Thanks to the internet, today’s customers are more informed than ever before. Consequently, sales agents are hard-pressed to showcase not just the functionality of their product or service, but also the strategic value it can deliver to each individual customer. This approach requires a deeper understanding of customer needs and pain points so a sales pitch can be customized to fit them and their current situation.
This value-first approach wasn’t always feasible or cost-effective for businesses, but with the technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), every business can now use AI sales agents to gather key insights, streamline day-to-day tasks, and more effectively engage with customers online.
What is an AI Sales Agent?
An AI sales agent refers to the application of AI to various aspects of the sales process from lead generation to closing deals. It’s not a complete replacement for human employees, but rather a tool your sales agents can use to help them operate more efficiently.
AI can be utilized in a wide range of activities, including as virtual assistants that take notes or provide summaries of recent phone calls, automatically follow up on leads via email, respond to FAQs in the company’s online chat, etc.
Are AI Sales Agents to be Trusted?
AI sales agents can be trusted to perform tasks that they’re well-suited to complete. For example, AI has superior data analysis capabilities that far exceed a human’s, thanks to the lack of human bias and subjectivity in its analyses.
However, AI does have its limits, especially when it comes to more complex tasks and analyses involving human traits like emotion and relationship-building—both of which are key aspects of the sales process. Like any new tool, you’ll want to perform tests and monitor its performance over time so adjustments can be made when needed.
Understanding AI Agents Further
AI is an umbrella term for several smart technologies with different levels of perceived intelligence and ability. Depending on which smart technology powers a business’s AI sales agent, they’ll fall into a specific category of AI agents and possess certain characteristics.
Types of AI Sales Agents
An AI agent can be classified into one of two categories: a chatbot or a virtual assistant.
Chatbots are the most straightforward form of AI sales agents. Rudimentary chatbots are simple reflex agents, which means they follow an if-then programming model. If the customer says they’d like a product demo in the chat, then it sends them a link to schedule a demo with a sales rep. More advanced chatbots can track a customer’s historical behavior online and are equipped with conversational AI, which means they can mimic real human conversation when responding to customer questions and offer personalized recommendations based on past actions.
Virtual assistants are a bit more complex than chatbots. While chatbots can analyze data and formulate responses, virtual assistants possess natural language processing and machine learning technology, which means they can understand spoken or textual inputs and learn from every customer interaction to improve their performance over time. These learning agents surpass the rule-based responses of chatbots, allowing for more complex problem-solving and more autonomous behaviors.
Key Features and Capabilities
Regardless of type, every AI sales agent can handle multiple operations simultaneously. Unlike human agents, an AI agent can respond to hundreds of customer inputs at the same time, and it can do it 24/7. AI agents also have the ability to work quickly and accurately. Whether it’s analyzing customer behavior for actionable insights or responding to an inquiry, AI is nearly instantaneous, taking seconds to complete tasks that would have taken a human rep minutes, if not hours, to do on their own.
Podium’s AI Employee
At Podium, we’ve created our own AI Employee to help our customers reduce their response times and manage leads more effectively. Unlike customer relationship management (CRM) systems which focus solely on tracking the status of a lead, our AI Employee can actively analyze incoming leads and take action to move them along the purchase funnel.
Here are just a few ways our AI Employee is helping Podium clients increase their conversion rates:
- Using conversational AI chatbots to answer low-tier inquiries, escalate urgent requests to the right team, and provide after-hours support
- Tracking potential leads and automatically following up within a consistent time frame
- Reducing bottlenecks in scheduling by automating the scheduling process
- Offering personalized messaging suggestions for each customer based on previous site interactions
- Allowing for customized goal-based directives, enabling the AI agent to be more outcome-driven and to consider an overarching goal when acting autonomously
With Podium’s AI Employee, you can convert more leads in less time. Our AI Employee is designed to be more than just a chatbot or a virtual assistant. It’s a digital employee who actually communicates with prospects and customers for you without requiring any additional oversight—a true AI sales agent. Learn more about Podium’s AI Employee and how it can benefit sales efforts for your business.
Benefits of Having AI Sales Agents
AI sales reps transform how customers interact with your business, offering benefits like:
Improved Lead Generation
In today’s fast-paced market, speed to lead time is critical. AI sales agents can respond to potential leads quickly, at any time of day, and analyze past purchases, browsing history, and demographic information to identify their likelihood of conversion through lead scoring. Filtering out unqualified leads allows sales teams to focus their efforts on the most promising leads.
