Brainshark Machine Analysis

Company: Brainshark, Inc., Waltham, MA
Entry Submitted By: Three Rings Inc.
Company Description: Brainshark's sales readiness software equips businesses with the training, coaching and content creation tools they need to prepare salespeople when, where and how they work. Thousands of companies, including more than half of the Fortune 100, rely on Brainshark to improve sales effectiveness and productivity, and close more deals faster.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Business Technology
Nomination Sub Category: Corporate Learning/Workforce Development Solution

Nomination Title: Brainshark Machine Analysis

As artificial intelligence (AI) percolates into the enterprise, sales teams are poised to realize major benefits. Forrester Research calls AI “the driving force that will allow sales organizations to transform,” and Gartner estimates that “by 2020, 30% of all B2B business-to-business companies will employ AI to augment at least one of their primary sales processes.”

To date, though, AI has been applied to sales in a limited way– primarily for data analytics and call handling. It has held untapped potential in sales readiness– the discipline associated with preparing sellers to deliver value in buyer conversations. But as sales representatives navigate increasingly complex competitive landscapes, solutions and questions from buyers (e.g., “How is your company dealing with the GDPR framework?” “How are you different from competitors for feature X?”), deals hinge on having reps perpetually ready. For many companies– especially with large, distributed sales forces– it can be challenging to coach reps and validate readiness in a completely manual way, in a timely fashion.

Recognizing AI can help, sales enablement solutions company Brainshark introduced Machine Analysis (June 2018). This first-of-its-kind, AI-powered engine builds off Brainshark’s award-winning, video-based sales coaching and practice solution. Reps receive assignments from their managers– e.g. “Please provide a two-minute video showing how you’d pitch this new product”– and submit responses through Brainshark’s SaaS-based system for manager review/feedback and, now, machine feedback too.

Processing sales reps’ videos, Machine Analysis generates rapid, automated insights (on whether reps stay on-message, personality traits exuded, etc.). The insights improve coaching and practice, augment managers’ feedback– while often giving them a starting point in their own video reviews– and help salespeople learn/master critical messages before buyer interactions.

Once a video is submitted, Machine Analysis can spring into action, generating a transcript and overall score that evaluates whether reps adhered to manager-defined parameters– including coverage of key topics/terms (and terms to avoid), speaking rate, video length, amount of filler words (“umm,” “uhh,” etc.) and more.

Machine Analysis also generates:

-Emotion Analysis– Scanning sellers’ facial expressions every second, noting the frequency of various emotions in a submission (e.g., 95% happiness, 2% sadness, 3% contempt) and pinpointing when emotions change upon playback.
-Personality Insights– Detecting, through word category usage, how often participants display traits including openness, conscientiousness, etc., to show how sellers could be perceived by buyers.
-Word Cloud– Showing words frequently used.

Sellers and managers receive emails when Machine Analysis is complete. Sellers can use Machine Analysis as a safe practice/learning environment– applying the insights and trying again, as needed.

BACKGROUND

Machine Analysis was conceived in Brainshark Labs, Brainshark’s research incubator that explores how cutting-edge technologies can improve sales learning. Brainshark previously built a prototype/precursor to Machine Analysis: combining wearable technology, augmented reality and AI to put salespeople in real-life scenarios, complete with hologram buyers they needed to win over on the other side of the table. Brainshark’s experiment– covered on TV! (see video included)– was lots of fun, and pieces were incorporated into Machine Analysis.

FEEDBACK

Machine Analysis has been positively received by users across industries, media and analysts.

- Per Lisa Mauri Thomas, national sales trainer at Tactile Medical: “It’s great for machine learning to give a score and a manager to give a score because the manager gets to see ‘What was the gap?’ I have not found anything else other than Brainshark that does this so well.”
-Per Jim Dickie, co-founder of sales research firm CSO Insights: “Technologies like Machine Analysis make sales professionals and their managers even better in their roles– enabling managers to coach in a more individualized way than ever before.”
-Leading publications covered Machine Analysis’ launch, and Brainshark has sparked a dialogue about it and AI’s role in sales– contributing articles to Forbes and more, and participating in interviews/podcasts/etc.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 150 words):

Machine Analysis produces editable transcripts of each video and provides insights on:
-Topic coverage– The engine is designed to be taught what phrases (and their variants) to look for and/or avoid (e.g., “don’t say guarantee”).
-Usage of filler words (“umm,” “uhh,” etc.).
-Speaking rate/duration.
-Grade level at which reps speak.
-Words frequently used (via “Word Cloud”).
-Emotions exuded– Measuring for eight emotions every second, noting their frequency in a submission (e.g., 95% happiness, 2% sadness, 3% contempt), and pinpointing for reps/managers when emotions change upon playback.
-Personality– Capturing intangible traits that impact buyer engagement.

Sellers and managers receive email notifications when Machine Analysis is complete. Additional benefits:
-Sellers can try again, using the system as an engaging practice environment.
-Managers can save time/streamline coaching, using machine scores as a benchmark to prioritize their own feedback.
-Sales leaders can create more precise coaching activities with custom parameters