AI in sales: Transforming your 2024 strategy

What is AI in sales?

AI offers numerous benefits to sales teams within a business environment. One significant advantage lies in its capacity for predictive analytics, enabling representatives to anticipate customer behavior and tailor their strategies accordingly. By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI algorithms can identify patterns, allowing teams to prioritize leads with the highest likelihood of conversion. 

Furthermore, AI-driven chatbots now provide instantaneous, 24/7 support to potential customers. This improves satisfaction and ensures that sales teams can engage with prospects at various stages of their journey.

Evolution of AI in sales

Over the past decade, the use of AI in sales environments has evolved significantly, transforming how businesses carry out their strategies. Initially, AI applications were primarily focused on basic sales tasks such as data entry and lead scoring. Their abilities have now become so pronounced that companies report a 50% increase in leads when utilizing AI tools in their sales processes.

Today, AI-powered sales platforms leverage machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze vast amounts of data from various sources. This enables organizations to gain deeper insights into customer behavior, allowing for more targeted approaches. 

Additionally, integrating AI with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems has provided enhanced capacity for predictive analytics and real-time recommendations. Sales teams can now forecast demand more accurately, optimize pricing strategies, and identify up-selling opportunities.

Check out all the advantages that Freshsales’ Freddy AI can offer with a free CRM trial today. 

What are the benefits of utilizing AI in sales?

AI offers a wide array of potential benefits that can be customized to enhance specific efforts in areas where your business may be struggling. Some of the benefits of AI in sales include:

1. Enhanced customer insights

AI-powered analytics can process extensive amounts of customer information to identify patterns and trends. By employing ML algorithms, AI can identify correlations and predict future buying behaviors with remarkable accuracy. This enables sales teams to offer personalized recommendations that resonate with their unique consumer preferences.

2. Improved forecasting

By identifying correlations within vast datasets, AI models can forecast future sales volumes more precisely than traditional methods. They also continuously learn from new data inputs, refining projections over time to account for changing market dynamics. This ensures that representatives possess up-to-date insights to inform their strategies.

3. Routine task automation

AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants can handle routine inquiries, provide personalized recommendations, and assist with order processing to help reduce manual workload. 43% of marketers report that chatbots are beneficial in helping educate leads on their organization’s offerings.

Furthermore, AI sales platforms can automate follow-up emails, schedule meetings, and track customer interactions across multiple channels, ensuring consistent communication throughout the sales cycle. 

4. Improved lead prioritization

AI can automatically score potential customers based on their likelihood of conversion, enabling teams to focus their efforts on high-potential leads. It can analyze real-time data to evaluate a lead's readiness to purchase, such as website visits or social media engagement. By providing agents with actionable insights, AI empowers them to prioritize their outreach efforts and maximize ROI. 

5. Improved training

Training platforms that are powered by AI can incorporate interactive elements to facilitate immersive learning experiences. These simulations allow representatives to practice their skills in realistic scenarios without the pressure of real-world consequences. AI can also track individual progress in real-time, providing adaptive coaching to help improve performance. 

6. Personalization to business needs

It’s essential to first identify your business’s challenges to train your AI system to understand your requirements. This information serves as the foundation for designing AI algorithms that can analyze relevant data and generate actionable insights. Whether it's improving customer segmentation, optimizing pricing strategies, or enhancing supply chain management, AI can be customized to deliver solutions that directly address your organizational needs.

7. Crafting compelling personalized emails

AI can optimize email subject lines, body content, and calls to action based on proven strategies, ensuring that each message is persuasive and effective. AI models can adapt to customer preferences through continuous learning, refining content to maximize engagement and drive sales. 

8. De-duplication

AI can detect similarities among records, flag potential duplicates based on name variations, contact information, and more. This automated approach eliminates the need for manual review, saving your team valuable time while ensuring the integrity of your data. It also continuously learns from new data inputs, refining its de-duplication algorithms over time.

9. Deal insights

AI provides real-time insights into deal progress by constantly analyzing ongoing interactions. It interprets communication patterns and evaluates the likelihood of deal progression, allowing teams to optimize their resources and adjust strategies accordingly. These models also identify common characteristics among successful deals, helping agents tailor their approach and negotiate more effectively. 

10. Improving sales conversions

By enhancing the personalization of lead interactions, AI can also lead to higher conversion rates. Its algorithms analyze behavior to generate customized recommendations and messaging that resonate with each individual's preferences. This tailored communication enables teams to deliver more relevant content, ultimately increasing the likelihood of a purchase.

How to develop an AI-driven sales strategy

Though your unique process will depend on your specific needs, there is a general AI deployment blueprint that has proven successful for businesses of all sizes and across various industries.

