6 Practical Ways to Use AI for Sales (+14 Examples)

In an era where artificial intelligence is not just knocking at the door but practically kicking it down, clinging to old-school sales methods could well mean waving goodbye to your market share.

Image source

In this post, I'm going to walk you through what's cooking in the sales AI kitchen as well as five ways to use AI to improve your sales processes and performance.

These are more than just the flavor of the month—they’re the seasoning that will make your sales strategy sizzle.

Time to roll up those sleeves. Let's get to it.

6 techniques to supercharge your sales process with AI

The best way to invest in digital marketing right now is to supercharge your existing tools and technology with AI.

If AI is the jet fuel of modern business, then consider the following techniques for your personal aviation checklist. 

1. Use AI to set appointments (such as Hatch Assistant)

Setting and confirming appointments takes time away from your sales reps, but it's critical to make sure your team has appointments on the calendar.

That's where AI tools come in. 

Practical ways to implement appointment setting:

• Qualify leads: Have AI converse with leads to qualify them and add those qualified leads to your reps list of contacts to set an appointment for.
• Set calendar appointments: Have AI converse with leads to actually add a set appointment to your technician's calendar after qualifying the lead. This can be done through calendar integrations with AI vendors. 
• Confirm & reschedule appointments: Confirm appointments with AI that are already set. This can be built-in with or without code to have AI check-in with customers before the appointment to either confirm or reschedule the service appointment time.

Hatch Assistant has the capacity to confirm appointments for your team. Not convinced a bot should be talking to your customers? Take it for a test drive!

2. Personalized customer interactions for profit

Tailoring your approach to each customer isn't just polite, it's profitable.

Imagine walking into a store where the staff knows not just your name but what you bought last time, what you looked at but didn't buy, and what you're likely to want next.

This level of personalization is how content marketing drives sales.

Practical ways to implement personalized experiences:

• Behavior analytics for upselling: Use Hotjar's heatmapping to identify high-interest areas on your product pages. Then, employ an AI tool like Dynamic Yield to suggest complementary products.
• User journey mapping: Sprig's AI-driven website optimization tool can help you map out specific user paths on your website and surface objections.

Image source

• Segment your audiences: Whether you're emailing or texting, it's important create custom audiences based on specific criteria so you can create highly catered messaging. For example, a Hatch user might use our Audience Builder to create a list of prospects who received a quote for X service, X days ago, from X sales rep. Now you can cater your sales follow-up messaging so that it resonates with the individual, leading to higher engagement rates and closing more deals.

With an AI tool to analyze trends in your prospects' behavior, you can come up with criteria combinations you hadn't thought of. 

• Dynamic pricing: AI algorithms can adjust product pricing in real time based on demand, seasonality, and stock levels, directly impacting your sales potential.

Image source

3. Automated follow-up

Strike while the iron is hot, they say, but what if the iron stays hot without you having to stoke the fire?

Automated follow-ups are AI's answer to keeping your prospects engaged without the constant tap dancing.

Forget setting reminders to send that email or make that call.

AI systems can shoot off personalized emails based on customer interaction, or lack thereof, keeping your brand front and center in their minds.

It's like having a virtual sales assistant who works around the clock, never calls in sick, and best of all, doesn't require a salary.

Practical ways to implement automated follow-ups:

• Predictive sending: AI can recommend and even dynamically assign sending times for emails and texts based on when they're most likely to be engaged with. This is great for any form of communication, whether you're reaching out to new leads, re-engaging old leads, following up on prospects, or engaging customers. 
• AI-powered SMS and email: AI-powered bots are rapidly evolving. What were once just reactive information providers are now proactive task executors that improve with every task they complete. Call centers can use virtual agents to send follow up messages to leads, prospects, and customers and to engage in the conversation that ensues.
  You can train AI-powered bots with specific directives, like to capture a specific set of information from a contact or to book an appointment.

4. Data-driven decision making

Data is the lifeblood of modern sales. But data without context is just noise.  AI interprets this noise and turns it into a symphony of insights that can guide your sales strategy and improve your ROI.

Want to know the best time to reach out to a prospect? Or which product feature most excites your customer base? AI's got you covered.

It crunches numbers, identifies patterns, and presents you with actionable insights.

This isn't just adding fuel to the fire; this is knowing exactly which type of wood will make your fire roar.

Practical ways to implement data-driven strategies:

• Lead scoring: Salesforce's Einstein AI can automatically score your leads based on likelihood to convert, helping you focus your efforts on high-value targets.
• Conversion rate optimization: Use Optimizely's A/B testing algorithms to automatically select the best-performing versions of your sales pages, maximizing conversions.
  
  

5. AI-generated sales forecasts

Remember when predicting future sales felt like throwing darts in the dark? Those days are long gone. AI now delivers forecasts that are less about guesswork and more about scientific calculation.

Image source

By analyzing historical data and current market trends, AI can predict not just how many sales you'll make, but how you can optimize to make even more.

It's like having a financial advisor who can see into the future — handy, right?

Practical ways to implement AI-generated forecasts:

• AI-powered predictive forecasting: Tools like Salesforce and Dealcode can use AI to identify win probabilities, detect risk levels, monitor pipeline health, and make revenue projections.

Image source

• AI-powered quota setting: Utilize AI tools to set more accurate sales quotas, allowing your sales team to target achievable yet challenging goals that maximize revenue.

6. Intelligent chatbots

Chatbots are the always-on, always-ready sales team that you didn't know you needed.

While you're off recharging, they're handling queries, solving issues, and yes, closing deals. And these aren't the chatbots of yesteryear that offered robotic, canned responses.

Today's AI-driven chatbots can understand context, pick up on nuances, and even inject a little humor here and there.

It's 24/7 support that doesn't just satisfy your customers; it delights them.

Practical ways to implement chatbots for sales:

• Chatbot sales assistants: Implement Drift's chatbots to engage customers with product recommendations and special offers, effectively acting as a 24/7 sales assistant.
• Lead qualification and routing: Train bots on your company information and use them to qualify and rout inbound conversations to the right sales rep—or even to book appointments.
  
  

• Sentiment analysis: Use Intercom's advanced sentiment analysis to understand customer pain points in real-time, offering immediate solutions that not only solve problems but can upsell products.
• Use generative AI tools: You can use any generative AI tool like ChatGPT or Google's Bard to get help with generating quotes, optimizing your daily schedule for productivity, writing follow-up emails, and more.

Start marrying AI with sales

Between predictive analytics that read the market like a book, chatbots that never sleep, personalized marketing that’s uncannily accurate, automated workflows to buy back your time, and data-driven insights that put a microscope on customer behavior—there are endless ways to use AI to improve your sales processes and performance.

Don't just adapt to AI; evolve with it. Use the strategies in this post to not just participate in, but dominate this AI-driven sales era.

Here's a recap of how to use AI for sales:

1. Behavior analytics for upselling
2. User journey mapping
3. Audience segmentation
4. Dynamic pricing
5. Predictive sending
6. SMS/email generation
7. Lead scoring
8. Conversion rate optimization
9. Predictive forecasting
10. Quota setting
11. Chatbot sales assistants
12. Lead qualification and routing
13. Sentiment analysis
14. Generate content