Which AI SDR is Best for Your Sales Outreach?

AI sales tools are changing how companies find and talk to potential customers. But some caution is necessary as your AI SDR choice can make or break your sales strategy.

That’s because not all AI SDRs are the same.

Some simply gather lead data and draft emails while others go further by analyzing intent signals, qualifying leads, responding to incoming messages, and even handling questions or objections.

To find the best fit for you, you need to understand what each AI SDR brings to the table at each stage of sales outreach.

That’s why we’ll be taking a closer look at the features of some of the leading AI SDR solutions:

• AiSDR
• Unify
• Relevance
• Regie
• OneShot
• Artisan
• 11x

Cold email outreach

Cold emails serve as the first point of contact with a lead. And your initial email has to set the tone and pique a lead’s interest from the get-go. 

With well-timed, hyper-relevant messages, your cold leads can turn into warm ones, opening doors to potential new business relationships. The right combo of email framework, intent signals, and messaging can turn cold outreach into a consistent pipeline generator.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

Cold email is one of the most basic core functions of an AI SDR, which is why most AI tools for sales emails offer it. 

The differentiator is how each tool sends messages.

Many tools like AiSDR and Regie create and send messages on autopilot while others like OneShot provide a copilot option where sales reps have to spend time reviewing and editing messages. 

A few tools offer users the choice of toggling autopilot or copilot. In AiSDR’s case, users can enable copilot and respond manually to leads.

Lead nurturing

Most leads don’t convert after one interaction. In fact, most take 8 or more touchpoints before booking a meeting.

Leads need more time and information to build trust and confidence before they feel ready to purchase. Nurturing is a key tactic for educating leads and keeping you top of mind.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI sales tools can help with nurturing in a few ways. They can send personalized follow-ups based on a prospect’s behavior and engagement. Some like AiSDR can be configured to write nurturing emails that share case studies and other decision-driving information in your voice. And since nurtures and follow-ups are automated, this prevents pipeline leakage from turning into pipeline poverty.

Personalization

Instead of a one-size-fits-all message, personalized outreach adds details to emails based on the level of personalization you want, such as multimedia or customer segmentation. Basic personalization typically includes mentions of the prospect’s name and company, while deep personalization will touch on factors like website visits, hiring intent, and tech stack.

By tailoring messages, you can significantly boost engagement, which can increase revenue by 10-15%. That’s because prospects are more likely to respond when they feel a message was crafted specially for them.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

Personalization is a must for any AI SDR, so you’ll find it in all sales email tools with AI. 

However, not all of them offer the same degree of personalization. 

For example, Unify and Relevance use contact information, LinkedIn, and CRM data to generate messages while Artisan and 11x can also scrape X (Twitter) posts. 

Other solutions like Regie and OneShot offer sales data from third parties like Apollo and ZoomInfo. 

AiSDR also pulls data from a user’s LinkedIn and HubSpot accounts, and provides the ability to track and identify product champions and webpage visitors. You can then pair certain GTM plays with high-impact email frameworks.

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Prospect research

Researching prospects means gathering information about company size, hiring intent, industry, recent news, and even the prospect’s role in the company and their communication preferences.

Good research is the backbone of effective outreach. 

In fact, 78% of sales reps who use social media to research leads before calls outperform their colleagues who don’t use them. With accurate data, reps can target the right people with relevant offers, increasing their response rates.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI tools are irreplaceable for prospect research as they can find data within minutes, saving sales teams days of manual data collection. 

At a minimum, AI SDRs search their internal databases and sync ot your CRM to gain insight and generate emails. Advanced AI SDRs also search social media platforms and other data channels to find relevant information.  

Importantly, research is for more than just personalization. 

For instance, AiSDR scrapes people who leave LinkedIn likes and comments on a specific person’s profile posts.

One other useful feature of tools like AiSDR is their ability to automate the entire process of prospecting to research to creating emails and managing campaigns. This lets sales teams find and reach out to leads on autopilot soon after identification.

Lead qualification

Lead qualification is a crucial step for evaluating the likelihood of a prospect becoming a buyer, which goes hand in hand with prospect research. You match your ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer persona with information gathered about a lead. Then you decide which might buy and which are unlikely.

When qualification is skipped or done incorrectly, sales reps waste time and resources pursuing leads who won’t turn into buyers. And if sales teams correctly qualify leads and narrow their focus to the most promising ones, teams achieve higher productivity and the company sees stronger revenue growth.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI tools automatically compare lead lists with your ICP, analyzing their data and looking for signs of fit and buying intent. This is a basic feature for all AI SDRs, but tools differ in terms of accuracy, which filters the AI tool includes, and how they collect data.

For instance, AiSDR identifies a lead’s intent along with specifics like a company’s industry and size to qualify and prioritize prospects while 11x focuses mostly on a lead’s B2B data. 

Or if you want to verify whether Company A has the budget for your solution, tools like Artisan and 11x can help you set qualification criteria and select companies that might have the budget considering their size. However, you’ll still need to manually reach out to these companies and confirm if the lead meets those standards. 

With AiSDR, you simply define your qualification criteria and the AI takes over, looking for signs in multiple data sources or sending emails to leads to learn more about them.

Upsell and cross-sell

Upselling and cross-selling drive customer lifetime value by increasing the revenue generated from each client over time. Considering that 72% of revenue comes from existing customers, upselling and cross-selling opportunities are an important revenue generator.

Moreover, if you provide your customers with well-targeted product recommendations, they feel seen and understood, as they get additional value. Your company not only earns more, but it also builds stronger customer relationships.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI sales tools can analyze past customer purchases and engagement data to recommend additional products. However, many AI SDRs aim only to convert leads and book calls with sales agents. 

