How the Popular Retail Giant Empowered its Sales Force with AI on WhatsApp

Popular is a consolidated business force built over three generations, building a legacy of leadership and recognition throughout the state. With a robust operation, one of its greatest assets has always been the external sales team, which takes the brand directly to customers, door to door.

However, even for a giant, the digital age brought a new challenge: how to equip this field team with the same data intelligence available in the office?

The Challenge: The Salesperson in the Dark

Popular's external salesperson was the face of the company on the street, but operated with a significant disadvantage: lack of access to real-time information. At the crucial moment of sale, in front of the customer, they had no way of knowing purchase history, preferences or specific needs of that consumer.

This gap resulted in:

• Generic Approaches: Without data, sales conversations were less personal and assertive, reducing chances of connection and conversion.
• Lost Opportunities: Products and services that would be perfect for a certain customer were not offered due to lack of prior knowledge.
• Service Insecurity: The inability to answer specific questions about customer history or justify an offer undermined both the salesperson's and consumer's confidence.

Popular needed a bridge that would connect the wealth of their data to the agility required by field sales.

The Solution: An AI Assistant at Your Fingertips

Link Soluções understood that the ideal tool should be as mobile and accessible as the salespeople themselves. Therefore, we developed an Artificial Intelligence assistant fully integrated with WhatsApp, a platform that was already part of the team's daily life.

The solution transformed each salesperson's phone into a powerful data terminal:

• Real-Time Queries: Through simple commands on WhatsApp, the salesperson can request and instantly receive the complete profile of the customer they are visiting: history, products of interest and important notes.
• Intelligent Support: The assistant was trained to answer frequent questions about products and services, acting as a "copilot" for the salesperson during negotiation.
• Personalization at Scale: With the right information in hand, each salesperson could personalize their offer, drastically increasing the relevance of the approach.
• Report Generation: Each interaction with the assistant generates data that feeds performance reports, providing Popular's management with a clear view of field team activities.

Transformation Results

Implementation of the AI assistant was a milestone in modernizing Popular's sales force. The change was not just technological, but cultural, empowering the team and improving service quality.

Proven Impacts

• Increase in Sales Assertiveness, with salespeople better prepared to offer exactly what the customer needs.
• Improvement in Operational Efficiency, reducing time spent on manual research and optimizing each visit time.
• Strengthening Customer Relationships, who now receive more consultative, fast and personalized service.
• Competitive Intelligence Generation, with structured data on field interactions that were previously lost.

Popular's case proves that innovation can enhance even the most traditional business models, ensuring that a legacy of success continues to thrive in the digital age.