WEB-STIL

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through my experience in sales, it’s that it’s a mistake to assume that a customer’s revenue potential ends after their order. Cross-selling unlocks a lot of opportunities for extra revenue — and increased customer satisfaction.

I’ve worked in sales and marketing long enough to contribute to numerous cross-selling campaigns. I’ve witnessed firsthand its profound impact on companies’ revenues and customer relationships.

In this guide, I’ll break down cross-selling as a sales tactic, highlighting how it works, its benefits, and its challenges. I’ll also share some proven cross-selling strategies you can implement today to start driving revenue growth.

In total, here’s what you’ll learn:

Table of Contents

• What is cross-selling?
• Cross-Selling vs. Upselling: What’s the difference?
• Advantages of Cross-Selling
• Disadvantages of Cross-Selling
• Preparing to Cross-Sell
• Effective Cross-Selling Strategies
• How to Cross-Sell Ethically

Cross-selling opportunities are available at various points of the sales process. For example, some of my favorite places to cross-sell are product pages, checkout pages, thank you pages, and post-purchase emails.

A 2024 HubSpot survey of more than 1,400 sales professionals across North America, Europe, and Asia reveals that 87% of salespeople try to cross-sell customers and prospects during the sales process.

To start a cross-selling strategy, I first recommend identifying products that satisfy additional or complementary needs not fulfilled by the initial purchase — or that increase its value or utility. Next, encourage the customer to purchase these additional products.

Cross-Selling vs. Upselling: What’s the difference?

Cross-selling and upselling are sometimes used interchangeably, but the approaches are quite different.

While cross-selling involves offering customers additional related items, upselling involves offering them an upgraded, more expensive version of the product they selected. To upsell, you need to convince the customer that the higher-priced version is worth it.

Returning to the customer who just ordered a burger: To upsell, I’d offer options to create a more elaborate burger — adding pickles and cheese slices, let’s say — for an additional fee.

In short:

• Cross-selling adds to a sale via additional, lateral products that complement the original purchase.
• Upselling enhances the original product by offering an upgraded or feature-rich version.

Examples of Cross-Selling vs. Upselling

Here are a few realistic scenarios highlighting the difference between cross-selling and upselling.

Mobile Phone Retailer

• Cross-selling: Suggesting a screen protector, case, and travel charger when a customer buys a smartphone.
• Upselling: Offering the same phone model but with a bigger screen and longer battery life.

​​Web Hosting Provider

• Cross-selling: Offering domain registration and SSL certificates to customers who sign up for hosting plans.
• Upselling: Recommending a higher-tier hosting plan with more bandwidth and storage.

CRM Software

• Cross-selling: Encouraging a customer to purchase a subscription to your CRM tool after they have purchased a subscription to your marketing newsletter.
• Upselling: Suggesting a higher lever subscription to your CRM with more seats and features.

Project Management Software Provider

• Cross-selling: Proposing training workshops and consultation services to corporate clients looking to improve team productivity.
• Upselling: Suggesting an enterprise-level subscription with advanced collaboration features, better integration capabilities, and dedicated customer support.

Air Conditioning Sales

• Cross-selling: Recommending a voltage stabilizer to protect the purchased unit from unstable current surges.
• Upselling: Offering a newer model of the same unit with smart technology integration and greater energy efficiency.

Advantages of Cross-Selling

Here are the main perks of cross-selling that I’ve personally discovered.

Increased Revenue

The most direct and immediate benefit of cross-selling is an increase in sales revenue. McKinsey reports that cross-selling can increase sales and profits by 20% and 30%, respectively. Furthermore, HubSpot research found that cross-selling accounts for 21% of their organizations’ revenues, on average.

This valuable source of revenue makes sense when you look at the numbers. The typical odds of closing a sale are 60-70% with an existing customer while it’s only 5-20% with a new one.

So, encouraging customers to buy complementary products typically boosts the average order value (AOV). If your current customers are spending more, your need to constantly acquire new customers will decrease. This is also good news because it costs 5 to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one.

Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

One of the biggest benefits I’ve seen while cross-selling is it helps me maximize customer lifetime value (CLV), which is the total revenue generated from each customer over the course of their relationship with my business.

I’ve found that when customers perceive my business consistently meets their needs via relevant product suggestions, they’re more likely to develop loyalty and trust. This encourages more purchases over time, meaning a higher CLV — meaning more long-term revenue.

Greater Customer Satisfaction

As a sales technique, cross-selling relies on products that enhance the overall utility, enjoyment, or longevity of the primary buy. A customer who just bought their first camera from me will probably benefit additionally from a tripod and a camera bag. Having those extra products will make their overall experience more satisfying.

When I’m a customer, discovering relevant offerings via expert cross-selling is a pleasant surprise that makes me feel more understood and appreciated by the business. If there’s one thing I know, a smooth and satisfying shopping experience breeds customer loyalty.

More Product Visibility

Cross-selling involves strategically placing related products in the customer’s line of sight during their purchasing journey — products they might not have been aware of. From impulse buys to newbies experimenting, I’m able to get more attention for my offerings and more purchases this way.

Disadvantages of Cross-Selling

Like any other sales tactic, cross-selling comes with some hurdles.

Annoying Customers

A pitfall I often see is annoying the customers. The line between making a helpful suggestion and unsolicited nagging is very thin.

To avoid this, what I do is closely observe customer reactions and engagement levels during the interaction. If I sense any hesitation or disinterest, I immediately ease off the pressure.

You don’t want customers to feel like every transaction is an attempt to sell them something more. If so, they are more likely to view your business as purely profit-driven, damaging their trust in the brand and reducing the likelihood of future engagement.

Catering to “Problem Customers”

Another disadvantage is that cross-selling can ironically be less profitable, even when used successfully.

A Harvard study found that the costs of cross-selling to certain “problem customers” — such as people who frequently return products, overuse customer support, and primarily avoid regularly priced items — can actually overshadow extra revenue generated from them because these types of customers account for as much as 70% of the average company’s customer loss (which is when the cost of goods and marketing exceeds the revenue generated).

To overcome this problem, Harvard suggests thoroughly examining your business practices, identifying any that may unintentionally attract or encourage problem customers, and making adjustments.

Additionally, analyzing each customer’s transaction data can help determine whether they fall into one of the problematic categories. Depending on what I find out, I tweak my sales strategies, like upselling them instead or choosing to focus on other customers.

Preparing to Cross-Sell

Effective cross-selling begins with thorough preparation. Specifically, you must take time to learn about your customers, map out their buying journey, and know your products inside and out. Here’s how to go about it.

1. Get to know your audience.

You may already know about buyer personas. But one area I think is often overlooked is getting to know your audience after they have purchased your product. Their needs and expectations may evolve significantly after the purchase, so it’s crucial that you keep up with them if you want to do business with them again.

I recommend you create updated personas for post-purchase customers with:

• Demographic information.
• Psychographic information.
• Direct customer feedback.

Service software helps you easily deploy, manage, and gather data from customer feedback surveys. Plus, it can give you additional insights regarding your audience’s main pain points by learning how customers interact with your knowledge bases and service agents.

I’ve found that taking time to get to know my audience helps me identify not only which cross-sell products are most likely to appeal to them, but also how to communicate the offers in a way that resonates.

2. Build out your customer journeys.

The customer journey refers to the path a person is most likely to take from initial awareness of your brand to purchase and beyond.

According to Up Inc., mapping out the customer’s journey is one of the most effective cross-selling strategies, leading to increased customer retention and fewer complaints — plus higher revenue.

Cross-selling can happen at any point in the customer’s journey; it’s just easier to cross-sell at some points than others.

Mapping the customer’s journey helps me identify the sweet spots of cross-selling. For example, I find that customers are most receptive to my cross-selling pitches after they’ve seen results from my products. Plus, they’ll naturally talk to other people about it, potentially driving referrals.

3. Learn your products.

You can’t be an effective salesperson if you’re not an expert on your entire product range. Identify each offering’s respective strengths and weaknesses. How do they address specific customer needs? Most importantly, learn how different items complement one another.

If I tried cross-selling without comprehensive knowledge and understanding of my products, I’d risk suggesting combinations that don’t make sense to the customer and don’t bring any value. That would erode customer trust by leading them to believe that my primary goal is to increase sales rather than meet their needs.

In contrast, since I thoroughly understand how my products interconnect, I’m able to make informed recommendations that genuinely enhance the customer’s initial order.

4. Enhance your listening and analysis skills.

Sometimes, opportunities to cross-sell can arise unexpectedly, such as during an unrelated phone call or email exchange with a client. Therefore, another move I recommend is identifying receptive signals from customers. This involves active listening.

