Autonomous AI Sales Agents… That Don’t Stink?

This week on Funnel Frontier: Salesforce releases “fully autonomous” AI sales agents that could be as good as your human sales team. Find out more!

This week:

• Salesforce releases “fully autonomous” AI sales agents
• The contact center, post-genAI 
• Tweaking your sales pipeline (via HubSpot)
• Xero vs Sage
• Keeping team culture alive (via Pipedrive)

Stat of the Week

The global AI market is now at about $235 billion. By 2028 it’s projected to top $631 billion. (IDC)

“Fully autonomous” AI sales agents?

Man, this Einstein guy seems to be on a tear. 

Just when you thought the Ulm-born physicist’s star was waning, boom—two new AI-powered sales agents from Salesforce, Einstein SDR and Einstein Sales Coach Agent.  

Both tools are designed to handle those little tasks no human enjoys. Normal AI stuff. 

However, this time Salesforce aims to reach a new level of personalization based on your unique business context, via the use of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with LLMs.

Einstein SDR is pitched as your 24/7 lead wrangler, sweet-talking prospects, dodging objections, and booking meetings. It’s all about scaling your sales efforts while you sip little java sips. And then, when the time is ripe, well-caffeinated human reps swoop in for glory.

Einstein Sales Coach Agent plays a virtual buyer, with the idea of giving sales reps a run for their money in practice sessions. 

The concept: a relentless, AI-driven intern that never sleeps and never complains—because, well, it’s not human. Also, using RAG, the AI coach crafts bespoke role-plays, modeled on information stored in the Salesforce platform. 

Of course, the big idea behind using these tools is saving money to make money. “Every AI conversation needs to be an ROI conversation, and that will happen only when AI augments your team to accelerate growth,” says Ketan Karkhanis, EVP and GM, Sales Cloud. 

The two tools come available in October, aka. just in time to tell you “you're still doing it wrong.”

The Week @ CRM.org

Top 10 CRM. It’s lonesome in the crowded field, so step into our cozy ten-vendor conversation pit (updated for 2024). 

Operational CRM Explained. Think of it as the boss that actually makes your sales team work smarter, not harder.

Weekly Bloom

Better User Onboarding 101. Because you wouldn’t just throw someone in a pool and yell “Swim!”

Post-genAI, what’s going on with contact centers?

GenAI is gearing up to sea-change contact centers. However, like convincing your grandma to breakdance, rap, and use TikTok - it’s going to take some work. 

In a recent episode of What it Means (A Forrester podcast), analyst Christina McAllister highlighted the potential for AI to transform customer interactions, help agents avoid repetitive tasks, and boost analytics. 

GenAI + CRM synergy is showing ROI. Particularly in drafting answers for support tickets and creating/saving call summaries to CRM to build a knowledge base. 

That’s important, because, says McCallister, “historically, that’s been 2–4 minutes of an agent tapping at a screen, trying to consolidate all of the notes that they have about the customer,” yet summaries are “not consistent,” “often not accurate,” and “very, very expensive.”

But don’t get too excited—outdated tech and clunky knowledge systems are in the way. Leaders need to up their AI game and make sure agents can handle the tricky stuff AI can’t. In other words, they need something called “AIQ” (i.e. an IQ about AI). 

So basically, fix the bottlenecks now, or you'll end up like a ship in a bottle. If you catch my drift.

Stellar Strategies: Tips & Tricks for Sales, Marketing & Service

Tweaking your sales pipeline (via HubSpot)

Ah, the art of the sales pipeline. It’s a slip-and-slide of tracking, forecasting, and cleaning up messes.

The key is making sure you’ve got the right leads, at the right time, in the right stages. Like herding cats, but cats with jobs and money. 

You’ll need to nail down your stages—because, surprise, not every customer strolls through the buying process the same way. Then there’s the joy of tracking how many prospects actually meander from one stage to the next without falling off the game world. 

But wait, there’s more! You’ll also have to figure out how many deals you need at each stage to hit those ever-elusive targets.

Because let’s face it, it’s probably cluttered with fossilized leads and stale deals that are dragging down your forecasts. 

Don’t worry, with enough data-crunching, follow-ups, and a dash of automation, you might just turn that chaotic mess into a well-oiled revenue machine. Just don’t forget to keep an eye on those key metrics,

More here.

Xero vs Sage

Accounting apps, eh? Stuck between Xero and Sage?

It's like choosing between a 15-inch MacBook and a 14-inch MacBook.

Xero is the feature-packed wonder for SMBs, with everything from project accounting to payroll. Sage, on the other hand, is the minimalist's dream for freelancers and micro-businesses, offering simplicity and a lighter price tag. 

If you're running a growing business and want more bells and whistles, Xero's your pick. But if you're keeping it small and sweet, Sage will do just fine.

More nuance and detail here.

Keeping the startup team culture alive (via Pipedrive)

Like that startup vibe? Want to keep it alive, even as your company xenomorphs into a corpo-beast? 

Pipedrive's CEO, Dominic Allon, says it's all about clinging to those original garage band values—like not being a jerk and aiming for greatness—while the team expands faster than a credit card bill during the holidays. 

You need to maintain open communication (yes, even with the CEO). Then let AI handle the boring stuff so humans can take a load off.

In short, just make sure your office looks a little more like the model UN every day.

A wee bit more here.

Galactic Gourmet

CRM blips from around the web

Pipedrive wins for “CRM Software Innovation” at MarTech Breakthrough Awards. The win closely shadows the release of Pipedrive AI.

ActiveCampaign to stage inaugural Product Keynote. It takes place on September 12th as a webinar, and will cover the vendor’s past year of product dev, including upgraded AI, automation, and reporting tools.

Astronomical Assets

Significant Stock Moves from Last Week

If you'd like weekly CRM news delivered to your inbox, subscribe to Funnel Frontier!