4 Tactics for Using AI Sales Tools to Boost Your Productivity (2024)
July 21, 2024·8 min read
Lori Connor
Discover four tactics for using AI sales tools to cut down on busywork, increase your productivity, and connect with more prospects.
If you’re a seller, you’re used to burning precious time and attention on tasks that don’t really deserve it. How many days’ worth of work hours have you spent trawling LinkedIn for potential leads? Writing and sending cold email after cold email? Poking around competitors’ websites to get a vague idea of their value prop?
But now that AI sales tools have cemented their place in the sales landscape, you can offload all that mind-numbing busywork on them. We’ve built this playbook to pull back the curtain on four game-changing tactics that harness the power of AI for sales teams to supercharge your productivity.
Quit wasting your precious time, effort, and sanity on those brain-dead tasks. By following these tactics, you can say hello to a more efficient and productive process—where the best AI tools for sales take the lead in streamlining your workflow.
Vidyard’s AI Sales Tools Playbook Rather read this guide in PDF format instead? Download it here. Get the PDF
Salespeople who are using AI are going to be so much more successful and faster at the boring stuff that they hated to do.
Laura ErdemDreamdataSales Manager
AI Sales Tool Tactic #1: Lead Generation
Nobody likes spending hours on LinkedIn and firing off 100 messages, hoping that you’ll get one lead out of it.
Here’s how to use AI sales assistant software to rake in higher-quality leads without you having to lift a finger. Cut down on those pointless messages, dead-end convos, and wild goose chases.
Choose your desired location, industry, position, company size, and role. When you’re ready, click Update Territory.
Step 2: Investigate the AI-Identified Leads
The tool will present a list of leads that fit your criteria. Click a specific entry on the list to see all the data tied to this lead, including their job title, links to their social media, and background info about their company.
Step 3: Refine Your Territory
Do the discovered leads not fit what you had in mind? Go back and tweak your territory settings to adjust the results.
Our Top 3 Tips for Generating Leads with AI
Tip #1: Understand Your Goals
Define what a ‘high-quality’ lead looks like for you. Get picky: The tighter you can narrow your scope, the more likely you are to turn up the best leads.
Tip #2: Experiment with Tools
AI sales tools for lead generation can have varying features, whether it’s different territory variables or lead databases. Try a few to find out which one works best for you.
Tip #3: Optimize Based on Response Rates
Look at which leads convert at the highest rates and adjust your criteria accordingly. It’s a constantly evolving process.
Outbound Sales, Automated. Spend less time hunting leads and more time hitting quota with Vidyard Prospector. Learn More
AI Sales Tool Tactic #2: Generating Cold Emails and Scripts
Cold calls and emails mean having to sound excited for that same old script. You could burn hours a day slaving over a word processor, writing personalized scripts for each prospect…or you could let AI do all the heavy lifting.
Here’s how to use some of the best AI tools for sales prospecting to generate flashy and personal scripts and emails from just one brief prompt.
A 3-Step Guide to AI-Generated Cold Emails and Scripts
Example AI Sales Tools: ChatGPT and Vidyard AI Script Generator
Step 1: Write an Effective Prompt
The quality of the generated email or script depends on the quality of your prompt. Create an informative and specific prompt to guide the AI. You can borrow prompts from our list of the best AI prompts for sales.
Step 2a: Run Your Prompt through ChatGPT
Start a new chat and enter your prompt. ChatGPT will return an email or script based on your prompt.
Step 2b: Run Your Prompt through Vidyard’s AI Script Generator
Log in to Vidyard, start recording a new video, enable the AI Script Generator, and paste your prompt into the relevant box. The tool will write a script based on your prompt, then automatically populate it into your on-screen speaker notes so you can follow along while you record your video.
Step 3: Tweak the Output
You probably won’t get a perfect email or script on the first pass. Read what the AI tool gives you, then edit the details yourself—and refine your prompt based on what you learned in order to try again.
Our Top 3 Tips for Generating Cold Emails and Scripts
Tip #1: Use Pre-Loaded Templates
Some AI sales tools come with basic templates. These are a great starting point. Pick one that fits your use case, fine-tune it for your needs, and see what it can create.
Tip #2: Always Touch it Yourself
Never hit “send”, “dial”, or “record” without tweaking your email or script first. AI’s phrasing can sometimes sound awkward and unnatural. Make sure you’re always contributing your personal touch. Tip #3: Make Every Email or Script Feel Like a One-on-One
It’s easy for AI-generated emails and scripts to sound AI-generated. Make an effort to inject personalization into the output. Your target: Make each email and script sound like it was written just for the prospect…even if it really wasn’t. (We won’t tell.)
Revolutionize Your Sales Videos with AI Learn how an AI can help sellers create video scripts for different use cases and touch points. Read the Guide
AI Sales Tool Tactic #3: Prospect Outreach
The more leads you generate, the more outreach you have to send. And when you’re generating tons of leads with the help of AI, your outreach needs go through the roof.
