Subscribe to Free

Business Tips

Check out more about our Smart Staff

Well, how fast is this market moving… AI is everywhere all of a sudden and is on track to definitely make 2023 the year of AI.  There are plugins and platforms appearing daily. Jasper and ChatGPT remain perfect partners when it comes to producing AI copy.

It is great to see how strong Jasper has remained in the market –  more about that later with some fantastic new features.

New Examples of AI Tools

Here are a few cool uses for AI beyond the most popular “copy” creation…

• Do you bill time.. tools for looking back at your past weeks activity and create a summary of where you spent your time or put it directly into your favourite tracking tool.
• Meeting notes / minutes are regularly a bug bear – not done, incomplete – us AI to create an accurate transcript, both audio files and direct from conferencing tools.
• Use AI to learn your Calendar habits and unify multiple Calendars and automate who is available.
• Graphics generation, we see huge advances with Dalle.E 2 and MidJourney
• ChatGPT AI assistant built into your PDF reader.

Big Update from Jasper

Now, how about the fantastic news from Jasper.ai – some really significant enhancements.  This will further help everyone understand where Jasper and ChatGPT fit together.

ChatGPT continues to be great for ideation, however when it come to using AI in your business and doing it efficiently, Jasper is the right tool for creating copy.

Jasper have made some incredible announcements, so I wanted to share.  Let me know if you want more information on any of them.

• Jasper Everywhere – AI Chrome Extensions brings Jasper wherever you write with Jasper.
• Jasper Brand Voice – this is an exciting enhancement that enables a business user to give Jasper’s AI Engine specific information about their company, products, positioning and values to tailor outcomes so they’re more authentic and individualized to that brand.
• Jasper for Team Sharing – There have been significant enhancements in the functionality to allow teams to work together on AI content.

Check out more about Jasper for Business here

You can leverage existing templates and recipes and of course, make your own.  Add to this the new features of Jasper and you have a set of tools that WILL save you loads of time.

You can learn more about Jasper for Business here.

Subscribe to Free

Business Tips

Check out more about our Smart Staff

It is not very often we follow a newsletter with the same subject in succession – we like to provide a variety of information for you.  However, following our theme of using AI for Sales we felt it necessary to have a bit more to say about the EXPLOSION of AI in the press, in particular Jasper AI and ChatGPT.

We started on a journey early last year with Jasper, then know as Jarvis.  We could see the enormous benefit it brings to Sales and Marketing to enable shorter time cycles for the production of Blogs and Posts in particular.  This has not changed – we can now add the many new AI options out there to ensure your business operates effectively and efficiently while delivering excellent customer service.

So one of the key questions we are already being asked and you will see it in news posts – does this AI capability kill off quality copy writing, graphics creation or even Google Search!!

Lets tackle these thing one at a time…

No, AI does not kill off the need for quality copywriting. While AI can be used to generate text, it is not yet advanced enough to fully replace the skills and creativity of a human copywriter. Additionally, the use of AI in copywriting can actually enhance the work of human copywriters by providing them with tools to streamline and optimize their work.

AI can be used to generate graphics, but it is not yet advanced enough to fully replace the skills and creativity of a human graphic designer. AI-generated graphics can be used as a tool to assist graphic designers, but the final product still requires human touch and creativity to meet the desired quality and style. Some AI-based tools can generate images and designs based on certain inputs, but it is still not at the level of a human graphic designer.

Google Search uses a combination of AI and traditional search algorithms to return the most relevant results to a user’s query. AI is used to understand the intent behind a user’s search and to identify patterns and connections between different pieces of information. Google’s AI technology, called RankBrain, is used to help understand the intent behind a query and match it with the most relevant results. However, Google search results also include human-curated contents from websites and other sources. So, it’s a combination of both human and AI that provides the search results.

So there you go, the above italicised paragraphs are straight out of ChatGPT – AI talking about AI.

