Sales Teams are Evolving, and AI is Leading the Way

The role of the sales professional has changed a lot since the days when reps used to spend endless hours on cold calls and emails. Success isn’t just about closing deals or hitting the right numbers anymore. It’s about building relationships, generating opportunities, and delivering exceptional, end-to-end customer experiences. That creates challenges for companies to navigate.

About 70% of salespeople are struggling with higher levels of stress and burnout, and countless companies are reporting difficulties with ensuring “role clarity” and maintaining staffing levels within teams. The only way to stay ahead as this market evolves is to learn and adapt.

That’s why we decided to dive behind the scenes and source genuine insights on the challenges and changes sales teams are facing, by speaking to our very own Mid-Market Account Executive, Maruf Mahmud. Responsible for managing and supporting accounts for Clerk Chat, Maruf knows exactly what it means to succeed in modern sales.

Here’s what he had to teach us.

Sales is More than Just Closing Deals

Sales today isn’t just about ringing the cash register - it’s about mastering a variety of roles that together make or break a deal. Modern sales professionals are a critical component of a complete “customer success team.” Maruf explains:

My role is obviously focused on bringing new revenue to the business and closing deals – but it’s more than that, too.

I’m always looking for ways to introduce new opportunities and proactively reach out to new businesses. Beyond that, my team handles customer support, too. We work with customer service professionals on onboarding strategies to ensure customers get the most value out of their purchase and handle various other tasks.

Mahmud Maruf

Mid-Market Account Executive

Clerk Chat

This comprehensive approach is becoming the norm – not just for Clerk Chat, but for every company. Businesses are thinking more holistically about the customer journey, and sales teams are spending less time on just “selling.” Overall, that’s a good thing – leading to better experiences for customers and quicker time to value.

Finding the Opportunity in Today’s Sales Challenges by Embracing Innovation

While it’s true that sales professionals have more responsibilities these days, every challenge introduces an opportunity to innovate and evolve. With every new touch point in the customer journey, for instance, comes an opportunity for sales teams to build deeper, more meaningful connections and learn more about the customers they serve.

While staying organized and on track, particularly in today’s age of hybrid and remote work, comes a chance to rethink workflows with intelligent tools and automation. For instance - if you can’t reach a colleague in the office to get an essential update for a lead, maybe you can reach out via collaborative support in a group message - or find the answer via an AI agent.

Keeping up with internal communications and growing responsibilities might feel like a lot for sales professionals, but by rethinking how they approach these challenges, team members can discover new ways to grow.

Maruf believes the answer to success is in working “smarter, not harder.” He drew attention to the opportunities sales professionals have to leverage AI and automation, as well as new communication channels to unlock new opportunities.

Already, Maruf and his team are using tools developed by Clerk Chat to overcome the biggest hassles in the sales process.

Handling Dynamic Lead Engagement

Generating and qualifying leads has always been tricky for sales teams, but today it’s often a lot more complex, particularly as consumers become more discerning.

Lead generation is also an opportunity for sales professionals to rethink how they use their time and resources. AI and automation can revolutionize the lead engagement process.

For example, Maruf and his team leverage AI agents to help with everything from lead qualifications to follow-ups.

“We have an AI agent that can qualify leads, immediately asking the right questions to help us identify which prospects are more likely to convert.”

Maruf continues, “This agent handles the initial question-and-answer cadence, so it’s really just up to me to step in and close the deal.”

Maruf even uses AI to automate follow-up processes, setting automatic schedules for outreach messages to reach leads at the best time for them. Plus, he has a dedicated AI agent that can automate tasks like scheduling a demo and sending appointment reminders to customers, too.

Mastering Consistent Client Communication

Most customers aren’t ready to convert the moment they encounter a product or even hear from a sales rep. That’s why following up is so important – it’s the difference between closing a deal and losing it. But as Maruf told us, figuring out when to follow up (with a focus on persistence rather than pushiness), and connecting at the right time is unique and dynamic.

