Chennai: Why pay a common motor insurance premium if you’re statistically safer than the rest of the demographic? Insurance companies are aggregating customer data to gauge premiums dynamically. If you are a middle aged man with two kids and drive an SUV, your premiums will be lesser than a 25 year old youth who just got his first sedan.AI and data analytics is changing the sales game rapidly, equipping sales personnel with the right tools and data so they improve conversions and save time. The next time you go to a shop and your favourite dress is out of stock, the salesperson at the counter would take in your order and source it from the neighbouring retail store and earn brownie points. Analytics goes a long way in helping shop floor salespersons handle stocks and manage customer demand during sale seasons. “For large retail chains, analytics helps connect inventories of shops and reduce ‘out of stock’ conditions,” said Souma Das, MD, Qlik.The US-headquartered company offers visual analytics, which makes one understand customer requirement faster. Qlik has partnered with insurance companies who arm their agents with data that help them gauge demographics and sell the right policy. “More often than not, agents sell the wrong policy without knowing the economic condition of the cross section of population and the conversion rate falls. From our analytics, a data driven approach improves the productivity by 15% in the first year itself. Possibility of overselling a policy to a retired customer reduces,” said Das. Using the platform, agents on the move also get the best route to cover the maximum target customers and increase productivity.Bengaluru-based Vymo positions itself as a personal sales assistant. 4 of the top 5 banks in India have engaged with Vymo for their sales personnel. “While a bank can have upto 52 different products in its portfolio, each customer buys an avergae of 1 to 2 products. The scope for cross selling is big. Banks are aggregating customer data so that the most relevant products are pitched to the customer. For example — if you just got a raise at work, then the bank can automatically increase your credit card limit,” said Yamini Bhat, cofounder and CEO, Vymo. Bhat says while top CRM apps see an engagement rate of 30%, with Vymo, they have seen up to 80% engagement.Chennai-based PipeCandy uses data science techniques to discover the right prospects for B2B sales reps and helps them segment the prospects based on industry specific nuances. “For example, a company that sells point of sale (POS) software can discover retailers that have omni-channel presence and filter them based on number of SKUs (stock keeping units) they sell,” says Ashwin Ramaswamy, co-founder and CMO, PipeCandy.For US-based Shyp, a last mile e-commerce fulfilment company, the sales team wanted to know which e-commerce companies use Shopify platform, have traffic over 500K visitors a month and use a costly shipping option (USPS, Fedex, DHL). They also had a constraint that they could serve only those ecommerce companies that are in specific zipcodes.“This is very specific targeting and there is no database provider that classifies companies into ‘e-commerce’ bucket. They are bundled under ‘Retail’. We use data science to zero in on your prospects,” added Ramaswamy.SaaS company Zoho’s AI driven assistant Zia has the potential to tell you what is the tone of the customer - positive or negative, “ When a customer spend maximum time on the website, when are the maximum chances of your email being read is captured.Zia observes sales patterns and makes suggestions,” said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist, Zoho.