Let’s be honest, sales can be a grueling experience for most. It requires a perfect blend of strategy, persistence, and personal touch. In 2024, the integration of AI into sales tools offers a completely new pathway to not only streamline the most manual and time-consuming tasks, but also to achieve personalized customer interactions at scale. AI’s ability to analyze data, predict outcomes, and automate communications gives businesses an unprecedented opportunity to allow their employees to focus on moving deals forward, rather than spending hours inputting CRM data or creating sales campaigns.
Today we are going to narrow our focus on our 7 customer favorite types of applications with AI your sales team can use immediately. While it seems that every company has a new product with the latest AI features, it’s important to focus on how your organization works currently. We suggest finding tools that support your current processes rather than completely change your environment in the hopes of automating everything.
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1) CRM tools (of course!)
You have probably already heard of CRMs, or Customer Relationship Management systems, the ultimate digital Rolodex on steroids. Used to keep track of every interaction, transaction, and notes about your customers in one organized, easy-to-navigate spot. Whether it’s emails, sales deals, or customer service chats, CRMs help businesses keep all this info in one place, making it easy to see the whole picture of a relationship at a glance. They’re not just about storing data, though; CRMs can analyze this goldmine of information to help businesses predict customer needs, improve sales strategies, and build long-term relationships.
Why use AI in your CRM?
- Better analytics on forecasting, lead scoring, and customer interactions
- Reducing manual tasks like creating and logging sales activities
- Allows you to personalize leads and deals at scale
Going beyond human analytics
Where would we ever be without our CRMs?? We will soon start to see traditional CRM systems without AI features are going to be compared to our era of rolodexes and excel files. CRMs, when powered by AI, evolve beyond their traditional roles as data dumps of customer information. AI enables these systems to analyze tons of data, identifying patterns and behaviors that are not always obvious. This transformation leads to richer customer insights, allowing businesses to predict customer needs, personalize outreach, and strategically time their engagements.
Example: Hubspot’s AI sales forecast – Using your history of all deals closed won in Hubspot, you can apply the AI analytics to your existing pipeline. This is a great use of analytics with AI, given that traditional forecasts using weighted pipelines are mostly based on sales self reporting.
Personalization… at scale
One of the biggest advantages of AI in CRM systems is the ability to automate customer interactions without sacrificing personalization. Through machine learning algorithms, CRMs can send out personalized emails at scale, recommend products based on customer history, and even alert sales teams about the best time to follow up with a lead. This level of automation ensures that no opportunity is missed due to human oversight, and every communication is tailored to the individual’s preferences and behaviors. As a result, sales teams can focus more on building relationships and less on the manual tasks that can bog down the sales process.
Example: This year, Freshworks CRM introduced their AI assistance Freddy. With Freddy, finding potential customers becomes faster for your team. By analyzing data points and behavioral patterns, Freddy scores contacts, enabling salespeople to drive conversions and increase sales revenue.
Say goodbye to the pain of data entry!
Has anyone in the history of sales enjoyed updating their CRM every day? Our guess is no. Another major pull for AI in sales is the ability to significantly reduce the time spent on tedious administrative tasks that have traditionally consumed much of sales professionals’ days. By automating manual CRM data entries, intelligently scheduling meetings, and efficiently assessing sales team pipelines, AI technology frees up sales representatives to focus on clients and prospects. This shift not only enhances productivity but also greatly diminishes the likelihood of burnout associated with repetitive administrative work, thereby increasing job satisfaction and overall team performance.
Example: This year, Freshworks CRM introduced their AI assistance Freddy. With Freddy, finding potential customers becomes faster for your team. By analyzing data points and behavioral patterns, Freddy scores contacts, enabling salespeople to drive conversions and increase sales revenue.
2) Generate lead lists
Unfortunately, not all leads are inbound. Lead list generators are tools or software platforms designed to help businesses generate lists of potential customers or leads. These tools typically use various methods to collect information about individuals or companies that match specific criteria, such as industry, location, company size, or job title. Then, either sales or marketing can begin educating these potential customers on your products or services.
Why use AI with your lead lists?
