If you’re not using AI for sales in 2024, it’s time to catch up.
From AI orchestration tools, to chatbots for e-commerce, to one-stop-shop AI agents, every forward-thinking business is investing in AI tools.
If you’re looking for tangible ways to implement AI tools in your sales process, you’re in the right place. The plethora of tools on the market has made it possible to have a fully AI-powered sales funnel.
In this article, I’ll:
- Outline 15 tasks that can be automated with AI
- Point you in the direction of the necessary tools
- Provide a few tips for success
Let’s get started.
1. Schedule meetings
If your sales reps still schedule meetings by hand, it’s time to automate it ASAP. And if your company’s meetings are already automated, it’s time to make the process more intelligent.
Plenty of AI tools include scheduling features that can link with your team’s existing calendar systems. These tools can automate the scheduling process: they manage calendar availability, suggest meeting times, and send out personalized invitations.
AI tools can also qualify leads before allowing a prospect to book a meeting – but I’ll touch on that below.
Tools you can use
- Clara
- AI chatbot connected to Calendly or another scheduling too
Tips and tricks
- Ensure your AI scheduling tool is fully integrated with your team’s calendar systems to avoid double-booking or scheduling conflicts.
- Set up personalized meeting templates for different types of client interactions to further streamline bookings.
2. Forecast sales
Sales forecasting is crucial for planning and resource allocation, but manual forecasting can often be inaccurate or time-consuming.
AI-powered forecasting tools get rid of the guesswork by analyzing historical sales data, current market conditions, and real-time pipeline information.
These tools generate more accurate sales predictions, so that teams can make data-driven decisions and adjust strategies based on market fluctuations.
AI helps businesses spot patterns and trends early, so they can adapt quickly.
Tools you can use
- Anaplan
- Clari
- Gong.io
- Salesforce Einstein
Tips and tricks
- Regularly adjust the data to include non-sales metrics (like market trends or customer sentiment).
- Use AI to run different forecast scenarios (e.g., best-case vs. worst-case) to prepare for various market conditions.
3. Qualify leads
AI can assess and qualify leads by analyzing their interactions with your brand (e.g., website visits, email responses) and scoring them based on their likelihood to convert, helping sales teams focus on the most promising prospects.
Manually qualifying leads is a time-intensive task that often lacks precision. But AI tools can streamline this process by analyzing data – like website visits, email engagement, or behavior – to score leads.
With AI, sales teams can focus their efforts on the highest-potential prospects, while the system continuously refines the lead qualification process based on new data and interactions. All in all, it allows sales teams to build far more efficient and targeted sales strategies.
Tools you can use
- AI-enhanced CRM of choice (Hubspot, Salesforce, Zendesk, etc.)
- Exceed.ai
- Conversica
- LeadCrunch
Tips and tricks
- Create custom scoring models for different segments – using AI should never mean a one-size-fits-all strategy.
4. Summarize meetings
Manually writing meeting summaries is a task you should already have automated – it eats up valuable time and humans make mistakes.
AI-driven tools can automatically generate meeting summaries by analyzing conversation transcripts and identifying key action items, decisions, and follow-ups.
These summaries can be integrated into your CRM or other sales systems, keeping your team up-to-date with minimal effort. Sales teams can quickly focus on the next steps instead of getting bogged down in administrative tasks.
Tools you can use
- Otter.ai
- Fireflies.ai
- AI chatbots
Tips and tricks
- Instead of just condensing the conversation, customize AI-generated summaries to focus on actionable insights, next steps, or customer pain points.
- Make sure the tool is integrated with your CRM to automatically attach summaries to the correct account records.
5. Summarize account information
Managing accounts effectively requires a lot of data collection and synthesis. But a lot of AI tools simplify this process by generating comprehensive account summaries.
They often highlight important client interactions, contract details, and key metrics like account health or renewal status. These summaries keep teams informed about client needs – so they can identify opportunities for upsells or renewals – without manually combing through data.
Tools you can use
- Clari
- Gong.io
- AI chatbots, like ChatGPT or a bespoke AI agent
Tips and tricks
- Automate the generation of account health scores to easily identify at-risk accounts.
- Set up AI to flag key account updates like renewals or major contract changes.
- Set automated triggers within your CRM to generate an account summary at critical stages (e.g., before a renewal or quarterly business review) so sales reps are always prepared with the latest info.
