16 ways in which AI sales assistants are transforming sales

What are AI sales assistants?

AI sales assistants are intelligent software programs designed to perform specific sales tasks autonomously, often mimicking the processes which are followed by human sales reps. They can analyze vast amounts of data, automate routine tasks, and provide actionable insights, freeing up time for sales reps and enabling them to focus on high-impact activities such as building highly targeted lists, drawing up engagement plans, personalizing their pitch and closing deals.

A key point which separates AI sales assistants from sales software: They operate continuously, adapt to new data, and can interact with both humans and other systems to optimize outcomes in real time.

16 sales processes being transformed by AI sales assistants

Lead List Creation

Before AI, creating an effective lead list used to be a pain. Sure, sales had (and still has) access to platforms like Zoominfo and Clearbit, but sales reps needed to have the ability to manually manipulate the filters in these platforms to get the right list. Also, there was the very real possibility of the information not being up to date in these platforms.

With AI assistants, you just need to give them the right prompts in natural language on what you’re selling, your best-fit customers and what are the kind of people you want to target. The assistant will then automatically analyze vast datasets to identify and compile a targeted list of prospects based on your product, your best-fit customers and any criteria you’ve given (industry, job role, company size, geography, revenue, funding, tech stack used, and more). In addition, these agents will be on 24*7, continuously updating the lists by monitoring changes in the company, their recent press releases, etc.

As a result of AI sales assistants, your lead list will be much easier to create and will always be high-quality with no chance of lead quality degrading.

Lead Enrichment

Have a lead list which requires enrichment? Or perhaps you’re gaining inbound leads from your marketing efforts and you want more info on those leads before sales reaches out to them. In the pre-AI days, sales reps used to typically spend more than 30 minutes enriching info for each lead. With AI assistants, however, this enrichment can be done in a matter of minutes.

The assistant can collate information for each and every lead from a variety of sources (social media, websites, news publications, 3rd party data providers, etc.). It will be able to collect info like the lead’s seniority level and experience, which department they belong to, their tenure in the company, overall company size, their revenue, their funding info, their tech stack, and also their intent signals. It will send this info in an easy-to-read format to the sales rep, wherever they want

As a result of AI-powered lead enrichment, sales reps can save 5-8 hours of work every week and actually focus on the things they are best at.

Multi-Channel Outreach

Pre-AI, it used to take a lot of time and effort to design and execute multi-channel outreach strategies. AI assistants can manage this on your behalf. They can design and execute outreach strategies across multiple channels like email, calls, LinkedIn, SMS and more. They can craft personalized messages tailored to each channel, optimize the timing of outreach based on past interactions, and even follow up with prospects automatically. The assistants can also track engagement across these channels to adjust strategies in real-time, increasing the likelihood of a response.

With AI sales assistants, every company can execute an omnichannel outreach strategy.

Meeting Scheduling

Setting up and confirming meetings manually can become a real pain. Most sales reps hate when they’ve done everything right but aren’t able to get the prospect into a meeting room.

However, AI agents make this seamless and easy. Once a prospect expresses interest and mentions an available time, AI agents can automatically generate and send calendar invites, eliminating the back-and-forth often required to schedule meetings, and can add detailed agendas for the participants. These agents can integrate with both the sales rep's and the prospect's calendars, across timezones, and avoid scheduling conflicts. If a reschedule needs to happen, it can also do that seamlessly.

Lead Scoring

Without access to AI assistants, any lead scoring method is unable to take into account all the signals that are required to arrive at an accurate score.

AI agents can automatically qualify leads by analyzing their behaviour, engagement, and fit against predefined criteria. Because they are always monitoring, they can analyze even minute signals and incorporate that into the lead score. These agents assess factors such as interaction with content, responses to outreach, and demographic data to determine the likelihood of a lead converting into a customer.

As a result of this, lead scoring becomes much more accurate now and sales teams can prioritize leads much more effectively.

Lead Routing

With pre-AI solutions, lead routing used to break all the time because it was based on a set of limited rules. However, reality can throw some curveballs. What if the lead is assigned to a sales rep who is on an unscheduled leave? What if the lead wants to go deeper into a particular feature which the assigned sales rep doesn’t know completely?

AI assistants enable intelligent lead routing by incorporating routing criteria such as territory, product specialization, workload, etc. This ensures that leads are handled by the most suitable representative, increasing the chances of conversion.

Real-Time Call Guidance

Sales reps needed to rely on their notes to make sure they were covering the entire ground during the call. AI assistants can monitor sales calls in real-time, flagging instances where the sales rep may miss critical questions or fail to explore key pain points. These agents provide prompts and suggestions, helping reps steer the conversation toward uncovering the prospect’s needs and moving the deal forward.

Objection Handling

Without access to AI assistants, handling objections can be a tricky business. Usually, sales reps would try to deflect the objection or promise to come back later. However, we all know this isn’t ideal and can be a deal killer.

AI assistants can assist sales reps by offering real-time suggestions for handling objections. By analyzing the conversation and drawing from a database of responses, these agents help reps address concerns effectively, keeping the discussion on track and moving things forward without a hiccup.

Deal Creation in CRM

Creating deals in CRM takes up valuable time and is error-prone if done manually. After the discovery call, AI agents can save the sales rep’s time by automatically creating a new deal in the CRM and adding relevant contacts. This streamlines the process, ensuring that all necessary information is captured without requiring manual entry from the sales rep or SDR.