- Scans the internet looking for new leads while constantly updating contact information
- Analyzes your searches to provide insights into which leads are actively shopping for your solution or service
- Prioritized lists of targeted accounts
Automatically update contact information
AI-powered lead generation lists are like having a personal assistant who never forgets to update your Rolodex. They tirelessly scan the digital landscape, keeping contact information up-to-date with precision. These algorithms also act as expert hunters, constantly scouring the internet for new leads that fit your target market based on your previous use.
Example: Rocketreach creates new networking opportunities by learning from your past lead downloads with an AI algorithm to suggest their Recommended contacts. This eliminates the need to continuously run the same reports.
Prioritized account mapping with active shoppers
Let’s get strategic with it. Prioritized account lists are like having a roadmap for success. Instead of randomly shooting emails into the abyss, target those high-priority accounts first with personalized outreach. It’s about working smarter, not harder.
Example: Zoominfo uses their AI product, Zoominfo CoPilot, to display customers in your sales reps territory who are actively shopping for your solution while showing the top contacts to reach out to! This is one of our favorite uses of AI in sales.
3) Meeting assistants and note takers
Meeting assistants are tools designed to streamline your business meetings. They handle scheduling, sending invitations, managing agendas, and most importantly taking notes during the meeting. These assistants play a vital role in ensuring meetings run smoothly and efficiently, allowing participants to focus on the discussion at hand rather than trying to capture notes. By automating routine processes and providing organizational support, meeting assistants help teams stay present during meetings.
Why use AI with during your meetings?
- Easily extract key discovery points with automated note taking
- Summarize the list of actionable next steps
Note taking AI tools, specifically for sales teams
Sellers should hop on the AI note-taking train immediately. Not only do they save you the hassle of scribbling notes, but they also organize and highlight key points effortlessly. Plus, with their knack for spotting trends and action items, they help turn meetings into actionable insights. This new technology allows sellers to be even more present with clients, asking insightful questions without the distraction of note taking.
Example:
Laxis goes beyond traditional note taking AI, by understanding the nature of sales calls. Instead of just generating a transcript with next steps, Laxis AI conveniently captures sales specific summaries of calls (think pain points, timelines, buying committee etc.). To top off, use those insights to generate an AI email follow-up.
4) Conversational chatbots
AI-powered chatbots on your website are like having a round-the-clock sales assistant driving leads forward. They handle FAQs, qualify leads, and even set up meetings, leaving your sales team free to focus on the big wins. These bots give instant responses, making visitors feel heard and valued while gathering insights to tailor your pitch.
Why use AI with chatbots?
- Answer high level questions from prospects before passing over to sales
- Qualify using discovery questions to intelligently route leads
Use a bot… to do discovery?!
Chatbots built using AI can conduct sales discovery by using natural language processing to ask questions from prospects for high level discovery. Through personalized interactions driven by data analysis, chatbots can tailor questions and responses to individual user needs, enhancing engagement. Predictive analytics enable chatbots to anticipate customer questions and preferences, while algorithms help identify high-potential leads for further nurturing or routing to sales representatives. With continuous learning capabilities, chatbots adapt and improve over time, refining their approach to maximize the effectiveness of sales discovery interactions.
Example:
Freshchat can act as a BDR on your website by asking conversational questions and guiding a prospective buyer through a purchasing cycle. Begin the qualification process and then intelligently assign the lead to the most relevant seller. Plus, Freshchat works across your website and social media channels.
5) Content Generation
Okay, we know this might be more in marketing’s wheelhouse, but oftentimes sales is required to create their own assets. Content generation tools are platforms designed to assist in the creation of articles, blog posts, social media posts, videos, infographics, and more. These tools typically offer features to expedite the content creation process, such as templates, prompts, and editing tools. By automating repetitive tasks and providing guidance and inspiration, content generation tools can help sales teams who need to create assets, ASAP.
Why use AI for content generation?
