In 2023, the global artificial intelligence (AI) market was close to $208 billion.
By 2030, the market size is expected to reach nearly $2 trillion, according to Statista.
No wonder 73% of U.S. companies use AI in their business (PwC, 2023).
AI is particularly relevant to the sales sector. We all know that manual tasks slow your revenue growth and sales performance.
AI helps you personalize your email campaigns, improve customer segmentation, and save time on tasks with less effort.
The question is, which AI tool is the best for sales and productivity?
In this article, we take a deep dive into the importance of AI in sales.
We will analyze the key use cases and AI tools that will help you to boost sales and be 3x more efficient.
Fom automating routine tasks to providing actionable insights for sales decisions, AI sales tools is a must-have in 2024.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in sales is the strategic incorporation of advanced algorithms and machine learning technologies to boost sales productivity.
It's the usage of data analytics to push actionable insights, optimize sales strategies, and increase customer engagement processes.
AI streamlines sales operations at its core, making them more efficient and effective by automating repetitive tasks and providing sophisticated analysis that humans alone cannot achieve at scale.
The primary purpose of AI in sales is to advance the capabilities of sales teams, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that lead to more sales.
By analyzing datasets, AI identifies patterns and trends that inform better targeting, forecasting, and personalization strategies. This enhances sales professionals' productivity by allowing them to focus on talking to their customers instead of doing manual tasks.
Ultimately, AI in sales is about leveraging technology to maximize performance and results.
95% of salespeople would meet their sales goals faster if they could reduce time spent on non-revenue-generating activities like admin, note taking, and updating CRMs.
This is where the power of AI comes into play.
Here are some of the most frequent and powerful use cases of AI in sales:
Crafting personalized emails for each prospect is time-consuming. Generative AI can automatically analyze customer data, preferences, and past interactions to generate customized content.
This saves you hours of research to help you scale your outreach efforts without sacrificing quality.
You have to offer high-quality content to resonate with your target audience. It's what drives them to open and reply to your messages.
Generative AI scans existing content, identifies patterns, and generates new content pieces like blogs, playbooks, and articles that align with your brand's voice and engage customers.
Even the best-written sales campaigns will fail if you're not targeting the right audience.
With AI, you can automatically dig into customer data, demographics, and behavior to segment customers into relevant groups. That segmentation helps you tailor your messaging and offers to the people who will respond to them.
It's not always easy to give full attention to your prospects while taking notes during sales calls.
AI note-taking tools listen to real-time calls and automatically transcribe key points, action items, and customer preferences.
This makes it easier for you to connect to your prospects without missing any key details.
Accurate sales forecasting is essential for effective resource allocation and strategic decision-making.
Generative AI can analyze historical sales data, market trends, and external factors to generate accurate sales forecasts. This empowers you to make data-driven decisions and enhance your strategies.
Here are some of our favorite tools to start leveraging AI to optimize your sales processes and stay ahead of the competition.
lemlist's AI sequence generator will help you create ultra-targeted multichannel sequences in seconds.
Capterra 4.6 (372 reviews)
G2 4.2 (143 reviews)
lemlist is a powerful AI cold outreach tool that boosts your sales performance with:
Email Finder & Verifier: Discover your leads' valid and verified emails within lemlist, and ensure your emails are delivered and get a reply.
Personalized Drafts: Lemlist's AI generates individualized email drafts using a vast dataset, saving time and ensuring each message is tailored and relevant.
Customized Content: Automatically customize greetings and other content based on the recipient's details, such as their company and job title, for a personalized touch.
AI Variables: Connect GPT to lemlist for increased productivity and personalization at scale. Automatically clean and format data like job titles or company names. Easily segment leads based on available data and generate hyper-personalized campaigns based on your leads' information (e.g., generate Icebreakers based on your lead's LinkedIn profile). Works with a prompt just like you use ChatGPT and is applicable to all or selected leads.
Multi-Channel Sequences: Schedule automated email and social media follow-ups, including LinkedIn messages and LinkedIn voice messages, to consistently engage prospects without manual work.
Automated Follow-Ups: Set up automatic responses for unanswered emails to maintain engagement, with customizable timing and message content.
Efficiency Boosters:
Easily test variations in email elements like subject lines and content to optimize campaign performance with automated A/B testing.
Warm-up your emails: Gradually increase your email volume with lemlist’s deliverability tool (lemwarm) to improve deliverability and ensure your emails reach inboxes.
An AI-driven LinkedIn automation tool designed to help businesses and individuals grow their presence on the platform.
Taplio offers features to help you build and maintain relationships, create content, schedule posts, monitor analytics, and engage with potential customers.
Product Hunt 4.1 (19 reviews)
SetSail is a Sales Data Layer that centralizes and interprets sales data across go-to-market teams and tools.
G2 4.6 (123 reviews)
Humantic.ai is a buyer intelligence platform that helps salespeople build relationships with their prospects.
G2 4.8 (108 reviews)
Clay is an automated sales prospecting platform that creates personalized messages via data from multiple sources.
