Sales support method, program and information processing system

Abstract

To provide a sales support method, program and information processing system capable of increasing a success probability of sales while reducing a degree of dependence on individual sales skills.SOLUTION: A sales support method includes: a step (ST 105) of providing product information input from a terminal device 3 to a first server 4 and acquiring information of prospective customers specified on the basis of the product information from the first server 4; a step (ST 110) of acquiring individual information of a person involved in the specified prospective customers on the basis of a plurality of pieces of involved person information including the individual information of the person involved in the settlement of product purchase; a step (ST 115) of acquiring personality information of the person involved on the basis of the acquired individual information of the person involved; and a step (ST 120) of generating sales content including text or images tailored to the personality of the person involved so as to make product sales further successful, on the basis of the personality information of the person involved.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a sales support method, a program, and an information processing system. [Background technology]

[0002] In order to sell products (goods, services) efficiently, it is important to approach customers who are likely to sell. The following patent document describes a sales support system that supports sales activities based on materials that have been extracted in advance to identify potential customers. Using this sales support system, telephone numbers within a certain area are extracted from a telephone directory database, and calls are made based on this information to identify potential customers. Based on the location information of the identified potential customers and a map database, the positions of the potential customers on a map are determined, and a map showing these positions is created. Sales activities are carried out to visit customers according to the map showing the positions of the potential customers. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-58691 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] According to the above-mentioned patent document, an operator calls a call destination extracted from a telephone directory database, and collects information such as place of employment, age, family name, and product preference through conversation, thereby exploring potential demand for the product. Therefore, identifying potential customers depends on the operator's conversational skills, and if the conversational skills are poor, the probability of identifying potential customers decreases. Furthermore, increasing the number of operators to take into account differences in skill increases sales costs.

[0005] Furthermore, according to the above-mentioned patent document, when a salesperson visits a potential customer to sell a product, the success of the sale depends on the sales skill of the salesperson, and if the sales skill is poor, the probability of the sale being successful is low.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a sales support method, program, and information processing system that can increase the probability of successful sales while reducing the degree of dependence on individual sales skills. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] A first aspect of the present invention is a sales support method performed by an information processing system, comprising: a first step of identifying potential customers who are businesses that are highly relevant to a product and a business issue based on product information input as information about the product and a plurality of business information pieces, each of which includes information about the business issue of a business; and / or a first step of providing the input product information to a first server that identifies potential customers based on the product information and acquiring information about the potential customers identified based on the product information from the first server; a second step of acquiring personal information about a related party of the identified potential customer based on a plurality of related party information pieces, each of which includes personal information about a related party involved in the decision-making process for the product purchase at one of the businesses; a third step of acquiring personality information about the related party based on the acquired personal information of the related party; and a fourth step of generating sales content to be presented to the potential customer for selling the product based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties of the potential customer, the sales content including at least one of text and images tailored to the personality of the related party so as to make the sales more likely to be successful.

[0008] A second aspect of the present invention is a program including instructions for causing an information processing system to perform a process for supporting sales, the process being performed by the information processing system in accordance with the instructions, the process including: a first step of performing a process of identifying potential customers who are businesses that are highly relevant to a product and a business issue based on product information input as information about the product and a plurality of business information items each including information about a business issue of one of the businesses; and / or a process of providing the input product information to a first server that identifies the potential customers based on the product information and acquiring information about the potential customers identified based on the product information from the first server; The program has a second step of acquiring personal information of a related party of the identified potential customer based on multiple related party information including personal information of the related party involved in the decision-making for the product purchase; a third step of acquiring personality information about the related party based on the acquired personal information of the related party; and a fourth step of generating sales content to be presented to the potential customer for selling the product based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties of the potential customer, the sales content including at least one of text and images tailored to the personality of the related party so as to make the sale more likely to be successful.

[0009] A third aspect of the present invention is an information processing system for performing a process to support sales, the system comprising a processing unit and a storage unit storing instructions to be executed by the processing unit, wherein the processing performed by the processing unit in accordance with the instructions includes a first step of performing a process of identifying a potential customer who is a business that is highly relevant to a product and a business issue based on product information input as information about the product and a plurality of business information items each including information about a business issue of a business, and / or a first step of performing a process of providing the input product information to a first server that identifies the potential customer based on the product information and acquiring information about the potential customer identified based on the product information from the first server; The information processing system has: a second step of acquiring personal information of a related party of the identified potential customer based on multiple related party information including personal information of the related party involved in the approval of the purchase of the product at the vendor; a third step of acquiring personality information about the related party based on the acquired personal information of the related party; and a fourth step of generating sales content to be presented to the potential customer for selling the product based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties of the potential customer, the sales content including at least one of text and images configured to match the personality of the related party so as to make the sale more likely to be successful.