- Create pitch decks, white papers, emails, social media posts in minutes, all branded for your company
- Generate beautiful ads as well as a seasoned marketer
- Use AI to suggest changes and predictive analytics on how well your ads will perform
White papers, MAPs, pitch decks in minutes
Sales teams can leverage AI-powered content generation as a turbocharged tool to fuel their outreach efforts and boost prospect engagement. From crafting attention-grabbing emails to generating beautiful social media posts, AI algorithms analyze vast datasets to identify trends, preferences, and language patterns of your target audience. This enables sales teams to tailor their content with precision, resonating with prospects on a deeper level.
Example:
Have you ever needed a whitepaper for a customer, but your marketing team is projecting a 4 plus week turnaround time? Or even more difficult, no marketing team to ask? Distribute allows you to build lightning fast one pagers, tailored to your company’s brand kit. Even construct a digital room for your prospects to view all relevant white papers.
Create beautiful ads, without marketing experience
Historically, creating and writing ads for lead generation takes time, experience, and a whole lot of money. Like many applications on this list, AI can transform that process by creating gorgeous graphics, writing copy, automating social media posts, and so much more. Sales teams who are expected to create leads can utilize these tools to create immediate interest in their products.
Example:
Ad Creative is an amazing tool for sales teams that don’t have a marketing presence or large scale marketing teams yet. Dive into an extensive categorized library of proven ads to recreate using your company branding. Just choose your category, and let our system ignite your next high-impact, conversion-optimized advertising campaign that includes social media posts, ad copy, and more. Then, use their AI predictive analytics to score how successful your ad will be.
6) Productivity management
A sales person who isn’t busy, is probably not hitting their number. The rest of us are bogged down with a million tasks and to dos. That’s where a good productivity management tool can help, by allowing your sales teams to see the full picture of their workload and prioritize accordingly. AI can help by analyzing the workload and and further prioritize which tasks and when to give attention.
Why use AI for productivity management?
- Use AI to prioritize your schedule on the work that matters most
- Keep distracting emails out of your inbox and highlight customer emails
Manage your optimal schedule
Sales reps calendars are always busy, between customer meetings, prep and post meeting notes, internal calls, prospecting time, proposal creation – its easy to get sidetracked from what’s important. AI can help optimize your schedule by evaluating your calendar and creating times to complete tasks.
Example:
Reclaim is a cool tool that allows you to schedule customer calls while creating task blocks on your calendar. Create flexible time for tasks that can be reprioritized and rescheduled for customer calls.
Finally achieve inbox 0
Sales teams aren’t immune to sales and marketing emails either. However, sales teams are uniquely glued to their inbox watching for customer emails, but any non essential email can be very distracting. Email clean up tools use AI to gather context behind messages to prioritize which ones should be answered immediately and which ones can be left for later.
Example:
SaneBox helps sort through your email using AI. Immediately get alerted when you have an inbound lead or customer email come through but send any newsletter to another folder. Our favorite feature is the “No Reply” folder, so if your email hasn’t had a response, you know exactly who to check back in with.
7) ChatGPT (LLMs)
We absolutely couldn’t create this list without plugging Chatgpt. Most likely if you are reading this article, you have already played around with it and see the potential. Chatgpt is a large language model that understands the context behind questions, so you can ask questions like “what are the top priorities of a CTO in the finance industry” and Chatgpt will reference vast amounts of data to summarize an answer. Our suggestion is to use Chatgpt to start your next project and then personalize from there.
Why use LLMs?
- Chat with Chatgpt about almost anything sales related, the potentials are endless
- Create discovery questions, get context about specific verticals, craft campaigns, and so much more
Example:
ChatGPT is an excellent resource for scanning across the internet for relevant sales information. For example, here is a ChatGPT response to us prompting for an ICP of a CTO in the manufacturing industry.
Conclusion
Congrats on making it to the end of this comprehensive list! We hope you enjoyed and have learned something new about options for AI in sales. As AI continues to mature, we are going to see more and more tools released that can act as “smart assistants” in the sales process. Right now, these tools have been total gamechangers for our customers and we hope you can find some use too. If you’d like some help in evaluating the best sales tools and AI for your organization, we would love to assist!
Ready to take the next step in your AI journey? At The AIngle, we help navigate through the complexity of different AI solutions by truly tailoring an environment, implementation plan, and training to our clients needs. Simply fill out this form for a free introduction call to start your AI journey!
