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Sales

Prepare for calls faster, see which deals are real, and give your reps back selling time.

Updated 4 days ago · 10 sources

Who already did it

  • Enterprise

    Microsoft

    Sellers spent their day on notes, CRM updates, and hunting for account details.

    Per-seller revenue up 9.4 percent. Individual win rates up 20 percent.

    Microsoft Inside Track, Microsoft's own IT blog · Aug 2025

    How they did it

    Microsoft gave its own sellers Copilot for Sales, which drafts emails, writes meeting recaps and pushes notes into CRM. It began with the small and medium business group, then went wider.

    Tool used Microsoft

  • Enterprise

    monday.com

    Inbound demand arrived faster than a thousand-person sales team could answer it.

    Demo request replies fell from 24 hours to under two minutes.

    Growth Unhinged, Kyle Poyar · Jun 2026

    How they did it

    monday.com built three agents of its own. One qualifies inbound and hands off to a seller, one runs trial activation calls, one researches accounts for outbound reps.

    Tool used built in-house

  • Enterprise

    Microsoft

    Buyers on Microsoft's own product pages waited in a queue for simple presales answers.

    Buyers who used the agent were ten times likelier to sign up.

    Microsoft Customer Stories · Feb 2026

    How they did it

    Microsoft rebuilt the Ask Microsoft chat agent on those pages. It answers presales questions itself and hands the buyer to a person when it cannot.

    Tool used Microsoft Copilot Studio

  • Learn from thisMid-market

    Otter.ai

    Sales teams sent AI notetakers into customer calls without asking everyone on the line.

    So: Get consent from everyone on the line before a notetaker joins. Ask the vendor whether it trains on your audio.

    The National Law Review · Aug 2025

    How they did it

    A class action in California federal court alleges Otter recorded and transcribed people who never agreed, including people with no Otter account, and used the audio to train its models.

    Tool used Otter.ai

  • Learn from thisNewEnterprise

    Salesforce

    Salesforce sold Agentforce hard to sales teams as the answer to pipeline work.

    So: Ask your CRM vendor to run a trial on your own data. Then call two buyers who already use it.

    Salesforce Ben · Jul 2026

    How they did it

    A KeyBanc survey of chief information officers found buyers unconvinced. They said the product was not ready, and that they would not pay for AI through their CRM vendor.

    Tool used Salesforce Agentforce

What to use, who to call

  • Gong

    Records your sales calls, writes the notes, and shows you which deals are quietly going cold.

    mid-market to enterpriseWeeksSeparate software to buyIT sign-off
    Is this your first move?

    What it fixes. You hear about a lost deal only after it is lost, and your notes are guesswork.

    Good fit when. You want conversation intelligence (software that records and scores sales calls) because deals die without warning.

    Skip it if. Your buyers refuse recording, or you sell where every person on the call must consent.

    Start with. Ask legal which of your markets need consent from every person on a recorded call.

    Take 7 questions to the call

    Why call them. Win rates vary wildly by rep and you cannot see what the good ones do differently.

    What they fix. You manage deals from what your reps tell you, and reps tell you the good parts.

    Also used by. Rippling, per Gong's own customer pages

    1. Where are our call recordings and transcripts stored, and in which countries do those servers sit?
    2. Which of our markets require consent from every person on the call, and how do you collect it?
    3. What happens to our recordings and transcripts if we leave, and how long does full deletion take?
    4. Is our call data ever used to train models that your other customers benefit from?
    5. Show me a customer whose win rate did not move, and tell me what was different there.
    6. What is the price at full seat count including managers, and what pushes it up next year?
    7. What happens when a buyer asks us to delete a recording after the call?

  • Clari

    Pulls deal activity out of your CRM and email to build a forecast your reps did not hand-type.

    mid-market to enterpriseMonthsSeparate software to buyIT sign-off
    Is this your first move?

    What it fixes. Your forecast is a spreadsheet of rep opinions, and it is wrong by the third week.

    Good fit when. Your pipeline coverage (open deals divided by your target) looks fine on paper and still misses.

    Skip it if. Nobody logs activity in your CRM. Fix that first or you will forecast noise.

    Start with. Compare forecast commit (the number reps promise to close) against what actually closed last year.

    Take 6 questions to the call

    Why call them. You missed badly and cannot explain to your board why nobody saw it coming.

