Softmax Data has been providing companies with machine learning services companies related to Natural Language Processing (NLP), image processing and financial modeling. Recently, we made a collective decision to devote more resources to custom solutions related to sales enablement and sales operations. Why do we undertake these efforts? Because we are witnessing a wave of changes in these two fields, which are also essential to the fiscal health of every firm. Let’s look at some of the examples from our past and current clients.

We will cover how we tackle tasks such as:

  • Leads gathering
  • Contact verification
  • Leads Prioritization
  • User Profile Enrichment
  • Leads De-duping
  • Churn Analysis

by applying the following machine learning technologies:

  • Named Entity Recognition
  • Clustering
  • Deep Learning
  • Classification (binary and multi-class)
  • Topic Modeling
  • Identity Resolution

Tl’dr. Before we get started, if, at any point, you are interested in having a brief chat to find out when machine learning is suited for your sales processes, sales enablement or sales operations, feel free to contact me for a quick chat.

What are Sales Enablement and Sales Operations?

Sales are the foundation of all B2B organizations. Modern sales operations are more than having fresh graduates making hundreds of cold calls every day. It is a cohesive operation that requires many components, such as:

  • Sales prospecting
  • Sales content
  • Sales playbook
  • Leads prioritization
  • Meeting scheduling
  • Market intelligence
  • Contact gathering
  • Contact validation
  • …..

It reads like a complex military operation doesn’t it? Soldiers (sales reps) on the frontlines need intelligence, equipment, and logistics to support their services. The supporting efforts in the modern sales organization are called Sales Enablement. Once the sales efforts are carried out, constant monitoring — such as reporting, analyzing trends, leads prioritization is necessary. The monitoring efforts are carried out by Sales Operations.

In essence, sales enablement is all about facilitating the buying process and making sure sales individuals focus on selling, while not worrying about other trivial and time-consuming tasks. Many of our clients have marketing and sales jointly manage the sales enablement team; in other cases, the sales operation teams manage the sales enablement. The former typically works better as there is an inherent consistency in marketing collaterals and messaging throughout the entire sales funnel, providing the prospect with a smooth and coherent buying experience. But this approach comes with tremendous costs where the organization must have sufficient resources to designate resources as well as multi-department collaboration.

Sales operations, on the other hand, are almost all about data. Sales ops provide data analytics and business intelligence to monitor and report the status of deals, forecast revenues, and track progress. This operation is also vital for decision-makers to constantly adjust strategies, hold individuals accountable, and ensure the organizations meet their fiscal obligations.

So, how did machine learning solutions play a role in these activities?