These are the best practices I employ when speaking with customers:

• I pay close attention to their voice and tone. It provides insight into their emotional state and readiness to engage.
• I listen to what customers don’t say explicitly. Pauses, hesitations, and indirect comments can all provide clues for areas where your products or services can offer additional value or support.
• I encourage dialogue by asking customers open-ended questions instead of yes or no questions. Letting people express their needs and concerns fully allows me to see the bigger picture and to discover opportunities to serve them even better.

Effective Cross-Selling Strategies

Now that you know how to prepare for cross-selling, let’s explore a few top strategies to use once you’re ready. These are tactics I’ve personally used with tremendous success.

Personalize your cross-sale offers.

According to Forbes research, 81% of modern customers expect brands to deliver a personalized experience — with up to 70% of people expressing frustration when a company doesn’t know their history with the company.

When it comes to cross-selling, ensure that you tailor your recommendations to each customer based on their preferences, purchase history, and behavior. Just be sure not to violate customers’ data privacy.

Data analytics tools and AI have made that much easier to do. In fact, HubSpot research reveals that 86% of U.S. salespeople say leveraging AI helps them suggest the right products and services to customers at the right time.

Personalized cross-sales make your clients feel understood and appreciated by your business, which increases the likelihood of acceptance. But don’t just take my word for it.

Lisa Richards, CEO and founder of Candida Diet, tells us that sending automated, personalized product suggestions to customers (based on their initial purchases) is one of their most successful cross-selling strategies.

“Paying customers who received our personalized recommendations were 37% more likely to add at least one additional product to their basket and 25% more likely to increase their average order value,” she shares.

Richards further notes that these customers typically return to make subsequent purchases more frequently than general website visitors. The result is an impressive 12% more CLV from those who get personalized product recommendations.

Segment your customers.

I think segmenting your customers is an important step in personalizing your offers. Different selling strategies work better for different customer segments. Ryan Miller, founder and CEO of Etna Interactive, uses Sales Hub to segment his customers so he can better reach them with timely and relevant product recommendations.

Justin Mauldin from Salient PR is also a Sales Hub user and emphasizes the value of the data and analytics HubSpot provides for segmenting his customers:

“We focus on creating personalized campaigns by utilizing CRM data and setting up automated feedback loops for continuous sales insights, which help us tailor relevant offers to specific client segments, and integrating these elements provides us with a cohesive sales message.

“Our company traces patterns through HubSpot’s data-driven insights allowing us to identify high-opportunity areas and improve cross-sell strategies. This data-driven approach makes our campaigns more dynamic and impactful.”

Offer discounted add-ons.

HubSpot research from 2024 shows that 37% of U.S. sales reps who cross-sell cite offering discounts and promotions as one of their most effective cross-selling techniques.

Furthermore, 82% of online shoppers are more likely to complete a purchase if they have a discount code and coupon. Who’s surprised? Everyone loves a discount.

While I absolutely recommend you highlight the cost-saving benefit of your promotional offers or discounts, I think it’s even more important to emphasize how the add-on product enhances the customer’s experience and provides extra value.

Offer exclusive bundles and packages.

Another top cross-selling strategy is creating special packages and bundles that combine the principal product with complementary items. Often, the bundle is cheaper than ordering items separately.

One thing I like to do is position the bundle as a special offer available only to customers who buy a particular primary product. I’ve found that this often provides an extra incentive for customers to take advantage of the bundle.

Joel Popoff, CEO of Axwell Wallet, uses Sales Hub’s deal-stage automation to offer deal bundles before the transaction is completed. He asserts that the timing makes all the difference.

“For example, when a consumer adds an aluminum wallet to their cart, we don’t wait until they finish checking out,” he explains. “Instead, HubSpot sends them an email while they’re still browsing, displaying the ‘most popular bundle’ featuring our RFID-blocking cash clip. It feels like a natural decision, not an afterthought. That small change resulted in a 27% increase in AOV.”

To use this strategy effectively, I think it’s key to find the sweet spot in your bundle discount. A research study appearing in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management found that if a discount is only 20%, customers still prefer to buy individual products. If it’s 45% or higher, the preference for bundles is higher than for individual products.

Show products frequently purchased together.

Another great cross-selling strategy, particularly for ecommerce businesses, is to show products that other customers frequently buy alongside the main item.

I know when I see the “Frequently bought together” items on an Amazon page, I naturally hypothesize why it’s the case. If I determine the additional product has relevant value, I’ll probably add it to my purchase as well.

Monitor and analyze performance.

The key to keeping your cross-selling efforts sharp is to constantly monitor and analyze your performance. Personally, I track metrics like conversion rate, average order value, and customer satisfaction. Google Analytics helps me here.

Once I have that data, I analyze it to identify patterns and areas for enhancement. From there, it’s a matter of brainstorming ways to fine-tune my cross-selling tactics and optimize my offers.

Test different strategies.

Even when your current strategies are doing well, there’s room for improvement. Test different offers, messaging, placements, and bundles to see if there are more effective combinations.

Personally, I conduct A/B testing to measure the impact of variations and iterate based on my findings.

Leverage social proof.

Another cross-selling strategy I’ve found to be effective is using social proof to build confidence and trust in my offers. Display ratings, reviews, and testimonials from satisfied customers who have benefited from complementary products.

This increases the perceived quality and usefulness of the product, which will boost your customers’ willingness to accept the cross-sale. The Medill Spiegel Research Center found that displaying reviews can increase a customer’s likelihood of buying a product by up to 270%.

Train and empower your team.

Empower your sales and marketing teams with the knowledge and tools to maximize cross-selling opportunities. This includes providing comprehensive training sessions that focus on understanding customer needs, product knowledge, and effective communication.

Additionally, offer ongoing support and feedback to help your team refine their cross-selling approaches.

When I work with a sales team, I like to give them some autonomy within established guidelines. This allows them to personalize their approach to cross-selling, which I’ve found leads to more authentic interactions with customers, increasing the likelihood of success.

I spoke with two sales leaders who leverage tools in Sales Hub to empower their teams for effective cross-selling.

Fineas Tatar, co-CEO of Viva, says that using the call review feature in Sales Hub “makes it easy to listen to recordings with reps and pinpoint moments where a customer mentions a need that could align with other services we offer. We also use tracked terms to automatically find the calls where specific keywords related to cross-selling opportunities are mentioned and even automatically trigger the workflows that follow.”

He says the tool helps them catch opportunities that might otherwise fall through the cracks while training reps to be more attentive in future calls.

Leon Huang, CEO at RapidDirect, uses HubSpot’s playbooks for his team. The customized playbooks “facilitate cross-selling by turning our sales conversations into guided explorations of our client needs. We offer technically complex products, and the Sales Hub helps our team make sense and simplify so we can spot more cross-selling opportunities as they crop up.

“Instead of a rep simply taking an order for a sheet metal fabrication, for example, the playbook gives them pre-built questions to uncover their related needs. Regardless of knowledge levels, reps can ask follow-up questions like, ‘Have you considered the cost savings of using die casting for high-volume components? There’s real potential to save money here.’”

Huang appreciates Sales Hub’s playbooks because they’re interactive, allowing reps to learn rather than regurgitate templated answers. He says they’ve seen an increase in cross-sells, with a roughly 15% uplift in quotes that include multiple service lines since implementing the playbooks.

How to Cross-Sell Ethically

While cross-selling is a legitimate practice, you still need to approach it with caution. Here are a few guidelines I follow to stay within ethical boundaries.

Focus on the customer and their needs.

When cross-selling, the focus should always be on the customers and their needs. Don’t cross-sell just for the sake of it — make sure that every recommendation genuinely adds value to the customer’s purchase. Natalie Hogg, President and Head of Marketing at Method Q, says:

“If the cross-sell products/services bring additional value and enrich the customer outcomes, then it is less ‘selling’ and more ‘solving.’ The focus should be on what the customer benefits from, not what the salesperson needs to sell.”

Respect customers’ choices.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me: There’s nothing more annoying than a sales rep trying to sell you a product you’re clearly not interested in. Always respect your customers’ decisions when they decline cross-selling offers.

Whenever I’m cross-selling, I look for any verbal and nonverbal cues that indicate disinterest or discomfort. If I start a pitch but realize the customer isn’t receptive, I switch my focus to delivering excellent service and building rapport. This approach paves the way for future cross-selling opportunities based on trust and mutual respect.

Be transparent.

When taking advantage of a cross-selling opportunity, be transparent about the situational value of the product. Don’t say that a product does more than it does. If there are limitations or drawbacks associated with the additional product, mention them and offer workarounds.

As business development manager Yaz Hanley explains, being transparent about the value and costs of additional products “builds trust and helps establish a long-term relationship with the customer, which is far more valuable than a one-time sale.”

Maintain long-term engagement.

