The 10 Best AI Tools for Smashing Your Sales Quota in 2024

As a sales leader, you‘re always looking for ways to give your team a competitive edge. You need them to connect with more qualified buyers, have more meaningful conversations, and ultimately, close more deals faster.

Enter artificial intelligence. AI is rapidly transforming the sales landscape, helping reps automate tedious tasks, surface actionable insights, and hyper-personalize their outreach at scale. In fact, high-performing sales teams are 4.9X more likely to be using AI than underperforming teams.[^1]

But with so many AI sales tools out there, it can be overwhelming to figure out which ones are right for your team. That‘s why we‘ve done the legwork for you. We‘ve evaluated dozens of AI-powered sales tools and narrowed it down to the top 10 that are delivering real results for sales organizations.

Whether you‘re looking to streamline prospecting, optimize deal execution, or forecast more accurately, there‘s an AI tool on this list that can help. We‘ll dive into the key features, benefits, and use cases for each one.

But first, let‘s look at some eye-opening statistics on the impact of AI in sales.

The AI Sales Revolution Is Here

The adoption of AI in sales is expected to grow by 155% by 2024.[^2] And it‘s no wonder why. According to the State of Sales Report by Salesforce:[^3]

• High-performing sales reps are 2.3X more likely to use AI than underperformers
• Sales reps spend 34% of their time selling, with the rest spent on administrative tasks that could be automated
• 85% of reps say they need a better way to prioritize leads and opportunities

AI has the potential to be a game-changer for sales teams by:

• Automating repetitive tasks like data entry, activity logging, and reporting
• Providing real-time coaching and guidance based on conversational intelligence
• Serving up data-driven insights and recommendations to help reps take the next-best-action
• Enabling hyper-personalization at scale through AI-powered content generation
• Predicting pipeline and revenue more accurately to inform forecasting and resource allocation

The question is no longer if you should adopt AI for sales, but how. Here are the 10 best AI sales tools to get you started.

1. HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot Sales Hub is an all-in-one CRM platform with AI capabilities baked right in. It leverages machine learning to help sales teams work smarter and sell better in several key ways:

• Predictive lead scoring: Automatically score and prioritize leads based on their likelihood to close, using factors like company size, industry, behavior, and past interactions. Focus your team‘s efforts on the best-fit, most sales-ready opportunities.

• Conversation intelligence: Record, transcribe and analyze sales calls to surface insights on talk-to-listen ratios, longest monologues, competitor mentions, and more. Get AI-powered suggestions on how reps can improve their sales conversations.

• Automated sales emails: Scale personalized 1:1 email outreach with automatic task queues and pre-built templates. Get real-time performance tracking and optimization tips to improve open and click-through rates.

• AI-powered forecasting: Accurately predict future sales with machine learning that analyzes rep behavior, deal change history, and sales cycle length. Customizable forecast reports help identify at-risk deals and coach reps to success.

What makes HubSpot‘s AI really stand out is that it is fully integrated with the rest of the platform. Insights and recommendations from AI are served up directly within a rep‘s existing workflow, in context with their sales activities. There‘s no need to jump between multiple tools or dashboards.

"HubSpot‘s AI helps us work so much more efficiently as a sales team. I can prioritize my day based on the leads that are most likely to convert, and I‘m prompted with email and call suggestions right when I need them. The insights are super prescriptive and actionable." – Sales Manager, AppFolio

Pricing

HubSpot Sales Hub starts at $45/month for 2 paid users, with additional users at $23/month. More advanced AI functionality is available in Professional ($450/month) and Enterprise ($1200/month) plans.

2. Gong.io

Gong.io is a revenue intelligence platform that uses AI to analyze customer-facing interactions across phone, email, and video conferencing. Its "Reality Platform" captures and understands the context of sales conversations to deliver actionable insights to reps and managers.

Some key ways Gong.io empowers sales teams with AI:

• Conversation analytics: Get visibility into key sales metrics like prospect monologue length, interactivity, patience, engaging questions, and next steps discussed. Understand what top performers are doing differently in sales calls.

