As a business owner or sales manager, you understand the challenge of staying competitive in a world that keeps changing, with new technologies, higher customer expectations, and the occasional global catastrophe to contend with.
Juggling sales targets, customer engagement, and effective team management can be overwhelming. Similarly, keeping track of countless leads and deciphering which strategies work often feels like a Herculean responsibility.
That’s where AI sales automation tools come in. They can quickly and easily transform these challenges into opportunities for more efficiency and growth.
All you need to get started is to know how AI sales automation works and the best tools on the market. Our hand-picked, no-fluff list of tools will give you all the information you need to select the most helpful AI software for your sales team.
What is AI sales automation?
In the realm of sales and marketing, artificial intelligence has become a game-changer. It offers a myriad of benefits — chief among them is the ability to understand and predict customer behavior more accurately.
How does AI impact sales?
AI-driven sales tools analyze vast amounts of data at lightning speed to glean real-time insights into customer preferences and trends. This enables businesses to adapt their strategies accordingly, without the long cycles of time and delays that often come with manual analysis.
One of the key impacts of AI in sales and marketing is personalized customer engagement. By leveraging existing marketing data, AI helps companies deliver tailored messages and unique offers to individual customers. This can significantly improve the customer experience and boost customer engagement and conversion rates.
For instance, AI algorithms can recommend products to customers based on their recent browsing history and previous purchases. This is similar to the recommendation systems used by e-commerce giants like Amazon.
How critical is AI in sales right now?
The use of AI productivity tools in marketing and sales has been increasing quickly thanks to generative AI. According to a recent report by the Capgemini Research Institute,
“Almost 60% of organizations are already integrating generative AI into their marketing efforts, and 37% of these are actively implementing it across various initiatives. Furthermore, close to 80% of organizations have either already allocated budget or plan to do so in the next six months to integrate generative AI into their marketing initiatives. There is also strong consensus among marketers that generative AI will not diminish but rather augment human creativity in the long run.”
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Data show a marked increase in return on investment for companies that use AI in their marketing campaigns. According to a 2023 McKinsey report, “Our research indicates that players that invest in AI are seeing a revenue uplift of 3 to 15 percent and a sales ROI uplift of 10 to 20 percent.”
The main benefit is that AI analysis provides a more nuanced understanding of customer needs, which, in turn, can lead to better customer engagement and increased sales.
The role of AI in these areas is expected to grow as technology continues to advance. In short, AI sales automation is becoming an essential tool to help businesses stay competitive in the digital era, and it will likely be even more important in the future.
What are the main AI sales automation functions?
AI sales automation apps and tools come in various shapes and sizes and are designed for different aspects of the sales process. However, the basic functions of these tools include the following:
Lead scoring and prioritization
AI sales automation tools use algorithms to assess and score leads based on their likelihood to convert. Armed with this information, sales teams can focus on the most promising prospects.
Predictive analytics
The software analyzes historical data to predict future sales trends and customer behavior, which helps marketing teams with their strategic planning and decision-making.
Automated customer interactions
Many of these tools employ AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to engage with customers, answer questions, and provide support. The simple fact that there’s “somebody” to easily chat with about product questions can lead to a better customer experience.
Sales forecasting
Companies can also use AI sales automation tools to forecast sales outcomes with higher accuracy. The immediate benefits include better resource allocation and improved target setting.
These essential sales automation functions can make any sales department more knowledgeable about customer behavior, more interactive with their customer base, and more effective overall.
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Top 12 AI sales automation tools
When it comes to AI sales automation tools, the market is abundant with options, each offering unique features and capabilities.
Here’s our list of some of the top tools on the market today. These tools can help companies of different sizes and with different needs achieve greater sales success.
1. Salesforce Einstein 1
Einstein 1 is an AI layer integrated into the Salesforce CRM platform. It offers predictive analytics, automated data entry, and intelligent sales recommendations.
The Einstein 1 platform leverages Sales Cloud, an AI CRM that can make selling activities smarter and more efficient. The system targets both sellers and buyers, with the goal of closing deals faster.
Sales Cloud’s companion tool, Marketing Cloud, focuses on helping sales teams build strong customer relationships by way of AI-powered engagement tools and personalized offers.
Einstein 1 is known for its deep integration with Salesforce’s larger CRM system, which makes it ideal for enterprises looking for a comprehensive sales and marketing solution.
2. HubSpot Sales Hub
Hubspot Sales Hub is known for its inbound marketing capabilities, so it’s ideal for businesses looking to combine inbound marketing with sales automation.
Known for its ease of use, Sales Hub is a sales CRM that includes sales engagement tools and a configure-price-quote (CPQ) feature. It also offers AI-powered automation tools for email scheduling, lead scoring, and deal forecasting.
Sales Hub is particularly beneficial for companies that already use HubSpot for marketing since it seamlessly integrates marketing and sales data for a unified approach to both.
3. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM’s sales features include contact management, sales forecasting, inventory management, sales funnels, and pipeline management. Its AI-powered assistant, Zia, generates sales predictions, detects anomalies, and automates workflow and task management.
