M+E Daily

Salesforce introduced a new component to its Einstein artificial intelligence (AI) platform April 4: Einstein High Velocity Sales Cloud, a combination of new and existing technologies designed to increase productivity for sales representatives.

There are now more than 30 features in all that are live on the Salesforce platform that were built on Einstein, company co-founder Parker Harris told investors at a Salesforce World Tour event in Washington, D.C., where the new addition to Einstein was announced.

By using Einstein High Velocity Sales Cloud, “a sales rep is going to be more productive,” Harris said, adding: “They’re spending six times more time online, in front of the computer, instead of face to face with customers” today due to the “transition going on in sales.” Those salespeople “want to be more productive,” and Einstein High Velocity Sales Cloud will allow them to achieve that, he said.

Einstein High Velocity Sales Cloud combines Einstein Lead Scoring with Activity Capture, Lightning Sales Console, Lightning Dialer, Salesforce Engage and Salesforce AppExchange, the company said, pointing out that sales roles account for almost 13% of all jobs in the U.S. now.

Lead Scoring uses machine and deep learning to find and prioritize the sales leads that are “most likely to convert,” Salesforce said in a news release. The best leads are automatically pointed out to the digital sales rep, along with the most crucial information (including prospect location, past purchase history and the prospect’s job title), “accelerating the sales cycle,” the company said.

Activity Capture reduces the need for manual data entry, it said. Digital sales reps can now just connect their email and calendars to Salesforce to automatically capture any interactions with customers, “freeing themselves from hours of manual data entry” each week, it said. Activity Capture also includes custom email response templates and a calendar manager that enables single-click responses and scheduling, allowing sales reps to spend less time on mundane tasks and more time building better relationships with their prospects, it said.

Lightning Sales Console “accelerates productivity with a single, highly personalized workspace,” Salesforce said. Using the flexibility of Lightning, companies can “deeply customize” the Lightning Sales Console to their specific needs, it said. Sales reps also no longer have to toggle between multiple apps. They are instead “seamlessly guided through the selling process, enabling them to quickly find and connect with the best leads and track the progress of any deal,” it said.

Lightning Dialer connects digital sales reps with prospects faster with a single-click power dialer. As a result, sales reps can now just click to call new leads directly within the Lightning Sales Console, providing them with all the valuable data and productivity tools they need to move on to the next lead quicker, Salesforce said.

Salesforce Engage “empowers reps to connect with the right lead at the right moment,” it said. Digital sales reps receive real-time prospect engagement notifications (including when a prospective lead is active on the product web site) within the Lightning Sales Console and Salesforce1 mobile app. They can also access important information about each prospect, including past web site activities and marketing email engagement, it said. Salesforce AppExchange, meanwhile, provides an ecosystem of partner solutions, apps and components for managing several processes.

Lead Scoring and Einstein Activity Capture are available now with any Sales Cloud Einstein license. Sales Cloud Einstein is available for $50 per user, per month with any Sales Cloud Enterprise Edition license and above. Lightning Sales Console launched in open beta form April 4 and is expected to be generally available in June with any Sales Cloud license, Salesforce said. Lightning Dialer is available now in the U.S. and Canada, with an Outbound version costing $45 per user each month and an Inbound version costing an additional $5 per user each month. Salesforce Engage is available now for an additional $50 per user each month with any Salesforce Pardot edition.