7 AI Tools for Your Outbound Sales Program

This Week

• Long Read: Outbound Sales + AI

• 7 AI Tools for Your Outbound Efforts

• Around the Web: SaaS Benchmarks and Growth Levers

• AI With Attitude

• Invest: Napkin Funding from Point Nine

• News: Jasper Features and Job Security

How to Build an Outbound Sales Strategy Using AI 

Contrary to popular belief, outbound sales is far from dead. Nobody likes an unsolicited email or call, but studies show it’s just as effective as inbound sales. The key? Balancing personalized engagement with proactive outreach.

Here are three strategies you can use for your outbound sales program, all supported by AI:

1. Automated Lead Scoring

   • How: Use AI algorithms to prioritize leads based on data points.

   • Perk: It saves you hours by pointing out which leads to tackle first.

2. Tailored Prospect Journeys

   • How: AI analyzes behavior and past interactions to personalize content.

   • Perk: Higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

3. Chatbots for Pre-Qualification

   • How: Integrate chatbots that ask qualifying questions right on your website.

   • Perk: Your sales team only talks to interested leads.

Want all the details on setting up your next outbound program with AI? You can read the full article at Medium with my Friend Link.

7 AI Tools for Outbound Marketing & Sales

1. Outreach

What it Does: Outreach.io automates and optimizes touchpoints throughout the sales process.

Best Feature: The ‘Sequence’ feature allows you to set a chain of touchpoints that run automatically.

Price: Custom

G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5

2. Clearbit

What it Does: Clearbit offers real-time data enrichment for personalized customer interactions.

Best Feature: Its ‘Enrichment’ feature provides detailed profiles to personalize marketing efforts.

Price: You can sign up for free with limited functionality, or upgrade to the Business Plan.

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5

3. Intercom

What it Does: Intercom is a chatbot platform that allows for real-time chat and automation on your website.

Best Feature: The ‘Operator’ bot that helps qualify leads on your website 24/7.

Price: Starts at $74/month.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5

4. Drift

What it Does: Drift is primarily a chatbot but offers some sales automation features.

Best Feature: ‘Drift Audiences’ allows you to segment and target website visitors.

Price: Custom

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5

5. Hubspot

What it Does: Hubspot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and CRM suite.

Best Feature: The robust lead scoring capability.

Price: You can sign up for the free version; premium plans start at $50/user/month

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5

6. Customer.io

What it does: Customer.io is a customer engagement platform that lets you send targeted emails, push notifications, and SMS to your contact list.

Best feature: You can create complex workflows to send the right message to the right customer at the right time, increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Price: Plans start at $100/month for up to 12,000 profiles, or you can apply for their free Startup program.

G2 rating: 4.4/5

7. Twilio

What it does: Twilio provides communication APIs for SMS, voice, video, and WhatsApp.

Best feature: You can design highly tailored communication workflows.

Price: You can get started for free, or their Basic plan is $15/month.

G2 rating: 4.3/5

Hopefully, I’ve given you a clear and concise guide to optimizing your outbound sales programs with the help of AI. I’d love to hear what you think. And let me know if you’re using any other AI tools — drop me a line so I can add them to my list!

Early Access: 2023 Benchmark Report

The 2023 SaaS Benchmarks report from OpenView + Paddle helps you uncover valuable insights to move your business forward.

A sneak peek:

• Growth rates have fallen even at the best, most envied SaaS companies.

• Real-time Paddle data shows compound annual growth rates have fallen to just 8.4% as of September 1st, down from a peak of 60.2% in Q1 '22.

• The new North Star metric for success is ARR per FTE.

• AI-washing won't help your business, but monetizing AI will.

Sign up here to get early access to the report. If you can’t wait until it comes out, you can access the 2022 report here.

Growth Levers + AI

How to identify the best growth levers for your business—and use AI to help. You can access the presentation slides from MKT1.

Funding Napkin

Christoph Janz is a Partner at Point Nine, an early-stage venture firm. He talks a lot about SaaS funding and why AI will come up in every pitch meeting. His latest post includes a "funding napkin" and what matters to investors in 2023. Here's the full article.

AI Attitude

When Google-PaLM says it can do everything, but it just doesn’t want to.

News

• Jasper launches new marketing co-pilot features. Read more at Venture Beat.

• Marketing Data State of Play 2024 says 64% of marketers fear AI will steal their jobs.