We had the privilege of hosting, Eugene “Blue” Bowen, Research Principal from G2, one of the leading software marketplaces and review sites that cover a broad range of B2B solutions. In this session, Blue breaks down the categories of AI sales tools and the specific tools founders and entrepreneurs can leverage to transform their sales processes.
In the recording and presentation above, you’ll find a visual grid that shows where each tool stands. Below is a quick index to help you jump directly to the tools you’re most interested in:
Chapters:
01:46 Overview of G2
04:26 Buyer Behavior Trends
10:15 Considerations for Implementing Generative AI
13:54 Top Use Cases and Challenges of Generative AI
17:30 AI Tools for Sales and Marketing
17:45 G2’s AI Sales Assistants Grid
20:36 AI Conversation Intelligence Software
22:42 AI Writing Assistants
24:01 AI Auto Dialers
25:18 Signal Aggregation Platforms
32:31 AI Business Development Representatives and Outbound Sales Agents (BDR)
37:24 Inbound Sales Agents and Automation (SDR)
39:03 Transforming the Buyer Experience with AI Sales Tools
43:04 Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Examples of AI Tools That Empower Startups
AI tools are transforming the way startups approach sales, even if you’re utilizing a product-led approach, and/or have a complex enterprise sales motion. While there are countless solutions available, here’s a closer look at the major categories and what they can do:
1. AI Sales Assistants
AI sales assistants are tools designed to streamline sales processes by automating repetitive tasks and offering predictive insights. Startups can use these tools to focus on high-value activities, like building relationships with leads, while the software handles follow-ups, reminders, and data tracking.
What They Do:
- Automate routine sales tasks like email reminders, lead prioritization, and scheduling.
- Provide data-driven insights to optimize decision-making in real-time.
Examples:
- Apollo.io: A popular sales engagement platform that combines prospecting with automated outreach to help startups build their sales pipelines efficiently. Apollo has gained traction for being startup-friendly and offering robust features at an affordable price point.
- Humantic.ai: A people-centric AI tool that helps personalize sales outreach by offering behavioral insights on leads, enabling startups to connect with prospects in a more meaningful way.
2. Conversation Intelligence Software
These tools are perfect for startups that rely heavily on virtual or phone-based sales. Conversation intelligence software transcribes and analyzes sales calls to uncover actionable insights, allowing teams to improve their communication strategies.
What They Do:
- Record, transcribe, and analyze conversations to identify key themes, customer pain points, and action items.
- Provide metrics like talk-to-listen ratio and interactivity scores to improve performance.
Examples:
- Fathom.video: A tool that integrates seamlessly with virtual meetings to provide automatic transcription, summarization, and action item generation, saving time and keeping sales teams focused.
- Tactiq: A lightweight, startup-friendly tool that automatically transcribes Google Meet conversations, highlights key points, and enables sharing notes for team collaboration. It’s an ideal solution for smaller teams that need simple and effective transcription capabilities. (Disclaimer: Tactiq is a Mucker portfolio company.
3. AI Writing Assistant
AI writing assistants are useful for startups looking to streamline content creation, personalize sales materials, and enhance communication strategies. These tools excel in helping startups with generative content creation. From writing compelling cold emails to creating polished blog posts, AI writing assistants make it easier to connect with prospects and customers in meaningful ways.
What They Do:
Generate content for marketing campaigns, blog posts, email outreach, and social media. (For tips, check out our blog post: Creative GenAI Applications to Fuel Early Stage Startup Growth with Rosemary Brisco and Bob Mitton.)
Personalize messages at scale, tailoring them to individual leads or customer segments.
Assist with editing and enhancing content to ensure clarity, professionalism, and engagement.
Examples:
- Notion AI: A versatile tool that integrates seamlessly into the Notion workspace, helping startups create structured content, brainstorm ideas, and generate polished text for projects like pitch decks, customer communication, and blog posts.