Stay in touch with your customers consistently throughout the year, not just when there’s an opportunity to cross-sell. Sienna Quirk, CMO at Invisory, explains the importance of maintaining long-term engagement:

“If your customer only hears from you during renewal season, you’ll come off as shallow and money-driven. If you continue a fairly steady beat of sharing content … you won’t seem as desperate.”

Boost Your Sales With Cross-Selling

Everyone wins when you execute cross-selling effectively. You increase your brand’s bottom line, and your customers get solutions that better address their expectations and ideals.

Sure, it requires a strategic and nuanced approach, but you have all the information needed to start. My top advice for you is: Stay in tune with how your customers feel, learn which features or products will benefit them the most, and calculate the perfect timing to introduce an extra offer.

Oh, and stay patient until your cross-selling efforts thrive.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Now that AI has been mainstream for over two years, you may be wondering: How is artificial intelligence changing sales? I’m here to give you the lowdown on how sales teams are using AI, how it has changed the sales landscape, and how you can use AI in sales, too.

I have mixed feelings about AI — I think it’s equal parts exciting and alarming — and I know many others do, too. But regardless of whether you feel AI is good for sales, your role, or humanity at large, the fact remains: It’s only getting more sophisticated and ubiquitous as time goes on.

So, it serves you, whether you’re a sales rep or leader, to understand how to leverage artificial intelligence in sales. That’s why I’ve compiled this handy guide to help you out on that front. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• What is AI in sales?
• The Need for Artificial Intelligence in Sales
• The Benefits of Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Sales
• 11 Ways Your Team Can Use AI in Sales

I’ll preface this whole piece by saying that I’m extremely wary of AI.

Ever since the first time it had the audacity to autocorrect one of my texts, I’ve been convinced that it’s going to lead to mass professional displacement and/or humanity’s downfall — but until those things happen, I’ll try to be objective about its benefits and pitfalls.

Frankly, it has plenty of both for salespeople. Let’s take a look at some of them.

AI is further empowering buyers.

We’ve been living in the era of the empowered buyer for quite some time now. Prospects are as well-informed, confident, and independent as they’ve ever been — and AI is only expediting that trend.

Self-service resources for product research (most notably search engines) are already a staple of the modern buyer’s journey, but generative AI is becoming an increasingly prominent resource, shaping how consumers understand the products and services they invest in. Here’s how I see it changing the buyer and seller experience:

• Google is in the process of augmenting its search results with generative AI. This means more people will find the answers to their searches in AI responses.
• AI chatbots are growing in popularity with younger generations for consumer queries. In HubSpot’s State of Consumer Trends Report, 13% of Gen Z respondents cited it as their preferred method for finding answers to their questions online, compared to just 2% of Boomers.
• As AI’s popularity as a resource for product research grows, I think it could potentially undermine the salesperson’s traditional position as the more informed, consultative guide in a sales engagement.

As a salesperson, this shift could be helpful or frustrating, depending on how that research casts your offering. A prospect’s AI-powered research might frame your product or service in a positive light — immediately establishing it as a good fit for a prospect and offering you a leg up. Or AI’s take on your offering might be less than flattering, forcing you to sell from a more compromised position.

Salespeople are concerned about job displacement.

Beyond empowering buyers, AI’s emergence has some wide-reaching implications in sales — some of which can be unnerving. I touched on this at the beginning of this section (a bit tongue-in-cheekily), but AI has led to some real concerns about job displacement in the field.

That trend isn’t exactly specific to sales, but it still has a lot of sales professionals particularly worried. Our 2024 State of AI in Sales survey found that 59% of sales professionals are concerned about AI replacing their jobs in the next few years.

AI can free up salespeople to sell more effectively.

But even with job displacement fears looming, several salespeople still see AI as an invaluable resource in the modern sales landscape — one that supports their professional responsibilities as opposed to undermining them.

That same survey found that 78% of sales professionals believe AI can help them spend more time on the most critical aspects of their role, and 74% agree that AI can help them spend more time on the parts of the job they enjoy most. We also found that 43% of sales reps are now using AI in their jobs (up from 24% in 2023), but sales is still lagging in adoption behind other sectors (consider marketing at 74%).

I think there’s a growing need for salespeople to understand and adopt AI-related resources — let’s take a closer look at the “why” behind it.

The Need for Artificial Intelligence in Sales

Regardless of how you might feel about AI, the fact remains: AI is not going to un-invent itself. It’s already a staple of several fields — especially sales — and its role is only going to grow.

The way I see it, adopting AI-powered resources has transitioned from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have in sales. Our 2024 State of AI in Sales survey found that 76% of sales professionals predicted that most of the software they use will have built-in AI capabilities by 2030.

Notably, 87% say they’ve started using AI because it’s integrated with tools they already use, like the AI in HubSpot’s Sales Hub. This has led to better data analysis, forecasting, and overall sales efficiency.

While being extremely wary of AI, I’ve caved to using it — not because I wanted to, but because I came to understand that my position wasn’t practical. And a lot of salespeople are hitting that point as well.

AI is here to stay, and refusing to adopt it means you run the risk of being left behind. It serves everyone, from BDRs to CSOs, to start taking AI seriously and learning to leverage it, both individually and organizationally.

The “need for artificial intelligence” in sales boils down to this: not letting stubbornness interfere with organizational efficiency and effectiveness. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no real reason to avoid embracing AI in sales.

The Benefits of Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Sales

I’ve come to see that AI does actually offer some very real benefits in sales — and salespeople generally recognize those.

Overall, our 2024 State of AI in Sales survey revealed that AI offers time-saving capabilities, deeper data analysis, and stronger forecasting potential. Here are some other findings and the figures to support them.

AI can help automate tedious tasks to free salespeople up to sell.

• The number one use of AI is to automate manual processes, such as manual data or information entry.
• 64% of sales professionals save one to five hours per week using AI to automate manual tasks.
• 78% say that AI can help them spend more time on the most critical aspects of their role.
• 73% state that AI tools have increased their team’s productivity.

AI can support more thoughtful customer insight.

• 73% of sales professionals agree that AI can help them pull insights from data they otherwise wouldn’t be able to find.
• 65% say AI will help them understand their customers better.
• 52% use AI for data analysis, lead scoring, pipeline analysis, and forecasting.

AI can enhance personalization in sales.

• 69% of sales professionals strongly or somewhat agree that AI can help them personalize the customer experience.
• 61% also agree that AI can make prospecting more personalized.
• 22% actively use AI to personalize their outreach.
• 70% say that using AI increases their response rates.

Obviously, that list of benefits isn’t exhaustive, but you get the idea. AI expedites aspects of sales that many salespeople often find tedious or challenging. It helps structure better-informed, more streamlined sales efforts — even if its presence presents some reasonable, serious concerns.

11 Ways Your Team Can Use AI in Sales

Artificial intelligence in sales can be leveraged in many different ways. However, here are 11 applications that I think can transform your sales process.

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1. Access to advanced data enrichment, analysis, and applications.

Sound data enrichment — the process of pulling data into an organization’s database (typically a CRM) from third-party sources — is transitioning from an asset to a necessity for sales orgs. It allows you to create a more holistic, comprehensive, and accurate understanding of your prospects, leads, customers, and processes.

HubSpot’s Sales Hub is a robust customer relationship management (CRM) tool for salespeople and sales teams. I love how this platform offers a comprehensive solution. From forecasting to prospecting and even scheduling meetings, I guarantee you’ll find ways to improve your workflow.

Get started with Sales Hub today.

Sales Hub also leverages artificial intelligence to gather data from your prospects and customers.

Key features include:

• Data capture through the mobile business card scanner. This uses machine learning to pull contact data directly into your CRM from a business card.
• Data enrichment. AI automatically populates your CRM by pulling contact properties from email conversations with prospects, leads, or customers. This data could be phone numbers, geographical locations, job titles, and more.

Another interesting application of AI in data enrichment is Zoho’s DataPrep solution, which analyzes and transforms data into new “types.”

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Zoho uses AI to extract “meaning” from existing information in a CRM and uses its findings to create new data points, such as lead sentiments and topics of interest. These “new” data points can then be leveraged across several use cases. That includes lead scoring, lead prioritization, and outreach personalization.

2. Summarize meetings and calls with conversation intelligence.

Salespeople spend lots of time in meetings and on calls with prospects and customers. These are the most valuable touchpoints because you’re in live contact with your clients. After each call, it’s crucial to summarize what was discussed and highlight action items.

AI can now do that for you — with a high degree of accuracy.

Most sophisticated conversation intelligence software leverage some form of artificial intelligence to analyze sales calls and pull key insights.

A great example of one of these tools is HubSpot’s conversation intelligence solution. This platform uses AI to “uncover the why behind sales performance.”

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The program identifies key insights, such as trends and objections. This data can then be used to easily pinpoint areas of weakness or underperformance.