How about Jasper, do we need it still?  Hell yeah!  ChatGPT does a great job of responding to queries but using both Jasper and ChatGPT together gives you outstanding results.

The key behind is the ability to produce Templates and Recipes – allow the operator to create new output on different subjects to a common approach or style.

Something else to consider with ChatGPT is that it cannot help you with responses for information after around 2021.  Further to this, it can be simply WRONG. Us humans will have to elevate to be able to manage these tools and ensure it does read how you want it to read.

We have built a service that allows you absolute minimum input while we produce blogs and posts of high quality.  I have spent decades trying to get engineers to write blogs and so few will do it, now we just ask them a simple question and can produce a great output for them to check.

In discussions the question came up “What should be included with SQL Database Maintenance services?”

Formulate the question..

Describe with bullet points what is meant by SQL Maintenance?

20 Seconds Later….

SQL Maintenance refers to the regular tasks and procedures that are performed on a SQL database to ensure its proper functioning and performance. These tasks can include:

• Backups: Creating regular backups of the database to ensure that data can be recovered in case of failure or corruption.
• Indexing: Organizing data in the database for faster searching and retrieval.
• Statistics update: Updating the statistics that the query optimizer uses to create execution plans.
• Reorganization and Rebuild: Reorganizing and rebuilding indexes, tables and other database objects to reduce fragmentation and improve performance.
• Error checking: Running checks for consistency and integrity of the data in the database.
• Monitoring: Monitoring the database for any issues or performance bottlenecks and addressing them as necessary.
• Security: Managing user access and permissions, and implementing security measures to protect the database from unauthorized access.
• Upgrades and Patches: Installing updates and patches to the database software to ensure that it is up to date and secure.
• Archiving: Removing old data that is no longer needed to keep the database size small and running efficiently.
• Performance tuning: Analyzing and optimizing the database performance to ensure that it runs as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Disaster Recovery: Plan and testing for recovery of the database in case of a disaster.

Conclusion:

Check for accuracy and suitability for your purpose, but in 20 seconds it produces something that would have taken way longer and probably discussion with others.  I think it nailed it pretty well!

Check out our previous post with some discussion on AI – Get an edge on your competition with AI.

Subscribe to Free

Business Tips

Check out more about our Smart Staff

You can get an edge on your competition with AI.

AI is making great strides and businesses would be wise to take advantage of its capabilities. Businesses owners can use AI in many ways, including marketing, operations, and customer service. The possibilities are endless and the benefits are undeniable. With AI’s rapid growth, there’s no better time than now to start using it in your business. Don’t miss out on this exciting technology!

You may not be aware of this, but AI has matured a great deal in the past few years. It is now affordable and easy to deploy, making it a valuable asset for businesses of all sizes.

There are many ways that AI can help your business grow and improve efficiency. For example, AI can intelligently find related data or be used for forecasting future trends.

One key area where AI can be extremely helpful is in customer service. In fact, many companies are already taking advantage of AI’s ability to provide accurate responses to queries.

Another great use for AI is in content creation – the ability to write a few words and have AI generate a flow of information for a Blog or proposal is incredibly helpful.

Here are just some of the ways AI will improve your business operations.

1. Improve efficiency by automating tasks that are repetitive or time-consuming.

2. Gain an edge on the competition with insights and analytics that are only possible with AI.

3. Increase productivity by freeing up staff to work on more important tasks.

4. Make better decisions based on data-driven insights instead of gut feelings or anecdotal evidence.

At the core of AI is the ability to sift through vast volumes of data and see the logical connections that relate to the task you have set.  We use this everyday with web search and online maps.

Applying it purposefully in your business requires a conscious focus to find where you may be using it incidentally vs a focused approach to maximise the benefit.

One of my areas of interest is where we can go with creation of video.  We read it all the time that video is preferred for simple instruction.  We can now quite inexpensively use AI to create the words for a podcast but then use these words to generate the podcast in your OWN personal voice.  You can then take that voice and have animated video of your own face presenting this material – this is getting very reachable by most as the capability increases, while the price becomes more affordable.