It’s best to tap AI sales tools to give you a hand on the outreach front, too. They can handle almost the entire process for you, and they don’t need caffeine, breaks, or sleep. That means you can save loads of time on those menial outreach tasks, letting you focus your special selling touch on the conversations that really deserve it.
A 4-Step Guide for AI-Powered Prospect Outreach via Email
Set the AI’s writing style to suit yours. You can choose the default tone, or customize it based on a sample of your own writing.
Step 2: Review the Sample
The tool will present a sample email written in the style you chose. Review it to make sure it’s a good fit.
Step 3: Add a Video
If you’ve already created a generic “introduction to your prospect” video, you can set it to automatically attach to each email the tool sends out. Select the video from your Vidyard Library, or check out the instructions on creating your own.
Step 4: Set up Scheduling
Enable scheduling to automatically send emails to leads you’ve chosen off the lead list. If relevant, you can opt to automatically send a BCC of each email to your sales engagement tool for tracking, as well as include an opt-out message in case leads aren’t interested in future emails.
A 4-Step Guide for AI-Powered Prospect Outreach via Video
Log in to Vidyard and click AI Avatars in the navigation bar. Follow the steps to record the sample video that the AI will use to generate your avatar. (If you don’t want to create an avatar, you can pick from a library of stock avatars instead.)
Step 2: Generate an AI Video
Choose your desired avatar. Select whether you want to produce a video with a fullscreen avatar, or a combination of an avatar and your computer’s background. Enter a video script as a prompt. Give the video a name, then generate it.
Step 3: Share the AI Video
Once the video is ready, find it in your Library, then share it using the available options (sharing via a link, sending via email, posting on social media, or embedding on a website).
Our Top 3 Tips for AI-Powered Prospect Outreach
Tip #1: Automate Your Sends
AI sales tools can send follow-ups at certain intervals. It’s like a personal assistant who knows just how often to check in. Take advantage of this to keep conversations moving.
Tip #2: Personalize Based on History
If this isn’t your first time reaching out to a prospect, customize the outreach you send to them based on your past interactions. It’ll make those AI messages feel more human.
Tip #3: Save Personalization for Priority Prospects
AI outreach is a huge help for those lower-value prospects. But when you’re dealing with a high-potential account, you want maximum control. Design and send the outreach manually (and maybe include a personalized video) to make it feel truly authentic.
Top Prospecting Tools You Need to Try See the 25 sales prospecting tools that come recommended by sellers like you. Read the Guide
AI Sales Tool Tactic #4: Researching Competitors and New Verticals
Before you jump in an ocean, you need to know what kind of fish are swimming in there. AI can connect you with near-instantaneous reports on new verticals and competing companies—and you don’t have to spend ages trawling through articles and corporate websites to piece together the info you need.
A 3-Step Guide to Researching New Verticals and Competitors
Example AI Sales Tool: ChatGPT
Step 1: Run Your Prompt through ChatGPT
Start a new chat and ask ChatGPT to provide info on the topic you want to research. If you’re doing recon on the competition, ask it to list companies that compete with yours. If you’re investigating a new industry, ask about the problems facing people working in that industry, or about the challenges that new entrants need to overcome.
Step 2: Turn it into a Conversation
Based on the initial output, ask questions about the findings to drill down. What does a certain listed competitor excel at, or how does it compare to your brand in terms of specific metrics? Why is a specified industry challenge so important?
Step 3: Deep Dive into the Topic
AI tools can pull up an incredible amount of information about your topic. To flesh out your findings, think outside the box to gather as much intel as possible. Try asking for summaries of financial results, or how other businesses who have tried to break into an industry have fared.
Our Top 3 Tips for AI-Powered Industry and Competitor Research
Tip #1: Remember AI’s Limits
Even if platforms like ChatGPT are one of the best free AI tools for sales, keep in mind that many large language models only have access to data up to a certain year. They won’t be able to account for events past that date.
Tip #2: Ask the Right Questions
Zero in on priority info. Focus your questions on topics that really matter to your situation.
Tip #3: Leverage AI’s Outside Perspective
Because you’re dealing with your value prop all day, every day, it’s easy to lose perspective. Asking an AI can give you an interesting point of view on how your brand and product are viewed by the wider world.
ChatGPT for Sales Guide Sell more with the help of with ChatGPT! This guide has everything you need to know. Get the Guide
More Productivity = Happier Seller
When you use AI sales tools to augment your workload, you’ll likely find that you have more time to spend on the tasks that really matter. Instead of spending hours on busywork, you can focus your effort on fostering those conversations that are more likely to drive deals.
Or you can just take a few more coffee breaks throughout the day. That’s a good use of your time, too.
No matter how you choose to use your reclaimed time, we hope that this playbook helps you become a more productive (and happier) seller.
Want more resources like this one? Read the guide below for links to our other articles on using AI in sales.
The Ultimate Guide to AI in Sales Read our guide on how to start using AI in your sales process. Read the Guide