1. Audit current strategy and identify pain points

Assess the effectiveness of your sales strategies by allowing AI to analyze historical sales data and market trends. By employing ML algorithms, AI models can identify which strategies have been most successful in driving sales and which may need refinement.

2. Set AI adoption goals

Setting AI adoption benchmarks encourages sales teams to evaluate potential solutions rigorously, integrate them into existing workflows, and measure their impact over time. By establishing timelines for achieving these goals, agents can identify challenges and make adjustments to stay on course.

3. Examine current technology infrastructure

Evaluating current infrastructure helps recognize potential limitations that may hinder the adoption of AI technologies. This assessment includes understanding existing data architecture, IT systems, and software platforms. By better comprehending the current state of an organization’s technology, teams can develop an optimized roadmap for AI implementation.

4. Identify budget/potential ROI for AI implementation

You’ll want to examine the specific challenges your AI solutions aim to address. Laying out what you hope to achieve will help you determine the value proposition of AI and the potential impact on sales performance. Once you’ve identified how AI can improve your operations, calculate the ROI by comparing the expected gains from implementation to the investment required.

5. Research and find the right AI solutions for your sales needs

Understanding your needs will help you identify the types of AI technologies most relevant to your sales environment. Once you’ve done this, evaluate different solutions available on the market. Identify providers with a track record of success and seek recommendations from peers and industry experts.

6. Implement software into current infrastructure and begin employee training

After integration, be sure to provide comprehensive training resources that explain the functionality of your new technology. This may include user guides and interactive modules that cover the basics of how to use the new tools. Remember to offer ongoing guidance as your team begins incorporating the software into their day-to-day activities.

7. Conduct continuous audits of sales success under the new AI strategy

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with the specific outcomes you wish to achieve with your AI software. Then, implement systems to track these KPIs on a regular basis. This may involve integrating the AI technology with your CRM system to automatically capture relevant  information.

8. Adapt as technology evolves and needs change

Establish a feedback loop between your sales team and AI developers to gather insights into evolving organization needs. Regularly solicit suggestions from representatives based on their experiences with the technology to identify areas for improvement. Also, ensure that you prioritize scalability in the implementation of your new software to adapt to future changes.

Challenges of developing an AI-driven sales strategy

As with any new system, businesses may experience challenges when implementing AI into their existing infrastructure. These can be mitigated through robust monitoring and continuous reassessment of needs.

1. Data security concerns

Ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations by implementing procedures for data handling and processing. Further secure assets by employing encryption protocols to safeguard information as it moves between systems. Techniques such as SSL/TLS can protect in-transit data, while algorithms like AES work best for at-rest information. 

2. Compatibility with current infrastructure

You should conduct a comprehensive review of your current systems, including CRM platforms and any other technology used in your sales operations. Identify potential integration points that your AI solution will need to work with, ensuring that the software can seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure.

3. Adaptability requirements

It’s important to first identify the areas where AI can enhance your business operations. Consider the flexibility needed to accommodate future growth, ensuring that the software can adapt to evolving objectives. Remember to also examine external factors, such as market trends or competition, that may someday impact the adaptability of your solution.

Best AI sales tools for your business

1. Freshsales

Freshsales is an AI-powered, user-friendly CRM software that offers a 360-degree view of customer profiles to help your team efficiently optimize sales strategies. Features such as sales sequencing and AI-based insights empower representatives to automate and personalize communication while maximizing the benefits of your analytics and feedback.

Let Freddy AI guide team members with tools such as intent scores, deal recommendations, email automation, and more. Additional automation capabilities like Territory Management and IntelliAssign ensure that leads are connected to agents with pertinent skillsets or geo-relevant locations. When it comes to automation features, it simply doesn’t get better than Freshsales.

 Key features:

• Freddy AI gathers comprehensive analytics, identifies high-quality leads, and auto-enriches user profiles to reduce manual workload and enhance customization

• Sales forecasting projects performance and revenue based on historical data, allowing companies to accurately plan for the future

• Workflow automation based on ‘and/or’ and ‘if-then’ conditions to stipulate which actions should be carried out in specific situations

• Auto-profile enrichment instantly fills customer profiles with publicly available data to optimize and personalize communication

• IntelliAssign automatically routes interactions to the most relevant team or agent to maximize the possibility of a successful conversion

Pros:

• Deal insights can help predict deal closures through historical analysis

• Robust APIs and 100+ third-party integrations

• Extensive segmentation and smart sales campaigns are available through Freddy AI

• Target clusters based on geographical location, engagement levels, etc.

