When a prospect first reaches out, I’ve found that engagement is at its peak. Even in a best-case scenario when the deal moves forward, the urgency fades as their priorities shift. It can be frustrating to chase those people down after that initial interest.
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More and more, I’m turning to AI to follow up faster, personalize outreach, and make it easier to close deals quickly and efficiently while the problem they want to solve is fresh in their minds.
And I’m not alone. According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Sales, 84% of reps say AI helps them optimize their process, and 83% say it improves personalization — two critical ingredients for closing deals before momentum disappears.
Wondering how it works? I’ll walk you through the process I use.
Table of Contents
- How I Used AI to Qualify Leads and Close More Deals
- Why Use AI Sales Closing Techniques
- 5 Ways to Use AI to Close More Sales
HubSpot's 2025 Sales Trends Report
This in-depth report includes sections, covering:
- How buyers are becoming more self-informed
- How sales teams are using AI and automation
- Adapting to tighter budgets
- And more!
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How I Used AI to Qualify Leads and Close More Deals
It’s essential to take advantage of initial interest to start a conversation, and one of our primary tools for doing that when I was at Lead Prosper was our website’s chat window.
Thanks to the integration between HubSpot and Slack, reps can respond to messages in real time right within our organization’s main messaging app. Unfortunately, even with reps covering all three time zones here in the States, there were plenty of hours where the chat was unstaffed and prospects had to fill out an email contact form for more information. It was an undesirable plan B — until AI came along to fill in the gaps.
By using HubSpot’s AI chatbot builder, we enabled our prospects to get answers to their questions 24/7/365, regardless of sales rep availability.
That shift improved our speed, which reflects what HubSpot’s 2025 State of Sales Report data shows:
- 92% of sales professionals now use AI tools in some capacity.
- 40% of sales teams have expanded their offering of self-service tools in the last 12 months.
- 65% say generative AI tools make it easier for buyers to gather information about their products and services.
In our case, this resulted in more closed deals and plenty of additional benefits. Sales reps no longer had to:
- Come in the next business day and put prospects in re-engagement sequences.
- Personalize those sequences manually.
- Hit the phones when emails went unanswered.
- Waste time disqualifying leads that weren’t the right fit in the first place.
Instead, qualified opps became demos on the calendar around the clock.
Why Use AI Sales Closing Techniques
With AI backing up our sales department, missed opportunities became a thing of the past, which is critical considering that sales is a numbers game. No matter how compelling your product or service, each closed deal could be preceded by a dozen or more that never result in new business.
To meet your quota (and stay sane), you need tools that multiply your time and focus. Here are three ways I’ve seen AI do exactly that (with the latest HubSpot data to illustrate broader trends).
Scale your team.
Getting headcount approval can be an uphill battle, and while there’s no substitute for a team of seasoned sales reps, AI might be the next best thing.
After our chatbot went live, we ran a quick evaluation and found the total time savings were equivalent to a full-time hire. This would be even more profound in larger organizations or those with high-traffic web properties.
84% of reps from our 2025 survey agree, saying AI saves them time, making it easier for teams to scale their impact.
Improve conversion rates.
One of the biggest ROI drivers came from letting AI disqualify leads that weren’t a good fit earlier in the process.
83% of sales pros say AI helps them personalize interactions, which often means filtering and converting faster.
When I wasn’t wasting time chasing down leads that would ultimately fail some basic qualifications, I could focus on the conversations that actually moved the needle.
Move deals along.
Even in ideal situations where the prospect fits neatly into our ideal customer profile (ICP) and has demonstrated clear purchasing intent, I’ve found it takes quite a few touches to get to a signed contract and close the sale.
Some of the back-and-forth requires your direct involvement — such as contract terms or pricing negotiations. However, items like simple clarifying questions and scheduling follow-ups can easily be offloaded to AI tools to reduce your workload.
AI helped us handle those routine tasks so we could spend more time on high-value conversations.
That tracks with what we’re seeing across the industry: 79% of reps say AI helps them pull actionable insights from prospect interactions, and 80% say it improves communication overall.
