4 best AI bots for sales teams

A great salesperson makes all the difference in the shopping experience. No matter the product or service you sell, employing helpful and knowledgeable sales reps is the best way to generate leads, enhance the customer experience, cross-sell and upsell products, and, most importantly, close sales.

For an online store, the equivalent of a salesperson is the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. It can handle many of the tasks of a human salesperson and has proven to be successful in interfacing with customers. So successful, in fact, that business leaders say AI chatbots on average.

Which AI sales bots should you consider exploring? We’ll show you the top four in this article so you can find one that works for your business. But first, we’ll provide a brief explanation of AI-powered chatbots and the benefits they offer sales teams.

What are AI bots for sales teams?

AI-powered chatbots are software tools with a web interface that allows human users to have a text-based conversation with AI technology. Typically deployed on company websites, social media apps, and messaging apps, chatbots use AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to understand customer queries and offer appropriate responses.

Like a human sales representative, a sales chatbot can help businesses meet customers’ needs in various ways, such as:

• Providing factual, knowledge-based answers to frequently asked questions
• Escalating issues to a human sales representative
• Booking a meeting with a human sales representative
• Helping customers with tasks like setting up an account or paying an invoice
• Offering more information, cross-sell suggestions, and upsell suggestions about products and services

What are the benefits of using AI sales bots? 

AI bots for sales teams essentially act as company sales representatives, helping businesses learn more about their customers, engage with them, and serve their needs. Some of the key benefits of using this technology are:

• Your customers get instant support, anytime. Sales chatbots are available 24/7/365. Customers want answers fast, whether it’s the middle of the day or 3 a.m. While human sales reps typically work traditional business hours, chatbots are available to field queries anytime.
• You can generate more leads. Businesses can gather prospect names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other vital information via sales chatbots, and funnel that information into a CRM and email marketing system. This way, it’s easy to nurture leads through the sales pipeline.
• You can increase conversions. Sales chatbots can answer questions about products, discuss shipping and delivery timelines, and even provide promo codes for discounts — all activities that help convert prospects into customers.
• You gain a better understanding of your prospects and customers. Chatbots can gather more than just contact information; they can also glean insights into customers’ likes, dislikes, preferences, and more. Businesses can use this information to improve their products and services and better meet the needs of customers.
• You can prioritize certain accounts. Strategically escalating issues and prioritizing certain customers helps close more sales. AI chatbots can determine which customers need to talk to a human sales representative to move forward.
• You can minimize abandoned carts. If a prospect is about to exit an online store without completing checkout, a chatbot can reduce the chances of an abandoned cart by stepping in immediately and offering shipping discounts, expedited delivery, or other benefits.
• You can upsell and cross-sell products. Sales chatbots are an excellent way to suggest related and higher-ticket products to customers based on the products they have already bought or are considering buying.

With these incredible benefits in mind, are you ready to select an AI sales chatbot for your team? Check out these options below.

What are the 4 best AI chatbots for sales teams?

1. Zendesk Sell

Zendesk Sell is an all-in-one sales platform that offers an AI chatbot assistant as part of the Zendesk suite of products. With the CRM, businesses can get full pipeline visibility, track leads through the sales funnel, and close more sales. The AI chatbot tracks conversations with customers and provides transcripts of conversations, so you can gather the insights you need to better serve your target audience.

Best for: Organizations looking for an all-in-one sales platform

Developer: Zendesk

Key features:

• Customizable AI chatbot assistants
• Comprehensive CRM with contact and deal management
• Bulk outreach email features

Pros and cons:

• Pros: Users love the automation capabilities that help close deals faster.
• Cons: Some users have noted development bugs that affect performance.

Plans and pricing:

Zendesk Sell has a free trial and four paid plans starting at $19 per month.

G2 rating: 4.2/5

2. HubSpot Chatbot Builder

HubSpot Chatbot Builder enables sales teams to build their own custom chatbot and use it to connect with data pulled directly from the HubSpot CRM. This tool can provide customer support, book meetings and appointments, and qualify leads to help organizations enhance their sales processes. The chatbot builder is highly intuitive and comes with a visual editor, so you don’t need any advanced coding knowledge to use it.

Best for: Organizations that use the HubSpot CRM

Developer: HubSpot

Key features:

• Multiple chatbot templates
• Ability to send personalized messages based on existing data
• Integration with HubSpot CRM

Pros and cons:

• Pros: HubSpot Chatbot Builder comes with thousands of chat templates to make customization easier.
• Cons: The free plan doesn’t include advanced features, which can be problematic for those who do not want to buy a HubSpot Hub plan.

Plans and pricing:

HubSpot Chatbot Builder is free to use with basic features and advanced features are unlocked with paid plans. HubSpot has multiple types of paid plans for its sales, marketing, and operations hubs. The Sales Hub has four paid plans starting at $15 per month per seat.

G2 rating: 4.4/5

3. Intercom

Intercom is an AI-powered customer service platform with three key services. The AI Agent is a chatbot that offers instant answers to customers 24/7; the AI Copilot provides internal assistance for support agents; and the AI Analyst offers insights and recommendations for leaders. The AI Agent chatbot delivers human-quality service, personalizing every interaction and immediately adapting to meet a customer’s needs.

Best for: Organizations that prioritize customer service

Developer: Intercom

Key features:

• Response generation based on company knowledge bases
• Ability to learn the company tone of voice
• AI-powered insights to better manage your entire customer service organization

Pros and cons:

• Pros: Users love that the chatbot saves them lots of time so they can focus on strategic work.
• Cons: Some users have noted issues with common business tool integrations.

Plans and pricing:

Intercom has a free trial and three paid plans starting at $29 per month. You can also use the AI Agent chatbot with your existing platform for $0.99 per resolution.

G2 rating: 4.5/5

4. Tidio

Tidio is an AI customer service platform that addresses 70 percent of customer issues without any human intervention. Its Lyro AI chatbot answers frequently asked questions and performs recurring tasks so sales reps can focus on nurturing prospects and closing leads. Organizations can train the chatbot with their content so that it follows the processes and requirements of your business. Unlike some chatbots, it’s capable of answering multiple questions at a time, enhancing the customer experience.

Best for: Organizations that want to resolve customer issues quickly

Developer: Tidio

Key features:

• Chatbot training using only your organization’s content, not outside data
• Highly visual chatbot editor
• Demand spike management

Pros and cons:

• Pros: Users love the ability to personalize responses with the chatbot.
• Cons: Some users have noted that it’s not cost-effective for small companies.

Plans and pricing:

Tidio has a free plan and three paid plans starting at $29 per month. Plans are based on the number of conversations.

G2 rating: 4.7/5

Are you ready to enhance your sales process with an AI-powered sales bot?

Sales bots can help you nurture leads, field questions, and close sales — not to mention gather valuable customer insights and reduce instances of abandoned carts.

Be sure to take advantage of the free trials and free plans so you can explore each solution without making a financial investment and hopefully find one that works best for your sales team.

Keep this in mind: The majority of people — 88 percent — have used AI chatbots, signaling that customers expect to see this technology from businesses. Give the people what they want and enhance your processes with an AI bot for sales today!

Photo by Anna Shvets