Sales teams from top to bottom are using a wide range of agentic tools to boost conversions, iron out leads, and even replace video communications.

Popping up across the corporate world faster than coffee shops in “up-and-coming” neighborhoods, AI agents are, as Tech Brew writes, “(more) autonomous systems [that] can act beyond the realm of a chatbot to plan and perform multi-step tasks.” Oftentimes these tools will specialize in video recording, document automation, and data synthesization.

Agentic AI tools, like those offered by Gong and Vidyard, are already being used in conjunction with traditional CRMs and reshaping workflows.

“We spend so much less time in Salesforce and instead are using Gong as that single source of information because it can give us summaries of calls, and give a summary across calls, and give a summary across all customers. So that’s become really powerful for us,” Keith Rabkin, president of PandaDoc, an automated agreement management platforms, said.

Rabkin said his company initially used Gong as a training, enablement, and verification tool to help its revenue team be more efficient. However, as large language models like ChatGPT started to redefine what AI could accomplish, he explained that the use cases for these agentic tools started to multiply.

“It became this really interesting way that we could get insights into where we were winning deals, when we were losing deals, how much price pressure, which competitors were coming up,” Rabkin said.

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Since launching in 2018, Palo Alto-based training platform Zenarate has been providing sales and customer service professionals with field-specific AI simulations. It has taken its offerings up a notch with the release of its new AI tutor, which takes those training simulations and gives users real-time performance insights and feedback.

“It's basically your own little personal AI coach following you, listening, analyzing your calls, and it surfaces what we call an ‘automated development plan,’” Brian Tuite, chief executive officer and co-founder of Zenarate, said.

How it works: The platform, which is currently offered in 79 languages, can be tailored to certain scenarios or industries. The AI tutor then grades users against best sales practices, including close rates, sales rates, and overcoming objections, and auto-assigns new simulations focused on areas in need of improvement.

• Capital One, Hyatt, BlueCross BlueShield, and Verizon are among companies already using the tool.

What are the benefits? Tuite follows a “practice makes perfect” principle. Instead of using internal training videos or info sessions, he believes Zenarate’s interactive software leads to quicker improvement among sales professionals.

Keep reading here.—LI

Retention is often an operational Rubik’s Cube for sales leaders: matching up the right combination of personalities, compensation, culture, experience, strategy, and, of course, sales generation.

In solving for retention, there are seemingly countless combinations of moves that can lead to the same desired outcome: a team that consistently hits sales goals.

For Casey Halloran, CEO and co-founder of travel agency Costa Rican Vacations, that solution was the creation of an internal company currency.

“At the beginning of each semester, we hand out a fixed number of these. We call them ‘frog dollars,’ which we named after our company logo, which is a tree frog. In the old days, we designed it on Photoshop and actually printed the money. Now that we’re a 100%-virtual organization, we built a little digital ledger system, so I jokingly say we inadvertently invented bitcoin,” Halloran said.

Keep reading here.—BS