Filling CRM Fields

According to a HubSpot survey, sales reps spend 80% of their time on sales admin tasks. These include tasks like updating the CRM after every call.

With AI assistants, this process can be easily automated. The assistants can populate the CRM with detailed notes and information gathered during the call, including key insights, next steps, and follow-up actions. They can also analyze email communications with the prospect and update the CRM accordingly. This includes logging new information, tracking changes in engagement, and adjusting the deal status, providing a holistic view of the sales process.

In addition to saving your reps hours of work every week, this process also ensures that the CRM remains up-to-date and accurate, providing a reliable source of information for future interactions.

Creating Follow-up Tasks

Manually creating follow-up tasks for every prospect can become overwhelming and lead to things falling through the cracks.

Based on the transcript of the call, AI agents can automatically create tasks for the sales rep and schedule follow-ups at the optimal time. This reduces the risk of missed opportunities and ensures that the sales process continues smoothly. Read more about how to follow up with leads effectively and on time with AI sales assistants.

Generating Sales Collateral

Pre-AI, sales needed to go to marketing to create collaterals, documents and presentations tailored to prospects. AI agents can assist this process by creating customized sales collaterals based on the prospect’s specific needs and pain points. This ensures that the materials are highly relevant and persuasive, and are sent to the prospect promptly, thus helping to engage prospects effectively

Creating Company Wikis:

AI agents can effectively create a "wiki" for each company. This includes historical interactions, key contacts, deal progress, and strategic insights, providing sales leaders with a complete view of each account and helping the enablement teams to reduce the onboarding ramp-up time.

Creating Performance Scorecards for Reps

Sales performance monitoring has traditionally been the job of sales leaders, who do this by collating data from a variety of sources and thereby scoring the reps on their performance.

With AI assistants, this process becomes a lot easier. Assistants can generate detailed scorecards for each AE, tracking KPIs such as deal closure rates, call effectiveness, and SLA breaches. These scorecards provide sales leaders with insights into individual performance, helping them identify top performers and determine areas of improvement for each rep.

Daily Deal Summaries

AI agents can compile and deliver daily summaries of key deal updates to the sales team, particularly to the VP of Sales. These summaries highlight important developments, such as rejections, deal progress, and upcoming meetings, enabling the team to stay informed and make timely decisions.

Deal-Specific Queries

Sales leaders can use AI agents to ask specific questions about any deal, such as the current status, potential risks, or next steps. The AI agent provides detailed, up-to-date answers, helping leaders make informed decisions and thereby reducing time for pipeline review meetings.

Benefits of using AI sales assistants

AI is transforming the sales landscape by empowering Account Executives (AEs) and Sales Leaders with intelligent agents that automate tasks, enhance sales enablement, and optimize processes. These AI agents provide pre-call research, real-time support during calls, automate CRM updates, and assist in creating personalized sales collateral. For Sales Leaders, AI delivers performance insights and key deal updates, enabling strategic decision-making.

Embracing AI in sales isn't just a trend—it's the future of selling. Here are some of the benefits that AI sales assistants can provide to any sales org.

1. Increased pipeline generation - AEs can create more opportunities for themselves, leading to a fuller sales pipeline.

2. Meeting SLAs and closing more deals - AI agents help AEs meet SLAs and close more deals by ensuring timely task completion and opportunity maximization.

3. Automating manual tasks - AI handles administrative tasks, allowing AEs to focus on strategy and relationship-building.

4. Shortened sales cycles - AI optimizes every stage of the sales process, reducing the time to close deals.

5. Improved data hygiene and insights - AI ensures CRM data is clean, accurate, and insightful, aiding strategic decision-making.

6. Faster ramp-up time for AEs - New AEs can onboard more quickly with AI agents guiding their activities.

Best platform for AI sales assistants - Locale

The integration of AI in sales isn’t just an evolution; it’s a revolution that’s redefining the future of sales. Locale.ai has a collection of AI sales assistants that can mimic the way salespeople work and carry out tasks elegantly and efficiently. It can help you replicate the star rep’s playbook throughout the company and close more business. Here are some reasons why you should use Locale:

• Customize your parameters for each assistant: Tailor agent settings and behaviours to meet your specific needs and scenarios like filling your custom fields in CRM, incorporating specific data points in company research, etc

• Everything happens within Slack: Seamlessly integrate and operate directly within Slack, so you don’t have to open any new tools and tabs.

• Human-in-the-loop for approvals: Enable human oversight with approval mechanisms for critical decisions made by AI agents.

• Agent-based pricing: Flexible pricing model based on the number and usage of agents so that pricing can grow along with your company’s needs.

• SOC II compliance: Locale has strict adherence to SOC 2 standards that ensures robust data privacy and security practices.

• Use agents out-of-the-xox: Deploy pre-configured agents in 5 mins just by integrating your sales tools and selecting your unique parameters.

AI agents are transforming sales by enabling AEs to focus on what they do best—selling—while automating the rest. As AI continues to evolve, its role in sales enablement, lead nurturing, and outbound sales will only grow, helping businesses achieve new levels of success.

Interesting in checking out our AI sales assistants? Book a demo with us here.