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Issue 2 - AI Assistants vs. AI Coaches vs. AI Analysts: What can they really do for your team?

This week’s edition: AI sidekicks and which tools drive value for your team. Plus - the headlines of the week and a competitor breakdown.

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Getting friendly with AI: Which tools are actually worth your team’s time?

In a new article from Harvard Business Review, Prabhakant Sinha, Arun Shastri, and Sally E. Lorimer discuss AI’s ability to add value to your sales team.

As a rep at your sales job, you’re probably used to being a one-person show. You’re the researcher, the note-taker, as well as the one who does the admin and data-analysis. You’re even your own coach.

But as the industry quickens, and you’re expected only to deliver more and more, how will you keep up? Luckily, as the article suggests, AI can help boost customer retention, increase prospect engagement, better conversion rates, and drive overall revenue. This is all very promising (and a little vague).

But what are the different types of AI agents on the market, and what can they do for your team?

In the current market, AI could function as...

The AI Assistant:

This is the task-tackler, and the tool you'd use to lighten your admin load. Core functionality includes:

• Transcribing and recapping client calls.
• Client collateral creation.
• Syncing notes to your CRM.

The AI Coach:

Arguably the most handy of the bunch, the AI coach helps you make decisions on key deals, helps you prospect efficiently, and gives personalized feedback. The AI coach ultimately adds the most value to your team, as it helps you close more of your deals. It does so by providing:

• Coaching feedback post-call.
• Decision-making help on key deals.
• Answers to open ended questions.
• AI avatars that work as customers for role play, training, and onboarding.

The AI Analyst:

The AI Analyst helps you with your data and prospect research, taking the guesswork out of who to target next and how to do it. More specifically, it can:

• Use data like buyer engagement, customer profiles, and interactions to source fresh prospect insights.
• Suggest which interactions and touchpoints might work on specific customer profiles.
• Use industry intent data to source and list your next batch of companies to target.

Real-life applications

• CommandBar uses Pod's AI to level up its data hygiene game and keep its pipeline visibility strong.
• IBM and Cintas use AI on the client-communications side, having the tool transcribe, recap, and summarize client meeting calls into actionable notes.
• Zoom has also used AI on the customer avatar front to onboard new sales reps and have them role-play with “Jenny,” the virtual customer.

So, what’s stopping your team?

Are you still taking manual, scribbled-down notes? Is your sales manager constantly moving your coaching session? Or maybe you’re spending hours you don’t have on data analysis. It’s time you make some moves to adopt a tool that will quicken your revenue growth (and your path to target). Here are 3 things to consider with adoption:

1. Use a phased adoption or a pilot for testing: Minimize upfront cost with a thorough POC with a specific team instead of a big company-wide rollout.
2. Use an AI you can train to learn your company’s context: Training on past proposals and marketing efforts will allow your AI to give more curated feedback.
3. Measure ROI as you go: Choose metrics that measure the progression of efficiency to see what and where the value is.

Don’t get left behind in the AI game. Work smarter, drive more revenue, and thank us later.

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Headlines of the week

• Avatar-generating AI for sales raises millions in funding
• Top AI-related job postings in tech now
• Car salesman explains “meet the manager” technique

Sales tool breakdown

Are you on the fence about whether to try out Scratchpad or Pod? We’ve stacked them against each other to make your shopping easier.

Check it out here.

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