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AI SDR Explained: Your Guide to Next-Gen Sales Strategies
December 30, 2024
By
Irina Maltseva
Sales development is a cornerstone of the entire sales pipeline, and the Sales Development Representative (SDR) position serves a foundational role in that pipeline. ZoomInfo data shows that over 125,000 professionals work in an SDR role, handling everything from outbound sales to data entry and messaging.
But are we getting the most out of these professionals? Can they focus on speaking to prospects, building relationships, and moving leads into their pipeline? Or are they stuck updating databases and researching on LinkedIn?
This article discusses essential advances in AI and how they are disrupting the SDR role. We’ll discuss the emergence of AI SDR agents, whether they replace humans or some of the newest technology's top providers.
As the name suggests, an AI SDR is an AI-powered program that handles the tasks that sales development representatives traditionally manage. They take some of the basic daily functions of a traditional SDR and make them faster, more accurate, and more responsive:
The challenge for any artificial SDR is how to engage with both more mechanical tasks (updating data) and more creative tasks (making suggestions about messaging or responding to prospects).
To do this, AI SDRs combine advanced technologies like:
There is an elephant in the room, however.
A HubSpot survey showed that 41% of salespeople think “their days are numbered” because of AI automation. There seems to be a real fear that AI SDRs will replace their human counterparts.
So… Do these artificial agents support human SDRs or replace them?
Ethical considerations notwithstanding, an AI SDR's foundation is its ability to operationalize machine-like tasks. SDRs spend a lot of time–some might say too much–on basic tasks like data entry or scheduling emails. But, according to HubSpot, 78% of surveyed sales professionals see AI as a way to streamline these tasks so they can focus on more important aspects of their job, like communicating with leads.
What was once considered an unfortunate necessity of the SDR position can now become an afterthought with AI. Through AI SDR agents, sales pros can take their basics and push them to the background of their work. These professionals don’t stop selling… they stop updating entries in a database or clicking boxes in their email platform.
This means these AI agents don’t replace SDRs; they just allow them to focus on more creative human tasks.
The difference between human and AI SDRs isn’t just surface-level, machine vs. human. Their differences are rooted in the types of work they do, how they do that work, and how they help one another generate leads and close deals.
AI SDRs will perform better than human counterparts regarding rote tasks–data entry, boilerplate outreach emails, etc. Humans simply cannot replicate machines' speed, scale, or accuracy in these tasks.
However, AI cannot compare to human ingenuity when connecting with a human prospect. This is where the ‘soft” skills of a human SRD come into play: relationship building, navigating complex negotiations, understanding cultural and industry norms and expectations, and so on. AI simply doesn’t have the creativity or nuance of a human SDR.
AI SDRs don’t rest, don’t need breaks, and are available 24/7. Humans simply cannot compete with this level of efficiency and availability–nor should they. AI SDRs can handle these constant but low-level tasks no matter the scale. Then, while AI SDRs help maintain peak operating conditions for an outbound campaign or sales pipeline, human SDRs can focus on building human connections.
In most cases, human agents can personalize communications with prospects better than AI. However, this gap has closed with the recent explosion in generative AI.
In the grand scheme of your SDR function, an AI SDR agent will excel in lead qualification, data entry, and consistent response and follow-up capabilities. AI SDRs will also have the edge in creating personalized content that sticks closely to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
On the other hand, human SDRs are crucial for building and maintaining relationships with prospects. Not only will human agents react more organically to back-and-forth communications with leads, but most people expect to work with a human to have their needs addressed.
AI SDRs, therefore, complement human SDRs by minimizing those mechanical tasks that eat up hours every day, freeing humans to focus on strategies and tactics to connect with leads in a way that leads to a sale.
Are you ready to hire an AI SDR to handle repetitive tasks while supporting hyper-personalization for outbound messaging?
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If you’re on the fence about adopting an AI SDR, it’s important to understand that the advantages of having one on your team are profound and could radically reshape how you think about your sales pipeline.
According to a survey from HubSpot, 88% of salespeople say AI is important to their sales process, and AI automation saves over two hours daily.
It’s no surprise, then, that automation is the most important part of an AI SDR. These artificial agents can search for new leads through multiple channels (social media, websites, and internal emails or phone calls). They excel at finding new patterns in data and can turn that pattern recognition into effective ways to perform outbound prospecting and turn those prospects into leads.
SDRs perform a lot of data entry, almost always leading to errors. This isn’t a massive issue in isolated cases, but regular errors in data entry can mean incorrect contact information and poor lead qualification–all of which cost time and money.
AI SDRs like Ava specialize in tracking lead behaviors within your sales pipeline and using that information to inform future activities. For example, AI SDRs can analyze engagements like email opens, clicks, website visits, and other events to adjust tactics or messaging.