Below are a few other practical areas.

Chat Bots

Appearing more and more as the preferred way to deliver customer service.  The one big tip most are getting across is the need to have an opportunity to move from a Bot to a Human, something most are also implementing.

So, if we need a a “Human”, then why a bot?  The bot will allow a good percentage of general or standard questions to be answered or at the very least direct the customer to the correct area.

AI in a chatbot takes advantage of natural language processing (NLP) along with Machine Learning to understand data and utilise algorithms.

Although there are other more sophisticated options, my favourite here is SalesIQ from Zoho with its Chat and Visitor Tracking – the winner being the ability to integrate this back into your CRM, WhatsApp and many others.

Writing Content

My favourite here is jasper.ai, this platform allows you to enter in a handful of words and generate paragraphs of highly relevant content with accurate grammar.  This is shifting the ability to write well to being an expert at leveraging an AI platform for writing.

AI Conversational Assistant

Use natural language to ask for a report – “give me gross sales for Q1 in my region”.  This provides a context intelligence.  What is even better is when it is used across multiple product areas to search for anything related to your search.  A really great example of this is Zia from Zoho as built into their CRM.

AI in Monitoring

This is probably the first place I had a whole lot to do with AI and now see it deployed regularly and in a number of areas.  One of the most popular is moving from a static threshold to using Machine Learning to understand the changes in behaviour and alter the threshold to suit.  ie: If it learns that at 4PM on a Friday when you run reports CPU and RAM always peak, you would prefer to not be alerted as this is “normal”.

The other area becoming more and more popular is with Forecasting.  Especially in the world we live in now with Cloud computing where costs can get out of hand, you need a good handle on what is coming up. This is often much more involved than taking a straight line. AI via ML is providing a much more accurate picture.  If you are interested in this area, drop us a line and we can discuss further.

Conclusion:

There are many areas where we see AI being used and we need to be careful on how it is used.  If we assume it can all be automated, it is likely to fail.  The key is to remove as much “human” handling as you can while ensuring when Customer Service is involved, that customers don’t feel like they cannot chat to a human. This delivers efficiency while improving customer service.

What is surprising is that many clients we deal with already have AI / ML built into their products and have not explored how to take advantage of it – have a look at what benefit you can get from a small amount of effort..

Subscribe to Free

Business Tips

Check out more about our Smart Staff

Over my many years of working with business and in my own, few have a good handle at all on Contracts and certainly don’t understand the effect it has on sales.

• 81% of companies say productivity would improve with better process, skills, or competency training (source).

I am quite surprised at how many organisation have not engaged with Contract Lifecycle Management.

This is so important that we are running a short 30 minute Webinar at 11AM on October 27th, 2022. (AEST)

Sometimes I see this as an intersecting of events…

• Recognition of the need starts bubbling to the surface
• Complexity of solutions become easier to implement and operate
• Cost of running comes down to a level for easy decision

In whatever area – when all these three come together we see a high adoption rate.

The Benefits of Contract Lifecycle Management for Sales Teams

A sales team is only as good as its contract management process. In order to be efficient and effective, a sales team needs to have a system in place for managing the entire lifecycle of a contract, from creation to execution to renewal. This system is called contract lifecycle management (CLM).

Let us ask just a few questions…

• Can you easily report how many contracts you have that are currently active company wide??
  • This covers not only customers but also suppliers, contractors, and government panels or similar.
• Are you able to get visibility of what your current obligations are for all contracts?
• A simple example; how many NDA’s have you signed and what is their current state?
• Do your team routinely copy an existing contract for a new customer & edit to suit?
• Do you have a workflow for approvals? Is it embedded as a system?

I could go on, but these are just a few things that I see constantly slowing up the sales process and bogging down your sales team.

CLM software helps sales teams automate and streamline the contract management process, saving time and money. In this blog post, we’ll look at some of the benefits of CLM for sales teams.

