How can AI transcription boost your sales team productivity in 2024

Recent AI advancements are accelerating business processes across the globe. AI transcription is one such advancement. It improves communication within the sales team and with prospects by providing an auto-generated text version of everything said during a conversation.

But what’s behind the recent hype about AI transcription, making it a must-have for sales teams?

While AI transcription models are still under development, their output generation speed and ASR (automatic speech recognition) accuracy are at an all-time high. That means they can now perform real-time transcription, opening several doors for opportunities and making room for improvement in sales productivity.

But before we discuss how AI transcription can boost your sales team's closing ratio, let’s review some AI transcription basics.

What is AI Transcription & How it Works

AI transcription is the process of converting human speech into text or a transcript. It is widely used for transcribing real-time and recorded audio, such as meetings, sales calls, and discussions.

Technically, it is the process of converting recorded or live audio into text by leveraging a Natural Language Processing (NLP) model and machine learning algorithms. This AI model is trained for automatic speech recognition using audio-text data sets to understand human speech and convert it into text. Deep learning techniques are implemented to enhance the output over time, further improving its efficiency.

Type of AI transcription software

The transcription market was estimated at $1.9 billion in 2023 and is expected to rise to $4.4 billion by 2033. AI transcription tools have grown rapidly, acquiring a large chunk of this market share. These tools can be divided into three types, as discussed below: 

1. ASR software

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) software processes human speech and converts it into text by recognizing and interpreting linguistic and phonetic content from audio input.

 ASR software is a specific speech-to-text application that focuses on recognizing spoken language, understanding it, and transcribing it into text. Use cases of ASR software involve voice assistants, transcription services, real-time assist (RTA) cards or any other application where understanding and accurate interpretation of spoken language are cornerstones.

2. Voice-to-text applications

Unlike ASR, voice-to-text is a broader term covering the general process of transcribing spoken content into text. It covers and goes beyond voice command recognition, ASR, and audio content indexing. 

Voice-to-text applications cover many use cases, including voice commands for smart devices, transcription services, closed captioning, and search audio indexing.

3. Industry-specific transcription tools

Industry-specific AI transcription tools cater to the needs of a certain industry. Due to the complex nature of transcription, such tools place a major emphasis on accuracy and precision. Some examples of industry-specific transcription tools involve legal, medical, and sales transcription.

Importance of AI transcription in sales

Real-time AI transcription has revolutionized how sales teams store and process clients’ data. Present-day transcription tools are much more accurate than their predecessors and deliver up to 90% accuracy, making them suitable for sales transcription.  

With AI transcription data, the sales team can perform comprehensive customer analysis from transcribed sales conversations.

It can help analyze trends, customer preferences, and sentiment analysis to understand customers’ behavioral patterns and expectations. This data can help address customer concerns, mold sales approaches, and create a positive customer experience to boost your team’s closing ratio.

Moreover, AI transcription data serves as a real-life example crucial for training the staff to identify bottlenecks, look for areas of improvement, and seek opportunities to refine their sales approach to cater to a diverse customer base.

4 AI Prospects to Boost Sales Team Productivity

1. Team performance monitoring with CRM integrations

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software works as a central database for your company’s interaction with potential current and past customers. 

You can monitor all sales conversations by integrating your CRM software with an AI transcription service. That’s because once you sync your CRM with the transcription service, details from every customer interaction can be automatically stored in your customer database.

This data offers real-time insights, allowing managers to monitor sales team performance with all customer data stored in a single place.

On the other hand, using contact center AI also enhances this integration by analyzing customer interactions using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. These AI capabilities can automatically detect customer sentiment, intent, and frequently asked questions, providing deeper insights beyond basic transcription. 

AI-driven insights derived from the conversations enable managers to identify areas for agent improvement, anticipate customer needs, and ensure that each interaction aligns with business goals.

2. Improved training & performance with sales transcription data

Transcription data from sales calls can be a resource for training sales reps. It can serve as a ground-zero example for handling complex conversations with customers.