    What they fix. Your quarter-end number is a negotiation rather than a measurement, and your board can tell.

    1. Will you run your model against our own last eight quarters and show us the accuracy?
    2. How clean does our CRM have to be before your forecast beats the spreadsheet we use now?
    3. Who owns the number when your roll-up and my regional leaders disagree in week ten?
    4. What does quarter one look like while the model is still learning our sales patterns?
    5. What is the all-in first-year cost, and who on my team has to staff this?
    6. Name a customer who left you, and tell me what went wrong there.

  • Clay

    Builds target lists and does enrichment (filling in missing company and contact details) from many data sources.

    low to mid-marketWeeksSeparate software to buyIT sign-off
    Is this your first move?

    What it fixes. Your reps spend their mornings researching accounts instead of talking to anyone at them.

    Good fit when. You have a clear ICP (the customer profile you sell to best) and messy list data.

    Skip it if. You do not know who you sell to yet. Better data will not fix a vague market.

    Start with. Ask one rep to log how long account research takes each week. That number sizes the problem.

    Take 6 questions to the call

    Why call them. Your reps spend more time researching accounts than talking to them, and you can prove it.

    What they fix. You pay several data vendors and your reps still fill the gaps by hand every morning.

    Also used by. Saviynt, Figma and Intercom, per Clay's own case study index

    1. Which underlying data providers do you use, and what is your lawful basis for European contacts?
    2. What happens to the contact data we enriched through you if we stop paying next year?
    3. How does credit-based pricing behave in a heavy month, and what is our realistic annual spend?
    4. What is your measured accuracy for mobile numbers in our top three markets?
    5. How does a deletion request from a contact flow back through every provider you used?
    6. Who on my team maintains these workflows, and what breaks when that person leaves?

  • Apollo

    Gives you a contact database plus the email and calling tools to work through it.

    free tier to mid-marketUnder a weekSeparate software to buy
    Is this your first move?

    What it fixes. You pay for a list vendor, a dialler and an email tool that do not talk to each other.

    Good fit when. You are a small team that needs contacts and outreach in one place for one price.

    Skip it if. You sell mainly into Germany or Japan, where its contact records are thinner.

    Start with. Search 50 accounts in your patch on the free tier. Check by hand how many records are right.

    Take 6 questions to the call

    Why call them. You need outbound running next month and you do not have a data team.

    What they fix. Small teams stitch together a list vendor, a dialler and an email tool that fight each other.

    1. How do you protect our sending domain as volume rises, and what limits do you enforce?
    2. What spam complaint rate do you see across your customers, and how do you measure it?
    3. Where did these contact details come from, and can you show me the consent trail?
    4. What is the per-seat price at our full team size once the first-year discount ends?
    5. How do you remove a prospect who opts out, across every list we hold with you?
    6. How does your data coverage in Germany and Japan compare with the United States?

  • Regie.ai

    Writes outbound messages and runs the sending, with a person reviewing before anything goes out.

    mid-marketWeeksSeparate software to buyIT sign-off
    Is this your first move?

    What it fixes. Hands-off outbound burns your sender reputation (the score inbox providers give your domain) before anyone notices.

    Good fit when. You want more outbound volume and you still want a human reading what leaves.

    Skip it if. Your deliverability (whether your email reaches the inbox) is already damaged. Repair that first.

    Start with. Check your spam complaint rate in Google Postmaster Tools before you add any volume.

What everyone is asking

  • NewJul 2026

    Best AI for call recording and coaching?

    Gong is the default once you pass about thirty reps. Check your consent rules first, because recording law narrows the field more than features do.

    The short answer

    The 2025 and 2026 court fights over notetakers were about consent from everyone on the call.

    Also worth a look. Gong, Clari Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, Otter.ai

  • NewJul 2026

    Do AI SDRs actually book meetings?

    Some do, with a person reviewing the output. The firms selling these tools are still hiring humans for the SDR role (the rep who books your first meetings).

    The short answer

    AI-native companies more than doubled their own human SDR headcount last year, while overall SDR job posts fell 21 percent.

    Also worth a look. 11x, Regie.ai, Apollo, human SDRs

  • NewJul 2026

    Best AI for sales forecasting?

