Gong, a company specializing in software for sales teams, has recently upped their game by adding some cool AI features to their tool kit. Their latest brainchild, Call Spotlight, uses AI to give a neat summary and insights from audio/video calls. But they didn’t stop there. The company, which has been around for eight years and calls San Francisco home, has just rolled out an upgraded version of its revenue forecasting tool, Gong Forecast. This new version promises to give businesses a sharper edge with in-house machine learning models that have been fed a hefty diet of 2.5 billion customer interactions.
What makes Gong Forecast stand out is its boast of being 20% more accurate than the traditional customer relationship management (CRM) data analysis. It’s a bold statement that could ruffle some feathers at big names like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. Gong’s method involves not just looking at CRM data, but also incorporating the nitty-gritty details of real-time customer interactions. According to Sherry Wu, Director of Product Marketing at Gong, this approach packs a powerful punch by providing forecasts with pin-point accuracy.
Now, let’s break down how Gong Forecast actually works. It sifts through around 300 different “buying signals” picked up during conversations between sales teams and potential clients. But it doesn’t just stop at keyword spotting; it digs deeper into the context. For instance, if pricing is mentioned, Gong’s AI isn’t just alerting at the mention of the word. It’s analyzing whether the discussion about pricing is positive (like having enough budget) or negative (like complaining about high costs). Gong can understand the subtlety of these conversations and predict whether a deal will likely close.
Wu pointed out the stark difference between Gong and traditional forecasting methods that often involve sales reps manually entering data into CRMs or spreadsheets. This process not only eats up valuable time but can also be skewed by personal biases. Gong’s tools, meanwhile, aim to automate and streamline this process, allowing sales reps to focus more on engaging with their clients rather than jotting down notes or filling out forms.
Even more impressive, Gong Forecast doesn’t just rely on historical data. It assigns a score to each deal based on real interaction content, giving sales leaders a clearer view of expected revenues. As Gong’s machine learning algorithms continue to observe and learn from these interactions, the forecasts only get sharper.
Aside from the techy bits, Gong ensures the highest levels of privacy and data security, knowing how sensitive customer data can be. Everything is developed in-house, and data is never shared with third parties, staying locked within Gong’s own systems.
The excitement around these updates isn’t just insider talk. More than 250 customers globally are already using Gong Forecast, with big names like the digital adoption firm WalkMe singing its praises for the deeper insights and enhanced forecasting abilities it provides.
In a nutshell, Gong is all about giving sales teams the upper hand with smarter, AI-powered tools, making revenue predictions not just a guessing game but a science-backed process. And with such innovations, the future of sales forecasting looks not just promising but exciting.