Human connection is important in sales, but consider outsourcing email to GenAI.
If you’re a B2B sales manager looking to help your team save time on sales emails and write them more effectively, generative AI (GenAI) is your solution. Nearly a third of respondents in Gartner’s 2023 Technology and Service Provider Generative AI Survey are using or planning to use this new technology to develop sales pitch emails.[1]
This guide details five ways GenAI can help your reps write a more effective sales email. Even better? Our recommendations are backed by insights from Gartner research,[1-2] so you can feel confident applying them to your next email campaign.
Be smart about GenAI usage
Before diving into our recommendations, you should know a few things about GenAI. First, using AI text generators comes with the risk of intellectual property or competitive intelligence leaks. To protect your company’s brand, Gartner strongly recommends consulting your legal team to set up internal guard rails and agree on best practices.[2]
Second, the information provided by AI text generators can be inaccurate, biased, and/or outdated.[1] Any sales rep should use these tools only after they’ve received proper authorization as well as training to ensure any AI-generated content aligns with your brand’s core positioning and messaging guidelines.
#1: Assist in research to help stand out from competitors
One of GenAI’s most useful features is its ability to conduct industry-specific research within seconds. If your company sells insurance, for example, your reps could prompt a GenAI tool to share the pricing, market share and size, branding, and messaging of other popular insurance companies to inform the angle of their next cold email.
Screenshot of a competitive analysis example from Google’s GenAI tool Bard, taken by author[3]
Competitive analysis, like the one shown above, can help gauge where your company stands among competitors to differentiate your messaging in cold emails. It’s especially beneficial if you know which company your buyer has previously used or is currently using and looking to switch from, so reps can reference how your brand can meet buyer needs in ways the other brand can’t.
Limitations to look out for
Since the information provided by AI text generators can be inaccurate, biased, and/or outdated, do due diligence and review it for accuracy before hitting send.
#2: Develop more empathetic messaging that aligns with your brand’s persona
Using GenAI to sound more empathetic might sound counterintuitive. But through a functionality called sentiment analysis, GenAI tools are capable of learning what types of words, tone, and back-and-forth interactions show empathy and which ones could be more positive.
Tone detection functionality in proofreading platform Grammarly
Tools like the one shown above can provide real-time sentence-level feedback on text, including suggestions to make it more empathetic. According to a 2023 study published in Nature Machine Intelligence, similar tools have shown a 20% increase in empathy among all participants and a 39% increase among participants who struggle to express empathy in writing.[4]
Tone detection can also help your team write a more effective sales email that aligns with your brand’s persona. For instance, if your brand is geared toward a younger demographic, it’s helpful to know if your tone is too formal. This is good for not only ensuring consistency among sales professionals but also creating messaging that’s more likely to resonate with your target audience.
Limitations to look out for
Again, any information a GenAI tool provides should be reviewed for accuracy. You should verify GenAI-produced text to ensure it aligns with brand messaging guidelines and holds cultural relevance. It’s also a good idea to review the suggested changes to determine their effect on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs.
#3: Ideate better-performing content to boost KPIs
GenAI offers an effortless way to warm up your team’s cold outreach in ways that impact business performance and impress stakeholders. A sales rep can use this technology to:
Generate catchy subject lines: By using performance data and considering elements such as tone, length, and phrasing, GenAI can help craft the perfect sales email subject line to catch your prospects attention. Tools like the one below can create subject lines that stand out in a prospect’s inbox and potentially improve open and response rate.
Subject line options shown in email marketing platform Campaigner
Personalize communications: GenAI can personalize emails using a prospect’s first name (also shown above), but that’s not all. Through algorithms and data analysis, GenAI can also tailor recommendations for B2B buyers based on their needs. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but can boost sales and revenue.
Anticipate unique objections from potential buyers: Harvard Business Review found that sellers who are prepared for customers’ objections have 12% faster sales cycles and 11% larger deals than competitors. [5] GenAI can help by analyzing previous interactions with a prospect and leveraging competitor intelligence and market data to ideate counters to objections in real time.
Limitations to look out for
To personalize communications, you’ll be feeding customer data into a GenAI tool, which could lead to legal and regulatory issues. To avoid these, have the following safeguards in place:
Express consent from customers to use their data for AI processing. Clearly convey the data’s intended purpose so customers understand its potential impact. (Read this article for more information on collecting and using customer data.)
Ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations governing AI usage in customer communications. For instance, your company must inform customers about how first-party data will be used and processed, including for AI training.
#4: Be absolutely clear with corrected grammar and spelling
Nothing kills sales pitch emails like glaring spelling or grammatical errors. But with GenAI, sellers don’t have to be syntactically gifted to move a potential customer through the B2B sales funnel.
Repeated phrase detection shown in proofreading platform ProWritingAid
The same GenAI tools that monitor your B2B sales email’s tone can alert you about spelling errors as well as misuse or overuse of words. By facilitating clear and correct communication, GenAI can help sales professionals make a better first impression on a potential customer and strengthen your brand’s credibility.
Limitations to look out for
While GenAI has a knack for spelling and grammar, it doesn’t always grasp context. Sellers should verify whether AI-corrected sentences still carry their originally intended meaning.
#5: Reach a wider audience with language translation
Lastly, a good sales email is one that’s easy to understand, no matter where a buyer is located. GenAI can automate language translation and adapt content to regional preferences, helping ensure clear, accurate, and respectful communication with international clients.
Translate function in translation management platform DeepL
Language translation capabilities can not only enable reps to reach a wider audience, but they also help build the trust and rapport essential for converting a sale.
Limitations to look out for
Certain language pairings (e.g., Spanish to English, Japanese to French) are featured less frequently in large language modelsBest practices for using GenAI to write sales emails
GenAI is great for so many things: personalized email, more in-depth buyer research, and language translation to name a few. However, it takes 43% of businesses over six months to learn how to use AI technology, according to Capterra’s 2022 AI Marketing Survey.* Therefore, we’d be remiss not to highlight these additional pointers:
Practice using AI text generator prompts to write emails.
Review the emails drafted by AI text generators. Reiterate the importance of having a human look over any AI-generated text before hitting send.
Work with your sales team to ensure any AI-generated text aligns with core positioning, brand, and messaging guidelines.
For more resources on B2B sales, check out the following articles: