Artificial Intelligence in Sales: How to Use AI to Sell More

With Trender.ai, any sales professionals can automate the process of finding top leads across the social web by giving the tool’s AI your ICP. The tool also provides AI-powered research capabilities that surface deep insights about these leads, so you can close them more effectively. In sales prospecting, NLP can analyze customer communications, social media posts, and reviews to identify sales opportunities and customer sentiment. A sales professional can use a CRM to track interactions with prospects. They can set reminders for follow-ups and analyze data to identify trends and prioritize leads.

A higher score indicates a place further down the funnel and that a lead has a bigger buying intent. Identifying high-quality leads will help your team channel their efforts to leads with the highest potential, and thus, maximize efficiency and conversion rates. Many sales reps rely on their intuition, but this is not always accurate. The closest you can get to an accurate and insight-driven answer is through AI. No matter which sales AI tools you use, remember that automation is the product of a human brain.

Artificial intelligence is basically an umbrella term that covers several technologies, including machine learning and natural language processing. With the right approach to using AI tools for sales, teams stay ahead of the competition, achieve their goals more quickly, and spend more time on the most impactful tasks. By handing the more data-driven tasks over to AI components, human salespeople have more time and energy to develop and reap the rewards of their individual selling skills and techniques. There’s a lot of content that can fall under those three umbrellas, which can add up to a lot of data for analyzing. AI helps marketers measure the success of their campaigns by analyzing data like email open and click-through rates, and then suggesting and implementing tactics for better approaches. AI in marketing is all about recognizing patterns and gaining more engagement by appealing to trends in real-time.

It also means you don’t overlook leads who are ready and willing to give you their money, if only you engaged them in a sales conversations. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. While these are basic tasks, outsourcing them to AI saves huge amounts of human resources that could otherwise be used on higher-value tasks, like closing more deals. Now, the accuracy of those predictions depends on the system being used and the quality of the data. But the fact is that, with the right inputs in the past and present, AI is capable of showing you who is most likely to buy in the future. At their core, though, all of these technologies help machines perform specific cognitive tasks as well as or better than humans. Aside from knowing brands that are using artificial intelligence to their advantage.

This level of prioritization will do wonders for your team’s productivity levels. And if you need to elevate your revenue growth strategies with the power of CRM – we’ve got you covered. We talked about the incredible potential AI has to change the world of sales. Objections are common in sales, but responding to them effectively is key. AI can help come up with responses to objections, keeping the tone and style consistent with your previous communications. We’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of using AI, especially generative AI, in a real-world sales context.

Enhanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Generative Signals is a tool that helps sales teams see the full picture of their sales process, make informed decisions, optimize strategies, and identify revenue potential. AI can be used in sales to automate and optimize various sales activities, such as lead scoring, customer segmentation, personalized messaging, and sales forecasting. It enables businesses to make data-driven decisions, free up time, and improve sales effectiveness. AI provides valuable insights and predictions to close deals effectively. Indeed, AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends that show the likelihood of a deal closing.

Static information, like simply inserting a job title or company location into an email, fall into this bucket. If you want to mention a prospect’s job title in an email, just use Clay to scrape the information from LinkedIn. (If you want to clean complex and varied sets of job titles, that’s another story! AI can be very useful for data cleaning tasks like this). Do use AI  to generate highly creative & personalized copy, like custom value propositions or new marketing ideas.

Thanks to AI, managers have the tools to monitor performance in real time. As well as using automation to free up teams from time-consuming admin, AI helps you improve customer interactions. And when customers are happy, they spend more money—giving your bottom line a boost.

What is generative AI for sales prospecting?

Recognizing the importance of tracking the tool’s performance, they devise a structured approach to monitor its impact. This performance tracking process keeps AI outcomes aligned with business needs rather than operating in a silo, allowing tweaking tools for better precision. After selecting the AI tool, they organized an orientation session. The session aims to introduce the sales team to the tool, highlighting its benefits and the rationale behind its adoption. A car dealership decided to leverage an AI tool to optimize its lead generation process.

Traditionally, sales pipeline management has been a manual and time-consuming process. But now, with AI technologies, sales professionals have access to powerful tools to automate and enhance their pipeline management. The project team met with the sales reps to discuss their experiences. They delved into challenges, potential improvements, and the overall impact on their sales process. Each session included 8—10 sales reps from various regions and product lines. The sessions were facilitated by an external consultant to ensure unbiased feedback.

AI can analyze your content, as well as customer behavior, to make sure your subject lines are top quality and that your messages are sent at the right times. There are AI powered tools that will analyze your CRM records and make sure they’re accurate. If they aren’t, the tools will automatically update them as needed. Your team works hard to generate quality leads and add them to your CRM database. That’s why it’s such a bummer when said leads are filed incorrectly.

Factors to consider when choosing AI tools for sales

But with the right training, your team will soon see that AI isn’t the complex beast it’s often made out to be. AI has taken over boring tasks, improved customer targeting, and dramatically increased efficiency. The reason I ask is because we are helping companies like Rippling and Ramp with our tool that collects the data and writes the messaging for them.

