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Everything We Learned About AI for Sales at Dreamforce 2023

Three Dreamforce attendees watch the event, which includes sales hacks tips
As the sales industry and AI evolve, sales leaders can improve productivity with generative AI, make faster data-driven decisions with predictive AI, and free up reps to focus on relationship-building. [Salesforce]

The future of sales is AI. Learn how generative AI, real-time data, secure AI practices, and unified platforms are making sales teams more productive.

Dreamforce was epic. We shared advice and industry news with Salesblazers, made friends, and handed out scads of swag (our plushies are second to none). Among all the catch-ups and learning sessions this year, though, one topic stood out: the critical importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in sales. 

Sales teams are seeing the rise of new AI tools to help prospecting, coaching, and forecasting, all in service of sales efficiency. There’s also an increased interest in real-time customer insights as a competitive advantage, housed in a single, secure CRM

How are top sales teams taking advantage of all of this, while maintaining strong customer relationships? Discover their tips and sales hacks below.

Did you miss the Dreamforce Sales Cloud keynote? Stream it on Salesforce+

Hear what innovative sales leaders are saying about AI-powered innovation, data-driven decision-making, and the latest Sales Cloud innovations. 

1. Prioritize secure data before embracing generative AI  

The ever-evolving field of AI promises to enhance seller efficiency, yet it comes with its share of security challenges. Recent Salesforce research found that 73% of employees believe generative AI introduces new security risks. There’s good reason for concern: Public generative AI tools lack data encryption, data masking — really any security protections. This makes your input vulnerable to theft and misuse.  

In the last year, we’ve all gotten a little smarter when it comes to security. We now know that we should avoid plugging customer data into public generative AI tools and that we still need a human in the middle to manually review any generative AI copy to ensure accuracy. And if you do want to leverage generative AI, you should do it in an environment you can control — with all the security protections you need to keep your data from getting into the wrong hands.

How Salesforce helps you maintain security: 

Trust has always been our number one value, which is why we launched the Einstein Trust Layer earlier this year. This is a secure AI architecture, natively built into the Salesforce Platform. Designed for enterprise security standards, it allows teams to benefit from generative AI without compromising their customer data. For example, while prompts power every generative AI output, our Zero Retention architecture ensures that no customer data is stored outside of Salesforce. Data masking (cloaking any sensitive company or individual information) provides an additional layer of protection.

2. Don’t wait to get in on generative AI

Generative AI may feel like a bell-and-whistle addition to your tech stack, but it’s not just a “nice to have.” You need it to stay competitive. According to our recent Trends in Generative AI for Sales report, 55% of sales professionals report that they currently or plan to use generative AI, and 58% say it helps or will help them increase productivity. 

It’s easy to see why adoption is on the rise. Reps can use text-based prompts to identify leads, research companies, draft emails, and even analyze past emails to uncover prospect needs they haven’t addressed. More advanced AI-powered CRMs can personalize communications, even mimic rep voice and tone. This allows sellers to offload time-sucking manual tasks and focus on what truly matters: building meaningful customer relationships

How Sales Cloud helps make AI accessible to everyone:

At Dreamforce, we unveiled some nifty generative AI innovations for Sales Cloud offered through Einstein 1 Sales, our AI toolset:

Call summarization: Automatically summarize calls to surface key topics covered during meetings and next steps. 

Sales emails: Auto-generate hyper-relevant, personalized emails for every sales conversation using the customer data already housed in Sales Cloud.

Einstein Copilot for sales: Offload busywork throughout the sales cycle to a digital assistant, including account research, meeting preparation (agenda-setting and notes to keep in mind), and deal record updates.

3. Lean into real-time analytics and predictive AI to win when change hits

As one of our Salesblazers recently lamented, many businesses are still mired in outdated spreadsheets that require slow, time-consuming updates and manual analysis. That’s the cumbersome operational MO of the past, and makes it difficult to act on the latest deal information. Even worse: Predicting what’s going to happen next is an imprecise, Herculean task.

By harnessing the power of automation, sales teams can lean on their CRM to update deal records in real time (read: no more spreadsheets). When paired with predictive AI, reps and managers can get alerts about potential deal and forecasting issues before things go off the rails. 

