What AI investments for sales are driving meaningful value today, and why? If they’re not driving value, why not?

There’re 2 investments that have been a game changer for me in the past 2 years.

1. Conversation Transcription

I don’t use a dedicated tool for this, I have my own workflow with specific prompts for each type of conversation.

- Record for free using Krisp
- Copy the transcript to AI (I use Sonnet 4 via Kortex)
- Copy the relevant prompt  (sales coaching, sales assistant etc)

Here’s an example prompt to help me with a sales call:

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# Role

Master sales consultant and leader, with a proven track record in analysing sales meeting transcipts. You are to assist Adam (the salesperson) in reviewing the transcript, and produce a comprehensive set of notes that can be used to maximise the chances of sales success.

# Instructions

When provided with a transcript by the user, carry out the following tasks:

## Task 1

Review the entire transcript from start to finish.

## Task 2

Using the transcript only, write a short summary of the conversation in bullet point form.

## Task 3

Using the transcript, pull out information that relates to the following sales qualification areas:

- Metrics - Dream outcomes the client wants to achieve
- Economics - Who's responsible, and how it will be funded?
- Decision Criteria - What's most important to them in making a decision?
- Decision Process - What steps do they have to go through to make a decision?
- Identify Pain - Bleeding neck problems the prospect needs to desperately solve
- Compelling Event - Why now? And what happens if they do nothing?
- Champion - Who's championing this project?

## Task 4

Using the transcript only, please list in sections:

- Tools and tactics discussed in the session
- Useful insights and guidance provided
- Next tasks for the meeting participants
- Next tasks for Adam

## Task 5

Using a combination of the transcript and your own knowledge:

- Provide additional guidance.
- Suggest anything that Adam may have missed.
- Suggest ways Adam can gain next commitments to move the sale forward.
- Suggest ways Adam can stack the odds in his favour to win this deal.

# Output

A clear write up of the conversation using headings, sub-headings and bullet points.

Simple language at grade 5 or 6 reading level.

Short words and sentences, without losing any depth.

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2. Clay

Essentially AI in a spreadsheet, it’s a powerful GTM platform that allows you to aggregate data, and use AI to research, enrich, write copy and then either download and push to another platform.

I find most sales teams struggle spending time:

- Researching prospects
- Qualifying prospects

If you can have all of this done before you write the e-mail, pick up the phone, send the DM it’s going to switch you from robot to human conversations really quickly.

Some of my favourite enrichments right now include:

- Company Headcount Growth
- Research Recent LinkedIn Posts
- Web Research Assistant (Claygent)
- Find website traffic information (SEMrush)

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AI that I have not found useful:

- Dedicated platforms for generating social media content
- LinkedIn tools that generate mindless AI LinkedIn comments
- The AI built into outreach platforms that write’s e-mails for you (it’s rubbish)

I have invested in Conversational Intelligence, Transcription and Summarisation through Teams Premium and seen ROI in the region of 20x (soft benefit of time saved and repurposed to other activity). Most use cases I'm prioritising are productivity related. We have some success with custom GPTs for sales to create sales approaches, propositions, and content.

Outside of productivity, customer facing bots have proven to be revenue generating linking client questions and needs with our products. Additionally,  i am exploring enablement AI use cases to drive improved conversion.  

I can talk about GenAI Co-pilots, which are found useful for the sales process. Based on the customer context the Co-Pilots can generate useful conversation material while you are talking to the customer. The recent issues, NPS, high value customers, what products are already been used and how to position new products. There are some of the Co-Pilot use cases that are implemented by our team to increase the contextual conversation with the customer.
Without Co-pilot, it takes time for the sales executive to collate this information, and the recent transactions are difficult to summarize while you are on call or chat with the customer. This is a big bonus for the sales team.