[0010] A fourth aspect of the present invention is an information processing system that performs processing to support sales, and includes: a process for identifying potential customers who are businesses that are highly relevant to a product and a business issue based on product information input as information about the product and a plurality of business information pieces, each of which contains information about the business issues of a business; and / or a process for providing the input product information to a first server that identifies the potential customers based on the product information and acquiring information about the potential customers identified based on the product information from the first server; a means for acquiring personal information of a related party in the identified potential customer based on a plurality of related party information pieces, each of which contains personal information of a related party involved in the decision-making process for the product purchase at one of the business operators; a means for acquiring personality information about the related party based on the acquired personal information of the related party; and a means for generating, based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties in one of the potential customers, sales content to be presented to the one potential customer for selling the product, the sales content including at least one of text and images configured to match the personality of the related party so as to make the sales more likely to be successful, [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a sales support method, program, and information processing system that can increase the probability of successful sales while reducing the degree of dependence on individual sales skills. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a system according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing in the information processing system. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for generating sales content. [Figure 4]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a modified example of the configuration of the system according to this embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a modified example of the process for generating sales content. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a modified example of the process for generating sales content. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a modified example of the process for identifying a potential customer. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a modified example of the configuration of the system according to this embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modified example of the configuration of the system according to this embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a system according to this embodiment. The system shown in the example of Fig. 1 includes an information processing system 1 capable of communicating via a communication network 9 such as the Internet, a terminal device 3, a first server 4, and a second server 5.

[0014] In the information processing system 1 in Fig. 1, a prospective customer, who is a business operator to whom a product can be sold, is identified based on product information provided from a terminal device 3 operated by a sales representative. Once a prospective customer is identified, personal information (such as name and date of birth) of a related party (e.g., a company representative) involved in the decision-making process for the product purchase at that prospective customer is obtained, and personality information about the related party's personality is obtained based on that personal information. Then, based on the related party's personality information, sales content (such as a proposal, direct mail, or e-mail newsletter) tailored to the related party's personality to make the sales pitch more likely to be successful is generated for the prospective customer.

[0015] In this specification, "goods" broadly refers to anything that can be bought and sold, and is not limited to goods (products, etc.), but also includes, for example, services, rights (securities, etc.), information, content, etc.

[0016] [Information Processing System 1] The information processing system 1 performs the following processes: identifying a business operator who will be a potential customer based on product information provided from the terminal device 3; acquiring personal information of parties involved in the decision-making process for the product purchase at the potential customer; acquiring character information of the parties based on the personal information of the parties; and generating sales content for the potential customer based on the character information of the parties. For example, the information processing system 1 may include one or more computers. The information processing system 1 shown in the example of FIG. 1 includes a communication unit 11, a memory unit 12, and a processing unit 13.

[0017] The communication unit 11 communicates with other devices (such as the terminal device 3, the first server 4, and the second server 5) via the communication network 9. The communication unit 11 includes a device (such as a network interface card) that communicates in accordance with a predetermined communication standard such as Ethernet (registered trademark) or wireless LAN.

[0018] The storage unit 12 stores one or more programs 121 including instructions to be executed by the processing unit 13, data temporarily saved during processing by the processing unit 13, data used in processing by the processing unit 13, data obtained as a result of processing by the processing unit 13, etc. The storage unit 12 may include, for example, a main storage device (RAM, ROM, etc.) and an auxiliary storage device (flash memory, SSD, hard disk, memory card, optical disk, etc.). The storage unit 12 may be composed of one storage device or multiple storage devices. When the storage unit 12 is composed of multiple storage devices, each storage device is connected to the processing unit 13 via a computer bus or any other communication means.

[0019] The processing unit 13 controls the overall operation of the information processing system 1 and executes predetermined information processing. The processing unit 13 includes, for example, one or more processors (such as a central processing unit (CPU), a micro-processing unit (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), or a graphics processing unit (GPU)) that perform processing according to instructions in one or more programs 121 stored in the storage unit 12. The processing unit 13 operates as a computer by the one or more processors executing instructions in one or more programs 121 stored in the storage unit 12. The information processing system 1 may include a plurality of such computers, and at least a part of the processing according to this embodiment may be executed in cooperation with a plurality of computers that can communicate via any communication path.

[0020] The processing unit 13 may include one or more dedicated hardware (such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)) configured to realize a specific function. In this case, the processing unit 13 may execute all of the processes described in this embodiment on a computer, or may execute at least some of the processes on dedicated hardware.

[0021] The program 121 may be recorded, for example, on a computer-readable recording medium (such as an optical disc, a memory card, a USB memory, or other non-transitory tangible medium). The processing unit 13 may read at least a portion of the one or more programs 121 recorded on such a recording medium using a recording medium reading device (such as an optical disc device) or an interface device (such as a USB interface), not shown, and write the read program into the storage unit 12. Alternatively, the processing unit 13 may download at least a portion of the one or more programs 121 from another device connected to the communication network 9 via the communication unit 11, and write the downloaded program into the storage unit 12. The one or more programs 121 include instructions that cause the processing unit 13 to perform at least a portion of the processing according to this embodiment, which will be described later.

[0022] [Storage device 2] The storage device 2 stores various information used in the processing of the information processing system 1. The information processing system 1 and the storage device 2 can communicate via any communication path (LAN, dedicated line network, Internet, etc.). For example, the storage device 2 may be included in a file server, database server, cloud server, etc. that accepts access from multiple devices, or may be a dedicated storage device that is accessible only to the information processing system 1. In the example of FIG. 1, the storage device 2 stores an operator database 21, a related party database 22, and a content-composing database 23. In the following description, database may be abbreviated to "DB."