Another example of an AI-powered conversation intelligence tool is Chorus. This platform leverages artificial intelligence to recognize the context within a conversation, identify key moments within sales calls, and even note competitor mentions.

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3. Improve pipeline management and forecasting.

Although most sales reps follow best practices and periodically run sales forecasts, recent data has found that the majority of sales reps inaccurately forecast their pipeline. However, leveraging artificial intelligence allows you to significantly reduce the probability of inaccuracies in your sales team.

Consider Aviso, an AI-driven forecasting solution, to understand how this works.

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Aviso uses AI to analyze data and produce insights into deals and the overall pipeline. Some of these AI applications include:

• WinScore Insights. This is a score that represents the likelihood of successfully closing a deal.
• AI-powered forecasts. This can be used to predict the total number of new deals, renewals, and churn within a fixed period.
• Scenario forecasting. These dynamic forecasts take “what if” scenarios into account.
• AI-powered suggestions. These insights account for historical and current performance.

I think these AI-powered features can be the key differentiator in how well a sales team can build forecasts, draw insights from these forecasts, and make decisions.

4. Create and repurpose sales content.

Generative AI can be super helpful in creating and recycling sales content for a different purpose, a new audience, or a different format. We found that 47% of respondents use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Jasper, and DALL-E to help write sales content or prospect outreach messages. Check out these prompts if you’re interested in exploring this use case.

HubSpot offers a generative AI tool that can help write, expand, or change the tone of your copy across your sales materials.

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Another helpful toolkit is Canva’s Magic Studio. It uses AI to help you in the content creation process, from writing to design. One tool I think is especially relevant here is Magic Switch, which can repurpose your content in seconds, whether you need a different format or to share content with a different prospect.

5. Recommend next steps for sales reps with AI-guided selling.

AI can help find and recommend the next best action for sales reps to take with every prospect in their pipeline. Instead of having to keep track of each relationship and every move each prospect makes, AI can take care of that for you. It can nudge you when it sees a prospect is ready for the next step or prompt you to reach out if a prospect is getting cold.

HubSpot’s AI-guided selling software helps you work with the right leads on the right deals at the right time. It helps you prioritize which actions to take with which prospects.

I find it helps sales reps take impactful actions and increases their overall efficiency.

6. Monitor your competitors.

Stop monitoring your competitors manually and set AI to keep an eye on them. It can scrape competitor websites, social media, and news sites for pricing, announcements, new offerings, marketing campaigns, and performance. It will then notify you with relevant updates and provide analyses on how they’re performing.

You will be able to identify emerging trends faster and make strategic decisions sooner. In other words, you’ll have an edge over your competitors with the real-time data AI can provide 24/7.

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Crayon, for example, uses AI to summarize any news about your competitors and analyzes changes in your competitive landscape with scores to help you know which are the most important — all delivered to your inbox daily.

7. Enhance lead scoring and qualification.

Knowing which leads are more likely to buy and which prospects fit within your target audience is key to successful selling. In my experience, there’s no point wasting time on leads who are not ready or likely to buy.

This is why lead scoring and qualification are essential tasks — made a thousand times easier (and more accurate) with the help of AI. For instance, HubSpot offers a predictive lead scoring tool that uses artificial intelligence to identify high-quality leads based on predefined criteria and the historical data of clients who’ve closed.

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Its AI-guided predictive lead scoring will help you identify and prioritize the best leads through customized scoring metrics based on real-time data. It provides scores based on fit and engagement so you know if they fit your ideal customer profile (ICP) and how much interest they have in your offering.

8. Streamline and optimize sales engagement.

Sales engagement consists of all buyer-seller interactions within the sales process — from initial outreach to customer onboarding. AI can help you leverage data and insights to streamline this process by helping you understand customer needs and pain points.

The top use case for AI in sales is to help representatives understand customer needs, according to Salesforce’s State of Sales report. Your knowledge of each customer’s needs informs every decision you make in customer interactions — from your pitch to your sales content and overall outreach approach.

While consumers can use AI to research potential solutions and companies, sellers have the same power in their hands and can use AI to research prospects who fit their ICP so their initial outreach lands well.

Moreover, you can streamline sales engagement with automation. Most customers follow a similar path with your company, so not every interaction needs to be re-invented each time. I’ve found leveraging automation for customer interaction is a fantastic way to keep customers engaged while saving reps time. And don’t worry. You can automate the personalization as well so customers don’t feel like they’re at the receiving end of rote communication.

A great example of a sales engagement solution that helps you do this is Apollo. By leveraging AI on Apollo or exploring similar alternatives, you can:

• Set up automated outreach messages using pre-defined customization fields.
• Optimize the performance of your outreach by running A/B tests.
• Access AI insights on your outreach campaigns, such as a prospect or lead’s interest level.
• Leverage the “rules engine” to update pre-determined sequences or outreach campaigns once certain criteria are met.

9. Personalize pitches and emails.

Generative AI has become extremely (or unsettlingly) sophisticated and is particularly great with personalizing customer interactions. I think it can be especially helpful in personalizing pitches and emails. I spoke with two experts who shared their personalization use cases.

Gregory Rozdeba, CEO of Dundas Life, claims that leveraging generative AI in InsurTech has been pivotal. Rozdeba notes that the team uses AI to personalize sales pitches and proposals, making every interaction with prospects feel tailor-made.

“By analyzing data on customer preferences and behaviors, AI helps us predict needs, enabling preemptive solution offerings. This not only increases engagement but also positions us as attentive and proactive. Moreover, AI-driven insights into market trends ensure our strategies remain agile, keeping us ahead in a competitive landscape,” Rozdeba says.

Generative AI’s ability to support personalization extends beyond personalizing pitches — it can also assist with email outreach.

Pat Schirripa, CEO of People 2U, says, “Forget robots taking sales rep jobs! Generative AI is a game-changer for our team. We use it to craft personalized email outreach that grabs attention.”

Schirripa shares that AI analyzes customer data and suggests email content tailored to each lead’s needs. That saves reps tons of time with personalized messages, making them more likely to resonate.

“It’s like having a super-powered research assistant for each salesperson, freeing them up to focus on building relationships and closing deals,” Schirripa says.

10. Refine sales scripts.

Sales teams can also leverage generative AI as a resource for creating and iterating upon more thoughtful, effective sales scripts.

Marco Genaro Palma, freelance CMO and SEO consultant at GenaroPalma.com, says, “One creative method I’ve found really helpful for boosting our sales effectiveness involves starting with a basic sales script and then letting generative AI tools tweak and improve it as we go.”

Palma notes that the AI can respond to real-time feedback, making changes to ensure sales pitches stay sharp and engaging.

However, Palma caveats, “Despite the advancements in technology, the personal touch in sales is still key, but these AI-enhanced scripts help us keep our approach fresh and effective.”

11. Train your employees with AI coaching.

AI can help new reps get trained and on the floor 42% faster than traditional training. Think of AI as a sales coach who can be available all the time.

Tools like Quantified create avatars for simulated sales calls for reps to practice. Afterward, Quantified will provide feedback on what the rep did well and where they can improve. Roleplay is one of the most effective methods for training sales reps, yet many teams find they don’t have time (or feel awkward) roleplaying with one another.

Quantified enables trainees to get the roleplay they need along with personalized coaching. Finally, Quantified trains the AI avatars on your messaging and product to provide a custom rubric with relevant, accurate feedback.

If you don’t want to hand over all coaching responsibilities to AI, Gong’s conversation intelligence can help by listening in on live sales conversations. It delivers data and insights on reps’ strengths and weaknesses to provide personalized and pointed coaching.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Based on Your Sales Needs

There’s no single, one-size-fits-all way to leverage artificial intelligence that will work for every sales org by default. Sales processes vary, so it’s only fitting that the AI tools and tactics different teams use would vary as well.

With that said, if you’d like to become more deliberate about incorporating AI into your sales process, I think figuring out which aspects of your process can be simplified or optimized is a good place to start.

From there, it’s about identifying the tools that suit your unique needs.

Last week, I spent nearly two hours trying to schedule a single meeting with team members across three time zones. After countless back-and-forth emails and calendar checks, I finally landed on a time that worked — only to have someone realize they had a conflict.

Finding a meeting time that works for everyone is a universal challenge that even the most organized professionals face daily. As someone who coordinates dozens of weekly meetings with prospects, clients, and colleagues, I’ve learned that scheduling can eat up hours of productive time without the right approach — and the right meeting scheduling tools.

In this comprehensive guide, I’ll share the exact strategies and tools I use to find a meeting time that works for everyone. Spoiler: I really like HubSpot’s free meeting scheduler tool.

