From Speed to First Contact to Speed to First Conversation

Today’s complex web GTM motions—funneling inbound and outbound leads, logging signals, and meticulously knitting together a multitude of platforms and sequences designed to elicit positive customer responses—are a core driver of moving leads and prospects along their buying journey.

But there's always been a catch—the very mechanisms many teams put in place to capture leads might be the exact barriers preventing them from converting.

Why?

Even though these complex automations are necessary for conversions, most require inputs from buyers, and each must be seamlessly combined with effective response management (from humans) to achieve meaningful results.

While traditionally this has been a partnership between people and technology, new AI innovations are creating opportunities to finally unify and streamline this journey.

In this article, we will walk through the case for change, the difference between B2B sequences and AI workflows, and the top 5 AI workflows you should consider for your pipeline motion right away.

The Case for Change: Why Traditional Sequences Fall Short

Today's B2B buying journey isn't linear. Terms like "pipeline" and "funnel" suggest it's as simple as running ads to generate white paper MQLs who instantly book demos and close right away. Instead, most B2B pipeline journeys involve diverse buyers, diverse buying intents, and diverse navigation paths, each with its own frictions. Buyers navigate across digital interfaces and human interactions at different stages, in their own time.

In fact, only 4% of website visitors to SaaS companies are ready to buy, meaning 96% of visitors are not yet prepared to make a purchase even if they are qualified! Buyers can't navigate the entire journey alone—they can get stuck at any stage.

These moments of friction present both the greatest opportunity and the greatest risk to your pipeline for two reasons:

• Defection Risk: Buyers are just as likely to defect as they are to actually raise their hand and ask for help. Not all buyers are ready to give personal information on a form to solve their early questions and needs. Without meaningful conversations, you miss the chance to provide the guidance they need.
• Engagement Timing: When they finally are ready to buy, 78% of buyers go with the vendor that provides value and insight first during the buying process. When buyers are ready, they have likely already lined up suppliers. Not engaging quickly means you’re losing them to a competitor who’s ready to step in【source: Forrester】.

The Difference Between Traditional Workflows and AI Workflows

Simply knowing the action they took or the page they visited isn’t enough to understand their true intent. Treating every visitor the same just because they landed on your website and sending them a templated email is quickly losing effectiveness.

Instead, we need tools that start meaningful, personalized interactions. These tools should galvanize the insights and best practices of our team into scalable conversations that move leads into meetings and towards outcomes from end to end.

But how can you deliver a better buying experience that maximizes efficiency without increasing human headcount to 'sit and wait' to handle responses? How can you be there for every lead, at the right time, without forcing your most valuable reps to wait for triggers? How can you leverage new technology to take conversations all the way to a fully qualified, set, and shown meeting?

Historically, this wasn’t possible. Now, with AI workflows, it is. Let’s break down the differences:

1-Way Sequences (+ Forms + Humans) vs. 2-Way Conversations (AI Workflows)

By shifting from traditional 1-way sequences to AI-powered 2-way conversations, you can create a more dynamic, efficient, and effective sales process. AI workflows allow you to engage leads in real-time, tailor your communications, and ensure every interaction is meaningful. This not only enhances the customer experience but also maximizes your team's productivity and scalability without the need for additional resources.

The 7 Must-Have AI Meeting-Booking Workflows

Now, let’s get tangible and explore the 7 must-have AI workflows that can help you close the Conversation Gap and optimize your entire sales pipeline. These workflows are designed to address critical touchpoints throughout the nonlinear buyer's journey, from initial website visits to re-engaging lapsed leads.

Five Core Use Cases

AI-Powered Onsite Webchat

• How it works: Integrate a conversational AI appointment-setting workflow into your onsite chatbot to qualify buying intent and stage before setting a meeting. Customize how your AI agent introduces itself to visitors and control the conversation’s objectives and criteria.
• Example: "Hi there! Many visitors come to this page looking to solve [common pain point]. What specific challenge brought you here today?"
• Qualification and Discovery Objectives:
  • Identify the visitor’s specific curiosities to try to get a better understanding of their business challenge.
  • Identify whether they are early in the researching process or already vetting tools.

Intelligent Content Download Follow-up

• How it works: Once a lead downloads content, the AI reaches out to inquire about the problem they are trying to solve and their intent. Customize the introduction and control the conversation's objectives to ensure proper qualification before booking.
• Example: "Thanks for downloading our [content name]. Many readers found [specific insight] particularly useful. Which part resonated most with your current priorities?"
• Qualification and Discovery Objectives:
  • Determine if the problem addressed in the content is a key challenge the lead is currently facing.
  • Check to see if the lead has questions.
  • Assess the lead's interest in exploring solutions and their readiness to discuss these with an expert.

Outbound Response Optimization

• How it works: Use an AI workflow to interpret responses to outbound emails and immediately work to conversationally book meetings once leads indicate interest. Control how the AI responds and the criteria for moving forward.
• Example: Configure the AI to respond based on lead engagement and categorize responses into statuses like interested, not interested, wrong time, or wrong contact.
• Qualification and Discovery Objectives:
  • Parse and confirm the lead’s response to determine their intent.
  • If they are ready to book, proceed, but if not, answer their curiosities to nurture interest or mark them as unsubscribe in the CRM.

Webinar Attendance Engagement

• How it works: Post-webinar, have the AI agent reach out to attendees to inquire about what they learned and whether it makes sense for them to speak to an expert. Customize the follow-up introduction and control the conversation's objectives.
• Example: "Thanks for joining our webinar on [topic], [Name]. Many attendees were intrigued by [key point]. What was your main takeaway?"
• Qualification and Discovery Objectives:
  • Understand what key insights the attendee found most valuable and relevant to their situation.
  • Determine if the attendee has immediate needs or projects related to the webinar topic that could benefit from expert advice.

Conference Attendee Nurturing

• How it works: Create a list of people you met at an event and create an AI workflow to engage them as soon as you're back. Control the AI’s introduction and the conversation’s objectives to move the meeting forward.
• Example: "Great connecting at [event name], [Name]! You mentioned [specific pain point/interest]. I'd love to explore how we might help address that."
• Qualification and Discovery Objectives:
  • Ask permission to confirm their interest in a follow-up meeting.
  • Once confirmed, book the meeting.

Building AI Workflows with Scheduler AI

To implement these AI workflows, use the Scheduler AI workflow builder. This tool allows you to:

• Define the trigger for the lead source: Determine what action or event starts the workflow. You can send leads over via a Zapier trigger or trigger the AI from a workflow in your CRM tied to a specific group of leads.
• Craft the hook: Customize how the AI agent introduces itself to the lead.
• Set discovery objectives: Determine the questions and information the AI should gather.
• Define qualification criteria: Establish what makes a lead qualified.
• Provide disqualification guidance: Outline what disqualifies a lead and how the AI should handle it.
• Set booking rules: Determine how and when the AI should set meetings.

Implementing AI Workflows

For each AI workflow you build, you can either:

• Create Webchat Bots: Embed these on specific pages of your website to engage visitors in real-time.
• Add to CRM Workflows: Integrate the AI workflows with your CRM (e.g., HubSpot) to automate follow-ups via SMS and email based on specific triggers.

Interested in getting started building out your own AI workflows? Try out our AI booking agent, and see if it makes sense to connect with one of our experts.

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