AI in B2B sales: How to close more deals efficiently in 2025

AI in B2B sales: How to close more deals efficiently in 2025

Business-to-business sales is a volume game. You either need to close more deals or increase the average value of each transaction. The problem is that there are only so many hours in the day. How can you close more deals efficiently in 2025 without drastically scaling up your team or putting in way too many hours? 

Artificial intelligence holds the key. Using AI in B2B sales is the game-changing shift that you have been looking for. With the right AI solutions, your sales team can nurture leads more efficiently and create a frictionless client journey. Here’s everything you need to know about AI in B2B sales.  

Why AI in B2B sales matters

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It has even made it to business-to-business sales. According to HubSpot, AI adoption among B2B sales teams rose to 43 percent in 2024. This should come as no surprise. Using AI in B2B sales just makes sense. 

How AI is becoming a game changer for B2B sales

With artificial intelligence tools at your fingertips, you can automate key processes and reduce friction during the client journey. AI also promotes scalability, empowering you to close more deals and save time in the process. 

Leading platforms include customer data analysis capabilities, which can predict how prospects will respond to certain interactions based on past behavior.

Artificial intelligence can support a wide range of sales tasks, such as lead scoring, CRM automation, and even content creation. However, one of the greatest benefits of an AI sales strategy is its ability to inform and expedite decision-making. 

How AI is shifting sales to a data-driven process

Intuition has always been critical to the success of B2B sales professionals. While your intuition will remain valuable, adding AI to your workflows allows you to shift to data-driven decision-making. The goal is to back up your gut feeling with hard data so you can meet the needs of prospects and close more deals in 2025.

What is AI in B2B sales?

Artificial intelligence in business-to-business sales refers to the application of advanced technologies to improve the customer journey and help you work more efficiently. Machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics all fall under the umbrella of AI. AI uses these solutions to make your sales team more nimble while providing actionable data insights. 

The concept of artificial intelligence can seem a bit mysterious. That’s largely due to the wide range of applications and use cases of AI. The easiest way to dive into AI is to divide it into two large groups, which include the following: 

Basic automation

People often use the terms “artificial intelligence” and “automation” synonymously. However, they are different, albeit interrelated, concepts. Basic automation involves using software to perform repetitive tasks without human intervention. Simple chatbots that have preset responses based on a wide selection of potential customer inputs are a good example of basic automation.

Another common example of basic automation is customer relationship management systems that automatically log interactions with clients to keep records up-to-date. Are these use cases helpful to your team? Absolutely! Is it true artificial intelligence? Maybe, depending on who you ask.

The bottom line is that you may need automation technologies to close more deals and work more efficiently. Automating redundant tasks is the first step to saving time and focusing more of your sales resources on dynamic work like building relationships with clients. 

However, many sales teams are using automation tools these days. In order to gain a definitive edge, your business needs AI-driven intelligence solutions. 

True AI-driven intelligence

AI-driven intelligence technologies analyze data to make informed decisions and create dynamic outputs. For example, predictive analytics platforms use AI models to forecast future sales trends based on historical data. 

Generative AI solutions for customer outreach are another great example. They can offer personalized responses to emails, proposals, or chat inputs from customers. 

Personalization is a key attribute of AI-driven intelligence tools. Content and responses are customized based on customer behavior and other relevant information. The more relevant the interactions are, the greater the odds of getting positive feedback from recipients. 

AI-powered sales intelligence tools are the next progression in the intelligence revolution. These platforms aggregate and analyze data from multiple sources, including your CRM, emails, chat history, and more. These tools help sales teams identify potential leads and create a personalized strategy to convert them to clients. 

Core AI applications in B2B sales

Using AI in B2B sales is an exciting proposition. The question is, which workflows and processes are the best fit for AI? Some areas to focus on include the following:

Lead scoring

Artificial intelligence solutions help your sales team generate more leads and rank prospects as they filter into the pipeline. Accurate lead scoring allows you to allocate your limited resources more effectively and focus on high-quality prospects. 

