Hiring a new employee can cost between three and four times the person’s salary. A good part of that comes from “soft” costs, like time spent onboarding and the months (or perhaps well over a year) that it takes for an employee to make a legitimate impact on the business.
Artificial intelligence will completely upend this. Soon, employee onboarding will require a fraction of the time it takes today.
The first few weeks for new marketing and sales hires are generally devoted to:
- Learning the ins and outs of your company’s products or services
- Reading through training materials
- Meeting with important people throughout the organization
- Training for the specific technologies your company uses
While there’ll always be a learning curve, AI will make it much easier for new team members to find the resources they need — and impact the bottom line more quickly.
The Future of Sales and Marketing Onboarding with AI
Revenue team members are expected to be experts in:
- Messaging
- Value propositions
- Prospect industries
- General prospect pain points
- Concerns of specific personas
- Concerns of buyers as specific stages of the buying journey
- And more
Developing expertise in any those areas requires a lot of study. But with the right Generative AI strategy and tools, you can train an AI on the characteristics of these challenges (and provide the AI with your company’s solutions). This enables new employees to lean on the AI to create targeted content that communicates relevant, resonant messages to the proper audiences.
For instance, a marketer can prompt an AI to find the right asset or messaging document that maps to a specific account’s concerns — rather than making guesses and/or manually digging through content libraries themselves.
Examples of AI-Driven Enablement
Marketing Onboarding With AI
Let’s look at some ways AI can speed up onboarding for marketers.
Example #1: A new hire on the demand gen team wants to understand how one product differs from another, and why a buyer would prefer one over the other. They prompt the AI with the following request: “List the top three value propositions for [Product A] and [Product B]. Then explain specific use cases for each.” If the AI has been proactively provided the information, it will near-instantly provide the right response.
Example #2: A new copywriter is trying to get up to speed so they can start creating impactful content. They prompt the AI with the following: “Provide me with links to five blog posts about [Subject] on our website. Include a 200-word summary with each.” Suddenly, the writer is armed with a Greatest Hits list of relevant information to use as content cornerstones.
Example #3: An email marketing manager wants to craft a campaign. They turn to an AI email tool to help get them started. They write the following brief: “Write a three-email peer-to-peer nurture cadence to educate a prospect and generate interest in [Product]. Include a CTA to a case study about that product.” Moments later, they have what they need.
In each of those examples, the new hire can engage the AI with specific questions and entirely sidestep the hours of reading static documents and watching videos.
For creative roles like email creation or copywriting, employees can also use the AI to generate outlines or drafts that help them quickly understand your brand voice and style.
BDR Onboarding With AI
Sellers face an even tougher road when onboarding. They’re expected to generate pipeline and revenue as fast as possible. This requires being an expert in your products or services and articulating it flawlessly during direct conversations with buyers.
Traditional approaches to onboarding Business Development Representatives (BDRs) requires new sellers to:
- Sit in on prospecting calls
- Listen to previous calls, and
- Watch countless demo videos
These activities are absolutely valuable to the onboarding process, but AI can help deepen a seller’s knowledge rapidly, and provide quick answers to questions.
Example #1: A new BDR is getting ready for their first call to a prospect and wants to be as prepared as possible. They prompt the AI with the following: “Pretend you’re a VP of marketing at [Target Company]. List five reasons why you would be interested in [Product] and the specific use cases you would have for it. Additionally, include five questions that a seller should ask you to illuminate your need for this product.” Boom. Done.
Example #2: A seller is working on one of their first outreach emails. They use a conversational email tool that has AI features. They prompt the AI tool with the following: “Write an outreach email to a sales operations manager. Highlight [Product feature]. The CTA at the end of the email should ask if they are free for a call. Keep the tone conversational.” And it does.
Example #3: A new seller wants to understand the differences between their services and the competitors’. They prompt the AI with: “Compare the offerings between [Company A], [Company B], and [Company C]. List the 5 top features for each service.” Kapow, instant intel on the enemy.
AI enables sellers to role play as different buyers, hunt for deeper lines of questioning, and unlock product mastery much faster.
Conclusion
We’re merely scratching the surface of AI’s potential in these examples. But these tools can already improve your onboarding processes by acting as a trusted confidant and knowledge hub. With AI, new employees can surface important materials, understand your target audience better, and even get a jump start on creating engaging content.
