Who Uses AI Sales Assistant Software?
The virtual sales assistants in this category are built for sales organizations or businesses with a dedicated sales department. These advanced tools can help automate communication between sales reps and their customers and offer general assistance with other tasks throughout the sales pipeline. When used in sales departments, these tools collect data from the CRM software and other sales-based systems to learn what works and what doesn’t with regard to signing and keeping customers. This information is then used within features such as conversational AI, where the platform can interact effectively with customers on messaging platforms and determine the best leads for sales reps to contact. In some cases, the technology offers winning suggestions during pivotal meetings and on-the-spot information such as deal timelines or hot leads to contact.
AI Sales Assistant Software Features
The tools featured in this category are a diverse set of offerings, each with a unique toolset and implementation of AI technology. The following are some prominent features you may encounter as you research these products and determine the best fit for your sales team.
Conversation automation — Much like chatbots, some tools in this category can have back-and-forth conversations with customers or leads through messaging software or email. To deploy these features, sales managers will create conversation scripts to help guide these conversations to the ideal conclusion and correct qualification of leads. They will also update the software with the right salespeople to whom qualified leads should be directed after a successful automated interaction. Using this information, along with product knowledge (e.g., pricing, feature details) and insights on previously successful conversations, these platforms will reach out to leads with the right messaging at the right time. Then through automated conversations, these tools can determine leads with genuine value and interest, finally directing them to a live salesperson to close the deal.
In addition to qualifying new leads, conversational AI features can be used to win back former clients and check in with clients about their current service or to discuss upgrades. Throughout all conversations, certain platforms offer data extraction features that identify valuable details, transcribes them, and exports them to the most relevant software or database.
Guided selling — Certain solutions in this category can act as major resources once sales reps reach out to clients directly. To guide the sale toward success, some AI assistants can send push notifications for conversation opportunities or client updates and present timely information about client histories or in-progress deals. In some cases, these platforms can also provide winning conversation lines or talking points in real time during a sales call. Guided selling features may also be used during product demonstrations or upsell attempts.
Task automation — With the activity intelligence features in some sales assistant tools, users can have routine sales management tasks automatically handled by the platform. This can include entering data within CRM systems or sending marketing emails about conferences or webinars. As any new customer details are observed, some products have the ability to extract the information and transfer it to an integrated software platforms. In some cases, these tools will offer intelligent scheduling features to help sales reps plan out their calls and other meetings while identifying and setting reminders for other key dates.
Pipeline inspection — Some AI sales assistant platforms help analyze your funnel to see what leads are getting stuck, while offering recommended actions for improving pipeline velocity. Part of this is the auditing and correcting of customer details, such as updated contact information or role changes at the company, including point of contact for sales meetings. This process is also useful for automated invalidating of out-of-date contacts or prioritization of leads.
Other Features of AI Sales Assistant Software: Customer-facing chatbot, Lead follow-up, Meeting scheduling, Sales forecasting
