productivity, and streamlining internal processes. These leaders believe the potential is great. According to McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey of B2B decision-makers, 19 percent of respondents are already implementing gen AI use cases for B2B buying and selling, and another 23 percent are in the process of doing so.

That’s promising. However, the flip side is that most B2B leaders have yet to embrace gen AI or even engage with it. A few leaders tell the authors they are unsure where the benefits would come from and whether the business impact justifies the investment. Some feel overwhelmed by the abundance of ideas and seek advice on what to prioritize.

From their study, seven compelling use cases across the deal cycle (i.e., awareness and outreach, engagement and acquisition, and success and growth) by analyzing gen AI deployments and their impact on sales ROI and customer experience are:  

1. Next best opportunity:  Gen AI can gather insights and intelligence; AI can identify, enrich, and prioritize leads across accounts and products.
2. Next-best action:  AI abd gen AI powered personalization can determine next best step for nurturing and closing personalized leads.
3. Meeting Support:  Get AI can support sellers before, during, and after meeting, including with rapid preparation using most relevant insights
4. Personal responder:  Gen AI can create and iterate answers to request for proposals, freeing up sellers’ time for other tasks
5. Smart pricing:  AI can determine optimal pricing based on willingness to pay and propensity to buy; get AI can assist with negotiation support
6. Smart research assistant:  AI agents can help sellers facilitate research and improve customer interactions.
7. Smart Coach:  GEn AI and other AI tools can analyze customer interactions, determine performance needs, and offer tailored coaching to sellers.

5 key considerations that can help organizations establish a gen AI implementation strategy that aligns with their goals and desires to drive profitable growth in sales are: Start with the problem, not the technology; Keep the seller at the center; Buy the easy stuff and build for competitive advantage; Balance immediate impact and lasting capabilities with a clear AI strategy; Invest in seller adoption from the get-go.