How AI Saves Time in Sales & Where to Use Extra Hours [New Data]

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As a salesperson in today's business landscape, you'll need to better optimize your time and efficiency. Luckily, new artificial intelligence technologies are transforming the industry. You can now more easily meet sales targets, close deals, and foster customer relationships.

Additionally, AI can help you focus on the parts of your job that you enjoy most. You'll spend less time on repetitive tasks and spend more time on hard selling.

If you haven't integrated AI into your sales activities, this article will give you all the reasons you should. We'll also recommend tools and offer insights from pros who made the leap into a more fulfilling sales career thanks to AI.

Table of Contents

• How Sales Teams Use AI to Save Time
• Tools to Help You Save Time
• Tips for Saving Time with AI

How Sales Teams Use AI to Save Time

1. Writing Content for Prospect Outreach

Generative AI tools are some of the most popular, practical resources professionals in any field can use to support content creation - and writing productive, personalized prospect outreach messages at scale is a challenge several salespeople struggle with. Given those factors, it makes sense that 44% of the AI-leveraging salespeople we surveyed say they use those kinds of tools to serve that specific purpose.

2. Writing Scripts for Cold or Warm Calling

Here's another activity that can also be streamlined and simplified with generative AI. 41% of our respondents who use AI in their professional lives leverage it to help write scripts for sales calls.

But as much as AI can help you on this front, you can't lose sight of personalization. A successful sales call is specific - tailored to suit the needs and interests of the prospect on the other end. For all of its utility and sophistication, generative AI often lacks a personal touch, so be sure to add your own spin to the scripts you produce with it.

3. Repurposing Sales Content From One Format to Another

Well-crafted, legitimately helpful sales content is invaluable for sales professionals, and sometimes, you need to relay that content from medium to medium - for instance, transitioning an email into a LinkedIn message. Roughly 38% of respondents who use AI say they use it for that purpose.

4. Repurposing Sales Content From One Audience to Another

Sometimes, different audiences will be receptive to different ways sales content can be framed or articulated - for example, a CSO and a lower-level champion will probably prefer different kinds of messaging. That's why 47% of our respondents who use AI cite leveraging it for this purpose.

5. Qualifying Leads

Lead qualification is one of the trickier, more tedious parts of sales. Hashing out whether a prospect is a fit for your offering can be every bit as challenging as it is essential, so it makes sense that 47% of the sales professionals we surveyed that use AI leverage their resources to augment and expedite the process.

6. Data Analysis

Very few - if any - sales professionals got into the field because they love analyzing data. Processes like vetting customer information, identifying patterns, and generating insights are often time-consuming and distract from hard selling. 52% of our respondents who use AI say they save time by leveraging it for data analysis.

7. Leveraging Conversation Intelligence to Inform Sales Call Coaching

Analyzing where reps might be running into trouble on calls in real-time is becoming antiquated at this point. Conversation intelligence platforms expedite the sales call coaching process by identifying hitches and shortcomings in both sales reps' call performance and a sales org's broader messaging. That's why it makes sense that 45% of our respondents who use AI say they save time by leveraging conversation intelligence for sales call coaching.

8. Simulating Sales Training Scenarios

AI sales training resources can be extremely valuable for sales leaders looking to get reps up to speed. One of the more popular applications of these kinds of tools is simulating sales training scenarios. Instead of conducting more involved, in-person sales training exercises, teams can leverage artificial intelligence to simulate scenarios reps routinely run into - taking the strain off of managers and saving time across entire sales orgs. 53% of our respondents who leverage AI to supplement their efforts say they use it for this purpose.

9. Automating Manual Processes

This one is kind of an ambiguous catch-all. The term "manual processes" covers a lot of bases, including some of the other ones listed here. Still, it's worth noting that 64% of the sales professionals we surveyed who leverage AI use it to save time on this front.

10. Supporting Customer Research

Every salesperson has to have a solid pulse on who they're selling to - a solid understanding of any given prospect's specific interests, preferences, and circumstances. That makes research one of the most mission-critical activities salespeople need to consistently undertake.

Anything that lets you cover that base thoroughly but conveniently is a huge help. AI fits that bill, so it makes sense that 55% of our respondents who use AI leverage it to support customer research.