Zoho CRM is designed for medium-sized businesses to large-scale enterprises looking for a cost-effective CRM solution with AI capabilities but without a steep learning curve.
4. Oracle NetSuite
Oracle NetSuite features AI capabilities designed for integrated CRM functionality, such as inventory management, sales forecasting, customer insights, personalized marketing, and omnichannel commerce.
This tool’s AI features are well-suited for mid-sized to large businesses that require advanced CRM functionalities and a comprehensive suite of business applications such as finance, HR, and supply chain management.
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5. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a user-friendly, sales-focused CRM with AI features like automated lead scoring, deal predictions, and customizable chatbots. It also includes email marketing, market integrations, web visitor tracking, and project management software.
This sales tool is well-suited for smaller businesses or those that require a straightforward, easy-to-use interface.
6. Freshsales
Freshsales is an automation program designed specifically for sales teams. Its Freddy AI offers features for lead attraction, contextual conversations, pipeline management, intelligent workflow processes, and sales forecasting. It also comes with email, chat, and phone capabilities.
As part of the Freshworks suite, Freshsales integrates seamlessly with other Freshworks products for a comprehensive set of customer engagement and support tools.
This software is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an intuitive and scalable CRM solution.
7. Outreach
Outreach specializes in sales engagement, with AI-driven features like sequence optimization, prospect prioritization, and predictive analytics. It covers the entire sales process, from prospecting through account management to forecasting, and combines these features with revenue intelligence and revenue operations in an integrated platform.
Outreach is primarily beneficial for sales teams focused on outreach and engagement. Its AI-driven features are ideal for organizations that are looking to streamline their sales engagement process and improve their sales representatives’ efficiency.
8. Conversica
As an AI-driven assistant designed for sales teams, Conversica focuses on automated lead qualification and follow-up.
With a primary focus on customer engagement, Conversica’s omnichannel AI assistants are trained in natural language conversation and deep learning from customer interactions. This conversational AI is designed to engage and nurture leads and increase revenue across the entire customer lifecycle.
Given its emphasis on the power of AI conversation, Conversica is best for businesses that are looking for automated lead qualification and high-quality follow-up.
9. Drift
Drift is another conversation-focused sales automation software. It offers AI-powered conversational marketing and sales tools, including chatbots that interact with site visitors in real time. The goal here is to convert leads directly from a company’s website.
Drift also includes features like buyer behavior analysis, pipeline management, and automated sales meeting scheduling. It’s excellent for companies focused primarily on conversational marketing and sales.
10. Gong
Gong focuses primarily on customer data analysis. Its Revenue Intelligence Platform is an integrated tool designed to help businesses capture and understand all of their customer interactions and turn them into actionable insights.
Gong uses AI for sales conversation analytics that provide valuable insights into both customer interactions and sales team performance. As such, it’s ideal for medium to large enterprises that want to improve their customer data analytics and sales team performance.
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11. Marketo
Adobe Marketo Engage is a comprehensive marketing automation platform with AI capabilities for audience segmentation and campaign optimization. It places a strong emphasis on helping marketing and sales teams work together more efficiently.
Marketo Engage’s Marketing Automation feature is designed to integrate customer data, marketing content, and analytics to improve the ability of sales reps to interact with customers in a personalized and measurable way.
This tool is well-suited for companies with a strong focus on both marketing and sales automation.
12. InsideSales
Formerly known as XANT, InsideSales presents Playbooks, a smart sales platform designed to optimize customer relations and interactions and connect sales reps to the right buyers through focused recommendations.
Playbooks also comes with predictive analytics. This is particularly helpful for businesses that want to optimize their sales processes through data-driven decision-making.
Benefits of combining sales automation tools with intelligent project planning software
Sales automation tools are powerful in and of themselves. But they can be even more powerful when synced with an intelligent task management tool like Motion.
Motion can significantly improve sales teams’ time management and efficiency. It intelligently schedules meetings and tasks based on priorities and deadlines to optimize sales reps’ days.
For example, leads identified as high-value by tools like Freshsales or Outreach could automatically trigger the scheduling of follow-up calls or meetings in Motion’s Intelligent Calendar.
Additionally, Motion’s project management features can help track and manage sales campaigns and initiatives in great detail, as well as align tasks and objectives across sales-oriented teams.
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This holistic approach makes it possible for a company’s sales teams or representatives to operate more cohesively. They can focus on key activities without the overhead of manual coordination and scheduling.
Tune up your AI sales automation with Motion
Imagine a world where leads are prioritized automatically, follow-ups are flawlessly scheduled, and your team’s efforts are maximized on every front. With smart AI sales automation and project management tools, this is within your reach.
Integrating Motion into your sales strategy streamlines your processes like few other apps can. It can turn the chaos of managing sales and marketing tasks into a well-orchestrated symphony where every player knows their role and how it impacts the larger whole.
Try Motion for free for 7 days and step into a more productive and successful sales future.