[0023] The business DB 21 includes a plurality of business information items corresponding to a plurality of business entities that may be potential buyers of products. Each piece of business information includes information about a single business entity. For example, each piece of business information includes at least some of the following information: Information that identifies the business operator (business operator ID) Name of business operator Business address Business contact details (telephone number, email address, etc.) Information on business issues (Business Issue Information) (Example) Looking for specific personnel / wanting to sell your business / planning to build a new factory, etc.

[0024] One piece of business issue information is generally information relating to one business issue. The business information may include two or more pieces of business issue information corresponding to two or more business issues.

[0025] The related party DB22 includes multiple related party information items corresponding to multiple related parties belonging to the business organization (such as a company). Each related party information item includes information about a single related party. A related party is a person involved in the approval of a product purchase, and corresponds to a person in a position of authority (such as a representative) who has the authority to make payments in the organization. Each related party information item includes, for example, at least some of the following information: Information to identify the person involved (person involved ID) · Business ID indicating the business to which the person in question belongs Personal information of the person involved (Example) Name / Date of birth / Gender / Address / Birthplace / Educational background / Hobbies / Preferences / Physical characteristics, etc.

[0026] The content configuration DB 23 includes a plurality of pieces of content configuration information, each of which contains information about the configuration of sales content. Sales content is content presented to potential customers to sell products, such as proposals, direct mail, and e-mail newsletters. The content configuration information includes, for example, at least some of the following information: Content Type (Example) Proposal documents / direct mail / email newsletters / email texts, etc. Personality information about the person to whom the content is presented (e.g., personality type) Information about one or more items that make up the content (item information) (Example) Items that make up a proposal Cover / Summary / Challenges / Solutions / Benefits / Cost Comparison / Sales Suggestions etc. Information about the layout of text and images included in each item (layout information) (example) Item order / arrangement / Text format / Font type / Font size / Spacing Number of characters in a line / Number of lines in a page / Line spacing / Text color / Heading color / Background color / image position etc.

[0027] The item information in the content composition information includes, for example, an explanation of each item (the purpose of the item, an explanation of the text and images to be included in the item, etc.), the importance of each item, etc. In the following description, at least one of the text and image included in one item may be referred to as a "content element."

[0028] [1st Server 4] The first server 4 performs a process of identifying potential customers who are businesses that could be promising sales destinations for the products based on information about the products (product information). For example, the first server 4 identifies the interests and concerns of employees belonging to the business's organization based on the IP address (internet protocol address) used by the business to access the Internet and the information gathering history on the Internet associated with the IP address (search query history, web browsing history, etc.), and performs a process of analyzing the business challenges of the business based on the IP address.

[0029] When the first server 4 acquires product information from the information processing system 1, it identifies one or more businesses that are highly relevant to the product related to the product information and the business issue as potential customers, and provides information on the identified one or more potential customers to the information processing system 1.

[0030] The first server 4 may have, for example, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a processing unit similar to the communication unit 11, the storage unit 12, and the processing unit 13 of the information processing system 1 described above.

[0031] [Second Server 5] The second server 5 performs a process of generating personality information about a person's personality from the person's personal information (such as name, date of birth, and gender). For example, the second server 5 performs a process of determining one type from a plurality of predetermined types that classify an individual's personality based on the personal information, based on the correlation between the individual's personality and the personal information, which is derived by statistically analyzing information (such as big data) about the behavioral characteristics and decision-making tendencies of many individuals.

[0032] When the second server 5 acquires the personal information of the person concerned from the information processing system 1, it generates personality information of the person concerned based on the personal information and provides the generated personality information to the information processing system 1. The personality information includes, for example, information indicating the personality type of the person concerned.

[0033] The second server 5 may have, for example, a communication unit, a storage unit, and a processing unit similar to the communication unit 11, the storage unit 12, and the processing unit 13 of the information processing system 1 described above.

[0034] [Terminal device 3] The terminal device 3 is a device operated by a sales representative, and is equipped with information and communication functions, such as a personal computer, tablet, or smartphone. The terminal device 3 may have a communication unit, a memory unit, and a processing unit similar to the communication unit 11, memory unit 12, and processing unit 13 of the information processing system 1 described above, and may further have an input unit and a display unit. The input unit is a device that inputs instructions from a user (sales representative) to the processing unit, and includes input devices such as a touch panel, a mouse, and a keyboard. The display unit is a device that displays images corresponding to image data generated in the processing unit, and includes display devices such as a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, and a projector.

[0035] Here, a description will be given of the operation of the system having the above-described configuration shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an example of processing in the information processing system 1.

[0036] ST100: In the information processing system 1, product information about a product to be sold is input from a terminal device 3 operated by a sales representative. The product information may include, for example, the product name, classification, features, efficacy, and usage. The product information may also include keywords related to the product.