Plus, WebFX’s implementation and consulting services help you build your ideal tech stack and make the most of your technology. Conversation AI technology acts as another ear listening to sales calls. It can produce real-time transcripts for easy data entry, and monitor details that salespeople don’t have the bandwidth to process in real time. The data gathered from these interactions is also useful for creating coaching materials for training new salespeople.

But these tools often augment human salespeople rather than replace them. In fact, AI tools are increasingly taking over work that human salespeople don’t have the ability or the time to do. Quantified is a sales AI coaching tool that uses AI-generated avatars that can conduct roleplaying and sales coaching with your sales team at scale 24/7. It does that by simulating sales calls with realistic AI avatars that help reps practice until they’re perfectly on-message and effective. Quantified also scores rep skills, such as visual and vocal delivery, enabling coaching and improvement even when a human trainer is unavailable.

HubSpot customer Revnew, Inc. integrated ChatSpot into their prospecting workflow and generated 40% more qualified leads and 25% more appointments as a result. For example, financial stakeholders likely only care about ROI data in the later stages when purchase decisions are being made. AI makes it easy to serve prospects the right content at the right time. All departments within an organization rely on sales forecasts — whether monthly, quarterly or annually — for resource allocation. Generative AI’s ability to analyze large amounts of unstructured data, such as sales interactions, can improve the accuracy of these forecasts.

While AI has the potential to improve your sales process dramatically, you’ll get the best results if you implement it correctly. According to Salesforce’s 2022 State of Sales report, high-performing sales reps are nearly two times more likely to use AI than underperformers. But AI and machine learning models don’t just produce new outputs — they’re specifically trained so that they continually improve their results. When these algorithms are being trained, they’re not just fed existing SDR pitches. The recordings and notes provide an accurate representation of all that was discussed during a call and can be used as points of reference for future follow-up.

These tools can identify key moments within your sales calls, note mentions of competitors, and more. While researching potential solutions, organizations should prioritize simplicity of integration and uptake. They should also invest in training sales teams to adapt to more data-driven, AI-enabled procedures. Creating a holistic perspective of the client necessitates the dismantling of silos between customer-facing divisions and developing data-driven sales processes. AI-enabled platform suppliers can supply the infrastructure and advisory experience to help organizations align and modify their behavior.

You can see the full process in this video, including how to set each trigger up on Clay, step by step. Once you’ve set up these triggers, you can use them in any order you’d like to fill out a personalized trigger-based sequence. Keep the output under 15 words per idea and be sure to output the ideas in one line separated by a comma.

Collectively, these advantages can contribute to a significant boost in sales revenue. Recent research indicates that companies that currently invest in AI are experiencing a revenue uplift of 3%-15%, and a sales ROI uplift of 10%-20%. Drive forecast accuracy, grow pipeline, and optimize revenue with Sales Cloud and Tableau insights. Autopopulate contacts and relevant information to help build strong relationships with key decision makers. Regularly check if your AI tools match your goals – being flexible is key to getting the most out of each tool. To measure the impact of using AI in sales, you need to keep track of key sales metrics.

Generative AI tools like HubSpot’s Content Assistant can write copy for sales messages, proposals, or custom landing pages. Generative possibilities go beyond the written word with AI-generated images and even audio. Instead of pursuing hundreds of ineffective how to use ai in sales cold calls, reps can focus on fewer, high-quality targets. This allows them to have more meaningful conversations while still hitting their interaction quotas. Did you know that 33% of all SaaS spend goes either underutilized or wasted by companies?

The sales landscape and customer behavior change over time, with new tools being launched. Consider the data-driven suggestions from AI and compare them to the expertise and intuition of your sales team. Finding a balance that maximizes the capabilities of both AI and humans is crucial.

AI can help draft an agenda using your past conversations as a reference. This results in a personalized demo that highlights your product’s value to each prospect. Now that we’ve introduced the concept of artificial intelligence in sales, let’s explore what it means in practice.

To ensure they remain at the forefront of innovation and harness the potential of new AI advancements, they implemented a proactive approach. To realize its full value, you must stay on top of the latest innovations and be ready to adapt to them quickly. Based on the monthly reviews, the management identified areas where the AI tool could be fine-tuned for better accuracy. They collaborated with the vendor for necessary updates or modifications.

Improve Your Sales Coaching

Drawing from accurate data captured from CRM software and other customer channels, Generative Signals identifies winning customer engagement patterns. It also provides real-time, contextual notifications to steer revenue professionals in the right direction during critical moments. Generate a customized action plan personalized to your customer and sales process. Increase conversion rates with step by step guidance and milestones grounded in CRM data. Continuously monitor the performance of AI tools and their impact on sales outcomes. Compare these metrics to your pre-AI baseline to determine the impact of AI on your sales processes.

This data improves lead profiles, ensuring that sales teams have the right information to make informed decisions and have meaningful connections with prospective customers. These tools enhance training and provide a deeper understanding of what really works by assessing sales reps’ performance. They deliver practices that allow teams to track performance, identify trends, and make real-time adjustments to their strategies with ease.

