A year ago, I thought AI was mostly a research tool. That assumption didn't age well. In this solo episode, I walk through the four places AI actually earns a spot in my sales process today and where I still insist on doing the work myself.
Finding the Right Prospects Without Guessing
- I use a tool called Zenith to research prospects on LinkedIn through Sales Navigator, pull up what they've recently posted, and queue up a relevant comment or connection request based on that content.
- A human still has to approve every message before it goes out. I'm not letting this run unsupervised, and I edit plenty of what it drafts before it reaches anyone.
- This process alone books around three appointments a week for me, and the difference comes from how relevant the outreach is, not just how much of it there is.
Building Sharper Prospect Lists With AI Research
- I connect Claude to data platforms like Apollo and Lusha to build and enrich prospect lists for email campaigns with a level of precision that used to take hours of manual digging.
- A real example is finding publishers in a specific state who have a set number of books releasing this year and a newly hired director over content. That's the kind of narrow, specific research AI handles well.
- AI can find better prospects, but it isn't sending the emails or doing the relationship work on its own. The research has to be precise and relevant, and that precision is what actually moves the needle.
Meeting Recaps, Follow-Ups, and Prep Emails
- Fathom joins my calls and takes the notes, then Claude turns those notes into a meeting recap with clear next steps that I can send straight to the prospect.
- That same process updates our in-house CRM automatically, logging notes and creating follow-up tasks on the account without me touching a keyboard.
- Before the next call, I can also get a prep email drafted that references the last meeting's action items and asks the prospect to confirm or add to the agenda, which saves a meaningful chunk of prep time.
Drafting Proposals From Discovery Call Notes
- I can take the notes and conversation from a discovery call and have our AI agent draft a full proposal based on what was actually discussed, following our standard template.
- AI drafts it, then my team or I review and refine it before anything goes out, since it isn't perfect every time and can misstate an address or an offering if the original prompt wasn't clear enough.
- Human judgment is still required on scope and pricing specifically. AI has helped me think through pricing structures for different types of clients, but I'm the one making the final call.
Keeping the CRM Honest
- AI logs my activity and updates CRM records and pipeline stages automatically, which keeps the data current without me manually entering it after every call.
- The accuracy still has to be mine to own. Whatever the pipeline shows is what I'm reporting up to leadership, so I double-check that it reflects reality rather than trusting the automation blindly.
- Dictation tools like Wispr Flow are pushing this even further, letting reps update records and direct their AI agents by talking instead of typing, which is only going to get more common.
What AI Still Doesn't Replace
- AI doesn't replace the relationship, the judgment calls, or the actual conversation with a prospect, and that's exactly where I want to be spending more of my time.
- Research has shown reps spend a large share of their time, somewhere around 60%, on administrative work instead of actual selling, and that's the gap AI is closing for me.
- Some teams are taking this even further with inbound lead bots that hold full conversations and book meetings directly onto a calendar, with zero human touch until the call itself.
"AI handles the admin so that I can spend more time actually selling." — Donald C. Kelly
Leadership Advice, Books, and Quotes
My challenge for you is: Write out or dictate your entire sales process to Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to identify exactly where AI or an agent could take something off your plate. Most reps underestimate what's possible here, mainly because it feels unfamiliar, not because the tools can't handle it.
Resources
Tell me what AI tools you're using, or why you're holding off, on LinkedIn.
Check out Zenith for LinkedIn-based prospecting and outreach.
Check out Fathom for automated meeting notes and recaps.
Check out Wispr Flow for voice dictation that updates your tools directly.
Check out Apollo and Lusha for prospect data and list enrichment.
Sponsorship Offers
- This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.
With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.
- This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.
Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.
- This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.
Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.
Credits
As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.