Table of Contents

• Tips for Finding a Meeting Time That Works for Everyone
• Tools to Find a Time to Meet
• How to Find a Meeting Time That Works for Everyone
• Find a Meeting Time With Google Calendar

How to Find a Meeting Time That Works for Everyone

1. Use a meeting scheduling tool.

As someone who schedules 5+ meetings per week with clients across multiple time zones, I‘ve learned that automated scheduling tools are non-negotiable. After trying nearly every option on the market, I’ve found that meeting scheduling software cuts my coordination time from 15-20 minutes per meeting to just 2-3 minutes.

I personally use HubSpot’s free meeting scheduler for most of my meetings. Here’s my exact process:

• I set my availability preferences once (9 AM – 5 PM EST; no meetings on Fridays).
• I create different meeting types (30-min intro calls, 60-min deep dives).
• I send my booking link to the attendees.
• They pick a time that works for them.
• The meeting automatically appears on both of our calendars.

What I love about this approach: It eliminates the back-and-forth emails completely. Plus, it automatically handles time zone conversions, which saved me from an embarrassing situation last month when I almost scheduled a 3 AM call with a client in Singapore.

Pro tip: I always customize my booking link settings for different types of meetings. For example, I add buffer time between sales calls to prepare, but keep my internal team meetings back-to-back to maximize efficiency.

2. Offer some multiple meeting time options via an email thread.

I‘ll be honest — I avoided email scheduling until last month when I had to coordinate with a client who preferred direct email communication for their executive team. While I’m a huge advocate for scheduling tools, I’ve learned that some senior executives and VIPs still prefer the personal touch of direct email coordination.

Here’s what I learned works best:

• Offer three time slots within the next five business days.
• Include time zones for each option.
• Give a clear deadline for responses.

Here’s my tested email template below.

Hi [Name],

I’d love to connect about [specific topic]. Would any of these times work for you?

• Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 10 AM EST / 3 PM GMT
• Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 2 PM EST / 7 PM GMT
• Thursday, Jan. 25 at 11 AM EST / 4 PM GMT

Please let me know by end of day Monday which time works best, or if you need additional options.

Best,

[Name]

Pro tip: I always add a calendar reminder to follow up if I don’t hear back within 24 hours. This simple step has increased my response rate by 40%.

What I’ve learned to avoid: Sending more than three options or asking an open-ended “When are you free?” These approaches typically double the number of emails needed to finalize a time.

3. Leverage a meeting poll resource.

When I‘m coordinating meetings with more than three people, I’ve found that polling tools like Doodle are a lifesaver. Last quarter, I needed to schedule a quarterly planning session with team members across three departments. Instead of dealing with 15+ reply-all emails, I created a poll that aligned us in under an hour.

Here’s how this may look on Doodle:

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What I’ve found works best:

• Share no more than 5-6 time slots.
• Set a clear poll deadline (I usually give 24-48 hours).
• Include a note about the meeting length and any prep work needed.

I always block off the proposed times on my calendar while the poll is active. Nothing’s worse than restarting the process because your top-voted time slot is no longer available!

Best for:

• Team meetings with 4+ people.
• Recurring meetings that need to be rescheduled.
• Cross-departmental coordination.
• Event planning with external stakeholders.

4. Find common free time on Google Calendar.

I occasionally manage a remote team across multiple time zones, so I‘ve become a power user of Google Calendar’s “Find a Time” feature. This tool has become my secret weapon for internal meetings, saving me hours each month in coordination time. (Psst: More instructions on this later on!)

What I love about this method:

• You can see everyone’s availability in a single view.
• It automatically accounts for time zones.
• You can quickly spot common free times.
• It respects people’s working hours and busy/free settings.

Pro tip: I‘ve found the most success using the “week” view rather than “day” view when scheduling team meetings. It gives me a broader picture of everyone’s availability and helps me spot patterns (like when team members typically block focus time).

Best practices I’ve learned:

• Always check the time zone indicator for each participant.
• Look for at least 15 minutes of buffer on either side of the meeting.
• Double-check against holidays in different regions.
• Consider setting up working hours in your calendar to make scheduling even easier.

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5. Record a meeting or async video and send it to stakeholders who couldn’t make it.

After struggling to find meeting times that worked for our APAC team members, I’ve become a huge advocate for async video recordings. I estimate this approach saves our team about 10 hours per month in coordination time, while ensuring everyone stays informed.

My async video workflow:

• Record a 5-10 minute video covering key points.
• Add timestamps in the description for easy navigation.
• Share the recording with a brief written summary.
• Set a clear deadline for questions or feedback.

What I’ve found most effective:

• Keep videos under 10 minutes (engagement drops significantly after that).
• Start with the most important information.
• Use screen sharing for visual demonstrations.
• Enable video playback speed options.

Best for:

• Status updates
• Product demonstrations
• Training sessions
• Project kickoffs
• Team announcements

Pro tip: I use Loom for most recordings because it automatically generates transcripts and allows viewers to leave time-stamped comments. This has increased our team’s engagement with async updates by roughly 60%.

Here’s what that can look like:

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6. Book a recurring meeting time.

After years of scheduling headaches, I’ve found that recurring meetings are the ultimate “set it and forget it” solution. When I took over managing our content team last year, I replaced ad hoc meetings with strategic recurring slots, reducing our scheduling-related emails.

My framework for recurring meetings:

• Weekly. Team standups and 1:1s.
• Bi-weekly. Project check-ins and sprint planning.
• Monthly. All-hands and strategy reviews.
• Quarterly. Planning sessions and reviews.

Pro tip: I always schedule recurring meetings for 25 or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60. This built-in buffer prevents back-to-back meeting fatigue and gives everyone time to prepare for their next call.

What I’ve learned works best:

• Pick a consistent day and time (e.g., “Marketing Sync every Tuesday at 10 AM”).
• Set clear cancellation policies (we cancel if 50% of key stakeholders can’t attend).
• Review and adjust recurring meetings quarterly.
• Include a standard agenda template in the recurring invite.

After coordinating hundreds of meetings across multiple time zones, I’ve developed a reliable system that works consistently. Here are my top tips, refined through real-world experience:

1. Provide meeting details.

I‘ve learned that clear meeting details are essential — nobody likes that awkward moment where everyone spends the first few minutes figuring out the meeting’s purpose.

I always include a quick objective statement in the invitation to avoid confusion and get things moving efficiently. For example, I might write: “During this meeting, we’re going to cover key adjustments in our tech stack we’re making in Q1 — specifically our new CRM and conversation intelligence platform.”

Pro tip: I keep a common meeting objective template in my notes for quick reference. This saves time while ensuring I maintain consistency in how I communicate meeting purposes.

2. Prepare an agenda.

As 13-time World Series champion Yogi Berra wisely said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” I’ve found this especially true in business meetings — without a clear agenda, even the most promising meeting can go off track.

We all know tangents happen, but you need a framework that allows you to bring things back on topic when the conversation starts to go off the rails. It‘s the best way to respect everyone’s time, avoid irrelevant talking points, and remind everyone of the most pressing matters at hand.

Pro tip: I create my agendas with clear time allocations for each topic. For a 30-minute meeting, I typically reserve five minutes for updates, 20 minutes for core discussion, and five minutes for next steps.

Every meeting should have a purpose, and a thoughtfully constructed agenda is the best way to clearly outline what that looks like. Agendas also let you dictate the preferred pace of your meeting — you can allocate certain amounts of time for specific action items, ensuring that things stay buttoned-up and timely.

3. Communicate value.

Every meeting you schedule needs to have a purpose — otherwise, you‘re just wasting everyone’s time. I always ask myself, “What will the other stakeholders get out of this?” before sending any calendar invite. If I can’t identify clear value, I know the meeting should probably be an email.

Before scheduling, I make sure I can articulate the specific outcome we‘re working toward, whether it’s:

• Revealing a new process.
• Developing a strategy.
• Welcoming a new team member.
• Making a key decision.

Pro tip: I include a clear “Meeting Outcome” section in my invites. For example: “Outcome: By the end of this meeting, we’ll have our Q1 content calendar finalized and responsibilities assigned.”

Regardless of what the “why” behind a meeting might be, make sure it‘s actually worth everyone’s time. I’ve learned the hard way that being known as the person who calls unnecessary meetings can damage team relationships and effectiveness.

4. Determine the meeting type.

Will the meeting be a conference call, a video chat, or in-person? I’ve found that having this information clearly stated in the invite prevents confusion and helps everyone prepare appropriately.

What I include in every invite:

• Meeting format (video, phone, or in-person).
• Connection details (video link or dial-in number).
• Location details (conference room or virtual meeting link).

If you’re using Google Calendar, you can easily add a video link to the meeting by pressing the “Add Google Meet video conferencing” button. I also regularly use other platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which integrate smoothly with Google Calendar.

