Generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) have become essential tools for chemical technical sales teams.
Sales AI
March 13, 2025
2025 is shaping up to be an interesting year for chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing companies.
Commercial teams in verticals across these sectors are up against a number of challenges to revenue growth: rising energy and materials costs, the consolidation of key market players, growing regional competition, organizational restructurings, changing supply chains to support a circular economy, and portfolio shifts to support more sustainable products. Not to be left out — geopolitics, changing trade policies, and fluctuating regional economies will drive growth in some regions and verticals and stagnation in others.
Amidst all this, sales, marketing, and service teams are tasked with finding new avenues to revenue growth — all while managing intricate product portfolios with large volumes of technical data to ensure they provide precise solutions to meet the expectations of their customers.
To do this well, generative AI — or rather the strategic use of generative AI — is a critical part of the 2025 revenue growth conversation.
With the right GenAI solution, technical sales teams can transform their revenue operations, improve customer satisfaction, and gain a competitive edge.
Here are the top five GenAI use cases that can make a significant impact on sales for chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing in 2025.
Prefer to listen? Hear how our team sees GenAI making real waves (ROI kind of waves) in technical sales. Tune In to our Nesh Talks Series.
Knowledge share.
It’s a significant pain point in any enterprise sales function. And, it’s exacerbated in technical industries like chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing, given the extensive nuances of the product life cycle, the precise and varied nature of each customer’s needs and expectations, and the intense competitive landscape.
In 2025, companies using GenAI will undoubtedly be several steps ahead. That’s because GenAI integrates enterprise product knowledge and expert insights, bridging knowledge and expertise gaps between marketing, sales, and services teams and the experts that support them.
Capturing expert knowledge is essential in these industries, where preserving the insights of experienced professionals is a critical function to maintain high customer support levels and drive innovation.GenAI helps streamline this technical expertise management, ensuring critical information remains accessible even after experts retire or leave the company. This is particularly important in the chemical industry, where complex product portfolios and regulatory requirements demand precise and consistent knowledge.
Another challenge commercial teams and sales teams face is managing large product portfolios with vast amounts of products or products with multiple applications across various verticals. GenAI organizes products and product knowledge, allowing technical sales reps to leverage their entire portfolio more effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also expands sales opportunities by enabling reps to recommend products from across their portfolio (as well as support their business unit’s strategic goals).
Streamlining product positioning is also crucial. GenAI ensures that sales and marketing messaging is consistent and aligned, which is vital for strategic initiatives and differentiation in competitive markets. Standardized product comparisons of key data points enable sales reps to simplify complex information into the specific customer requirements, unique value propositions and critical differentiators for their customer’s specific use case or application. By using GenAI tools, companies keep their messaging cohesive across all customer interactions and also enhance their brand's value proposition and market presence.
The benefits of building a single source of truth are multifaceted. It reduces knowledge gaps, improves product expertise, and enhances customer service by making product data, sales enablement materials, and customer information more accessible. This integrated approach empowers teams to deliver consistent value to customers, driving revenue growth and customer satisfaction.
Ramping new sellers with effective onboarding is crucial for revenue growth, especially in complex industries. Traditional onboarding processes can be lengthy and costly, often involving months of field training with seasoned reps.
However, GenAI platforms can significantly accelerate this process (from months to weeks), providing new sellers with immediate access to a vast repository of information and empowering them to start contributing to revenue goals sooner.
For instance, in the chemical industry, new sales reps often face the challenge of understanding the full breadth of complex product portfolios and the precise insights captured in each technical data sheet (TDS). GenAI can enhance the training process by quickly:
This is particularly valuable for new sellers in complex industries like chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing where deep technical knowledge is essential for effective customer relationships.
GenAI tools can also serve as customized training programs, addressing specific knowledge gaps and helping new reps develop the skills needed to excel in a competitive market. In the chemical sector, GenAI helps new sales reps stay informed and agile, addressing their own knowledge gaps and solving customer challenges in real-time.