Moreover, this data can help new reps understand the sales team’s processes and workflow. Data from successful calls can be used in training sessions to help them understand best practices and vice versa.

This can help teams tailor their sales call planning for better results in future calls.

3. Quick discussion recaps from meetings

It's hard to recall every discussion from an action-packed meeting. With AI transcription, you can automate the process of jotting down everything being said during the meeting. So, everyone can participate actively without worrying about forgetting any action item mentioned during the call.

AI transcripts sum up all the important tasks and decisions from the meeting, helping team members remain informed of all the action items that need their attention. Moreover, transcripts serve as a quick reference when you don’t have time to listen to the entire meeting recording and need to refer to a particular thing being said during the call.

4. Sales communication accuracy

AI transcriptions from meetings can also strengthen communication within and across teams. With it, every detail from a conversation remains available to instill transparency.

Empower sales reps with the right AI transcription tools

It is vital for the sales team to track all conversations between their prospects and reps. With that in mind, here are some key features to consider when choosing an AI transcription tool.

1. Accuracy and language support

Transcription accuracy and multilanguage support are key parameters on which you can rate an AI transcription tool. So, look for tools with high accuracy rates, especially for industry-specific jargon and accents.

If your company has a diverse customer base, make sure the tool you choose offers multilingual support to help your team interpret interactions done in different languages.

2. User-friendliness and scalability

A user-friendly interface is crucial for busy sales reps. The tool should be easy to navigate, allow for quick uploads, provide easy access to transcripts, and allow searching of keywords within conversations.

Apart from user-friendliness, scalability is equally essential to consider. Your chosen AI transcription tool should be able to scale to fulfill your requirements. It should be able to handle increased call volumes and integrate seamlessly with additional tools and CRMs.

Pros and cons

Like any other technology, AI transcription tools also have a fair share of pros and cons, which are discussed below. 

Pros

1. Deep analysis for making informed decisions
   AI transcription data can offer valuable insights from interactions with customers. With these transcripts, sales leaders can identify common customer concerns and behavior and find areas for improvement. This allows the sales team to make data-driven decisions about sales strategies, product development, and customer service.

2. Sales process refinement
   Analyzing transcripts can reveal bottlenecks or inefficiencies within the sales process. By identifying common objections or missed opportunities, you can refine your sales pitch and equip reps with the best practices to close more deals.

3. Improved data accessibility
   Traditionally, valuable sales insights were locked away in audio recordings. AI transcription makes these conversations readily searchable and accessible. This allows reps to easily revisit key points discussed in calls and share best practices across the team.

4. Facilitating sales team training
   Transcripts provide valuable coaching material for sales managers. They can help identify areas where reps excel and areas where they might need additional training. Moreover,, anonymized transcripts can serve as real-life examples for role-playing exercises to help new reps develop communication skills.

Cons

1. Potential human job loss
   As AI transcription technology improves, it could replace some human transcriptionists, which could lead to potential job loss. However, AI is more likely to automate repetitive tasks, allowing human transcriptionists to focus on complex projects requiring human judgment.

2. Overreliance on technology
   While AI transcription offers valuable insights, it should only partially replace human judgment. Reps should still actively listen and analyze calls to understand the nuances of the conversation that AI might miss, like tone of voice and unspoken cues.

3. Security and privacy concerns
   Sales conversations often contain sensitive customer information. Therefore, it is crucial to choose an AI transcription tool with robust security measures to protect this data.

Boost your sales team performance with AI transcription

Much team effort goes into closing a deal and pushing your closing ratio forward. Despite the hassle, bottlenecks and missed opportunities prevail due to overwhelming tasks requiring your team’s focus.

AI transcription can be a powerful tool for your sales team to boost productivity with real-time insights from transcribed conversations. With the strategic integration of an AI transcription tool in your sales workflow, your team can do smart work and achieve performance goals efficiently.