[0037] ST105: The information processing system 1 identifies, as potential customers, one or more businesses that are highly relevant between the product related to the product information and the business issue, based on the product information input from the terminal device 3 and the business information of multiple businesses registered in the business DB 21. For example, the information processing system 1 obtains, as the relevance, the number of words that match between the words and their synonyms included in the business issue information of the business information and the words and their synonyms included in the product information input from the terminal device 3, and identifies businesses related to the business issue information that have a high relevance as potential customers. The condition for identifying a business as a potential customer may be, for example, that the relevance is greater than a predetermined threshold, or that the relevance is greater than a predetermined threshold and the business is included within a predetermined number of businesses ranked in the top order of relevance.

[0038] The information processing system 1 also provides the product information input from the terminal device 3 to the first server 4, and acquires from the first server 4 information on one or more potential customers identified based on the product information.

[0039] ST110: The information processing system 1 acquires personal information of related parties (people involved in the decision-making process for the purchase of the product) for one or more identified prospective customers based on the related party information registered in the related party DB 22. That is, the information processing system 1 searches the related party DB 22 for related party information including the business ID of the prospective customer identified in step ST105, and acquires personal information of the related parties included in the related party information. The information processing system 1 acquires personal information of one or more related parties for each of one or more prospective customers.

[0040] ST115: The information processing system 1 acquires personality information about the personality of each of the related parties based on the personal information (such as name, date of birth, and gender) of the related parties acquired in step ST110. For example, the information processing system 1 provides the personal information of the related parties acquired in step ST110 to the second server 5, and acquires personality information generated based on the personal information from the second server 5. The information processing system 1 acquires personality information for each of one or more related parties.

[0041] ST120: The information processing system 1 generates sales content to be presented to a prospective customer for selling a product based on personality information acquired about a related party of the prospective customer. That is, the information processing system 1 generates sales content including at least one of text and images tailored to the personality of the related party so as to facilitate successful product sales, based on the personality information of the related party.

[0042] If the personality information generated in step ST115 includes information indicating a personality type, the information processing system 1 generates sales content including at least one of a document and an image configured according to this personality type.

[0043] For example, in the case of a type that emphasizes safety and quality, the information processing system 1 generates sales content in which documents and images are configured to give priority to presenting evidence for the effectiveness of the product (such as ingredients that contribute to the effectiveness). In the case of a type that emphasizes visible profits and cost performance, the information processing system 1 generates sales content in which documents and images are configured to give priority to presenting the effects and advantages of the product. In the case of a type that emphasizes sensation, mood, and authority, the information processing system 1 generates sales content in which documents and images are configured to give priority to presenting the impression of the product and the image of the results of use.

[0044] If multiple potential customers are identified in step ST105, the information processing system 1 generates sales content for each of the multiple potential customers. The information processing system 1 provides the generated sales content to the terminal device 3.

[0045] FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the process of generating sales content (ST120: FIG. 2). In this example, the information processing system 1 selects (ST200) content configuration information associated with the type of related party indicated by the personality information generated in step ST115 (FIG. 2) from the plurality of content configuration information registered in the content configuration DB 23. That is, the information processing system 1 acquires content configuration information including the type indicated by the personality information from the content configuration DB 23. When there are a plurality of corresponding content configuration information, the information processing system 1 may select one of the content configuration information in accordance with an instruction from the sales representative inputted from the terminal device 3.

[0046] The information processing system 1 inputs content elements (documents, images) from the terminal device 3 for each of one or more items specified in the selected content composition information (ST205). For example, the information processing system 1 may display an explanation of each item (the purpose of the item, an explanation of the text and images to be included in the item, etc.) on the terminal device 3 based on the item information included in the content composition information. This allows the sales representative to be informed of the content elements to be input for each item.

[0047] The information processing system 1 generates sales content based on the content elements of each item input in step ST205 (ST210). For example, the information processing system 1 generates the sales content so that the content elements (text, images) of each item are arranged in the order specified in the layout information included in the content configuration information (ST200). The information processing system 1 also generates the sales content so that the text format, font, size, spacing, number of characters per line, number of lines per page, spacing, text color, heading color, background color, image position, etc. of each item are adjusted according to the layout information.

[0048] As described above, according to this embodiment, potential customers are identified based on product information input by a sales representative from the terminal device 3. This makes it possible to identify promising potential customers without relying on the skills of the sales representative, as in the conventional method in which a sales representative identifies potential customers by exploring latent demand through conversations with customers, etc. Therefore, even if the sales representative has low skills, the probability of successful sales can be increased.

[0049] Furthermore, according to this embodiment, personality information of the parties involved in the decision-making process for purchasing a product is generated based on the personal information of the parties involved, and sales content including text and images tailored to the personalities of the parties involved so as to facilitate successful sales of the product is generated based on this personality information. Therefore, even if the salesperson has low skills, the probability of successful sales can be increased by conducting sales activities using sales content appropriate to the personalities of the parties involved.

[0050] Next, some modifications of the above-described embodiment will be described.