Sales forecasting

Artificial intelligence tools often include predictive analytics capabilities, which give you a glimpse into future sales performance. Use this knowledge to prepare for a slowdown in sales volume or ramp up marketing when business clients are ready to buy. 

Personalized content

You don’t have time to write a separate email or message for every client in your pipeline. That’s why many sales teams resort to generic templates that often feel rushed or impersonal. 

AI can create messages that are customized based on each client’s concerns and behavior. Adding a personal touch to messages makes marketing efforts more impactful while reducing ad waste.  

Guided selling

Sometimes, prospective customers want to take control of their purchasing journey. AI-powered guided selling tools assist your sales teams by providing real-time recommendations on products and pricing. 

Internal guided selling tools can even make recommendations to your agents while they are interacting with clients, which helps them identify pricing options and solutions that are a good fit for each prospect.

How to implement AI in B2B sales with Jotform AI Agents

AI in B2B sales primarily focuses on lead generation and sales forecasting. On the other hand, Jotform AI Agents support these efforts by automating customer interactions after they enter the lead pipeline. 

Jotform AI Agents remove friction from the entire B2B sales journey. This dynamic platform empowers you to respond to any customer instantly, anywhere, anytime. Jotform AI Agents are intelligent virtual assistants designed to enhance customer interactions and streamline sales processes. 

These AI-powered tools can automate and personalize customer engagement. Sales process automation with Jotform gets prospective clients the answers they need while removing friction from the buying journey. 

The agents use machine learning and natural language processing to analyze and respond to customer inquiries. Jotform AI Agents can help with gathering feedback, sharing information, and more.

You can integrate Jotform AI Agents into various platforms, including your website and chat applications. The result is a seamless and interactive experience for users. 

Implementing AI in marketing automation may sound daunting. It may be with other tools, but Jotform AI Agents make it easy. Step one involves choosing from one of over 7,000 AI Agent templates. Each template is customizable to match your brand voice and objectives but preconfigured with role data and response rule sets, which makes setting up your AI quick and simple.

You aren’t limited to just one agent template either. Jotform AI Agents include multiple B2B-specific templates, as well as some general sales and customer service templates that would be great additions to your workflow. Here are some of the key benefits and features you’ll enjoy with Jotform AI Agents: 

Automated customer support

Jotform AI Agents excel in automating customer support by handling initial inquiries and providing instant responses to your clients. Research suggests that 66 percent of people expect a chat response within five minutes or less. AI helps you meet this expectation and resolve simple challenges before escalating the matter to human support. 

There are lots of different ways to integrate Jotform AI Agents into your support workflows. For example, a software company can customize one of our templates to answer frequently asked questions about product features. The company could also train the agent to walk users through troubleshooting steps. 

Customization

One of the standout features of Jotform AI Agents is customization. While our templates do the heavy lifting, they still leave room to make the agent your own. You can brand the agent and adjust the tone and style of the responses to match your company’s values. 

Additionally, AI Agents can learn from documents, website links, and Q-and-A pairs. This training process equips the AI model to handle diverse customer inquiries with natural responses. 

Efficiency and scalability

As you have experienced firsthand, the B2B sales professional’s day can go from calm to chaotic in the blink of an eye. You can’t do everything at once, but you also don’t want to let hot leads pass you by. 

Jotform AI Agents automate routine customer interactions and enable you to manage a higher volume of inquiries without the need to increase staff. This scalability ensures consistent service quality, even during peak times. Say goodbye to missed opportunities and hello to more closed deals in 2025. 

Enhanced customer experience

Any unnecessary friction in the customer experience could delay your deal or cause a prospect to exit the pipeline entirely. Negative customer experiences also interfere with upselling and cross-selling efforts.