• Wide-ranging multichannel capabilities, including email, live chat, phone, and more

• Sales sequences can automate outreach based on predefined triggers

Why customers love Freshsales

Freshsales’ broad automation features ensure that your sales team has the opportunity to reach its full potential. Our clients enjoy the ability to focus on more complex responsibilities, allowing AI to handle the busy work. The result is a reduced workload for human agents and a more efficient end-user experience.

Our client, Esther M., succinctly sums up Freshsales’ automation benefits, saying, “One of the most potent tools that Freshsales has is its sales sequence automation; it allows me to schedule many emails and SMS in bulk to ensure that the marketing campaigns are sent in a timely manner so we can reach the most clients, it is highly advantageous and it allows me to customize all the campaigns so I can make it more personalized for different prospects that want or are looking for something different from one another.”

2. Apollo AI

Apollo is a comprehensive sales intelligence platform with tools to help prospect, engage, and drive more revenue. Sellers and marketers use Apollo to discover more customers, connect with contacts, and establish dynamic sales strategies.

Key features:

• AI-generated lead scoring includes real-time updates to adjust recommendations as the market or potential customers change

• Writing assistant tool enables the creation of hyper-personalized emails without manual intervention 

• AI-powered sales plays generate approaches that are customized to each unique lead and can be deployed within minutes

Pros:

• Vast database of potential leads

• Abundance of automation features that can enhance outreach capacity

• Highly customizable filters to mold to unique business needs

Cons:

• Email analytics and reporting can be hit-or-miss

• Only a limited number of contacts can be processed at any given time

• User reviews mention a steep learning curve

Price:

Starts at $0, up to $119 per user per month

3. GongAI

Gong’s Revenue Intelligence Platform provides businesses with an improved understanding of customer communication to increase efficiency, enhance decision-making, and boost revenue. It aims to help capture and act on all user interactions within a unified platform. 

Key features:

• Flows facilitate engagement with prospects at scale using predefined actions to automate outreach efforts

• AI-driven email assistant helps craft and distribute campaigns using context from previous interactions

• Recommended actions utilizes AI to help determine the best strategies to move individual leads further down the sales funnel

Pros:

• Excels in analyzing sales calls and meetings

• Seamless integration with many popular CRM solutions

• Straightforward monitoring capabilities allow managers to track performance easily

Cons:

• Subpar value for smaller businesses

• Lack of tools for lead generation and prospecting stages

• Overabundance of features may be overwhelming for some users

Price:

You’ll need to reach out to Gong directly to receive a custom quote for your organization.

4. Exceed.ai

Exceed.ai is a conversational marketing platform that assists teams in driving sales from email and website visitors. Exceed’s AI assistant can be deployed 24/7 alongside real-world agents to ensure that no lead is lost.

Key features:

• Meeting scheduler automatically enters appointments into calendars once a lead is qualified to reduce manual effort and possible oversights

• AI-powered no-show follow-up reaches out to potential customers to reschedule meetings with a single click

• Lead re-engagement can automatically attempt to reconnect with dormant deals and scale engagement to identify more qualified leads

Pros:

• Extremely capable virtual assistant feature

• Synchronized automatic updates when integrated with CRM

• Seamless transition from AI to real-world teams

Cons:

• AI may struggle in analyzing complex interactions to provide tailored communication

• Complicated interface may prove challenging for non-technical agents

• User reviews mention issues with bugs and glitches

Price:

You’ll need to contact Exceed.ai directly for a personalized estimate

5. HoppyCopy

HoppyCopy is an AI-driven tool that focuses on email marketing, sales copy, and advanced editing features. Capabilities include template generation, unique campaign creation, A/B testing, and more.

Key features:

• 50+ AI copy templates utilize proven formulas to generate content for a variety of different marketing approaches

• AI image generator enables teams to create high-quality graphics with ready-made prompts for different use cases

• Email sequence creator can distribute drip campaigns aimed at boosting conversion, including post-purchase, up-sell, and deal promotion initiatives

Pros:

• Easy-to-navigate interface

• Can be employed to draft social media content as well

• Simple to repurpose existing content into different formats

Cons:

• Emphasis on content generation, while neglecting other important areas of the sales process

• Some AI-generated emails may not pass spam filters

• Can lack relevance for more specific niches

Price:

Year-long contracts begin at $23 per month for one user, up to $79 per month for up to five users

How Freshsales can fulfill your AI sales needs

Freshsales provides teams with one of the most elaborate AI packages currently available, featuring tools such as automated workflows, territory management, IntelliAssign, auto-profile enrichment, and much more. Sales sequences allow organizations to further expand their reach through designated touchpoints like emails, phone calls, SMSes, and follow-ups. Freddy AI is highly customizable to help mold Freshsales’ automation features to meet your unique organizational needs.