Dave Elkington, for Martech Series: XANT Is the New Way of Selling

XANT is the new way of selling, said Dave Elkington, CEO of the sales acceleration leader, in an exclusive interview for Martech Series. The CEO and founder of the predictive sales platform explained how Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the world of sales and marketing, as the two fields have been greatly disrupted by the advent of the Internet.

XANT, the New Way of Selling

Artificial Intelligence in sales can not only increase revenue and sales opportunities, it can provide sales leaders with accurate reporting and a data-driven system for selling, explained Dave.

“Inside sales is the new way of selling. What differentiates it from what was done historically is the new technology – called sales acceleration technology – that enables a numeric, data-driven, highly scalable, highly measurable way of selling that is much more customer focused and accommodates customer buy cycles and behavior. An AI system of growth, as discussed previously, actually spans sales acceleration technology, MarTech and AI,” said Dave Elkington, in the Martech Series interview.

AI is Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

While sales and marketing have always been intertwined departments, today sales systems have become much more advanced and are bridging the gap between the two by providing seamless transfer for leads, accurate reporting and data-driven insights.

“In the ‘golden days’ of marketing, it was pure brand and advertising, billboards, and prints. It was very difficult to create measurable results and scalable unit economic models that drive efficiency in marketing. Sales was in the same boat where you had enterprise sales people carrying very large quotas and you had to trust that they’d come back at the end of the quarter or year with the big sale. It was the art of the sale vs. the science of the sale,” said Dave Elkington.

The category of sales acceleration do not belong solely under the sales budget of the sales department, he added.

“The lines are very blurred in the way the digital or high-velocity selling occurs because the marketing and sales funnel aren’t separate anymore. Marketing is generating this digital behavior and engagement and it’s then handed off to sales much more quickly. So this AI system of growth we provide can be used across this collaborative team,” said Dave Elkington, in his interview.

AI Solving Sales Challenges

Recent XANT research shows that among the top challenges for sales leaders is building high quality pipeline, and that better alignment between sales and marketing can be the solution for this challenge.

Sales teams using the XANT AI system of growth see revenue increases of up to 30% in just 90 days after implementation.