Tools like AiSDR and Regie go further by providing you with the ability to set up and run special upsell and cross-sell campaigns based on your customer data.

Cold phone outreach

Strange as it may sound in the smartphone era, cold calling is still an effective tactic for starting new relationships. 

In fact, 57% of C-level buyers prefer to be contacted via phone. The key is to research and qualify your leads before you make a call and know what to say to resonate with them.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

In many major legal jurisdictions like the United States, AI cold calls are illegal.

But that doesn’t mean all AI calls are restricted. You can run AI calls targeting inbound leads who provide consent to be called by AI.

Another cold call use case is using AI SDRs to create scripts for cold phone calls, suggest timing for those calls, and generate insights about what interests your prospects. This can help sales reps feel confident when reaching out to new leads. 

For example, OneShot can generate personalized cold call messages, but this is where its cold calling capabilities end. Some AI SDRs, like 11x’s Jordan, can also call leads and manage after-call tasks, such as updating CRM data, without ever involving sales reps. 

However, even if an AI sales email tool doesn’t have dialling and calling features, it can still be useful for cold call activities like informing leads that they missed a call, sending reminders about upcoming calls, and sending after-call follow-ups.

AI-powered conversations to incoming messages

Automated replies keep conversations going even when no one’s around.

You’ve probably heard these expressions before: “Time kills deals” or “The early bird gets the worm.”

If you’re able to respond promptly (ideally within 10 minutes) to an inbound message, you might be able to turn a simple question into a sales deal. That’s because leads are at their hottest in the minutes immediately after they send a message.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

Most AI SDRs stop once a lead sends a response, leaving it to human sales reps to step in.

AiSDR is one of the few options available on the market that can engage prospects in natural, human-like conversations without requiring human intervention.

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Objection handling

Handling objections refers to a sales rep stepping in with answers and solutions to a lead’s concerns and doubts. Your goal is to assure them that they’re in good hands.

In fact, according to Hoffman (creator of Your Sales MBA®), replies as simple as “That’s not true” can satisfy 90% of buyers when answering some false statement and let them move forward with a purchase. 

Naturally, that shouldn’t be your entire answer. You need to provide a response that cover the price, learning curve, or other key concerns.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI tools can suggest responses to common objections and help sales reps keep conversations on track. 

Some AI SDRs do even more.

You can configure AiSDR to respond to different objections, or you can feed your website and case studies and AiSDR will create ways to refute objections.

Question answering

Nobody likes waiting or feeling ignored. You maintain momentum and set the stage for a strong relationship by answering questions promptly. Consistent, fast, and accurate responses make prospects feel like they’re in the loop and that you’re a reliable partner.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

AI tools can handle this task by detecting and analyzing the context of keywords in prospects’ questions. Then, using information from an internal database and general sales knowledge it was trained on, AI SDRs can answer most questions without involving a sales rep, have a full conversation with the prospect, and book a call or a demo.

But sales reps receive all kinds of questions, from “How much does it cost?” to “How does it work with what we already use?”, and they should be in the context of a lead’s situation and their product’s capabilities to answer them correctly. 

Since some AI SDRs are designed for sending messages only like Artisan and OneShot, they just flag questions for humans to answer.

Follow-up & auto-reply handling

By properly using auto-replies and follow-ups, you ensure that no prospect gets forgotten or bombarded with untimely messages. Both types of emails work best when automated, as they keep conversations flowing without overwhelming sales reps with reminders and without overwhelming leads with correspondence.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

All AI tools in our list can manage and streamline scheduling follow-ups based on specific triggers. But note that even though AI SDRs easily manage follow-up, not all of them are set up to react to auto-replies.

For example, AiSDR automatically pauses sending emails if it receives an out-of-office email reply. It also replaces contact information if a prospect company assigns a new contact person and informs about it in auto-reply, which is something most AI SDR tools can’t do. In such cases, a human rep has to manually update the lead data.

CRM data management

CRM data management is about keeping customer data organized and accurate. This means recording every interaction, managing contact details, and ensuring that information is easily accessible.

A well-designed CRM gives sales reps everything they need for an efficient workflow — clean, and accurate data means fewer mix-ups and missed opportunities. Moreover, reliable CRM tools keep your entire sales team on the same page and ensure that no detail about a prospect’s history or preferences goes unnoticed.

Which AI SDRs can do this, and which CRMs do they integrate with?

AI SDRs assist by automating data entry. They recognize personal or company details and main points from emails and offer to add this information to a lead’s CRM profile. AI sales email tools also generate emails using data they retrieve from CRMs, as well as flag duplicate entries. This improves accuracy and reduces manual work for sales teams. AiSDR can also automatically create activity-triggered CRM tasks so no prospects’ moves are missed.

This is a crucial feature for all AI SDRs, which is why all the AI tools in our list have it. However, you must check that the AI SDR tool you choose integrates with your current CRM system and know exactly what kinds of tasks it can perform with data.

Multichannel engagement

Multichannel communication ensures that wherever a prospect might be, you’re there, too.

If you’re using just one channel to communicate with prospects, you limit your chance of making a connection. But don’t go overboard, either.

If you connect on every possible channel, you waste too much money on maintenance. Focus on the few channels that the majority of your customers actually use.

Which AI SDRs can do this?

Most AI SDR providers offer multichannel outreach across email, text, and LinkedIn. Some might offer calls, live chat, and WhatsApp messages.

AiSDR also allows users to run unified outreach where the AI knows that it’s sent messages in different channels.

Importantly, AI for sales emails can use information from all the integrated channels to provide insight into lead nurturing. For example, if a lead doesn’t answer a LinkedIn message after initial communication, your AI tool can send a follow-up or reminder via email to encourage the prospect to reengage. The same goes for live chat communication, texts, and phone calls.