As organizations seek to leverage SAP Sales Cloud to accelerate growth, SAP experts Seema Kesselring, Sebastian Augustin, Crystal Zhang, and Amruta Kulkarni recently provided deep insights into the platform’s latest innovations and future roadmap.
In an ASUG webcast, all four examined how SAP Sales Cloud drives growth by delivering a connected digital experience and intelligent insights within an adaptive solution that modernizes sales processes.
Seema Kesselring, Global VP of CX Product Strategy at SAP, kicked off the webcast, grounding the presentation in the broader context of an evolving business landscape shaped by new technologies, shifting customer expectations, and changing engagement models.
“With all the ideas coming from SAP, we always look at the entire value chain from start to finish,” said Kesselring, discussing SAP’s focus on simplifying the sales process and creating intelligent solutions that cover the lead-to-cash process.
A Sales Solution with Embedded Intelligence
Sebastine Augustine, Vice President & Head of Product Management for SAP Sales Cloud, described the platform as a “comprehensive end-to-end B2B sales solution” that enables the lead-to-cash process for simple, configurable products. He emphasized SAP’s approach to embedding intelligence across the sales value chain, from campaign to lead, opportunity execution, quote to order, and customer retention and expansion.
“The whole idea here is to help the sales rep spend more time selling and reduce the overall administrative efforts by helping them focus on the right deals and take the right next steps,” explained Augustine.
Amruta Kulkarni, Senior Product Manager for AI/ML at SAP, showcased how AI-powered features are interwoven into the sales journey, touching on several of its key capabilities. The Account Synopsis feature allows sales representatives to better understand their customers by providing a comprehensive view of the account’s journey, industry trends, and competitive landscape. Lead Booster helps sales teams align their offerings with the strategic goals of the client, while the Survey Trend Summary tool streamlines the analysis of past surveys so sales reps can quickly identify areas for improvement.
Kulkarni illustrated the impact SAP Sales Cloud’s advanced capabilities can have on operational efficiency and effectiveness. “Email Drafter alone helps to reduce manual effort by 90%," she said. "With the Lead Booster, our goal is to improve the sales lead conversion by 15%.”
Kulkarni further emphasized the value of SAP Sales Cloud's insights, showcasing a customer insights feature that provides a consolidated view of an account's key metrics, active leads, opportunities, and activities. Kulkarni also touched on the importance of configuration options, allowing users to enable or disable generative AI features based on their specific requirements and manage AI models for product recommendations and business text intelligence.
Effective Pipeline Management and Accurate Forecasting
Building on these insights, Crystal Zhang, Product Manager at SAP, demonstrated SAP Sales Cloud’s pipeline management and forecasting capabilities. With Pipeline Manager, users can assess the health of their pipeline, identify at-risk opportunities, and make real-time updates. Forecast Tracker allows users to continuously update their forecasts and track volatility against the live pipeline, and Pipeline Flow provides actionable insights into the pipeline’s evolution over time.
Zhang emphasized how crucial different perspectives are when making forecasting decisions, stating, “As a sales leader, it’s important that I have those different perspectives that can help me make the decision and decide which number I should forecast or why there is a gap.”
Looking ahead, Augustine provided an overview of the SAP Sales Cloud roadmap and recent innovations such as field selling capabilities, rolling forecasts, and AI-powered features like email drafting and pre- and post-meeting summaries. Further enhancements — including expanded simulation processes, CPQ integration, sales contracts, and rule-based territory assignment — are on the horizon.
In 2025, SAP plans to introduce a dual assistant within SAP Sales Cloud that will allow users to ask questions and get answers directly from the digital assistant on both browser and mobile. This feature will enhance access to information and improve overall efficiency. Additional AI capabilities and new core processes are also in development, including duplicate detection, subscription and renewal management, and strategic account planning.
Cumulatively, the presentation’s insights illustrated how SAP Sales Cloud can function as an intelligent, adaptable, and all-encompassing solution for sales representatives. With its focus on connected experiences, embedded intelligence, and advanced technologies, SAP Sales Cloud enables sales teams to adopt an informed approach, engage customers more effectively, and stay ahead of the curve.