AI chatbots are everywhere – and most of them are sales chatbots.
AI chatbots and AI agents can be applied at any stage of an AI-enhanced sales funnel.
The best time to start implementing a sales chatbot is today. Here’s everything you need to know to get started.
What are sales chatbots?
Sales chatbots are AI tools that engage customers, automate lead qualification, and assist with purchases. They provide 24/7 support across various digital platforms.
By automating tasks like FAQs and product suggestions, sales chatbots let sales teams focus on complex deals. This boosts productivity and improves customer satisfaction.
Integrated with CRMs, they track interactions and provide insights into buyer behavior, helping businesses make data-driven decisions and increase conversions.
Do chatbots increase sales?
Yes, sales chatbots can significantly boost sales.
Businesses using chatbots for sales have reported an average sales increase of 67%.
Additionally, chatbots are expected to generate $112 billion in retail sales in 2024.
A sales chatbot is like 10x-ing your sales efforts – they work 24/7, in every language, bringing leads along your defined sales funnel.
Sales chatbot statistics
- Business leaders have reported:
- A 67% increase in sales through chatbots.
- 26% of all sales transactions initiate from a bot interaction.
- 35% of business leaders credit digital assistants for closing deals.
- 41% of chatbots on company websites in 2020 were sales chatbots.
- In some industries, chatbots boost sales by up to 70%.
Sales chatbots best practices
With several years of experience deploying sales chatbots, we know a thing or two about how to do it right. Here are a few insights from our CSM team to start you on the right path:
Use proactive messaging wisely
Don’t wait for customers to reach out. Use data-driven insights to send proactive, timely messages about deals, product recommendations, or reminders, but avoid spamming users with irrelevant updates.
Optimize for follow-up and multi-channel outreach
A good sales chatbot doesn’t stop at one conversation. Set it up to nurture leads across channels like email or SMS and track where users are in the sales funnel to maintain consistency.
Monitor conversation quality, not just volume
It’s not enough to count how many conversations your chatbot handles. Analyze chat transcripts to assess lead quality, customer sentiment, and whether the bot is effectively guiding users toward conversion.
Tell users they’re speaking to a bot
Transparency builds trust. Always let users know they’re speaking to a bot – it sets clear expectations and creates a smoother, more authentic experience.
Design with escalation paths in mind
Even the smartest chatbots can’t handle every scenario. Ensure your bot knows when to escalate a conversation to a human, and make that handoff seamless. Customers shouldn’t feel like they’re starting from scratch.
Prioritize intent recognition over endless scripts
Rather than relying on predefined flows, focus on training your chatbot to accurately identify user intents. This ensures flexibility and responsiveness, even in unpredictable sales conversations.
Align chatbot goals with sales metrics
Make sure your chatbot directly contributes to key sales objectives, like improving lead qualification rates or shortening sales cycles. Tie chatbot performance to measurable outcomes that matter to your team.
The best 7 chatbots for sales
1. Botpress
Botpress is a powerful, flexible platform for building AI-powered chatbots and LLM agents. Designed for developers and businesses, it combines flexibility with advanced features like natural language understanding, multilingual support, and omnichannel deployment.
Botpress enables users to create highly customizable and scalable chatbots tailored to various applications, from customer support to sales automation, while offering seamless integration with tools like CRMs and ticketing systems.
Benefits:
- Design flows with a visual builder
- Recognize intents with built-in NLU
- Deploy across web, Messenger, and WhatsApp
- Customize the chat interface
- Support over 100 languages
- Integrate with tools like Zapier and Zendesk
- Monitor performance with analytics
- Access and modify open-source code
2. HubSpot Sales Chatbot
HubSpot provides a comprehensive CRM platform with an integrated sales chatbot designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It offers lead qualification, meeting scheduling, and seamless CRM integration to streamline sales workflows.
Benefits:
- Qualifies leads automatically
- Schedules meetings instantly
- Syncs with HubSpot CRM
- Personalizes responses
- Automates follow-ups
- Offers customizable templates
- Provides 24/7 support
- Delivers performance insights
3. Zoho SalesIQ
Zoho SalesIQ is tailored for lead generation and customer engagement. It features real-time visitor tracking, automated chat responses, and robust analytics to optimize sales strategies.
Benefits:
- Tracks website visitors in real time
- Offers instant live chat support
- Scores leads based on engagement
- Triggers chats automatically
- Enables in-chat audio calls and sharing
- Automates responses with chatbots
- Integrates seamlessly with Zoho CRM
- Supports mobile apps for on-the-go use
4. Freshdesk Freddy AI
Developed by Freshworks, Freddy AI assists with overall sales processes. It provides AI-driven insights, automates repetitive tasks, and integrates with various communication channels to enhance customer interactions.