And that’s really just the beginning. Imagine this: While reps stay on top of the latest deal insights, managers leverage real-time data to track team performance on the fly, identifying in-the-moment coaching opportunities (like stalled leads) they can quickly address to keep reps on track. At the helm, leaders utilize the latest data to obtain a holistic view of their sales organization’s performance relative to targets. 

Real-time data and predictive AI are the keys to all of this, allowing sales teams to see red flags early and quickly change strategies to ensure they hit their sales goals

How Sales Cloud’s real-time and predictive AI help you stay ahead of competitors: 

Using Einstein Activity Capture, Sales Cloud automatically captures and unifies data from every customer interaction — like emails, online chats, and phone calls — so reps can see their own “State of Sales” at any moment. Even better, teams can pull in data from third-party tools and harmonize with existing CRM records for a 360-degree view of every customer and prospect. Layer on predictive AI functionality and you get hyper-relevant recommendations for next best steps that will move each deal forward.

For managers and sales leaders, real-time data updates and predictive AI come together in Sales Cloud’s Deal Insights panel to flag potential forecast problems early so teams can adjust strategy and stay on course. Rep activity is also captured via Activity 360: Managers can view key team metrics, like leads in pipe and win rate, in one place to uncover coaching opportunities while there’s still time to impact deals. 

4. Invest in one single platform over multiple disconnected tools

Our recent State of Sales report revealed a stark reality: 66% of sales reps feel swamped by the multitude of tools available to them. The allure of next-gen tech, including generative AI add-ons and single-function tools, is threatening to compound that problem. 

The rallying cry from the Dreamforce stage? Simplify your tech stack. Replace point solutions with one platform you can expand with new features, capabilities, or functions as needs arise. Prioritize core functionality like contact management, pipeline management, and forecasting, but also look for a platform that allows you to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities and real-time analytics to eliminate the fatigue of toggling between systems.

How Sales Cloud helps you power sales from end-to-end: 

Beyond supporting the core day-to-day needs of sellers via tools like Activity Capture, you can leverage the Sales Cloud platform to simplify your tech stack across sales and operations, while bringing in the power of AI. For example, teams that oversee sales planning and sales enablement programs can use the power of real-time customer and seller activity data to do that planning and outcome-tracking right within the Sales Cloud CRM. Many Sales Cloud customers even extend the automation and intelligence features of their CRM to partner channels via our Partner Relationship Management solution.

5. Technology is important, but don’t lose focus on relationships 

This last one is a bit of a pivot. 

If there’s one thing that’s stood out to sales leaders during recent times, it’s this: Relationships make or break you. It’s important that we stay on top of the latest tech — like AI — but what’s just as important are the connections we build with our teams and our customers. That always starts with self-improvement. The better you are at engaging, communicating, and uplifting others, the better your relationships will be.

Salesblazers talked about this a lot during Dreamforce, but three pieces of advice resonated the most. First, never stop learning. Take classes, get hands-on experience, grow your peer network, and learn from others in your field. Second, cherish the trust you’ve earned with your customers and continue to strengthen those relationships by following up and offering helpful resources you know they need. Third, always showcase your best. Take time to understand what really makes your customers tick, and deliver solutions they need before they even know they need them. Go the extra mile and you’ll find loyalty comes quickly.

There are hard days and easy days, but every day is an opportunity to shore up the relationships that are the foundation of sales. 

How Salesforce can help you foster strong relationships:

The Salesblazer Community is every sales professional’s go-to for career advice, tactical sales guidance, and network building. Join and connect with fellow Salesblazers who can help you learn, connect, and grow.

Set yourself up for sales success 

What did we learn at Dreamforce? In short, AI is the name of the game. As the sales industry evolves, sales leaders can improve productivity with generative AI, make faster data-driven decisions with predictive AI, and streamline tech so reps can focus more on relationship-building. If you’ve got these in your sights, 2024 will see you ahead of the pack.

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Reggie Marable, Head of Sales, Communications, Media & Technology, Slack
Reggie Marable Head of Sales, Communications, Media & Technology, Slack

Reggie leads the Communications, Media & Technology business in North America for Slack. He’s also a strategic advisor to Salesforce Ventures portfolio companies, helping tech startups build their go-to-market strategies. Reggie sits on the board of directors for the National Sales Network, Technology Association of Georgia, and he’s a proud member of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta. He’s also the author of “The Blue Print – The Keys to making BIG Money in Professional Sales.” Reggie lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and two children.

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