• Moments that matter: Gong automatically tags and organizes key moments in sales calls, like pricing discussions, competitor mentions, and objection handling. Jump to the most critical parts of a call without having to sift through hours of recordings.

• Deal intelligence: Keep a pulse on deal health and risk with an AI-powered Deal Execution Score. Gong alerts managers when deals are going off-track and provides specific coaching recommendations to get them back on the path to closed-won.

• People intelligence: Gong helps managers identify skill gaps on their team and deliver personalized rep coaching at scale. It can detect client-facing skills like building rapport, driving conversions, and demonstrating expertise.

"Since we‘ve rolled out Gong, I‘ve seen a marked improvement in the quality of our discovery calls. Reps are asking better questions, talking less and listening more. Deal velocity has increased by 20% and our win rates are up across the board." – VP Sales, Snowflake

Pricing

Gong.io offers customized pricing upon request for its Starter, Professional, and Enterprise packages.

3. Outreach

Outreach is a sales engagement platform that enables reps to efficiently execute on their sales playbooks across multiple channels. Its AI-powered automation and insights help teams optimize their prospecting and deal cycles.

Some notable AI features in Outreach:

• Sequence automation: Build multi-channel, multi-touch sequences for different personas and buying scenarios. Outreach‘s AI determines the optimal messaging, timing, and cadence to drive higher response rates.

• Kaia AI assistant: Outreach‘s AI assistant Kaia helps reps draft high-performing emails, provides real-time guidance on calls, and recommends next-best-actions to keep deals moving forward. Kaia even helps new hires ramp more quickly.

• Sentiment analysis: Outreach uses natural language processing to analyze the sentiment and tone of email replies from prospects. Reps get notified when a message seems positive or negative, so they can tailor their response accordingly.

• Intent scoring: Combines first and third-party signals to detect buyer intent and prioritize accounts for prospecting. Track billions of intent signals like website visits, content downloads, and more.

"Outreach has been a total game-changer for our SDR team. Our reps can easily execute on personas-based sequences without having to overthink the content or cadence. Response rates are up 35% and our reps are booking 20% more meetings." – Sales Development Manager, DocuSign

Pricing

Outreach offers customized pricing based on the size and needs of your sales team. You can request a demo and quote on their website.

4. Salesforce Einstein

Salesforce Einstein is an AI platform that can be added to any Salesforce cloud to deliver predictive insights and intelligent automation. For sales teams using Sales Cloud, Einstein layers in several AI capabilities:

• Lead scoring: Automatically identify and prioritize the leads that are most likely to convert to opportunities, based on factors like profile fit, behavior, and past lead conversion patterns. Customize lead score weightings based on your ideal customer profile.

• Opportunity insight: Einstein continuously monitors pipeline changes and proactively alerts reps to deals that are at risk, have gone quiet, or may require additional support to close. It also intelligently predicts close dates and next steps.

• Account Insights: Automatically see key accounts to focus on based on Einstein‘s AI scoring. Get insights related to account news, billing issues, service level agreement compliance, and more.

• Activity capture: Einstein Activity Capture automatically syncs email and calendar activity to the relevant Salesforce records, eliminating manual data entry for reps. It also recommends connections and follow-ups to optimize deal progression.

"With Einstein Lead Scoring, our reps no longer have to rely on gut feel to prioritize their day. They can focus their efforts on the leads that are most likely to convert, and we‘ve seen a 25% increase in conversion rates as a result." – Director of Inside Sales, Autodesk

Pricing

Einstein AI is included in Salesforce Enterprise Edition ($150/user/month) and Unlimited Edition ($300/user/month). Some Einstein features can also be purchased as add-ons to lower-tier editions.

5. People.ai

People.ai is a revenue intelligence platform that automatically captures all contact and activity data, and delivers AI-powered insights to drive sales productivity. It integrates with your CRM, email, calendar, and other sales tools to provide a 360-degree view of rep and deal performance.