Benefits:
- Summarizes ticket content
- Analyzes customer sentiment
- Suggests relevant solution articles
- Provides pre-formulated responses
- Enhances response tone and clarity
- Auto-categorizes and prioritizes tickets
- Assists agents with conversational flows
- Recommends helpful articles for agents
5. Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Einstein is an AI-powered platform offering enterprise-level automation. It delivers predictive analytics, personalized customer experiences, and deep integration with Salesforce CRM for comprehensive sales management.
Benefits
- Scores leads for better prioritization
- Recommends actions for deal progression
- Provides AI-powered sales forecasts
- Analyzes email engagement patterns
- Logs sales activities automatically
- Generates personalized content with AI
Zendesk Answer Bot
Zendesk's Answer Bot focuses on customer support within the sales journey. It provides instant answers to common queries, reduces response times, and integrates with Zendesk's suite of support tools.
Benefits
- Delivers instant AI-powered answers
- Supports multiple channels like email and chat
- Transfers complex queries to agents seamlessly
- Enables custom flows with no coding
- Provides 24/7 customer assistance
- Offers insights with analytics and reporting
WotNot
WotNot is a no-code chatbot platform that helps you build competent lead-generation chatbots. It enables you to design a sales-oriented conversational flow and drive business value.
Benefits
- Build bots with no coding
- Use pre-built industry templates
- Deploy across web, WhatsApp, and more
- Transfer chats to agents seamlessly
- Monitor performance with analytics
- Integrate with CRMs and ticketing tools
- Support multiple languages
- Send rich media like images and videos
How to implement a chatbot for sales
It can seem daunting to implement AI – plenty of organizations delay adoption due to concerns about deployment.
But delaying adoption only hurts them in the long run.
The best thing you can do is start making your roadmap to deploy and expand AI wherever it’s suitable in your organization. Here’s how you can start:
1. Define objectives
Clarify what you want your sales chatbot to achieve – is it generating leads, qualifying prospects, or closing deals?
Your needs and objectives won’t just determine the platform you choose, but the type of chatbot you want to build.
Most sales chatbots are LLM agents – AI agents powered by LLMs so that they can flexibly handle a variety of user needs.
Building an AI agent over an AI chatbot will allow your solution to handle each lead as they see fit – agentic systems can autonomously decide the best route to achieve the goal it’s given.
2. Choose an AI platform
The best AI platforms will depend entirely on your goals and needs.
Select a platform that aligns with your requirements, considering factors like customization options, integration capabilities, ease of use, and support.
The platform should:
- Support your desired use case
- Offer your preferred LLMs or be LLM-agnostic
- Offer integration capabilities – both built-in options and the flexibility to hook in your own
3. Integrate tools
Most platforms provide integration options for external tools. The most useful integrations for sales chatbots are:
- CRM tools like Salesforce or HubSpot to track and manage leads
- Payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal for seamless transactions
- Email marketing tools like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign for follow-ups
- Calendars like Google Calendar or Calendly for scheduling demos or appointments
- Analytics platforms like Google Analytics or Mixpanel to track chatbot performance
- Customer support systems like Zendesk or Intercom for smooth handoffs to human agents
- Inventory management tools like Shopify or SAP to provide real-time product availability
- Live chat software like LiveChat (or native HITL) to enable instant escalation when needed
4. Test and refine
Test the agent thoroughly using the platform’s built-in testing tools. Adjust parameters, prompt phrasing, and workflows based on testing outcomes to ensure the agent performs well in real scenarios.
5. Deploy and monitor
While the build and deploy stages often take center, don’t underestimate the importance of long-term monitoring with chatbot analytics.
Use the platform’s monitoring tools to track your sales chatbot’s interactions and performance after deployment.
Gather insights and refine the setup as needed, taking advantage of any feedback mechanisms provided by the platform.
Deploy a sales chatbot next month
AI chatbots are quickly reaching mass adoption rates amongst sales teams – for onboarding, time management, document management, and complex questions about policies and benefits.
Companies slow to adopt will feel the consequences of missing the AI wave.
Botpress is an endlessly extensible bot-building platform built for enterprises. Our stack allows developers to build chatbots and AI agents with any capabilities you could need.
Our enhanced security suite ensures that customer data is always protected, and fully controlled by your team.
Start building today. It's free.
Or contact our sales team to learn more.
FAQ
What is a virtual sales assistant chatbot?
A virtual sales assistant chatbot automates sales tasks like lead qualification, product recommendations, and customer support through AI-driven conversations.
How do I use a chatbot for sales?
Use a chatbot to engage prospects, answer questions, qualify leads, schedule demos, and even close deals, all while integrating it with your sales tools.
Do chatbots increase sales?
Yes, chatbots lead to an average sales increase of 67% (and up to 70% in some industries).
How do I deploy a sales chatbot?
To get started with deploying a sales chatbot, choose a platform, outline key tasks like lead qualification, and integrate it with your sales tools.
How much does a sales chatbot cost?
A sales chatbot can range from a simple bot on a free tier to thousands of dollars per month.
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