For a long time, being a Sales Development Representative (SDR) used to feel like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping that something would stick. SDRs making random calls and sending endless vague, generic emails to random contacts, praying for a single reply back. Then AI appeared and said: “I got this. Let me handle all this mundane, boring stuff.” That’s AI for SDRs in a nutshell. And no, if you are an SDR, AI is not here to steal your job. On the contrary. AI is here to make your job easier and more fun. Let’s dive into how!
An AI SDR (also called an AI Agent) is an advanced AI tool designed to help SDRs in the initial stages of the sales process. AI SDRs can handle time-consuming and repetitive tasks such as:
AI SDRs can operate across various channels, including:
With the latest advancement in technology and machine learning, some advanced AI SDRs out there are so well trained that they can handle a large number of complex tasks and can mimic human interaction to the T. Except when it comes to making phone calls. Even though there are some solutions offering AI sales agents that can carry a conversation via phone calls, they still do not offer an effective solution that works as good or better than human-made calls. However, significant progress is being made in this area and we’re here to see the next advancements in this field.
SDRs, no matter how good they are, can never manually sort through massive amounts of data in a matter of minutes. And let’s be honest, sifting through hundreds or thousands of leads is as exciting as watching paint dry. Instead of dealing with boring and repetitive tasks manually, SDRs can use AI to automate such tasks and let AI do its magic while SDRs focus on high-value tasks like building good relationships with leads and closing deals.
One of the biggest challenges for SDRs is lead prioritization, figuring out which prospects should be prioritized and which prospects aren’t worth pursuing. But as you may already know, online leads have a short life, and they can go cold in a matter or minutes. Yes minutes, not hours. A study by Harvard Business Review, which involved 1.25 million sales leads by a combination of 42 B2B and B2C US companies, found that “Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later.” A shocking revelation was that those companies that followed up within one hour after receiving a query were 60 times more likely to qualify the lead than companies that waited 24 hours or longer to go ahead with a follow-up. Nevertheless, most companies are still too slow to follow up on their leads. Harvard Business Review did another separate study where they audited about 2,200 US firms and measured how long it took them to follow up on a web-generated test lead. “Although 37% responded to their lead within an hour, and 16% responded within one to 24 hours, 24% took more than 24 hours—and 23% of the companies never responded at all. The average response time, among companies that responded within 30 days, was 42 hours.” Prioritizing leads takes time. Following up also takes time. Now imagine if SDRs automate the entire process with their AI SDR sidekick. AI SDRs will be able to quickly figure out the high-quality prospects that are most likely to convert and come up with a list that human SDRs can use to prioritize their efforts. Then, the same AI SDRs can automatically enrich all the lead data while improving the follow-up efficiency and response times. The result? Increased conversion rates.
Just like with the follow-ups, personalizing each outreach email or DM on LinkedIn takes time. SDRs will have to scan the person’s profile, do some research, read the latest posts that person has shared on their LinkedIn profile, etc. It’s very time-consuming and too complex to scale up. However, personalization is needed more than ever if you want to succeed and avoid just throwing spaghetti on the wall. “Personalization drives 10 to 15 percent revenue lift (with company-specific lift spanning 5 to 25 percent, driven by sector and ability to execute).” According to a 2021 report by McKinsey. Once again, advanced AI SDRs can come to the rescue here and automate this entire process while also sending personalized outreach emails and messages on LinkedIn. AI SDRs can handle everythi,ng from creating and sending personalized messages to monitoring high-quality prospect engagement.
Nowadays, AI SDRs are advanced enough to better understand the context of the conversations, use natural human language using natural language processing and are capable of building relationships with leads up until they reach the point of scheduling a demo call with a human SDR. Sounds futuristic, but this technology is already here. Genesy’s AI SDRs, for instance, send personalized messages and emails and keep the conversation going with all your leads until they are interested in learning more about the product and want to schedule a meeting. Then, the human SDR jumps in and takes over the conversation to ensure the lead gets their demo invitation link and all the meeting details. It’s important to note that a human SDR can jump in at any point, not just before the lead is close to scheduling a demo. AI SDRs are just there to keep engaging with the leads until the human SDR can take over and continue the conversation until closing the deal.
Genesy’s AI SDRs help you generate 4 times more B2B leads with the same exact team.
Here’s how:
Result: Generating 4x more leads with the exact headcount.
As long as you manage AI SDRs well and fully take advantage of them to make your job and life easier, you’ll be on the right track to achieving success with all the campaigns where you use AI sales agents. We also recommend you keep on refining the campaigns so you make sure the AI SDRs are using the correct messaging, which is on brand and also ensure that there is a smooth transition from the conversations generated with your AI Sales agents to the human SDRs.
Last but not least, the team of SDRs needs to be properly onboarded so they can fully understand how to use all AI SDR features, how to refine the prompts to get high quality answers, and how to make changes to AI-generated outputs so the campaigns run smoother.
Ready to scale smarter with AI SDRs? Request a free demo with our Genesy AI team, or contact us to learn how to fully leverage Genesy.
What are AI SDRs?
AI SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) are AI-powered tools or assistants designed to help SDRs automate routine tasks, such as lead prioritization, data entry, and outreach. These tools utilize machine learning and other AI technologies to analyze large sets of data, predict which leads are most likely to convert and help SDRs craft personalized messaging at scale, ultimately improving sales productivity.
Will SDRs be replaced by AI?
No, AI is not replacing SDRs. Instead, AI is augmenting their capabilities by automating repetitive tasks like data entry and lead qualification. This allows SDRs to focus on more strategic activities like building relationships with prospects and closing deals. The role of SDRs is evolving, with AI acting as a powerful tool to improve efficiency and decision-making.
What is an AI sales agent?
An AI sales agent is an AI-powered tool or virtual assistant that supports the sales process. It can handle tasks like lead qualification, personalized outreach, and lead prioritization by analyzing customer data and providing actionable insights. AI sales agents help sales teams increase efficiency by automating time-consuming tasks and allowing salespeople to focus on high-value activities.
What are the benefits of AI SDRs?
The benefits of AI SDRs include:
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