Pro tip: For in-person meetings, I always double-check room availability and include the floor number or room location in the invite. This small detail has saved countless minutes of people wandering around looking for the right space.

5. Consider all time zones.

Working with global teams has taught me the importance of time zone coordination. I learned this lesson after accidentally scheduling an 11 PM meeting for our Australian team members. Now, I rely on a combination of tools to get it right:

• Google Calendar’s built-in time zone display.
• Slack’s local time indicators.
• My go-to time zone converter for complex scheduling.

Pro tip: I maintain a simple document listing my regular collaborators’ time zones and preferred meeting hours. For example, I know our APAC team prefers early morning EST meetings, which align well with their afternoon hours.

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6. Schedule the meeting in advance.

Fun fact: Exactly zero people on planet Earth like being notified of a meeting without enough time to prepare for or plan around it — I learned this lesson quickly after seeing the panicked responses to my same-day meeting requests when I first started managing projects.

Here are my advance scheduling guidelines:

• Regular team meetings – At least 1 week’s notice.
• Strategic planning sessions – 2-3 weeks’ notice.
• Client presentations – Minimum 3-5 business days.
• Quick updates – 24 hours when possible.

Pro tip: I’ve found that sending a meeting invite with a draft agenda at least 48 hours in advance increases participation and leads to more thoughtful discussion points from attendees.

That‘s not just for their benefit — if you give meeting attendees preparation time, they’ll likely make more meaningful contributions and ask better questions. I always include any pre-reading materials in the initial invite to give everyone time to review.

7. Block off “no meeting” time on your calendar.

If you‘re the one getting invited to a ton of meetings, you’ll find it helpful to block time off of your calendar where meetings can‘t be scheduled. I’ve made this a non-negotiable part of my week, blocking off my most productive morning hours (9-11 AM) for focused work.

Some organizations even have weekly no-meeting days to provide uninterrupted focus time and reduce fatigue. At HubSpot, we have “No Internal Meeting Fridays” to combat burnout, which I’ve found dramatically improves my end-of-week productivity.

Pro tip: I color-code my blocked time differently from regular meetings, making it easier to spot my dedicated focus periods at a glance. This visual cue helps me protect these time blocks more effectively.

8. Don’t schedule a meeting when an email will do.

We‘ve all heard the phrase, “This meeting could’ve been an email,” and I’ve made it my mission to prevent my team from saying this about my meetings. Before scheduling any meeting, I ask myself: “Could I communicate this effectively in writing?”

When I choose email over meetings:

• Sharing status updates.
• Distributing reports or metrics.
• Providing straightforward instructions.
• Announcing minor changes.

Pro tip: When I need to explain something visually but don’t need real-time discussion, I use Loom to record a quick video walkthrough. This approach cut our team’s meeting time while maintaining clear communication.

After testing dozens of scheduling tools over the years, here are the ones I consistently recommend to my team and clients. Each has unique strengths for different scheduling scenarios.

1. HubSpot Meetings Tool

Price: Free

HubSpot’s free meeting scheduler connects with your calendar to automate meeting scheduling. Sales teams can create booking links for prospects, manage team availability, and track all scheduling activity in the CRM.

Start using HubSpot’s Meeting Tool

The meetings tool integrates directly with the free CRM to manage contact details and see who has booked a meeting with you.

What I love about it:

• Seamless integration with both Google Calendar and Office 365.
• Group scheduling capabilities for team coordination.
• Round-robin meeting distribution for sales teams.
• Direct integration with HubSpot CRM.
• Automated booking confirmation emails.
• Custom meeting duration options.
• Meeting buffer time settings.

Best for: Sales teams who need to coordinate multiple calendars and want CRM integration. I use this daily for client meetings and find the automatic availability sync particularly reliable.

Pro tip: Set up different meeting types with custom questions to gather information before the meeting. I’ve found this reduces follow-up emails by about 40%.

2. Doodle

Price: Free for individuals, $14.95/month per user (Pro), $19.95/month per user (Team)

Doodle is a polling tool designed specifically for finding meeting times. The host of the meeting suggests possible times for the meetings and sends the poll to the meeting participants. From there, they’ll enter their availability, and the meeting host selects the best meeting date and time based on the responses.

Doodle also has booking pages that allow you to send your availability to clients and have them book time on your calendar based on your shared availability. This feature also allows you to limit the amount of meetings that people can add to your calendar, block off times you don’t want booked, and send out meeting reminders to prevent no-shows.

Source

What I love about it:

• Simple, intuitive polling interface.
• Calendar integration for automatic availability checks.
• Customizable booking pages.
• Built-in reminder system.

Doodle has become my go-to tool for coordinating large group meetings. The polling feature is straightforward. I suggest possible times, participants indicate their availability, and I can quickly spot the best time slot for everyone.

Best for: Team meetings and events with multiple participants. I primarily use it for monthly all-hands meetings with 20+ attendees across departments.

Pro tip: I’ve found that limiting polls to 3-4 time options gets faster responses than offering too many choices. Plus, the booking page feature helps me control my calendar by setting buffer times between meetings.

3. NeedToMeet

Price: Free (Standard), $12/year/user (Advanced), $19/year/user (Premium)

NeedToMeet is a budget-friendly polling tool that doesn’t require participants to create accounts. Ideal for quick, simple scheduling across organizations.

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What I love about it:

• Simple, no-registration-required polling.
• Custom URLs for each meeting.
• Consolidated comment viewing.
• Real-time email notifications.

Best for: Teams looking for a straightforward, cost-effective polling solution without requiring participants to create accounts.

Pro tip: The free version works well for basic scheduling needs, while the Premium tier adds features like calendar integration and recurring meetings that benefit regular users.

4. Notta (formerly Airgram)

Price: Free plan available; Pro plans start at $14.99/month

Here’s something exciting: Airgram and Notta merged in late 2024 to solve a common frustration — switching between different apps to schedule, record, and document meetings.

The result? A single platform that handles everything from finding the perfect meeting time to creating detailed, AI-powered summaries of your conversations.

What makes this tool particularly interesting is how it learns from your meeting habits. As you use it, the AI gets better at suggesting meeting times, identifying key discussion points, and helping you stay organized.

For teams drowning in meeting coordination and documentation, this combination of smart scheduling and automatic note-taking is a game-changer.

Source

What I love about it:

• Advanced AI transcription and summarization.
• Calendar integration with Google and Outlook.
• Meeting scheduling and recording in one platform.
• Real-time collaborative note-taking.

Best for: Teams who want an all-in-one solution for scheduling, recording, and documenting meetings. Particularly valuable for remote teams who need to maintain detailed meeting records.

Pro tip: The AI-powered meeting summaries can help determine if a follow-up meeting is necessary, potentially reducing unnecessary scheduling.

5. SurveyMonkey

Price: $30/user/month (Team Advantage), $92/user/month (Team Premier), Contact for details (Enterprise)

With SurveyMonkey, you can choose a meeting date and time, create a poll, and send the link to the poll to meeting participants via email. The poll can also be embedded on a website or Facebook page to reach even more people. If they don’t respond to the poll within a certain timeframe, SurveyMonkey will send a reminder email.

SurveyMonkey can help you plan out team schedules, too. For instance, if you manage a large team with multiple shifts, creating a scheduling poll can help you view everyone’s availability all in one place.

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What I love about it:

• Versatile polling capabilities beyond just scheduling.
• Website and social media poll embedding.
• Automated reminder system.
• Advanced analytics for response tracking.

Best for: Large organizations managing complex schedules, especially teams with shift workers or multiple departments needing coordination.

Pro tip: The ability to embed polls on internal websites or intranets makes it particularly effective for company-wide event planning or training session scheduling.

6. Calendly

Price: Free (Basic), $12/seat/month (Standard), $20/seat/month (Teams), and Enterprise starts at $15K/year

Calendly is a meeting scheduling tool that connects to your calendar. It even lets you set your availability and send a meeting link to contacts. Meeting invitees can book a meeting at a time that’s convenient for them and that time is automatically scheduled on your calendar.

Calendly’s meeting poll feature helps you find the best time for team meetings. Plus, the workflows feature allows you to automate routine communications, like event reminders and follow-up meetings.

Source

What I love about it:

• Clean, professional booking interface.
• Automated workflows for reminders and follow-ups.
• Multiple meeting type configurations.
• Robust calendar integration options.

I use Calendly to manage my freelance client meetings, and it’s been a game-changer for professional scheduling. The automated reminders and follow-ups keep everything organized without the back-and-forth emails.

Best for: Freelancers, consultants, and small businesses who want to present a professional scheduling experience to clients.

Pro tip: Create different meeting types for initial consultations versus project check-ins, each with its own duration and buffer times, to better manage your freelance workflow.