Enhanced Customer Engagement
Responsiveness and availability are where an AI sales agent really shines. AI agents can be on the frontlines of your customer service, providing instant personalized recommendations and quick responses to customer queries, freeing up time for human reps to handle more complicated questions. They can also track online behavior and automatically reach out to customers to follow up and encourage further engagement with your website or product.
Smart Sales Forecasting
Using predictive algorithms, AI agents can analyze historical sales data and current market conditions to create forecasts for future demand. These forecasts help sales teams set goals and KPIs for the year and help business owners manage inventory levels more effectively to prevent stockouts and surpluses.
Efficient Sales Process Automation
AI can perform many routine tasks like manually entering data into CRM systems, following up with customers and prospects, taking notes on phone calls, etc. without the inevitable errors that accompany human entry. Sales automation greatly improves productivity, giving hours of time back to your sales team.
Real-time Sales Insights
AI sales agents are constantly taking in data and mining key insights from it. This data is readily available to sales teams, offering real-time insights into current customers and potential opportunities to cross-sell and upsell products.
Top 8 AI Sales Agents of 2024
Whether your sales team wants to get more leads or boost customer support, AI agents can help. We’ve put together a list of the best AI agents in the market, detailing their strengths, key features, and costs.
Podium AI Employee
Whether you need help selling, scheduling, communicating, or keeping leads warm, Podium’s AI Employee can do it all—and sound like a human, too. Our AI stands out for its ability to effortlessly handle incoming leads from multiple channels and be goal-oriented in its decision-making.
Podium’s pricing starts at $399/month.
Regie.ai
With a whole suite of AI tools for sales, Regie.ai can do a little bit of everything. From copy and content generation to scheduling and email sequencing, it can handle even the largest outreach campaign with ease. It does not currently offer a chatbot or virtual assistant.
Regie.ai has four plan options: Free, Pro ($59/month), Small Business ($89/month), and Enterprise (contact for quote).
My AI Front Desk
For businesses who need a little extra help on the phone, My AI Front Desk is a true AI receptionist. Simply tell it about the business, plug in some common questions and answers, and set personalization elements like what level of chattiness you’d prefer. The receptionist will then answer phone calls for you, responding to questions using the information you originally supplied.
My AI Front Desk costs $65/month.
Avoma
Avoma is a meeting assistant with AI tools for virtual collaborations, including call transcription, scheduling tools, and CRM integration for easy data entry. Its standout features, however, are its Coaching Scorecards and Performance Dashboards, which track and score agent performance on calls.
Avoma offers several plans ranging from Basic ($0/month) to Enterprise ($129/month).
Postaga
Postaga is a great choice for businesses looking to automate their outreach sequencing. Its setup wizard walks you through campaign setup and competitor details, then suggests optimum email sequence timelines and generates copy.
Postaga’s pricing starts at $99/month.
Clay
Gathering prospect data is extremely time-consuming. Clay takes the manual work out of it by quickly crawling sources for custom lead reporting and returning a spreadsheet with lead lists. It integrates with LinkedIn and Zapier and includes an OpenAI bot to assist with data analysis.
Pricing for Clay plans begins at $149/month.
Lavender
Lavender is a browser extension that connects directly to your inbox for easy access to several AI sales tools, including converting bullet points to email copy and an Email Coach feature that suggests personalization tips and scores your copy to see how likely leads will engage.
Lavender plans include Basic ($0/month), Starter ($29/month), Individual Pro ($49/month), and Teams ($69/month).
FastOutreach.ai
Known as Suede, FastOutreach.ai is a great AI sales agent for cold emails. It can be connected to Gmail or Outlook, as well as LinkedIn. Once connected, it analyzes the user’s emails to determine voice, tone, and style, then mimics it in all future text generation. The AI also analyzes your contacts to determine what language they respond to best.
Pricing for FastOutreach.ai starts at $99/month.
Learn More About Podium’s AI Employee
The automation capabilities of AI sales agents streamline the sales process, improving efficiency and productivity across the board. Learn more about how Podium’s AI Employee is changing the sales game to convert more leads.