Key AI capabilities in People.ai include:

• Predictive forecasting: People.ai generates more accurate sales forecasts by analyzing historical sales data, opportunity-level buying signals, and rep activity data. It also provides deal-level forecasting so managers can predict the likelihood of each opportunity to close.

• Buyer engagement: Understand how engaged each stakeholder is in an opportunity based on People.ai‘s AI analysis of email, phone, and meeting activity. Get real-time visibility into the health of each deal and next-best-actions to drive it forward.

• People Intelligence: AI helps identify buyer roles and maps out the key decision makers in each account. Get insights on org charts, job titles, influence level, and sentiment to build a compelling business case.

• Sales coaching: People.ai compares rep activity and performance data to surface coaching opportunities at the individual and team level. Managers can see which reps need help with specific skills like objection handling or closing.

"People.ai has been instrumental in helping us improve the accuracy of our sales forecasting. We now have complete visibility into deal activity and engagement, so we can identify risk and upside in real-time. Our forecast accuracy has improved by 30%." – CRO, Okta

Pricing

People.ai offers customized pricing for its sales solution based on the size of your team and scope of deployment. You can request a demo on their website.

Bonus: 5 Best Practices for Implementing AI Sales Tools

Investing in AI sales technology is only half the battle. To truly reap the benefits, you need to implement it in a way that drives adoption and delivers real value to your sales team. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Start with a clear use case. Don‘t just adopt AI for the sake of AI. Identify a specific pain point or goal that AI can help you solve, whether it‘s increasing lead conversion rates, improving rep ramp time, or streamlining forecasting.

2. Get buy-in from your reps. Clearly communicate the value of AI to your sales team and how it will make their lives easier, not replace them. Involve them in the selection and implementation process to get their feedback and ensure the tool fits into their workflow.

3. Ensure data quality and integration. AI is only as good as the data you feed it. Make sure you have clean, accurate data in your CRM and other sales tools. Ensure your AI tool integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack to avoid silos.

4. Provide training and support. Don‘t expect your reps to figure out AI on their own. Provide thorough onboarding and ongoing training on how to use the tool effectively. Designate champions on your team who can provide support and share best practices.

5. Measure and iterate. Establish KPIs upfront to measure the impact of your AI tool on sales performance. Regularly collect feedback from your team on what‘s working and what can be improved. Don‘t be afraid to iterate your approach based on data and qualitative insights.

"Adopting AI has been a journey for our sales org. We started small, with a specific use case around lead prioritization, and gradually expanded our usage to other areas like conversational intelligence and forecasting. The key has been getting our reps bought in and making the tools as seamless as possible in their day-to-day." – VP Worldwide Sales, HashiCorp

The Future of AI in Sales Is Bright

As a sales leader, you can‘t afford to ignore the transformative potential of AI. By 2024, 60% of B2B sales organizations will transition from intuition-based to data-driven decision making, using AI to guide selling activities.[^4] Will you be one of them?

The sales teams that embrace AI will be the ones that thrive in the years ahead. They‘ll be able to work smarter, not harder, by automating busywork and focusing their energy on the highest-impact activities. They‘ll have a clear edge in terms of productivity, efficiency, and most importantly, revenue generation.

But AI alone is not a silver bullet. It takes careful consideration of your team‘s specific needs, thoughtful implementation and change management, and a commitment to leveraging insights into action.

Use this guide as a starting point to evaluate the top AI sales tools out there and determine which ones are the best fit for your sales org. But don‘t stop there. Create a culture of continuous learning and innovation around AI, and empower your team to experiment with new use cases.

The future of sales is intelligent, it‘s efficient, and it‘s hyper-personalized. And it‘s yours for the taking.

[^1]: Sales Mastery Study. Miller Heiman Group.
[^2]: AI in Sales. CapGemini.
[^3]: State of Sales Report. Salesforce.
[^4]: Top 10 Trends in Data and Analytics. Gartner.