Welcome to the AI party: How entrepreneurs can use automation to bolster sales

Like a lot of small business owners, Jacqui Jones was skeptical of entrusting her work to AI. Her company, One Degree Marketing in Birmingham, Alabama, works with clients on branding, graphic design, social media management and web design. All these things require a human touch.

But gradually, through much trial and error, Jones learned that AI, when used properly, could help her grow her business while making more time for her clients. Mastercard recently asked her to host a webinar on the topic via — or what she dubbed “an AI party” —on the topics via its Digital Doors program for small businesses.

In the past, she told attendees, small businesses lacked the resources larger businesses had to sort through and analyze data to identify and pursue likely leads. But now emerging AI technologies powering both general-purpose generative AI platforms and bespoke tools like Mastercard Small Business AI are helping to level the playing field.

“Small businesses see 50% more qualified leads when they integrate AI into sales,” Jones said at the small business webinar. She added that AI tools also help produce 20% to 30% higher conversion rates, and 78% of business owners report major time savings.

Here’s how to do it.

Integrate AI into your existing sales process

Every business has its own sales process, but Jones observed that most fall into a five-step pattern. First, owners attract leads. Second, they qualify those leads. Third, they must follow up, and, fourth, they need to continue to nurture their newfound relationships to eventually close the sale. And finally, they can focus on retaining and upselling to existing customers. Unfortunately, many business owners get so caught up in attracting leads that they fail to identify the most likely prospects and connect with those leads. This is where AI tools can help.

“AI can analyze data better than you can to predict buyer interest,” Jones said. Such data includes customer engagement, website visits and buyer behavior. “As you try to identify and qualify leads, you have more information to work with.”

Jones pointed to tools like Apollo.ai, Clay, HubSpot, ChatGPT and others that can spot patterns that aren’t necessarily visible to the human eye and save business owners time by identifying potential customers who have already shown interest.

Automate follow-up without losing the human touch

Putting in time to build strong relationships is how deals are won. “I have no idea how my company would have gotten as much business as it has without relationships,” Jones said. 

To stay on top of her customers’ needs, Jones uses Otter.ai to record her meetings. In addition to a transcript, Otter produces a summary to remind her what was discussed and what she promised to do. A generative AI program, such as ChatGPT or Copy.ai, can then draft a follow-up email, and Gmail’s scheduling feature ensures that her note lands in customer’s inbox at an opportune time. Meanwhile, Calendly keeps track of her schedule and helps coordinate meeting times.

Personalized outreach at scale

Programs like Zapier and Mailchimp enable business owners to reach mass audiences, whether it’s a follow-up email or an instant response to someone who filled out an interest form on a website. Jones said that while these tools have been around for a long time, they remain wonderful ways to test out subject lines and calls to action to find the most effective messaging. Lavender.ai is useful for providing feedback on tone in real time, while Vidyard and Loom can help with video production.

Keep the human in the process

AI is a tool, Jones emphasized. It’s not meant to replace human intelligence or run without human oversight.

“AI is trying to be you,” she said. “You are an expert at what you do. AI needs you to do this process.” AI fatigue — feeling overwhelmed from constant exposure to automated technology — is very real, and customers can tell the difference between a message from a real human and machine-generated slop.

That means you need to know your customers and validate leads before reaching out. You need to read over the email drafts that AI writes and personalize them with a human touch. You also need to protect your customers’ privacy by not feeding their most sensitive data into AI tools without first setting up the right protections and protocols. When in doubt, Jones said, be sure to disclose when you’re using AI-generated content — she likes the phrase “AI generated and perfected with love.”

“AI is about supporting you, not replacing you,” she said. “Don’t let yourself get lost.”