Typical outbound sales efforts are incredibly time-consuming. From research and prospecting to messaging, following up, and qualifying, this work takes many SDR hours. This is perhaps why 41% of sales reps already report using AI to help them qualify leads.
AI SDRs, however, can simplify and streamline many of these tasks. Additionally, AI can handle enhancement tasks like data enrichment or email warm-ups.
AI SDRs can also do double duty for inbound sales. They can handle incoming leads by transcribing messages or calls, kick-starting follow-up email sequences, updating contact information, and funneling leads to the right salespeople on your team.
Artisan is the premier provider of outbound and inbound sales services powered by their AI SDR, Ava. Ava handles all the critical parts of an SDR, including research, data enrichment, message personalization, lead qualification, and more. All this, connected to their database of over 350M B2B contacts and industry-specific playbooks, means you’ll have a top-notch SDR on hand 24 hours per day.
“A game changer solution to our business development needs.” - Julio M.
Looking to improve your SDR efforts? Artisan is here to help you automate outreach, engage leads, and close deals more effectively.
11x is an AI Sales Development Representative tool designed to optimize and automate various aspects of the sales process. Its SDRs (Alice, Jordan, etc.) focus on improving email outreach efficiency and lead conversion rates, making them valuable assets for modern sales teams leveraging AI in their workflows.
11x is a new player in this field, so much so that they’ve only recently received their Series A funding and no reviews on trustworthy sites like G2.
AiSDR offers a comprehensive solution for automating sales development tasks, freeing up human SDRs to focus on high-value activities like relationship building and closing deals. The tool’s integration with CRM systems and ability to operate 24/7 makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to enhance their sales processes through sales automation and AI-driven insights.
“Well worth the cost.” - Mariia B.
Qualified stands out for its focus on real-time engagement and ability to convert website visitors into qualified leads. Their AI SDR (Piper) automates the inbound pipeline, emphasizing chat and messaging interaction for prospects who land on your web pages. She focuses on answering questions, booking meetings for website leads, and providing relevant marketing material where necessary.
“Great data, tool, and customer support is excellent.” - Theresa W.
Lyzr AI offers a unique proposition: Customers can develop their own AI agents. Their pre-built agents (specifically Jazon, the AI SDR) also provide base-level support for sales teams wanting to enhance outbound sales.
“Lyzr is definitely adding value to the whole decision-making lifecycle.” - Rishabh Sood.
All of the AI SDR solutions listed here are cloud-based, which simplifies implementation. However, it’s crucial that your organization is prepared to work with an AI agent, integrate it with your pipeline, and leverage specific features to get the most out of your new AI employee.
Your first step is to evaluate your sales workflow and identify where an AI SDR might be beneficial. More specifically, find places where the AI agent can take over repetitive tasks or those ripe for automation. Don’t try to replace critical human interactions with AI–while generative AI has come a long way, it isn’t a replacement for humans.
Find a solution that provides the features you need. If you’re invested in outbound sales, get an agent who excels in that process. Don’t “hire” an AI SDR that functions as a chatbot for inbound sales and try to retrofit it into a position it wasn’t meant to fill.
Set clear performance indicators for your new AI SDR so that you understand success and failure. These can include metrics like scheduling meetings, email opens, and the time it takes to move a prospect into the pipeline as a lead.
AI SDRs can take over a lot of tasks, but that doesn’t mean they are an island that you turn on and forget. Likewise, it’s not the case that there won’t be a period of adjustment with your team to make the most out of your new agent. Work with your AI SDR provider to train your team on everything they need to know.
Finally, ensure your AI SDR can interact with your sales tech stack and communications tools. Ensure seamless integration to guarantee that you can trace the SDR’s effectiveness and that the AI and your team work seamlessly without duplicating efforts. Also, make sure that your sales and marketing strategies are aligned so that the SDR insights can inform content.
AI isn’t going anywhere; it will just continue advancing, disrupting, and changing the landscape of sales. Instead of seeing this as a cause of concern, savvy organizations can adopt intelligent AI SDRs as just another tool to make their pipelines more efficient and effective.
As sales efforts and outbound prospecting grow, AI SDRs like Artisan will become essential for busy sales professionals who would instead focus on building connections rather than handling data entry. Instead of replacing humans, these AI tools will increase efficiency, improve conversions and sales, and better equip businesses for a data-driven economy.
It’s time to embrace the AI revolution and transform your SDR function with powerful, personal, always-on sales expertise.
Irina is a Founder at ONSAAS, Growth Lead at Aura, and a SaaS marketing consultant. She helps companies to grow their revenue with SEO and inbound marketing. In her spare time, Irina entertains her cat Persie and collects airline miles.
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