5 Ways to Use AI to Close More Sales
AI is (or should be) an integral part of how modern sales teams move faster, personalize at scale, and close with more consistency. Here are five ways you can use it.
1. Create content.
80% of sales pros say AI helps them communicate more effectively with prospects.
Whether you’re responding to potential objections in a prospect’s email or drafting a blog post to attract or nurture inbound leads, generative AI can help. ChatGPT is still probably the most well-known large language model (LLM), but there are now a slew of options that support sales content across every stage of the funnel.
My recommendation for this: It’s clear I’m a fan of HubSpot — even more so now that it has an AI content assistant built into a host of tools, enabling you to generate landing page copy, ideate CTAs for testing, produce blog post titles and outlines, create captivating email subject lines, and much more.
2. Aim accurately.
82% of reps say AI helps them gain valuable insights from data.
Here’s why that matters:
Not all sales opportunities are created equal, and not every lead deserves the same time and energy. AI lead scoring tools can help you tell the difference up front, especially when you’re managing a large book of business.
My recommendation for this: If you’re on HubSpot’s Enterprise tier, you already have access to built-in AI scoring. Since we’re still at the Professional Tier, I’ve explored Leadspace for a solution that combines AI and big data to help you prioritize the most promising leads. Gong is another tool worth exploring for predictive intent scoring based on actual engagement.
3. Engage efficiently.
Depending on how much control you’re willing to relinquish, several tools can actually engage with your prospects on your behalf. Thanks to my team’s success with our chatbot implementation for leads at the top of the funnel, I’m determined to lean on AI in subsequent stages as well.
And as I mentioned earlier, I’m not alone here: 40% of sales teams have expanded their self-service tools in the last year, including chatbots, pricing pages, and demos.
My recommendation for this: Conversica is an AI-driven assistant trained on billions of actual interactions to carry on two-way conversations with prospects. Follow-ups are definitely one of the most time-intensive components of my own sales processes, which is why letting AI handle colder leads so I can focus on warmer ones sounds very intriguing.
Reply.io is a platform worth exploring if you want outbound sequences to warm up leads with logic based on how they engage. They also have an AI assistant that can manage responses if you want to go that far.
4. Personalize effectively.
At Lead Prosper, our solution could be used by a wide variety of digital marketers, ranging from lead generators to marketing agencies to service providers interested in purchasing leads. When you have an expansive, complex product or one with a wide variety of use cases, it makes sense that different prospects will be interested in different functionalities.
83% of reps say AI helps them personalize interactions, which can mean using it to identify the right angle for each buyer and deliver messaging that actually resonates.
My recommendation for this: I’ve seen big benefits from upgrading to a more sophisticated CMS. Tools such as Seismic or PathFactory can help sales teams with content management, keeping assets organized and updated while also recommending the most effective assets for different types of buyers at different stages of the journey.
5. Respond at the right time.
Timing is everything. Even the strongest prospects will ghost if your follow-up timing is off (ask me how I know). AI can help you out here, making it easier to deliver the right message to the right prospect at the right time.
How? AI can flag high-intent behavior, like revisiting your pricing page or opening your proposal three times in a row, so you can reach out when interest is highest.
The data backs this up! Of the reps interviewed, 79% say AI helps them pull actionable insights from buyer interactions, while 80% say it improves communication overall.
My recommendation for this: I’ve set up lead revisit notifications and behavior-based triggers to alert me when a prospect is warming up. And, based on what that action is, it can trigger an automated action or create a task to follow up with a 1:1 call. Once implemented, it’s an easy win that keeps me from guessing or following up too late.
Sealing the Deal
AI is no longer just a novelty, and the sales enablement market is flooded with tools that can transform your workflows and take your sales game to the next level.
Want some quick wins? I’ve found AI the most approachable in content creation and personalization. Once you’ve taken that initial leap, you’ll find — like I did — that AI can address weaknesses, increase capacity, and empower you and your sales team in a variety of surprising and impactful ways.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2024 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
HubSpot's 2025 Sales Trends Report
This in-depth report includes sections, covering:
- How buyers are becoming more self-informed
- How sales teams are using AI and automation
- Adapting to tighter budgets
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
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