[0051] <Variation 1> FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a modified example of the system configuration according to this embodiment, in which a generative AI system 6 is added to the system shown in the example of FIG. 1. The generative AI system 6 is a system that provides one or more generative AI (generative artificial intelligence) functions capable of generating at least one of documents and images, and is capable of communicating with the information processing system 1 via a communication network 9. The generative AI is an artificial intelligence configured to generate text, images, etc. in response to a given prompt by training an artificial neural network having a large number of parameters (e.g., billions to hundreds of billions) on a large amount of data (text data, image data, etc.). Examples of generative AI include the GPT series (Chat GPT, etc.) operated by OpenAI, Inc. of the United States, and the Gemini series (Gemini Pro, etc.) operated by Google, Inc. of the United States.

[0052] FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a modified example of the process for generating business content (ST120: FIG. 2). In this modification, the information processing system 1 uses the generation AI functions provided by the generation AI system 6 to generate content elements to be included in each item of the sales content.

[0053] First, the information processing system 1 selects (ST305) content configuration information associated with the type of related party indicated by the personality information generated in step ST115 (FIG. 2) from the plurality of content configuration information registered in the content configuration DB 23. That is, the information processing system 1 acquires content configuration information including the type indicated by the personality information from the content configuration DB 23. When there are a plurality of pieces of applicable content configuration information, the information processing system 1 may select one piece of content configuration information in accordance with an instruction from the sales representative input from the terminal device 3.

[0054] Next, the information processing system 1 inputs, from the terminal device 3, one or more pieces of first content generation information corresponding to one or more items specified in the content configuration information selected in step ST305 (ST310). Here, the "first content generation information" is information referenced by the generation AI to generate a content element (text, image) for one item in the sales content. For example, the information processing system 1 may display an explanation of each item (the purpose of the item, an explanation of the text and images to be included in the item, etc.) on the terminal device 3 based on the item information included in the content configuration information. This allows the sales representative to be guided as to the first content generation information to be input for each item.

[0055] For example, in the case of an item related to "features of a product," a salesperson may extract sentences related to the features of the product from already prepared product materials and input them as information for generating the first content. Also, in the case of an item related to "images expressing the impression of a product," a salesperson may extract sentences (concepts, etc.) related to the impression of a product from already prepared product materials and input them as information for generating the first content.

[0056] The information processing system 1 generates at least one prompt (hereinafter referred to as a "first prompt") that instructs the generation AI to generate content elements (text, images) for one or more items based on the first content generation information for one or more items input in step ST310 (ST325). For example, the information processing system 1 generates a first prompt that causes the generation AI to generate content elements for each item using a description of each item (the purpose of the item, an explanation of the text or images to be included in the item, etc.) included in the item information of the content configuration information and the first content generation information for each item input in step ST310. The information processing system 1 may generate a first prompt for each item, or may generate one first prompt for multiple items.

[0057] The information processing system 1 provides at least one first prompt generated in step ST325 to the generation AI system 6, and obtains content elements of one or more items generated in accordance with the first prompt from the generation AI system 6 (ST330).

[0058] The information processing system 1 generates sales content based on the content elements of each item acquired from the generation AI system 6 in step ST330 (ST335). For example, the information processing system 1 generates the sales content so that the content elements (text, images) of each item are arranged in the order specified in the layout information included in the content configuration information (ST305). The information processing system 1 also generates the sales content so that the text format, font, size, spacing, number of characters per line, number of lines per page, spacing, text color, heading color, background color, image position, etc. of each item are adjusted according to the layout information.

[0059] According to this modification, the content elements for each item in the sales content are generated by the generation AI. The salesperson only needs to input the information (first content generation information) necessary for the generation AI to generate the content elements for each item. This significantly reduces the salesperson's effort in generating the sales content.

[0060] <Variation 2> In this modification, the information processing system 1 generates the first content generation information (information referenced for generating content elements) in the generation AI instead of inputting the information from the terminal device 3.

[0061] Fig. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a modified example of the process of generating sales content (ST120: Fig. 2). The flowchart shown in Fig. 6 is the same as the flowchart shown in Fig. 5, except that step ST300 is inserted before step ST305 and step ST310 is replaced with steps ST315 and ST320.

[0062] In this modification, the information processing system 1 inputs second content generation information from the terminal device 3 as information to be referenced for generating at least one of text and images included in the sales content (ST300). The second content generation information may be, for example, already created product materials.

[0063] Furthermore, the information processing system 1 selects content composition information associated with the type of the person involved indicated by the personality information generated in step ST115 (FIG. 2) from the plurality of content composition information registered in the content composition DB 23 (ST305).

[0064] The information processing system 1 generates at least one second prompt (ST315) that instructs the generation AI to acquire, based on the second content generation information input in step ST300, one or more pieces of first content generation information that are referenced to generate one or more content elements specified in the content configuration information selected in step ST305. Here, the "second prompt" is a prompt that instructs the generation AI to acquire the first content generation information based on the second content generation information (ST300).

[0065] The information processing system 1 generates the second prompt based on the description of each item (such as the purpose of the item and an explanation of the text and images to be included in the item) included in the item information of the content configuration information selected in step ST305. For example, in the case of an item related to "features of a product," the information processing system 1 generates a second prompt that instructs the system to generate first content generation information corresponding to this item based on text related to the features of the product from the second content generation information input in step ST300. In addition, in the case of an item related to "images expressing the impression of a product," the information processing system 1 generates a second prompt that instructs the system to generate first content generation information corresponding to this item based on text and images related to the impression of the product from the second content generation information input in step ST300.