Jotform AI Agents create a better end-to-end customer experience, which is vital for building strong relationships in B2B sales. With Jotform, you can respond to customer inquiries faster and get clients the answers they need right away. Jotform also provides dynamic responses, which support customers’ self-service and troubleshooting efforts. 

Removing friction from the lead and client experience is key to keeping your pipeline full and closing more deals this year. Take a moment to think about some of the most friction-filled processes within your existing sales strategy. Now, imagine how you could solve them with the support of an intelligent AI Agent. That’s what’s possible with Jotform. 

Templates for everything

Traditionally, you would have to build an AI chatbot from the ground up. Even if you are using a user-friendly drag-and-drop system, adding all of those roles and responses will take hours. You will also have to tweak the system to ensure everything works as you intended. 

That’s the type of hassle that discourages many B2B sales professionals from using AI. Jotform AI Agents remove this barrier. 

You don’t have to be a master coder to use AI in B2B sales, or at least not when you are using Jotform AI Agents. The platform includes over 7,000 AI Agents templates. The templates provide a quick and easy way to set up your own AI Agent without starting from square one. Each template comes with preset roles, settings, and responses. 

Jotform makes B2B AI adoption easier than ever with the templates. The library includes several templates designed specifically for business-to-business interactions. 

For example, the B2B Registration AI Agent simplifies the registration process for your clients and prospects. The B2B Sales Consultant Estimate AI Agent uses dynamic conversations to give prospective clients cost estimates quickly.

Lead generation

Jotform AI Agents can play a pivotal role in lead generation by engaging with potential clients and collecting pertinent information. If you integrate the platform with your existing CRM, the software can automatically upload the information it gathers and even book appointments for you. 

Once you earn the leads, you need to convert them. With that in mind, Jotform AI Agents also include analytics tools that assist with predictive lead scoring. Identify your top prospects so you can nurture leads and distribute your sales resources accordingly. Target high-percentage leads that are likely to convert so you can close more deals. 

Challenges and risks of AI in B2B sales

If using AI in B2B sales is so impactful, why have only 43 percent of B2B sales teams adopted artificial intelligence solutions? Unfortunately, there are some major barriers to AI adoption. The good news is that you can identify and overcome those hurdles if you are ready to unlock the full potential of your B2B sales team. 

Here are the biggest challenges and risks you need to address, as well as some tips for solving them. 

Over-automation

Automating a few tasks saves you quite a bit of time. That means you should automate everything else possible to exponentially increase your team’s efficiency, right? Maybe you should improve some other workflows, but be wary of over-automating, especially in a human-centric field like B2B sales. 

According to Gartner, customers have serious concerns about using AI, especially in customer service workflows. Sixty percent of consumers worry that reaching a person will become more difficult. Other survey participants stated they are worried about getting the wrong information from artificial intelligence and data security. 

You can (and should) use AI for initial interactions with customers and simple tasks like scheduling appointments. You should also make it easy for people to connect with one of your team members when they need more personalized support. 

Biased AI models 

AI is only as good as the data on which it is trained. If some of the information it ingests contains biases, the model could reflect those biases in its outputs. HubSpot highlights that AI can inherit biases from past data. These biases can result in up to 62 percent lost revenue

There aren’t any quick fixes to the AI bias problem. Instead, you’ll need to create data governance practices and ensure that you train your AI models on diverse data sets. Even the best tools will make mistakes if they learn from bad data. Make sure you regularly audit and review any AI-generated content so you can find and fix any issues. 

Don’t let these issues discourage you from using AI. Just be diligent about preventing bias. 

Pushback from sales teams

Many professionals are worried about being replaced by AI. According to National University, 52 percent of employees are concerned that AI will take their jobs. 

Keep in mind that not everyone on your team is going to be excited about using AI in B2B sales. A large portion of your workforce may push back against the changes. 