- Grammarly: A popular AI-powered tool that not only corrects grammar and spelling but also provides tone and clarity suggestions. Grammarly is especially useful for creating professional and engaging emails, proposals, and marketing content.
Tip: Startups can leverage these tools to save time on content creation and use free tools like ChatGPT or others, make sure to investigate prompts to get the most out of the tools.
4. Auto Dialers
Auto dialers are not a new concept, but they have significantly evolved over the past year. For startups with one or two sales reps focused on outbound efforts, auto-dialers can be a game-changer in maximizing productivity and enabling human connection with prospects.
What They Do:
- Automatically dial numbers from a pre-set list, allowing sales reps to focus on speaking rather than manually calling.
- Offer conversation intelligence features, such as preparing notes by scraping LinkedIn profiles or gathering insights about prospects in real-time.
- Help sales reps connect meaningfully by reducing the need to scramble for information while calls are ringing.
Tips:
- Auto dialers can differentiate your startup by bringing back a human touch in a world dominated by email outreach.
- If your team is small, focus on tools that combine auto-dialing with intelligence features, like prospect data scraping and meeting prep.
- Zig where others zag—using phones heavily can cut through the noise of overused email channels and help build stronger relationships.
Examples of Startup-Friendly Auto Dialers:
- Kixie PowerCall & SMS: A lightweight and affordable auto dialer with built-in SMS capabilities, perfect for small teams.
- JustCall: Offers autodialer functionality alongside SMS and call tracking features. It’s an excellent choice for startups due to its cost-effectiveness and intuitive interface.
Tip: Auto dialers are especially effective when used alongside email outreach, helping startups achieve a balance between automation and personalization.
5. Signal Aggregation Platforms
- Aggregate signals at the account and contact level, such as website visits, job changes, funding announcements, and leadership transitions.
- Prioritize and score prospects using signals combined with Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) data to identify high-probability leads.
- Automate workflows for personalized outreach, making it easier to engage with prospects in meaningful ways.
- Offer account-level research to help sales teams craft tailored messages and speak the buyer’s language.
- Focus on Relevant Signals: Identify which first-party, second-party, or third-party signals are most impactful for your business. For example:
- Job changes or new leadership often indicate an openness to change in tech stacks.
- Website traffic or G2 activity can reveal purchase intent.
- Start Small: Early-stage startups can begin with a single tool that fits their needs, and then scale as they identify more signal types to track.
- Ensure CRM Integration: Choose tools that integrate seamlessly with your CRM for continuous enrichment and bi-directional syncing of data.
- Unify: A comprehensive platform that aggregates multiple signal types and allows native automation of outreach workflows.
- Clay: Combines various signals and provides actionable insights for personalized outreach. Clay is an affordable and highly customizable tool for startups.
6. AI Outbound Sales Agents
- Identify accounts and contacts to target by leveraging large datasets, guided by your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
- Create and automate personalized outreach via email, SMS, WhatsApp, and other channels.
- Respond to prospect questions and schedule meetings to drive pipeline growth.
- Automate outreach workflows, enabling startups to scale their outbound efforts efficiently.
- Fit for Low-Complexity Products: AI BDRs work best for transactional products or those with a straightforward value proposition. If your product requires extensive explanation or education, you’ll likely need human sales reps to close deals.
- Precise Targeting is Critical: Ensure the AI is well-informed of your ICP and uses differentiated messaging for different customer segments. Avoid a “spray and pray” approach, which can harm your email deliverability and brand reputation.
- Guardrails Are Essential: Set limits on email volume and bot autonomy to prevent spamming your Total Addressable Market (TAM).
- Humans in the Loop: Plan for a seamless handoff to human reps when prospects show signs of deeper engagement. This ensures a personalized touch for leads requiring additional nurturing.
- Segment by Value: Use AI BDRs for lower-value or SMB segments, allowing human reps to focus on higher-value mid-market and enterprise accounts.
