AI is changing the way sales teams engage with prospects and close deals. With AI, sales reps can save time, personalize outreach, and even predict future revenue.  

To help you fully leverage AI sales tools, here’s a breakdown of actionable plays and templates at each stage of the sales cycle. These practical strategies can help improve sales efficiency, better forecast revenue, and enable successful co-selling with AI and AI for RevOps.

Let’s begin.

Automating outreach and lead generation

Play: AI-driven lead scoring and outreach

Objective: Automatically identify and prioritize the most promising leads for outreach using AI-driven lead scoring.

AI tools: AI-powered lead scoring platforms such as HubSpot’s AI agent Breeze or Salesforce Einstein.

Automate this play after a lead's behavioral activity, such as visiting a specific product page, triggers an AI alert. The first step is to use historical CRM data to build an AI model that predicts the likelihood of a lead converting. 

This model will help you prioritize leads based on key factors like demographic data, behavior signals (website visits, and email opens), and engagement patterns. Once leads are identified, the outreach email can be personalized using dynamic data points from your CRM, ensuring that each message resonates with the prospect's interests and actions.

Automated outreach template email:

Subject: "Thoughts on [problem]?"

Body: 

"Hi [First name], 

I noticed you’ve been exploring [Product/Service] for [X] and might be facing some challenges with [specific pain point]. We’ve helped businesses like yours by [brief description of solution]. If you’re interested in discussing this further, I’d be happy to set up a quick chat."

CTA: "Does this sound helpful? Let me know, or feel free to schedule a time on my calendar here."

Predicting revenue with AI sales forecasting

Play: AI-powered revenue forecasting

Objective: Use AI to predict future sales revenue with greater accuracy, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

AI tool: Salesforce Einstein, Clari, Gong, or HubSpot’s AI agent Breeze for sales forecasting.

Use AI-driven forecasting tools as an ongoing play to keep your sales teams and leadership aligned on projected revenue. This play is most effective when updated weekly or when there’s a significant shift in the pipeline. 

To implement this, set up AI to track KPIs such as deal size, stage, win probability, and historical conversion rates. AI will use these factors to predict revenue and adjust forecasts, incorporating market conditions, seasonality, and internal sales activities. By doing so, you can stay aligned with real-time projections and make data-driven decisions to meet revenue targets.

Daily/weekly forecasting email template for sales leadership:

Subject: "Your weekly sales forecast: adjustments and insights"

Body: 

"Hi Team, 

Based on the latest insights from our pipeline, AI predicts an increase in closed-won deals by 15% this week. 

However, there’s a potential risk in [Account name] which may affect our target by [X]%. Please review the full forecast here [Link]."

Leveraging your ecosystem: Crossbeam and AI integrations

Play: Co-selling and account mapping with AI

Objective: Leverage AI to find co-selling opportunities with partners, using data from your partner ecosystem.

AI tools: Crossbeam, PartnerStack, AI-powered CRM tools for mapping co-selling opportunities.

This play is ideal when a partner introduces you to AI-driven insights into shared accounts, unlocking your hidden pipeline. By leveraging Ecosystem Intelligence through Crossbeam, AI helps automatically identify high-intent leads your partners are already working with. This enables your team to prioritize and accelerate deals with warm, partner-vetted leads, drastically improving conversion rates.

Account mapping play:

• Step 1: Use Crossbeam’s automated Account Mapping to compare your account list with your partner’s. AI surfaces key insights and highlights high-quality, Ecosystem Qualified Leads (EQLs) — prospects 53% more likely to close — based on mutual customer data.
  
  
• Step 2: Focus on shared accounts that show clear engagement signals and are already in-market, as flagged by AI and partner insights. This helps cut reliance on cold outreach and ensures SDRs and AEs are working the hottest leads.
  
  
• Step 3: With AI-powered Deal Alerts from Crossbeam Copilot, get real-time notifications when high-potential accounts show up in your partner’s ecosystem, prompting your team to act on opportunities immediately.

Let’s say that you share 25 customers with [Partner], and 5 of them have shown strong interest in the solution you offer. The first thing you have to do is prioritize these 5 accounts for a joint outreach campaign, leveraging partner trust to increase engagement and expedite the sales cycle.

Co-selling email template:

Subject: "Strategic opportunity: co-selling with [Partner name]"

Body: 

"Hi [First name],

I wanted to introduce you to [Partner], who offers [Product/Service]. Based on our current customer base and their recent interest in [specific solution], we believe there’s a great opportunity to collaborate here. 

Let’s set up a joint meeting to discuss how we can better serve these customers together."

AI for revenue operations: Optimizing sales workflow automation

Play: Sales workflow automation with AI

Objective: Automate repetitive tasks within the sales workflow to allow reps to focus on high-impact activities.

AI tools: Zapier, HubSpot Workflows, Outreach.io, Salesloft, or Salesforce Automation.

This play is useful for keeping momentum in the sales pipeline without manual intervention, freeing up sales teams to focus on higher-value interactions.

Workflow examples:

Automated follow-up workflow

When a lead engages, such as by opening an email or visiting a website, trigger an automated follow-up email to be sent 24 hours later. If there’s no response within 48 hours, schedule a reminder for the sales rep to follow up, ensuring timely engagement with the prospect and keeping the sales cycle moving forward.

Example: "Hi [First name], just wanted to circle back on my last message. I noticed you checked out [specific feature/product]. Let me know if you have any questions!"

Deal closing automation

When a deal reaches a 90% probability of closing, trigger the action to automatically send a contract template to the client for review. This ensures that the process continues smoothly and efficiently, bringing the deal closer to finalization.

Example: "Hi [First name], we’re excited to move forward with the contract. Please find it attached for your review. Let me know if you have any questions."

Post-sales: Retaining and expanding customers

Play: AI-powered customer success for upselling and cross-Selling

Objective: Use AI to predict when to engage customers for upselling or cross-selling, enhancing customer retention.

AI Tools: Gainsight, ChurnZero, HubSpot AI-powered customer success tools.

This play is ideal when AI tools flag customers at risk of churn or those who could benefit from additional products or features.

Use AI to generate a health score for each customer based on their usage patterns, support tickets, and overall engagement. This score helps prioritize accounts that may need attention, ensuring that sales and support teams can focus on customers who are at risk or ready for upselling opportunities.

Example: "Customer A has been using [Product feature] less frequently and is at risk of churn. Trigger an AI-powered email with personalized recommendations or a demo for additional features."

Or even leverage AI to help you upsell or cross-sell by analyzing customer behavior, purchase history, and usage patterns. AI can identify opportunities where customers might benefit from additional products or services, predicting which offerings are most likely to resonate with them.

Example: 

Subject: "Maximize your value with [Product/Service] Upgrade"

Body: "Hi [Customer name], based on your current usage and goals, we believe that upgrading to [X Product] will help you achieve [specific outcome]. Would you be open to a quick chat about how this can work for you?"

Practical AI plays for every sales stage

By incorporating AI for revenue operations, AI sales tools, and automation plays into each step of the sales cycle, you can improve efficiency, predict revenue more accurately, and drive better outcomes. Whether it’s automating outreach, leveraging partner ecosystem data in AI, or optimizing co-selling with AI, these plays will help you implement a seamless, data-driven sales process that accelerates growth.

Ready to take your sales cycle to the next level?‍

Book a demo with our team and discover how Crossbeam’s AI can help you unlock new revenue, streamline your processes, and crush your quotas.