Don’t ignore these concerns and simply push on with your AI implementation strategy. Instead, be transparent with your team about what your goals are and which AI tools you intend to implement. Get line-level employees and mid-level managers involved in the conversation before starting your search for new AI technology.

You should also create anonymous surveys to gauge worker sentiments about AI. Once you know what your team’s concerns are, organize a town hall meeting and discuss the issues they brought up.

Always frame AI as a workforce multiplier, not a replacement for human sales staff. Ensure your team that you want them to be part of the organization and intend to equip them with the skills necessary to thrive in the AI environment. 

High costs and integration challenges

Implementing AI solutions can be costly and complex. Twenty-two percent of sales professionals think that AI is expensive, and about one-fourth of sales leaders report a negative ROI on AI tools. 

AI tools, like all cutting-edge technologies, can be expensive. It can also be tedious to integrate them with existing systems. However, these concerns shouldn’t discourage you from using AI in B2B sales. Instead, use this data as a reminder to thoroughly research AI solutions and carefully calculate the costs of the implementation process.

Think about it this way: If approximately one-fourth of sales leaders experienced a negative ROI on AI tools, roughly 75 percent experienced a positive return. The businesses that experienced a negative ROI likely failed to address some of the other challenges outlined above, such as over-automation and change resistance on the part of employees. Choosing the wrong tools could also contribute to a negative ROI.

Before jumping on the AI hype train, conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to ensure that AI investments align with your company’s strategic goals. Selecting tools that are compatible with existing systems can ease your integration pains. 

For example, Jotform AI Agents easily integrate with popular services and apps like Slack, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Calendar. 

Jotform AI Agents also promote a stronger ROI via our templates. You can use templates to get your AI Agent set up quickly, which condenses the time to value and yields both short-term and long-term efficiency benefits. 

The future of AI in B2B sales: 2025 and beyond

Artificial intelligence is evolving at a blistering pace, which will offer unprecedented opportunities for efficiency and personalization. Here are some capabilities that are poised to take a huge step forward in 2025:

Enhanced personalization

AI already delivers personalized content and interactions. In the future, these exchanges are likely to become hyper-personalized. To achieve this, AI will analyze huge volumes of data and generate responses that address individual client preferences and needs. 

Predictive analytics

AI-driven predictive analytics can forecast sales trends and identify high-potential leads. Two improvements are ahead: more accurate predictions and prescriptive analytics. Improving the prediction of analytics reports will inform decision-making and enable your team to act decisively. Prescriptive analytics tools make data-driven recommendations so you can close more deals and better serve clients. 

AI-powered outreach

AI tools can already automate outreach efforts. As these capabilities expand, sales professionals can automate routine tasks and craft personalized messages. 

The integration of AI in B2B sales will transform the role of sales professionals. AI allows your team to focus on strategic activities that require a human touch. For example, you can spend more time negotiating contracts and building relationships with existing clients. This shift helps everyone be more productive while promoting higher job satisfaction.

Moreover, AI’s ability to provide data-driven insights can empower your team to make informed decisions in less time. This ability enables the company to adapt to changing market conditions and meet client needs.  

Why AI is a must-have for B2B sales  

Your business needs artificial intelligence to stay competitive and better serve its customers. With the right solution, your sales team can

  • Automate frustrating or repetitive tasks 
  • Use data to guide decision-making 
  • Respond to customers faster
  • Deliver quality content at scale
  • Achieve a better work-life balance 
  • Close more deals 

Start by examining your existing workflows and identify areas that would benefit from AI integration. Explore AI-powered sales tools like Jotform AI Agents and let the platform modernize the way you do business. This customizable solution makes AI accessible while delivering a strong return on investment. Get started with Jotform AI Agents for free!

AUTHOR
A journalist and digital consultant, John Boitnott has worked for TV, newspapers, radio, and Internet companies for 25 years. He’s written for Inc.com, Fast Company, NBC, Entrepreneur, USA Today, and Business Insider, among others.

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