Take this example: a new sales rep at a polymer manufacturing company can use GenAI to quickly retrieve specific product specifications, such as heat-resistant properties for a new thermoplastic, and provide accurate, up-to-date information to customers with a specific application question. This rapid response capability can make the difference between winning or losing a contract and maintaining customer trust — as well as ensuring that the new sales rep hits their sales targets.
Want to learn more about the many benefits GenAI can bring to the chemical manufacturing value chain? Check out our Ultimate Guide to AI in Chemicals.
The sales cycle in technical industries is often long and complex.
One study found that the average sales cycle for the manufacturing industry was 131 days (about 4.5 months). The energy space was even higher at 155 days (about 5 months). For some enterprises in chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing, that number doubles or even triples.
GenAI becomes really important for sales professionals to leverage across the sales cycle, optimizing time (and ultimately revenue).
Here are some ways GenAI transforms several key sales activities:
By enhancing these sales activities, GenAI significantly improves sales process efficiency and ultimately accelerates deal cycles.
Providing sales reps with the tools to build trust throughout the customer lifecycle is crucial. GenAI plays a significant role in enhancing this experience by equipping reps with the insights and support needed to navigate complex customer demands effectively.
One key area where GenAI makes a difference is in technical services, customer experience, and troubleshooting. During critical customer moments, such as procurement testing cycles or product implementation phases, GenAI helps sales teams navigate potential issues by:
This proactive approach resolves issues efficiently and builds trust by demonstrating a deep understanding of customer needs.
Beyond troubleshooting, GenAI supports regional and multilingual sales efforts by ensuring consistent access to precise product data, despite differing languages in original source documents. This is particularly important for multinational companies operating in regions with different regulatory requirements or languages.
Perhaps most importantly, GenAI can personalize customer interactions based on data analysis. By analyzing customer behavior, purchase history, and industry trends, GenAI helps sales reps tailor their approach to anticipate and meet specific customer needs. This personalized engagement enhances the overall customer experience, fostering long-term loyalty and retention.
In competitive markets, commercial teams often juggle competing priorities: the daily to-do list, the company or business unit’s strategic priorities, and priority customers.
To get ahead, teams need to spend less time on lower-value administrative tasks and more time on high-value, high-impact tasks that drive revenue and innovation with high-value customers.
GenAI plays a pivotal role in elevating this process by automating and offloading routine tasks to free up valuable time for critical thinking and strategic planning. By automating simple, but time-consuming tasks such as data compilation and report generation, GenAI enables sales teams to focus on strategic ways to drive revenue with better knowledge of market trends, competitor positioning, and customer behavior.
This shift in how sales reps work creates room to delve deeper into insights generated by GenA-powered sales workflows, such as product comparisons and benchmarking. With more time for strategic actions, sales reps are better equipped to advance organizational priorities and win new customers.
Consider a scenario where a chemical company is expanding its portfolio of eco-friendly solvents. GenAI can analyze industry reports, regional regulations, supply chain data, market data, and customer insights, to provide actionable intelligence on which sustainable products are most likely to succeed in specific regions and which customers are likely to buy sustainable alternatives.
By saving hours of time and tapping into new avenues of insights, sales teams have tools to better tailor their product proposals and marketing strategies and positioning the company as a leader in sustainable solutions.
By leveraging GenAI to automate and offload routine sales tasks and enhance strategic decision-making, sales teams save time that is reallocated to drive more informed and effective business strategies. This new approach to work ultimately leads to increased revenue and market share.
As we've explored, GenAI is transforming the landscape of technical sales in industries like chemicals, materials, and advanced manufacturing.
In 2025, commercial teams need GenAI to stay competitive. With GenAI, teams can break down knowledge silos, automate routine tasks, and focus on high-value activities that drive business success and revenue. Whether identifying new leads, accelerating deal cycles, or personalizing customer interactions, GenAI provides the insights and tools needed to excel.
With Nesh Sales AI, you can discover how to integrate product knowledge, streamline processes, and enhance customer engagement.
To see how GenAI can transform your commercial or technical sales operations, explore a demo with Nesh.
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Generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) have become essential tools for chemical technical sales teams.
In Episode 1 of Nesh Talks, discover how generative AI transforms the chemical industry in sales, R&D, and workforce development.
Learn how GenAI supports innovation in the care chemicals sector.