“On average, I find that the first follow-up should usually take place two to three days later, the second five days later, and so on. However, this cadence can vary – along with the prospect’s preferences. It’s almost impossible to manually maintain the right connections with a lead over time – particularly when you’re dealing with dozens of potential clients.”

For Maruf, the simple solution is to embrace a new form of communication – one that’s naturally convenient and conversational, and can be automated with scheduling tools: SMS.

“I can schedule SMS outreach messages and follow-up messages and make sure I’m constantly maintaining those strong connections with our leads.”

He explains, “There’s no need to worry about a message getting lost in a spam folder, and I can personalize everything for each contact with our variables, pulled directly from the contact card, which improves the experience for our customers.”

Plus, thanks to two-way texting, customers can respond with questions about products and services and get instant responses from an FAQ AI agent – no waiting around for billing updates or insights. That streamlines the path to conversion and improves customer satisfaction.

Managing Customer Expectations and Keeping Data in Sync

As mentioned above, closing a deal is just the beginning for sales teams. They need to also play an active role in ensuring customer success and building long-term relationships with each lead. As Maruf says:

“Every client I close knows me as their first point of contact. So whenever they run into issues, they come straight to me. I then loop in our support team.”

This hands-on approach is vital in an environment where acquiring a new customer is so much more expensive than retaining an existing one. However, multiple team members often need to work together to ensure that customers get the right level of consistent support.

Maruf takes advantage of CRM technologies, integrated with the Clerk Chat messaging platform, to align data and keep every team member on the same page, accessing the insights they need to support customers throughout their journey.

The CRM integration and the API help the team pull contact data instantly and keep profiles up-to-date.

“That means we can deliver more personalized, relevant customer experiences, and I can spend less of my time manually updating details.”

Additionally, AI-powered CRM systems can analyze customer interactions and provide insights into buying behaviors, helping Maruf and his team plan effectively for the future.

How Clerk Chat Helps Sales Teams

For Maruf, Clerk Chat’s robust communication features, data, contact, and eDiscovery integrations, and AI Agents are revolutionizing a once-complicated sales process. With Clerk Chat, Maruf can take advantage of valuable capabilities, such as:

• Lead Qualification: The AI Agent can handle the initial stages of lead qualification, ensuring the most promising prospects are passed to human reps. It’s helping Maruf qualify leads faster and close deals more consistently.

• Automated follow up: Clerk Chat’s Follow-Up Agent can answer questions for prospects, while Clerk Chat’s messaging features allow users to schedule messages to reach customers at specific times. Users can even send appointment reminders for demos and upcoming sales meetings, reducing the risk of lost opportunities.

• Streamlining Team Collaboration: With Clerk Chat’s shared sales lines, multiple team members can monitor and respond to inquiries from a single inbox. Maruf says this means teams can work more effectively together on ensuring customer success.

• Text Message Campaigns: With a comprehensive workflow for creating SMS campaigns, Maruf and his team nurture customers through the sales funnel, enhance onboarding strategies, and even gather feedback from consumers, with minimal effort.

The Future of Sales: What’s Next?

The future of sales is set to be defined by rapid advancements in AI and automation. As technology reshapes how we interact with customers, adaptability is emerging as the key to long-term success. Maruf encapsulates the excitement of what lies ahead:

“What excites me most about the future of business messaging is the incredible potential for AI-driven solutions to transform how businesses engage with their customers.”

Clerk Chat’s role in this is especially exciting, as he sees it evolving into a key player in revolutionizing conversational business messaging.

Clearly, the sales space will only become more complex in the years ahead, but AI, automation, and new communication opportunities will pave the way to better results for sales teams. Maruf says that today’s sales professionals will need to stay agile and curious if they want to grow.

“My advice is to start small, experiment, and invest in learning how to use AI. If we don’t get comfortable with this technology now, we risk falling behind. Clerk Chat is really helping sales teams get there. I can see it evolving into a real player in the conversational messaging landscape going forward – now’s the time for sales teams to take advantage.”