[0066] The information processing system 1 provides at least one second prompt generated in step ST315 to the generation AI system 6, and obtains information for generating first content for one or more items generated in accordance with the second prompt from the generation AI system 6 (ST320).

[0067] The information processing system 1 generates at least one first prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate content elements (text, images) for one or more items based on the first content generation information for each item acquired in step ST320 (ST325). The processing from step ST325 onwards is the same as the flowchart shown in FIG.

[0068] According to this modification, not only are the content elements of each item in the sales content generated by the generation AI, but the information referenced for generating the content elements (first content generation information) is also generated by the generation AI. The salesperson need only input, for example, documents about an existing product as the information referenced for generating at least one of the text and images included in the sales content (second content generation information). This further significantly reduces the effort required of the salesperson to generate sales content.

[0069] <Variation 3> In this variant, in the process of identifying potential customers (step ST105: Figure 2), in order to evaluate the relevance between the product related to the product information and the business issue, the product information and business issue information are each vectorized, and the similarity between the vectors is evaluated.

[0070] In this modification, the business information in the business DB21 includes a vector (business problem vector) that represents the content (meaning, etc.) of the business problem indicated by the business problem information. When the business information includes multiple pieces of business problem information, a business problem vector is included for each piece of business problem information. The business problem vector is obtained as a distributed representation of the text included in the business problem information by using a known trained model such as Word2vec or BERT (bidirectional encoder representations from transformers).

[0071] FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a modified example of the process for identifying a potential customer (ST105: FIG. 2). In this modification, the information processing system 1 acquires a product vector, which is a vector that represents the content of a product, based on the product information input in step ST100 (FIG. 2) (ST400). The information processing system 1 acquires the product vector as a distributed representation of the text included in the product information by using a trained model such as Word2vec or BERT.

[0072] The information processing system 1 calculates the similarity (cosine similarity, etc.) between the business issue vector of the business information registered in the business DB 21 and the product vector acquired in step ST400 (ST405).

[0073] The information processing system 1 searches for business problem vectors similar to the product vector based on the similarity calculated in step ST405 (ST410). For example, the information processing system 1 searches for business problem vectors whose similarity is higher than a predetermined threshold value as business problem vectors similar to the product vector. The information processing system 1 identifies business information including the business problem vector found by this search, and thereby identifies businesses as potential customers.

[0074] According to this modification, it is possible to identify potential customers by utilizing business issue information of the business information that has been independently collected.

[0075] <Variation 4> FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a modified example of the system configuration according to this embodiment, in which a personality information DB 24 is added to the storage device 2 to which the information processing system 1 has access.

[0076] The personality information DB 24 includes a plurality of pieces of personality information each associated with an individual's attributes. Each piece of personality information includes, for example, information indicating the individual's attributes (such as date of birth and gender) and information about the individual's personality (such as personality type).

[0077] In this modified example, when acquiring personality information of a related person (ST115: FIG. 2), the information processing system 1 acquires personality information that fits the personal information of the related person (ST110: FIG. 2) from a plurality of pieces of personality information registered in the personality information DB 24. That is, the information processing system 1 searches the personality information DB 24 for personality information that includes personal attributes (date of birth, gender, etc.) included in the personal information of the related person acquired in step ST110, and acquires the corresponding personality information.

[0078] According to this modification, it is possible to acquire the personality information of the person concerned by using the personality information (personality information DB 24) that has been independently collected.

[0079] <Variation 5> FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modified example of the configuration of the system according to this embodiment, in which a trained model 25 is added to the storage device 2 to which the information processing system 1 has access.

[0080] The trained model 25 is a model that has been machine-learned to output personality information (such as personality type) about a person's personality from the person's personal information. To generate the trained model 25, a known machine learning algorithm (such as linear regression, logistic regression, support vector machine, decision tree, random forest, neural network, or naive Bayes) can be used.

[0081] In this variant, when the information processing system 1 acquires personality information of the relevant person (ST115: Figure 2), it acquires the personality information of the relevant person output from the trained model 25 by applying the personal information of the relevant person acquired in step ST110 (Figure 2) to the trained model 25.

[0082] According to this modification, it is possible to obtain personality information of the relevant parties by using a trained model 25 generated based on independently collected personality information.

[0083] It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and includes various variations. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and substitutions to the components of the above-described embodiment within the technical scope of the present invention or its equivalents.

[0084] A part of the processing performed by the information processing system 1 in the above-described embodiment may be executed by another device (for example, the terminal device 3). In this case, it can be said that a system including the information processing system 1 and the other device (a system including multiple computers) functions as an information processing system that performs processing related to the sales support of this embodiment.

[0085] The following describes techniques related to this embodiment.