Find a Meeting Time With Google Calendar

Want to meet with one person or multiple people? You can find a time that works for everyone using Google Calendar. Here’s how.

1. Navigate to Google Calendar.

Start out by logging into your Google Calendar account.

Pro tip: Make sure you‘re using the Google Workspace account associated with your organization to see your colleagues’ calendars.

2. Create a new event or edit an existing event.

To create a new event, click Create and a pop-up will appear. Then click the More options button to add your meeting details.

To edit an existing event, click on the event you want to update, and select the pencil icon to edit it.

Pro tip: Use keyboard shortcuts (press Shift + ? to see them all) to speed up your calendar management.

3. Add guests to the invite.

In the Guests field, enter email addresses for all participants. Google Calendar will automatically check their availability as you add them.

Best practice: Add required attendees first, then optional ones. This helps prioritize scheduling around key participants’ availability.

4. Click the “Find a Time” tab.

Select the Find a Time tab at the top of your event details. This view shows everyone’s availability in a convenient grid format.

Key features to use:

• Toggle between Day and Week views for different planning perspectives.
• Look for white spaces that indicate mutual availability.
• Check the time zone indicator for each participant.
• Use the scheduling grid to visualize conflicts.

5. Select a time.

Click on an available time slot in the grid to select it. The time will automatically populate in your event details. Click Save to send the invitation to all participants.

Pro tip: Before finalizing, check for adjacent meetings and consider adding buffer time to prevent back-to-back scheduling.

Schedule Meetings Hassle-Free

Finding the perfect meeting time for everyone doesn’t have to be a headache. I hope you’re convinced that with the right combination of tools and strategies, you can speed up your scheduling process and focus on what really matters: productive conversations that move projects forward.

Key takeaways to remember:

• Choose the right scheduling tool for your specific needs.
• Always consider time zones and participant preferences.
• Use clear agendas and meeting objectives.
• Respect everyone’s time with proper advance notice.
• When in doubt, ask yourself if it really needs to be a meeting.

Remember: The goal isn‘t just to find a time that works — it’s to create the conditions for effective collaboration and communication.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When it comes to nailing a sales presentation, remember to follow this basic rule: Care about what your customer cares about.

Keeping this at the forefront is what’s helped Doug Spencer, a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Bold Xchange, an online gifting software tool, secure roughly $1 million in outside capital. Some of his proudest moments include securing funding after only one conversation.

“With sales, you’ve got to know their language,” says Spencer, “so that you can speak to what they’re looking for.”

Whether it’s with a prospective investor, customer, or partner, understanding the needs and requirements of the person you’re selling to (plus, how you’re uniquely able to serve these needs) is the key to closing a deal.

Table of Contents

• What is a sales presentation?
• Best Practices for Planning a Sales Presentation
• Essential Steps to Help You Practice Your Presentation
• Tips for Delivering Your Sales Presentations

What is a sales presentation?

Think of a sales presentation as the ultimate pitching opportunity. It’s your chance to prove to your potential customer that your service or product is worthy of investment. It should include granular detail around the specific problem you’re aiming to solve, often with the support of visuals, case studies, and other relevant data.

Also, a sales presentation isn’t complete without a value proposition: Make sure you’re clear on what you’re offering, why you’re the right person to offer it, and exactly how you plan to execute.

Best Practices for Planning a Sales Presentation

1. Study your potential client and the industry.

I know internet stalking isn’t typically condoned, but when you’re planning your sales presentation, a deep level of research is crucial.

“The research step is really, really important, because then [the customer] is going to be like, ‘Hey, this person knows me,’” says Spencer. Your prospective client also wants to see that you have an understanding of the respective industry as a whole.

In addition to knowing the ins and outs of their company’s leadership and employees, “get acquainted with educating yourself about current trends, recent news, and your company’s competitors,” adds Erica Franklin, founder of EVF Consulting and global director of sales for Sistas In Sales.

2. Tell a story.

“Storytelling is winning,” says Franklin. While only 5% of people remember statistics during a presentation, 63% remember stories.

One of the best ways to storytell in a presentation is to incorporate case studies and real-world examples — especially ones that involve use of your product.

“I enjoy seeing presentations from companies that use their own products to convince customers to purchase those same products, like Monday.com and Gong.io,” says Franklin. “They are literally able to show you repeatedly why their products are successful.”

Storytelling is also what helped Franklin land a repeat client who was mulling over whether or not to renew the service. “Instead of accepting their hesitation, I crafted a renewal and upsell proposal that (I believe) shifted their perspective — not just on the current products but also on the future possibilities,” says Franklin.

She did this by showcasing the success of partnership via strategic storytelling and hypothetically presenting what growth would look like if they remained a customer. “They ended up not only renewing but also expanding their partnership,” shares Franklin.

3. Do the leg work — if you can.

Especially if your budget is tight, Spencer suggests putting together the presentation yourself rather than paying someone else to do it, and better allocate those funds to serve a business need elsewhere. It’s also how you get closest to the material you’ll be presenting.

Consider free resources from platforms like Canva, Keynote, Google Slides, and PowerPoint, many of which offer customizable templates.

AI, when used responsibly, can also be a help reviewing and formatting aid. Gamma is a new AI-powered platform on the market that I think is worth testing out.

4. Don’t go too text-heavy.

Forty percent of people prefer non-written visual forms of communication, so charts, graphics and other imagery are ideal.

Videos are even better. Plus, the more copy you add to your slides, the more inclined you’re going to be to read directly from the presentation. Text can be a crutch. Visuals are more of a guide. Likewise, “the more people are trying to read, the less they’re listening,” says Spencer.

Another benefit of non-wordy slides is that they also make for a more concise presentation. When it comes to ideal length, Franklin says, “Depending on the product, I would say 20-30 minutes, leaving a few minutes for discussion, so 45 minutes max.”

5. Remove the excess.

Another rule of thumb? Each slide should convey exactly one point, says Spencer. That way you’re staying on track and keeping the customer engaged.

He suggests thinking of it like this: “What are the chapters in my story?” Each slide should be a “chapter.” You don’t want to muddle your chapters with excess, so take note of any information that’s not pertinent. If it’s not adding to the story, it probably doesn’t need to be included. If it must stay, include it as an add-on or reference point, like a book’s appendix or bibliography, that you don’t necessarily need to present.

Essential Steps to Help You Practice Your Presentation

1. Repetition is key.

The more you practice, the more nuances you’re able to consider — and that will make your presentation more interesting.

Repeated practice will also prepare you to be unfazed by any curve balls thrown at you the day of. The more you know your stuff, the less you’ll need to rely on a script. You’re able to deliver a more natural presentation, and I think it makes you more confident when you need to improvise as well.

2. Practice with someone foreign to the project

When you’re the closest to the concept, it’s easy to miss what requires more explanation. Try practicing on someone who has zero or very minimal knowledge of what’s being presented. This was, you can ensure your pitch is clear and thorough no matter who’s on the receiving end.

“You always want to assume that the person you‘re presenting to doesn’t have the level of detail that you have,” says Spencer. “And that they’re not an expert, because often they’re not.”

Tips for Delivering Your Sales Presentations

1. Approach it like a conversation.

A sales presentation doesn’t have to feel like that boring lecture every student dreaded attending. Your client wants to learn, but they also want to feel included and engaged.

“Sales presentations have become much more conversational and less scripted or tied to a specific selling process,” says Franklin.

“While selling methodologies are great, sometimes just having real conversations about what is going on and what is needed wins. Trust-building is the key to closing deals.”

Building trust also means approaching the presentations like there’s an already-established partnership. Successful sales reps are 10 times more likely to use collaborative words like “us,” “we,” and “our.”

2. Allow the customer to speak.

Part of engaging your customer means allowing them to participate. Encouraging them to weigh in on the conversation positions you to address anything you may have missed, and you can sometimes drive your point home even further.

Franklin suggests asking your potential client open-ended questions like, “What does success look like for you?” or “What other products have you used in the market to address your pain points?”

3. Make sure your potential customer has a copy of the deck.

While the hope is that your presentation is clear — and that your prospective customer is taking notes — it’s important that they have reference points to refer back to later while deliberating.

“Presentations (even shorter versions) are helpful to your contacts after the meeting as they usually need something tangible and concise to help them sell internally,” says Franklin.

Send them an email with your slides before or after the meeting.

4. Wrap up with clarity around numbers and next steps.

Numbers are important. Always be clear on what yours are.

By the end of the presentation, your client should know exactly what you’re asking for and what the next steps are, should they choose to move forward.

Spencer says it’s important to be confident in the number you’re presenting. You should have already done your homework, so “don’t negotiate against yourself,” he says, and be sure to give your potential client room to think.