- Use AI to highlight specific action items, like open customer support tickets or contract renewal dates, directly in the summary to prioritize outreach efforts.
- Personalize the summary format based on account complexity, offering more detailed insights for high-value clients.
6. Outbound
Outbound prospecting can be a time-consuming process, but AI can make it more efficient and personalized.
AI-powered tools can automate outreach by analyzing prospect data to craft targeted messages that resonate with each individual.
By analyzing prospect data—like industry, engagement history, and interests—AI tools can craft personalized messages that resonate with each individual. It also automates outreach at the optimal time, ensuring your team connects with prospects when they’re most likely to engage.
Tools you can use
- Outreach.io
- Salesloft
- AI-driven CRM systems with outbound automation capabilities
- AI chatbots
Tips and tricks
- Detect the optimal time for outreach by tracking each prospect’s unique engagement patterns and behaviors.
- Analyze competitor movements to tailor outreach that highlights your advantage in real time.
- Set up AI-driven A/B tests to experiment with different message styles and outreach times, then use real-time insights to optimize future campaigns based on what works best.
7. Build business cases
Building a business case that resonates with potential clients requires gathering relevant data and showing clear ROI.
AI can analyze the prospect's specific pain points and market positioning to provide tailored insights that strengthen your proposal. Whether it’s running financial models or analyzing competitors, AI ensures your proposals are grounded in data, not guesswork.
This allows your sales team to craft personalized, compelling pitches that resonate with a prospect’s goals, making it clear why your solution is the right fit.
Tools you can use
- Clay
- Crayon
- ChatGPT or a bespoke AI chatbot
Tips and tricks
- Incorporate case studies or benchmarks from similar customers into your AI-driven business case for added credibility.
- Use AI to model different financial scenarios (e.g., reduced time to value, cost savings) and let the prospect choose the scenario that resonates most with their business goals.
- Tailor your AI insights to align with specific prospect KPIs.
8. Conduct competitor analysis
AI tools can monitor competitors’ activities – like pricing adjustments, marketing campaigns, and customer reviews – in real time.
These insights allow sales teams to adapt their strategies, whether it’s adjusting pricing, revising product offerings, or identifying gaps in the market that competitors aren’t addressing.
Tools you can use
- Crayon
- Klue
Tips and tricks
- Set up AI tools to monitor not just direct competitors, but also emerging companies or market shifts that could disrupt your space in the near future.
- Use competitive insights to create data-driven counter-strategies, like preemptive offers or feature releases.
- Establish a regular review cadence for competitor data.
9. Optimize pricing
Pricing decisions can have a significant impact on revenue, but keeping prices competitive while maximizing profits can be tricky. AI-driven dynamic pricing models adjust prices in real-time based on market demand, competitor pricing, and customer behavior.
This ensures pricing remains competitive while optimizing revenue. AI also helps predict future pricing trends, allowing companies to proactively adjust their strategies to meet market shifts.
Tools you can use
- PROS
- Zilliant
- custom AI model from Botpress
Tips and tricks
- Use AI to test different pricing strategies across segments and channels.
- Don’t forget about the customer – continuously monitor client feedback to ensure that dynamic pricing doesn’t harm customer satisfaction.
10. Analyze customer sentiment
Understanding how customers feel about your brand is critical to improving sales performance. And there are plenty of AI tools that analyze customer reviews, social media posts, and other feedback to determine their sentiment.
These types of insights can be used to tweak messaging, improve customer interactions, or address product issues.
AI tools that use NLP are perfectly suited for these kinds of tasks, since they need to comb through large amounts of plain text.
Tools you can use
- Qualtrics Connect (formerly Clarabridge Engage)
- AI agent
- MonkeyLearn
Tips and tricks
- Segment sentiment analysis by different customer personas or market segments to see how sentiment varies and tailor your messaging accordingly.
- Set up AI to alert sales and support teams when negative sentiment spikes, allowing for immediate intervention to prevent churn.
- Combine sentiment data with purchase behavior insights to identify potential upsell opportunities when sentiment is high.
11. Generate leads
AI lead generation is a multi-headed dragon. There are endless ways to use AI for lead generation – and using it to build lead lists is a no-brainer.