G2 4.9 (27 reviews)
Hungry for more? Discover the complete list of top AI sales tools that will help you automate everyday manual tasks and have more time for closing deals!
AI and machine learning in sales is not about replacing jobs but transforming them. These technologies automate routine tasks, shifting the focus of sales professionals to strategic and high-value activities.
Crucially, AI cannot replicate the human element crucial in sales—relationship building, emotional intelligence, and creative problem-solving remain distinctly human advantages.
To sum up, AI in sales pushes adaptation, not replacement. Sales professionals equipped to work alongside AI, embracing new skills and roles, are the perfect fit to meet their sales quotas and boost company revenue!
Leveraging artificial intelligence is crucial for enhancing sales efficiency and driving revenue growth. The use cases and tools we've explored demonstrate AI's role in automating tasks, refining customer segmentation, personalizing campaigns, and making sales teams more productive.
Adopting AI in sales processes is beneficial for businesses aiming to stay competitive. The technology saves time and offers actionable insights to improve sales outcomes significantly.
As we move forward into 2024, the importance of integrating AI into sales strategies cannot be overstated. For businesses looking to enhance their sales performance, the message is clear: the time to harness the power of AI is now. By doing so, sales teams can achieve greater efficiency and unlock new growth opportunities.
G2 Rating | Price | Best for | Standout feature | Con | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.9 star star star star star | $30/mo $75/mo $2,999/mo | Large, distributed sales teams | AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs | Lack of tracking system | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Sales operations and finance teams | Powerful configurability | Limited training resources and complex to navigate | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Mid-market and enterprise businesses | Comprehensive incentive management | Potentially high cost and steep learning curve | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $15/user/mo $40/user/mo Enterprise: custom price | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Collaborative teams | Connected planning | Complexity and steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with complex sales structures | Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy | Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts | Simplicity and ease of use | Lack of features like redirection | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $30/user/mo $35/user/mo Custom: upon request | Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software | Ease of use and adoption | Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs | |
4.8 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights | A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility | Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow | |
4.9 star star star star star | $30/user/mo $50/user/mo | Smaller sales teams | Powerful automation | Lesser user base and average user interface | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with scalable needs | Automated Commission Calculations | Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app |
PRM Tool | Rating | Feature | Pro | Con | Mobile App | Integrations | Free Plan | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.65 star star star star star-half | Org-wide alignment | User-friendly layout and database | Suboptimal as a personal CRM | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-check | Team: $20/month Business: $45/month | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Social Media Integration | Easy contact data collection | No marketing/sales features | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-xmark 7-day trial | $12/month | |
4.75 star star star star star-half | Block Functions | High customization capability | Not a dedicated CRM | square-check | Limited | square-check | Plus: €7.50/month Business: €14/month | |
N/A | Open-source | Open-source flexibility | Requires extensive manual input | square-xmark | Limited | square-check Self-hosted | $9/month or $90/year | |
3.1 star star star | Simple iOS app | Ideal for non-tech-savvy users | iPhone only | square-check iOS only | Limited | square-xmark 1-month trial | $1.49/month or $14.99/month | |
3.6 star star star star-half | Smart Contact Management | Feature-rich and flexible | Reported bugs | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 7-day trial | Premium: $13.99/month Teams: $17.99/month | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Customizable Interface | Customizable for teamwork | Pricey for personal use | square-check | Rich | square-xmark | Standard: $24/member Premium: $39/member | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Integrated Calling | Integrated Calling | Too sales-oriented & pricey | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | Startup: $59/user/month Professional: $329/user/month | |
4.8 star star star star star | Business Card Scanning | Business Card Scanning | Mobile only | square-check | Limited | square-check | $9.99/month | |
4.45 star star star star star-half | 160+ app integrations | Comprehensive integrations | No free app version | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | $29.90/month or $24.90/month (billed annually) |
Capterra Rating | Free Trial | Free Plan | Starting Price (excluding the free plan) | Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan) | Best for | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-check | €15/month/seat billed annually | €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat | Versatility and free plan | |
4.2 star star star star | square-check 30-day | square-xmark But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations | €25/user/month | €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI) | Best overall operational CRM | |
4.3 star star star star star-half | square-xmark | square-check Limited to 3 users | Comprehensive incentive management | €52/user/month billed annually | Small-medium businesses and automation | |
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-xmark | €14/seat/month billed annually | €99/seat/month billed annually | Sales teams and ease of use | |
4.1 star star star star | square-xmark | square-check Limited 10 users | $9.99/user/month billed annually | $64.99/user/month billed annually | Free plan for very small teams up to 10 |
CRM goal | Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months. | ||||
SMART Breakdown | 1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation). | 2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking. | 3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements. | 4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives. | 5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date. |
Actions | Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation. | Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior. | Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads. | Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up. | Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization. |
Outcomes | Increased sales and revenue | Improved marketing automation ROI | Marketing and sales alignment | Data-driven marketing optimization |