Equally as important, he adds: “Remember that you’re going to hear no.” Sometimes, it’s a firm no (which happens to the best of us); sometimes, that “no” means not right now, or not in this way. After all, 83% of potential clients won’t initiate a sale for 3-12 months.

“If they cannot buy everything right now, make a long-term plan,” says Franklin. Sometimes it’s about playing the relationship game.

Ready To Present

While sales presentations generally aren’t generally a rep’s favorite part of the job, the best sales reps know that, when done right, sales presentations are a high-earning skill.

After I spent time talking with experts for this post and reviewing their tips and techniques, the one that stands out the most for me is: practice. It might not prepare you for every scenario, but it’ll prepare you for most of them. Best of all, you’ll be confident in your talking points — and your product. There’s no better way to go into a sales presentation.

I hate to break it to you, but having a great product or service alone is not enough to succeed in today’s marketplace. Sales teams need the right tools, content, and data to talk to customers and close deals faster. That’s where sales enablement platforms help.

I’ve worked with businesses that spend thousands on software that sales teams end up barely using. Other tools? They become an indispensable part of the workflow — automating tedious tasks, surfacing key insights, and helping reps hit quota.

If you want to make your sales process easier, this guide will introduce you to five of the best sales enablement platforms in 2025. These tools help teams work better, close more sales, and make more money. Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

• What is a sales enablement platform?
• What do sales enablement platforms do?
• Revenue Enablement vs. Sales Enablement
• 5 Best Sales Enablement Platforms
• My Favorite Picks for Sales Enablement

According to HubSpot’s Sales Trends report, 52% of sales pros use sales enablement content and 79% of them say it’s important to making a sale.

What do sales enablement platforms do?

Sales enablement platforms can help sales teams in many ways — from content to analytics and more.

1. Content Management. Keeping all sales materials (like slides, brochures, and case studies) in one easy-to-find place.
2. Analytics & Reporting. Showing which sales content works best so teams can make better choices.
3. Training & Coaching. Providing guides, videos, and coaching to help sales reps improve.
4. CRM Integration & Automation. Automating follow-ups and keeping track of customers in one system.

Expert insight: According to Daria Shevchenko, CMO at Snov.io, data is one of the biggest reasons businesses use these tools. “Nowadays, all the decisions businesses make need to be based on evidence if they want to avoid losing time, money, and effort on things that don’t perform well,” she says.

“These platforms help track the performance of campaigns and content, which becomes useful in the future when you need to make budget allocation decisions. For example, if you see that one channel is bringing in good numbers, you would allocate a bigger chunk of the budget on it in the next quarter.”

For a deeper dive into how to apply these features, check out HubSpot’s Sales Enablement Training Workbook.

AI Integration and Sales Enablement

The elephant in any room when discussing software is of course… What is the impact of AI in this area? Sales enablement is no different.

According to several of the sales experts I spoke with, AI integration is one of the most powerful features that several sales enablement platforms offer — but still it’s not something talked about enough.

“One very important, almost ignored aspect involves AI integration. Most sales enablement tools, HubSpot included, have AI-driven features that make automatic recommendations of content to sales representatives based on lead behavior,” says Reilly James Renwick, CMO at Pragmatic Mortgage Lending.

“This personalization at scale ensures that reps are always using the most relevant materials, which can be a huge time-saver. In addition, AI keeps tabs on buyer intent and engagement for sales teams so reps can strike when a lead is in the perfect stage of their journey. It’s a game-changer for boosting productivity and upping sales.”

Revenue Enablement vs. Sales Enablement

While sales enablement tools focus on helping sales teams close deals, revenue enablement takes a broader approach.

• Sales enablement supports sales teams specifically by providing tools, content, and automation to improve close rates.
• Revenue enablement aligns sales, marketing, and customer success teams to optimize the entire revenue cycle.

As Renwick puts it, “If enablement as such focuses mainly on equipping a sales team with content and tools to actually close deals, then revenue enablement extends that support to the whole process of creating revenue, inclusive of marketing and customer success.

“Revenue enablement focuses on selling, marketing, and customer success alignment with seamless communication at each touchpoint in the Customer Life Cycle with consistent messaging across.”

Now, let’s dive into the top sales enablement platforms.

5 Best Sales Enablement Platforms

Instead of just listing features, I went straight to the source — real sales reps — to get their take on which sales enablement platforms actually make a difference.

1. HubSpot

Best for: Seamless Sales & Marketing Alignment

HubSpot Sales Hub is more than just a CRM — it’s an all-in-one AI-powered sales enablement platform designed to help teams work smarter, not harder. What makes HubSpot stand out is its seamless integration of marketing, sales, and automation, allowing businesses to track leads, automate follow-ups, and personalize outreach all in one place.

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Sales reps love that they can see a prospect’s entire engagement history, including what emails they’ve opened, what pages they’ve visited, and what content they’ve engaged with.

Core features:

• CRM with built-in sales enablement tools.
• AI-powered content recommendations.
• Automated follow-ups based on customer behavior.
• Deep analytics and personalized dashboards.
• Easy to use — intuitive UI and minimal setup time.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $20 per seat/month (Starter) and go up to $150 per seat/month (Enterprise).

What I like: HubSpot’s integration between sales and marketing makes it a powerhouse for tracking lead behavior and personalizing outreach. It’s also extremely easy to use — which is why it’s a favorite for me.

Shevchenko tells me her favorite feature of HubSpot is its in-depth analytics, like the ability to track conversions. These allowed her to visualize the data with personalized dashboards with the metrics that mattered most.

2. Highspot

Best for: Sales Content Management

Highspot is a content-first sales enablement platform that helps teams create engaging, interactive sales materials. If your team struggles with finding the right content at the right time, Highspot is a game-changer. It centralizes all sales materials — presentations, case studies, one-pagers — so reps don’t have to waste time hunting for them.

Here’s a look at their approach to sales enablement.

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Core features:

• All-in-one GTM enablement platform that makes it easy for reps.
• AI-driven recommendations help reps pick the best content for each prospect.
• Interactive sales presentations with real-time tracking.
• Content analytics for sales engagement.
• Simple drag-and-drop editor for customization.

Pricing: Custom pricing based on team size. (Side note: I don’t *love* how complicated it is to find pricing information.) According to arrows.to, however, the average contract value for the platform is more than $90,000.

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What I like: Highspot is perfect for teams that rely heavily on sales content — it makes delivering polished, interactive sales materials effortless.

Renwick tells me that Highspot has helped his company improve sales productivity. “Highspot allowed our team to get to the right content for each prospect and present it in record time. Not only did this save hours for reps, but it also yielded higher engagement and a 15.47% increase in conversions,” he said.

3. Zendesk

Best for: Customer-Centric Sales Teams

If your business relies on great customer support, Zendesk Sell ties sales and support together seamlessly. It’s an ideal choice if you need a CRM that integrates with customer service tools.

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Core features:

• AI-driven sales automation.
• Omnichannel sales tracking (email, phone, chat, social).
• Seamless CRM and customer support integration.

Pricing: Starts at $19 per user/month.

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What I like: The support-to-sales handoff is seamless, ensuring no customer falls through the cracks.

4. Outreach

Best for: Sales Automation & Email Sequences

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Outreach is built for sales automation at scale. If your team sends lots of cold outreach emails, this platform optimizes sequences, tracks engagement, and automates follow-ups to save time.

Core features:

• AI-powered email sequencing and task automation.
• Deep sales analytics and forecasting tools.
• Built-in call recording and coaching.
• Great for outbound teams that rely on email sequences.
• Integrates well with most CRMs.

Pricing: Unfortunately you have to reach out for pricing on this one, too. Outreach does offer several different packages depending on what features you really need. However, some sales reps say that price is a downside to using this tool — and many email sequencing features, for example, can be found with a more affordable tool like Apollo.

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What I like: Outreach excels in automation, helping sales teams work smarter by prioritizing high-value prospects.

5. Seismic

Best for: Large Sales Teams

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Seismic is a direct competitor to Highspot, but users say it’s easier to use and has better training features. If you need sales content management + coaching tools in one platform, Seismic is a strong choice.

Core features:

• More intuitive UI than Highspot.
• AI-driven content personalization.
• Great training/coaching tools alongside content management.
• Engagement tracking for sales materials.

Pricing: Custom pricing available. Like Seismic, sales reps say that Seismic is expensive, and it’s one of the highest-priced options on this list.

What I like: Seismic’s AI recommendations ensure sales reps always use the most effective content, making outreach more strategic.

My Favorite Picks for Sales Enablement

If your team needs a simple, all-in-one system, HubSpot is my top choice. If you rely on sales content and presentations, Highspot is a great tool. For AI-powered automation, Outreach and Seismic are my top picks.

No matter which tool you choose, investing in a sales enablement platform can save time, improve sales, and help your business grow.