Want to Get Better at Sales? AI Could Coach You

If a computer can help you learn Spanish, maybe it can also help you communicate with prospects.

That’s the theory behind RNMKRS, a Larchmont, New York-based company that uses artificial intelligence technology to create sales training systems.

The team vacuums up information about a client’s company, feeds the information into its AI, and then turns the AI into Alex, a mock customer.

The AI grades how well reps sell to it and gives them tips on how to improve.

The system has trained about 30,000 reps for more than 100 companies.

Stefanie Boyer, a Bryant University marketing professor, is the co-founder of RNMKRS, its chief science officer and its head of education.

She also created the sales minor at Bryant University and started the National Intercollegiate Sales Competition. The participants in the contests use the RNMKRS app to train.

Boyer has a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree in business and doctorate from the University of South Florida. She has published academic research papers on topics such as how improv training affects sales performance and the effect of mobile customer relationship management systems on sales collaboration.

She recently answered questions, via email, about the future of AI technology in life insurance and annuity sales training.

The interview has been edited.

THINKADVISOR: How do you come up with the material that trains the AI trainer?

STEFANIE BOYER: As an academic, I’ve spent the last two decades studying the science of learning more broadly and data insights about salespeople specifically.

Over the past 14 years, I have organized sales competitions for students, and also provided training courses for executives and sales managers, partnered with sales firms to create unique practice scenarios, and listened to countless role plays.

Salespeople role-play the difficult situations they will encounter when they are with a buyer by using our product. Role play is an integral part of learning to sell.

How can you tell what the AI is doing makes sense?

We have a group that tests scenarios before we deploy them, and we’ve already role-played close to 500,000 conversations in our product, which was created by our team of award-winning game designers.

All of this promotes conversation improvement and learning.

To ensure that our product remains as strong as possible, we’re exploring generative AI to find new methods to communicate, ask questions and respond.

What about the AI’s feedback has surprised you?