A big part of sales reps’ daily conundrum is trying to judge what they should do next. Taste, tact, and timing are crucial parts of relationship building in sales. Knowing what to say and when to say it is what separates the best salespeople from the rest.

But while many see AI as still a “way of the future,” innovative sales teams are harnessing the power of AI today. Artificial intelligence and automation have been proven to be great revenue drivers. A Hubspot survey found that 61% of sales teams that exceeded their revenue goals leveraged automation in their sales processes. A vast amount of time and energy goes into summarizing what was discussed on each sales call, then creating action items for sales teams based on the content of the call. It helps improve lead generation and qualification, enhance customer targeting and personalization, and achieve cost savings and a higher ROI.

An AI-based sales pipeline incorporates machine learning and generative AI to streamline the sales process. It automates data entry, optimizes workflows, and assists sales teams in managing and enhancing sales prospects. In the world of marketing, AI will revolutionize content analytics, research, and greater campaign strategies. Advanced algorithms and machine learning enable AI to provide unparalleled insights into buyer behavior, allowing marketers to identify trends and behaviors.

The output we are going to create is a sentence that casually communicates a value proposition given the problems a person faces in their role. The input I’m going to give you is the problems and responsibilities of the role. The input that I will give you is the company description and the job title they are hiring for.

There are still lots of people who can’t use artificial intelligence effectively. Okay, you might use plenty of AI-powered tools for various goals, but will you be okay switching from tab to tab? You need a centralized sales automation or CRM platform that would either include all the AI features you want or integrate well with AI-powered solutions. Additionally, AI can perform sentiment analysis and predict future sentiment trends based on historical data and customer behavior.

Use AI to discuss what support questions might come up with the new product. We generated this email by scraping their last 3 LinkedIn post results, and then calling out the time difference between post 2 and post 3. Using the input, give me three ideas for a small business on how they could use a virtual assistant to help them. Keep the output to 2-4 sentences and be very specific about the problems they face.

• Resistance to adopting AI is common but often stems from a fear of job loss or a distrust in the ability of these tools.
• The sales team attended hands-on workshops to use the tool in a controlled environment.
• In Clay, we used the company description as input and asked ChatGPT to use it to think of three creative marketing ideas that are possible with outbound marketing.
• You can use these insights to continually improve your sales processes and techniques.
• Automating these repetitive tasks helps to keep leads warm and moving through the funnel while reducing hands-on time so that sales reps can focus on tasks that require their expertise.

AI can also analyze large volumes of data to identify patterns, trends, and customer preferences, enabling sales teams to personalize their approach and make data-driven decisions. Prospecting is one of the most time-consuming and least enjoyable tasks for most sales reps – but it could soon be (mostly) a thing of the past! AI-powered lead generation tools filter potential leads based on the company’s ideal customer profiles and then score them to produce a list of leads that are most likely to convert. This can help SDRs and sales reps understand who they should reach out to first — knowing they’re working with validated data and not just a rogue hunch. While AI can’t replace the human touch that is essential in sales, it can help salespeople with many aspects of their roles.

• This enables your sales and marketing professionals to prioritize their efforts on the most promising leads, increasing sales engagement and the chances of success.
• Of all a company’s functions, marketing has perhaps the most to gain from artificial intelligence.
• Reducing your admin load could take the form of data entry, scheduling, or creating sales scripts.
• AI-guided selling combines human intelligence and machine learning to create more intelligent buyer engagements.
• Many sales reps rely on their intuition, but this is not always accurate.

AI can also analyze patterns in content engagement, time spent on specific product pages, and cross-referencing data — company growth indicators and recent industry news mentions. AI algorithms can improve sales forecasting and predict revenue streams with greater accuracy than people. As buyers become more educated, they want consistent and tailored content experiences paired with seller expertise. Therefore, sellers need effective enablement that arms them with the knowledge, content, tools, and processes to engage with buyers and close deals.

Of leaders believe that the fusion of AI and their GTM strategy will lead to greater revenue. Coaching salespeople might be one of the broadest and most transformational applications of AI for sales. Platforms like Outreach and SalesLoft enable companies to experiment with different channels and cadences of communication to discover the most productive methods for different markets.

AI can improve sales prospecting by automating the process of finding potential leads and qualifying them based on predefined criteria. It can analyze vast amounts of data from various sources, such as social media, websites, and databases, to identify promising leads and provide valuable insights about their needs and preferences. This helps sales teams prioritize their efforts and engage with prospects more effectively. It can automate repetitive tasks, such as data entry and lead qualification, allowing sales professionals to focus on more value-added activities.

Real-time tracking is another advanced feature that allows us to keep a complete track record of operations. It is a cost-effective solution for our organization that helped speed and improve the sales process,” Aniket S. For example, Hubspot offers a predictive scoring tool that uses AI to identify high-quality leads based on pre-defined criteria. This software also continues to learn over time, increasing its accuracy.

Generative AI tools can analyze sales interactions, such as email, live chat and video conferencing conversations, in real time and coach sales reps along the way. To enable sales coaching, organizations must customize their AI tools. They can collect and feed large amounts of past sales interaction data into the tool to help it recognize company terminology and elements of successful and unsuccessful sales interactions.