Tools to Help You Save Time

1. Breeze Copilot

Pricing: Free Plans Available - Accessible to All HubSpot Customers

Breeze Copilot is an AI companion that folds into virtually every task you can work on within the broader HubSpot suite. It seamlessly connects with your CRM to offer you a more thorough picture of your business and prospects.

Breeze Copilot helps facilitate key sales activities, including customer research, sales call prep, pipeline development, and summarizing CRM records - all backed by an accessible, conversational interface that you can work with without extensive AI experience.

Best for:

2. Breeze Prospecting Agent

Pricing: Available to Sales Hub Pro and Sales Hub Enterprise Subscribers - Starting at $90 per Seat

Breeze Prospecting Agent is a focused application of Breeze Intelligence, dedicated specifically to (you guessed it) prospecting - a pillar of sales that's, at once, incredibly tedious and totally vital.

Sales professionals tend to exhaust a lot of energy and resources manually executing tasks like identifying prospects who fit their ICP, crafting personalized copy for email outreach at scale, and pinning down the most effective time to connect with prospects.

Breeze Prospecting Agent streamlines, simplifies, and ultimately enhances your ability to deliver on all of those activities.

3. Awario

Pricing: Plans Starting at $29 per Month

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Awario is a social listening tool that you can use to manage your brand. You can watch for instances of brand mentions and analyze posts. With Awario, you'll build an understanding of your customers across the globe. This can help your sales team develop messages that will resonate with the customer.

Best for: International brands

4. People.ai

Pricing: Available Upon Request

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People.ai helps sales teams by predicting deal outcomes. With this AI software, you can monitor your customer journey, identifying blind spots thanks to account maps.

Best for: Sales teams looking to save time on lead scoring and data entry

5. HubSpot Clip Creator

Pricing: Free Plans Available

HubSpot Clip Creator is an AI-powered video maker from HubSpot. It offers salespeople the ability to create focused, thoughtful video content for prospects - tailored specifically to accommodate their preferences and priorities.

Video is an underrated medium for sales professionals. It allows them to create snackable yet informative content to quickly and engagingly acquaint prospects with an offering - and HubSpot is one of the most accessible, effective AI-backed video creation tools on the market.

Tips for Saving Time with AI

So you're ready to give AI a go? Here are some top tips for preparing your team and getting the most out of your time as you go.

Start the time investment now.

Changing processes and integrating a whole team into a new system is a headache. However, the time saved by AI will pay dividends to you and your team. With AI tools, sales pros report doing more of what they love, thanks to AI. A happier team is a more effective sales team.

Work with the tools you've got.

The fastest way to get rolling with AI is to work with the tools, systems, and approaches. To begin with, follow the limitations of the tech stack you're using. As you get used to the new process, you might find it's exactly what you need. If not, at least you can say you made an informed decision before making drastic changes.

Prioritize key opportunities.

You'll get overwhelmed if you try and do it all at once. Before you dive into AI, identify areas within your sales process that could benefit the most from new processes. Ideally, you'll involve your team in these discussions, which brings us to the next point.

Prepare for pushback.

You don't get to introduce a new concept or change how an entire team operates without some pushback. You'll find some of your team members won't embrace AI with the same enthusiasm that you do.

The best way to get buy-in from your team is to communicate. Ask them what they want to use AI for, remind them of their benefits, and have regular catch-ups for feedback.

Use a compatible CRM system.

Your best chance of longitudinal success with AI is working with a CRM system that will keep up with the rapid growth of AI and its offerings. You don't want to waste time going back and forth with developers or asking for complex integrations.

Take a close look at the systems you're currently using and ask what their capabilities are. Make sure the tools will continue doing what you need.

Create workflows.

Now is the perfect time to create a workflow and update your internal knowledge. With every new process, create documentation that can be shared. This can be used as an internal resource to aid consistency and training.

AI is here to stay.

AI is here to stay. With it, you will likely stay relevant in a fast-growing market. Better, you'll increase the gap between yourself and competitors. There's a lot to learn, but the quicker you get comfortable with AI, the faster you can reap the benefits.

And who said you had to do it all immediately anyway? Pick one task, integrate AI, and see how it works. Trust me; you'll be hooked on that extra time to spend on your favorite tasks that you won't resist trying AI again.

Topics:Artificial Intelligence

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