    Clari and Gong both forecast from deal activity rather than rep opinion. Neither helps until your CRM records are complete enough to read.

    The short answer

    A KeyBanc survey in July 2026 found chief information officers unwilling to buy AI through their CRM vendor.

    Also worth a look. Clari, Gong, Salesforce Agentforce

  • NewJul 2026

    Is AI worth it for my sales team, or is it hype?

    Microsoft measured its own sellers and reported higher revenue per seller. monday.com cut demo response time to minutes. Both spent months on it first.

    The short answer

    Microsoft's own write-up says early trying was widespread but sustained use was not. Adoption is the hard part.

    Also worth a look. Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, agents built in-house, waiting another quarter

  • NewJul 2026

    Best tool for building prospect lists?

    Clay if you have someone to build and maintain the workflows. Apollo if you need contacts and email in one place next month.

    The short answer

    Clay's published customer numbers are its own. Ask for a reference in your market before you believe them.

    Also worth a look. Clay, Apollo

Try this today

  • Brief yourself before tomorrow's customer call

    15 min

    You walk in knowing what this buyer cares about and which two objections are coming.

    Copy the prompt

    You are a sales manager preparing me for a first meeting. My notes and the prospect's own public material are below. Give me: three things this buyer likely cares about, each with the line that made you say so; the two objections most likely to come up, each with a one-sentence reply; five questions I should ask; and one thing I still do not know and should find out on the call. Use only the material below. Mark anything you inferred as ASSUMPTION. Keep every answer under 25 words. My notes: [PASTE YOUR NOTES] Their public material, such as a job post, press release or results announcement: [PASTE]

    One check first. The model only knows what you paste in. Treat every assumption as unproven until the call. Nothing goes to the buyer unread.

  • Pressure-test your open deals before the forecast call

    30 min

    You see which deals are stalling before the forecast call, and what to ask each rep.

    Copy the prompt

    You are a sales manager who does not believe the forecast. Below are my open deals, one per line, with stage, amount, close date, date of last contact, and my notes. For each deal give me: a rating of red, amber or green; the one fact in the row that drove that rating; and one question I should ask the rep on Monday. Rank the list worst first and return it as a table. Use only what is in the rows. If a row is too thin to judge, write NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION rather than guessing. Deals: [PASTE YOUR DEAL ROWS]

    One check first. The model does not know your pipeline. It only sees the rows you paste. Check the record yourself before you challenge a rep.

  • Turn one call recording into rep coaching

    20 min

    Your rep gets three specific changes, each tied to a line from their own call.

    Copy the prompt

    You are a sales coach reviewing one recorded call. The transcript is below. Give me: two things the rep did well, each with the line that shows it; three things to change, each with the line that went wrong and a better way to say it; the point where the buyer's interest dropped, with the line it happened on; and one thing for the rep to practise this week. Quote only lines that appear in the transcript. Do not guess what the buyer was thinking. Keep the whole thing under 300 words. Transcript: [PASTE TRANSCRIPT]

    One check first. Everyone on the call must have agreed to the recording. Consent rules differ by country and state. Read the feedback before you send it.

Worth following

  • GTMnow

    The publication and podcast that Sales Hacker became, run by the GTMfund team.

    weekly · newsletter

    Why them

    Practitioner posts on what is working in sales now, rather than vendor marketing.

  • Kyle Poyar — Growth Unhinged

    Former OpenView partner who publishes data on how software companies actually grow.

    weekly · newsletter

    Why them

    He shows the numbers behind AI sales claims, including the ones that undercut them.

  • Pavilion

    A paid private community for revenue leaders, with courses and in-person events.

    daily · community

    Why them

    Peers running comparable teams will tell you what a vendor reference call will not.

  • Jason Lemkin — SaaStr

    Founder of SaaStr, the largest community for software founders and sales leaders.

    daily · publication

    Why them

    He publishes his own AI sales experiments, including the parts that did not work.

  • Gong Labs

    Gong's research arm, which studies patterns across millions of recorded sales calls.

    monthly · research

    Why them

    Call data you cannot get elsewhere. Remember that Gong sells the product it studies.

  • Salesforce Ben

    An independent publication covering Salesforce products and the people who buy them.

    daily · publication

    Why them

    It reports analyst surveys and buyer complaints that Salesforce does not publish itself.