[0086] [1] A sales support method performed by an information processing system, comprising: acquiring personality information relating to the personality of one party involved in the decision-making process for purchasing a product at one business; generating sales content to be presented to one of the businesses for selling a product, based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties at the one business, so that the sales content includes at least one of text and images that are tailored to the personality of the related party so that the sales will be more likely to be successful; A sales support method that has the following features. * According to the sales support method of [1], it is possible to make sales to a business using sales content that includes at least one of text and images tailored to the characteristics of the parties involved at that business, which makes it easier to increase the probability of successful sales. [2] the personality information includes information indicating one type determined from a plurality of predetermined types for classifying a person's personality, the step of generating the sales content includes generating the sales content including at least one of text and an image configured according to the type of the related person indicated by the personality information; [1] The sales support method described in [1]. * According to the sales support method [2], it is possible to make a sale to a business using sales content that includes at least one of text and images that are structured according to the personality types of the people involved at the business, which makes it easier to increase the probability of a successful sale. [3] Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information about one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The step of generating sales content includes: selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the personality information; inputting the content elements for each of the one or more items specified in the selected content configuration information; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the input items; [2] The sales support method described in [2]. * According to the sales support method in [3], each item of sales content is specified in the content configuration information associated with the personality type of the person involved. This makes it possible to generate sales content through the relatively simple task of inputting the content elements of the specified items, reducing the burden on users involved in creating sales content. [4] Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information on one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The information referenced to generate the content element of one of the items is called first content generation information, the information processing system has access to a generative AI system that provides one or more generative AI functions capable of generating at least one of a document and an image; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content element based on the first content generation information is called a first prompt; The step of generating sales content includes: selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the acquired personality information; inputting one or more pieces of first content generation information corresponding to one or more items specified in the selected content composition information; generating at least one first prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content elements for one or more of the items based on the input first content generation information for the one or more items; providing at least one of the generated first prompts to the AI ​​system, and obtaining from the AI ​​system the content elements of one or more of the items generated in accordance with the first prompts; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the retrieved items; [2] The sales support method described in [2]. * According to the sales support method [4], the content elements for each item in the sales content are generated by a generation AI, which significantly reduces the burden on users involved in creating sales content. [5] Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information about one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The information referenced to generate the content element of one of the items is called first content generation information, The information referenced to generate at least one of the text and the image included in the sales content is referred to as second content generation information, the information processing system has access to a generative AI system that provides one or more generative AI functions capable of generating at least one of a document and an image; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content element based on the first content generation information is called a first prompt; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to acquire the first content generation information based on the second content generation information is called a second prompt; The step of generating sales content includes: inputting the second content generation information; selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the acquired personality information; generating at least one second prompt that instructs the generation AI to acquire, based on the input second content generation information, one or more pieces of first content generation information that are referenced to generate the content elements of one or more items specified in the selected content composition information, and the second prompt corresponds to a description of each of the items included in the selected content composition information; providing at least one of the generated second prompts to the AI ​​system, and obtaining information for generating the first content for one or more of the items generated in accordance with the second prompts; generating at least one first prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content elements for one or more of the items based on the acquired first content generation information for the one or more items; providing at least one of the generated first prompts to the AI ​​system, and obtaining from the AI ​​system the content elements of one or more of the items generated in accordance with the first prompts; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the retrieved items; [2] The sales support method described in [2]. * According to the sales support method [5], the content elements of each item in the sales content are generated by the generation AI, and the prompts (first prompts) that instruct the generation AI to generate the content elements are also generated by the generation AI, which further significantly reduces the burden on users involved in creating sales content. [6] one of the content configuration information includes layout information regarding the layout of the content elements of each of the items; the step of generating the sales content includes generating the sales content in which the content elements of each of the items are arranged in accordance with the layout information included in the selected content configuration information. The sales support method according to any one of [1] to [5]. [7] the layout information includes at least a part of the text format, character font, character size, character spacing, number of characters in a line, number of lines in a page, line spacing, character color, heading color, background color, and image position in the content element of each of the items; the step of generating the sales content includes generating the sales content in which at least a part of the text format, character font, character size, character spacing, number of characters in a line, number of lines in a page, line spacing, character color, heading color, background color, and image position of each of the items is adjusted according to the layout information included in the selected content configuration information; [6] The sales support method described in [6]. [8] A program including instructions for making an information processing system perform a process for supporting sales, The processing performed by the information processing system in accordance with the instructions includes each step of the method described in any one of [1] to [7]. program. [9] An information processing system that performs processing to support sales, a processing unit; a storage unit that stores instructions to be executed by the processing unit; The processing performed by the processing unit in accordance with the instructions includes each step of the method described in any one of [1] to [7]. Information processing system.

[10] An information processing system that performs processing to support sales, [1] to [7], comprising a means for performing each step of the method described in any one of [1] to [7], Information processing system. [Explanation of symbols]

[0087] 1...information processing system, 11...communication unit, 12...storage unit, 121...program, 13...processing unit, 2...storage device, 21...business operator DB, 22...stakeholder DB, 23...content composition DB, 24...personality information DB, 25...trained model, 3...terminal device, 4...first server, 5...second server, 6...generative AI system, 9...communication network

Claims

1. A sales support method performed by an information processing system, comprising: a first step of performing a process of identifying potential customers who are businesses that are highly relevant to the product and the business issues based on product information input as information about the product and multiple business information items each including information about a business issue of one business, and / or a process of providing the input product information to a first server that identifies the potential customers based on the product information and acquiring information about the potential customers identified based on the product information from the first server; A second step of acquiring the personal information of the related parties of the identified prospective customers based on a plurality of related party information each including personal information of one related party involved in the decision-making process for the purchase of a product at one of the businesses; a third step of acquiring personality information about the person concerned based on the acquired personal information of the person concerned; a fourth step of generating sales content to be presented to one of the prospective customers for selling the product based on the personality information acquired about one of the related parties of one of the prospective customers, the sales content including at least one of text and images configured to match the personality of the related party so as to make the sales more likely to be successful; A sales support method that has the following features.