Generating high-quality leads is vital to sales success, and AI makes the process faster and more accurate. By analyzing data from various sources – like social media, website visits, and email interactions – AI tools can identify and prioritize leads most likely to convert.
And since a high-quality AI tool will be linked to your CRM (and take care of outbounding), your sales team can automate nearly 100% of their sales funnel.
Tools you can use
- Clearbit by Hubspot
- AI agent or chatbot from Botpress
Tips and tricks
- Have AI analyze customer profiles across multiple channels to find patterns in lead behavior.
- Use AI to automate A/B testing of different lead generation strategies.
- Ensure your AI tool integrates with marketing automation platforms to track lead interactions across campaigns and touchpoints.
12. Predict churn
Predicting churn manually is nearly impossible. But AI tools can give an intelligent prediction model.
They can analyze customer behavior patterns to detect early signs of dissatisfaction or decreased engagement. And by identifying these risk factors early, sales teams can proactively implement retention strategies to prevent churn before it happens – like offering personalized discounts or targeted outreach.
Tools you can use
- ChurnZero
- GainSight
- AI-driven churn prediction features within your CRM
- Custom AI model
Tips and tricks
- Flag early warning signs of churn, such as decreased engagement or long response times, and have predefined workflows for addressing these issues before they escalate.
- Develop targeted retention campaigns based on specific customer behaviors, such as offering discounts to customers who haven’t engaged in a set period.
- Track which retention strategies are most successful for different customer segments, and continuously optimize based on AI recommendations.
13. Monitor social media activity
Buying signals don’t just happen on company websites. Social media can be a goldmine of customer insights and buying signals, but keeping up with the activity is daunting.
Luckily, AI-powered tools can keep a pulse on social media, tracking mentions of your brand, products, and even competitors.
By analyzing customer sentiment and spotting potential buying signals, AI helps your sales team jump in at just the right time. This allows your sales team to engage with prospects at the right moment and tailor messaging to align with social conversations.
Tools you can use
- Hootsuite Insights
- Sprout Social
- Brandwatch
Tips and tricks
- Set AI tools to track mentions of competitors as well, identifying opportunities to intercept potential customers when they express dissatisfaction with a competitor.
- Train an AI system to prioritize social mentions tied to buying intent – like product inquiries or complaints about competitors.
14. Analyze customer behavior
Sales teams know that understanding customer behavior is key to refining an AI-driven sales strategy. With AI tools, it's not just about tracking what customers do – it's about uncovering patterns in real time, like how they move through your site or engage with specific products.
These insights help sales teams go beyond generic pitches, allowing them to connect with the right customers at the right moment.
Tools you can use
- Spark AI from Mixpanel
- Amplitude AI
Tips and tricks
- Use AI to track not just what customers are doing, but when they’re doing it – during specific times of day, seasons, or promotional periods.
- Continuously feed AI new data from various touchpoints (website, mobile app, social media) to refine behavior models.
15. Provide personalized product information
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can deliver personalized product information and recommendations to customers in real-time, helping them make informed purchasing decisions.
They can recommend additional products or services to customers based on their purchase history and behavior, increasing the average transaction value.
Personalization is key to increasing conversions, and AI can do it with the best of them. By analyzing customer behavior, purchase history, and preferences, AI-powered systems can deliver real-time, personalized product suggestions.
Personalized conversational AI not only improves the customer experience but also boosts the likelihood of upsells and cross-sells, increasing overall revenue.
Tools you can use
- Botpress, or another AI chatbot or AI agent platform
Tips and tricks
- Use dynamic content to automatically adjust product recommendations based on real-time behavior, such as browsing habits or abandoned carts.
- Set up AI to cross-reference customer profiles with inventory data, ensuring that product recommendations are not only personalized but also available.
- A/B test different approaches to personalized product information, such as recommending products based on user reviews, to see which results in the most conversions.
- Check out Botpress Academy to learn the basics of building a chatbot or AI agent
Deploy an AI Agent Next Month
Ready to use AI tools to put your business ahead?
Whether it’s qualifying leads, streamlining outreach, or personalizing customer interactions, the best time to automate your sales funnel was yesterday.
Botpress is a completely open and extendable AI agent platform for enterprises. Our stack allows developers to build chatbots and AI agents with any capabilities, across any workflow.
Our enhanced security suite ensures that customer data is always protected, and fully controlled by your development team.
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