Improved Visibility Into the Contract Lifecycle

With CLM, all contracts are stored in a central repository. This gives sales teams increased visibility into the status of each contract and allows them to see where each contract is in the lifecycle at a glance.

In addition, CLM software provides alerts and notifications that let sales teams know when a contract is due for renewal or needs to be reviewed. This way, they can proactively manage their contracts and avoid surprises down the road.

Now I hear some saying they have a place in their CRM or PSA or similar for storing contracts.

The MAJOR difference is that a CLM is driven from the legal commitment perspective and does a whole range of things that other record keeping areas do not.  This is not to say that you would not for example record contract details into a CRM or PSA; but that the “centre of truth” for all legal docs sits with your CLM and where required information is also populated in other systems.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

CLM software automates many of the tasks involved in contract management, such as creating contracts from templates, routing contracts for approval, and storing signed contracts. This frees up sales teams to focus on more strategic tasks, such as developing relationships with clients and prospects.

In addition, CLM software makes it easy to find the information you need when you need it. For example, you can easily search for all contracts that are due for renewal in the next 30 days. This can help you prioritize your work and make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.

More importantly you can record obligations with timeline for the life of the contract and be alerted as they come due.  Could be a payment milestone or a reporting milestone.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Happy customers are essential for any business. One of the ways that sales teams can improve customer satisfaction is by ensuring that contracts are executed flawlessly. With CLM, all stakeholders have visibility into the execution of a contract, so everyone knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. This increases transparency and accountability, which leads to improved customer satisfaction and reduced time elapsed or spent.

Conclusion:

Contract lifecycle management is an essential tool for sales teams. It helps them be more efficient and effective by automating repetitive tasks, improving visibility into the contract lifecycle, and increasing transparency and accountability. If you’re not using CLM software already, now is the time to start reaping its benefits!

Subscribe to Free

Business Tips

Check out more about our Smart Staff

Reduce Cost of Sales

Check out our infographic to help illustrate an approach to this challenge…

In all the business groups I have been involved with and all the companies I have managed or advised – Reduce Cost of Sales Lead Generation would be one of the most common concerns.
Sitting right beside this is of course that you have the right strategy and processes in place – something we will cover in another Business Tip.

Reducing cost of sales can also read as more quality leads, better pipeline and increased sales.

This blog is more about managing the transactional costs of Sales – I would recommend reading our earlier blog about Targeted Sales as a pre requisite.  This positions where you spend your energy and is aimed at reducing the cost of sales across the board.
All of you involved in sales are very familiar with the Pipeline… simple isn’t it – pour more leads into the funnel and get more sales.
Hmmm, why do I hear constant questions about not getting a return.  Probably because you are bogging down your most expensive and valuable team members with “noise”.

Let us suggest that the very best use of your lead sales resources would be to be talking and presenting to new prospects – are you on board with that?

We have an entire process to discuss around who should go into the pipeline, but for now, how about we just assume in your target market there are 500 possibilities you have identified.  Each of these will likely have multiple potential contacts and require many attempts to connect with them.

Sifting Leads

Let us agree that when you know the contact is the right contact; that your trained and experienced sales person would be the right person to have a conversation with the prospect.

To get to this point some serious research needs to be completed – do they match the Perfect Customer (PC) profile – have you defined one??

So you have them sitting in front of a computer researching, noting contacts and contact details and attempting to connect with them.  This is a HUGE amount of work that anyone with the right training could do.
Download our Infographic and see what we are saying.

Document who the ideal target is (PC) and where you can connect or research them.  Have support staff do this research and better still, do an introduction on behalf of the sales resource. Move over to sales directly only when the customer is qualified and/or ready to talk.

Delivio provide a process to Reduce Cost of Sales Lead Generation or we can show you how to do it yourself.

Check out our graphic, download it from here.

Anything at all further we can help you with this just drop us a line.