2. the personality information includes information indicating one type determined based on the personal information from a plurality of types that classify a person's personality; the fourth step includes generating the sales content including at least one of text and images configured according to the type of the related person indicated by the personality information; The sales support method according to claim 1 .

3. Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information on one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The fourth step is selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the personality information; inputting the content elements for each of the one or more items specified in the selected content configuration information; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the input items; The sales support method according to claim 2.

4. Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information on one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The information referenced for generating the content element of one of the items is called first content generation information, the information processing system has access to a generative AI system that provides one or more generative AI functions capable of generating at least one of documents and images; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content element based on the first content generation information is called a first prompt; The fourth step is selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the acquired personality information; inputting one or more pieces of first content generation information corresponding to one or more items specified in the selected content composition information; generating at least one first prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content elements for one or more of the items based on the input first content generation information for the one or more items; providing the generated at least one first prompt to the generative AI system, and obtaining from the generative AI system the content elements of one or more of the items generated in accordance with the first prompt; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the retrieved items; The sales support method according to claim 2.

5. Each of the plurality of types is associated with one or more pieces of content configuration information; One of the content configuration information includes information on one or more items that configure the sales content, One of the items includes at least one of a document and an image as a content element, The information referenced for generating the content element of one of the items is called first content generation information, Information referenced for generating at least one of text and images included in the sales content is referred to as second content generation information, the information processing system has access to a generative AI system that provides one or more generative AI functions capable of generating at least one of documents and images; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content element based on the first content generation information is called a first prompt; a prompt that instructs the generation AI to acquire the first content generation information based on the second content generation information is called a second prompt; The fourth step is inputting the second content generation information; selecting, from the plurality of pieces of content configuration information, one piece of content configuration information associated with the type of the related person indicated by the acquired personality information; generating at least one second prompt that instructs the generation AI to obtain, based on the input second content generation information, one or more pieces of first content generation information that are referenced to generate the content elements of one or more items specified in the selected content configuration information, and the second prompt corresponds to a description of each of the items included in the selected content configuration information; providing the generated at least one second prompt to the AI ​​system to obtain the first content generation information for one or more of the items generated in accordance with the second prompt; generating at least one first prompt that instructs the generation AI to generate the content elements for one or more of the items based on the acquired first content generation information for the one or more items; providing the generated at least one first prompt to the generative AI system, and obtaining from the generative AI system the content elements of one or more of the items generated in accordance with the first prompt; generating the sales content based on the content elements of one or more of the retrieved items; The sales support method according to claim 2.

6. The third step is providing the acquired personal information to a second server that generates the personality information regarding the personality of the person from the personal information of the person, and acquiring the personality information generated based on the personal information from the second server; Or, acquiring, from a plurality of pieces of personality information each associated with an attribute of an individual, the personality information associated with an attribute of an individual included in the acquired personal information; Or, and applying the acquired personal information to a trained model that has been machine-learned to output the personality information related to the personality of the person from the personal information of the person, thereby acquiring the personality information output from the trained model. The sales support method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. Each of the business entity information includes at least one piece of business issue information that is information relating to a business issue, At least one of the business issue information items included in each of the business entity information items is associated with a business issue vector that is a vector representing the content of the business issue, The first step comprises: Obtaining a product vector that is a vector representing the content of the product based on the input product information; Identifying, from the plurality of pieces of business information, the business information including the business issue information associated with the business issue vector similar to the acquired product vector, The sales support method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. one of the content configuration information includes layout information regarding the layout of the content elements of each of the items; the fourth step includes generating the sales content in which the content elements of each of the items are arranged according to the layout information included in the selected content configuration information. The sales support method according to any one of claims 3 to 5.

9. the layout information includes at least a part of the text format, character font, character size, character spacing, number of characters in a line, number of lines in a page, line spacing, character color, heading color, background color, and image position in the content element of each of the items; the fourth step includes generating the sales content in which at least a part of the text format, character font, character size, character spacing, number of characters in a line, number of lines in a page, line spacing, character color, heading color, background color, and image position of each of the items is adjusted according to the layout information included in the selected content configuration information; The sales support method according to claim 8.

10. A program including instructions for making an information processing system perform a process for supporting sales, The processing performed by the information processing system in accordance with the instructions includes each step of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 5. program.

11. An information processing system that performs processing to support sales, a processing unit; a storage unit that stores instructions to be executed by the processing unit; The processing performed by the processing unit in accordance with the instructions includes each step of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 5. Information processing system.

12. An information processing system that performs processing to support sales, A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising: Information processing system.

Images