- 11x.ai: An AI-driven outbound agent that automates lead generation and email outreach, designed to help small teams scale their sales efforts.
- Regie.ai: Offers advanced content personalization and multi-channel outreach capabilities, enabling startups to deliver tailored messages at scale.
When to Use AI Outbound Sales Agents:
7. AI Inbound Sales Agents
- Engage inbound leads quickly through website chat or email.
- Route leads to appropriate sales team members based on CRM data and business rules.
- Integrate with CRMs to provide complete prospect histories, enabling seamless follow-up conversations.
- Schedule meetings and automate the lead-to-pipeline process.
- Inbound Traffic is Essential: AI inbound sales agents are only effective if you have a high volume of inbound leads. If lead volume is low, focus on building your sales development function and enhancing brand visibility through founder-led marketing efforts.
- Integration is Key: Ensure that your AI inbound sales agent integrates seamlessly with your CRM so that interactions build on previous conversations rather than starting from scratch.
- Brand and Marketing Matter: Strong content marketing, founder-led sales efforts, and visibility on platforms like LinkedIn can drive inbound interest, making AI inbound sales agents more effective.
- Clay: Provides flexible workflows and enriched lead data to automate inbound engagement while keeping messaging highly personalized.
- Qualified: Specializes in engaging website visitors via real-time chat, helping to turn traffic into pipeline faster.
When to Use AI Inbound Sales Agents:
8. Demo Automation Software
Buyers today want the ability to experience products on their own terms, and demo automation tools make this possible. These solutions let startups create interactive product demos that are available 24/7, even with a small sales team.
What They Do:
- Provide self-serve demos that allow prospects to interact with your product without needing a live salesperson.
- Enable startups to deliver an engaging buyer experience without scaling their team.
Examples:
- Supademo: Allows startups to create interactive, no-code product demos that are tailored to each prospect’s specific needs.
- Navattic: Offers guided product tours that show off key features and benefits.
These are some examples of the tools we see in the webinar, please check out the video at the beginning of the blog and slide deck for in-depth information.
9. Digital Sales Room Software
Digital sales rooms are something that Blue is very bullish on. With the self-service journey buyers want today and the way buying committees are expanding, especially when you’re moving upmarket, these tools provide one resource for your champion to use internally. It’s a place where they can share everything—getting others on board and aligning on the next steps.
What They Do:
Similar to demo automation, you get engagement analytics. You know who’s viewing it, what they’re viewing, and what resonates with them—what they care about. They also give you a way to communicate asynchronously. So, prospects can comment like, “Hey, do you have a case study showing how this feature adds value?” And AI is being infused here too. It auto-suggests content based on what’s worked with similar companies in the past. So if you’re selling to an SMB tech company, it’ll pull up content that’s worked for that segment before.
Examples:
- GetAccept: Lets you track engagement and see what resonates, all in one place.
- Aligned: Gives you the tools to create personalized experiences and track what matters most to your prospects.
It’s all about creating that smoother, self-service experience while you still get the data you need to know what’s working.
TIP: You Don’t Need Every Tool: Start Small and Stay Focused
As Blue points out, startups don’t need to adopt every tool on the market. Instead, focus on a few solutions addressing your most pressing challenges. Give these tools the time and effort they need to work effectively before considering new ones. Constantly switching tools or building a bloated tech stack can create inefficiencies and distract your team.
Closing the Deal: What Startups Must Prioritize
Key Takeaways
- Align with the Buyer Journey: Be present at every stage with educational resources and personalized solutions.
- Choose the Right AI Tools: Focus on solutions that address your most pressing challenges and align with your growth goals.
- Leverage Platforms Like G2: Build credibility and attract buyers by listing your solutions on trusted marketplaces.
- Prioritize Buyer Experience: The best product doesn’t always win; the best experience often does.
- Start Small with AI Tools: Stick to a few tools, commit to mastering them, and avoid the temptation of constantly switching.
