Tag: Technology

AI Meeting Assistant Reviews

Posted on by irc

I’ve been looking for the right meeting assistant for years. Excellent ones like Gong.io lead the industry but cost thousands per month and aren’t affordable for many startups or small businesses.

For the last month I’ve been testing out two new AI meeting assistants: Read.ai and tl;dv. Fully loaded, both cost $25 per month, per user (when billed monthly).

Here’s what both apps do:

  • Automatically record calls on Zoom and Google Meet by joining the meeting as an attendee.
  • Transcribe calls using GPT to make the transcriptions much more accurate than anything pre-AI.
  • Automatically save meetings with timestamps for takeaways, topics, or questions covered in the call. Click on what you’re interested in and it plays that portion of the call.

Here’s what you need to know about Read.ai:

  • Seems like it’s designed more for enterprise teams, or for managers reviewing rep performance en masse. Scores meeting performance and participation. Gives feedback on attendee engagement, talking pace, interruptions, non-inclusive terms, bias and more.
  • For each meeting it documents: summary, chapters & topics, action items, key questions. The chapters & topics are usually accurate and helpful, but nothing else.
  • Meetings often don’t record, or nothing besides the transcript is documented. Each time, support told me it was a bug they’re fixing.

Here’s what you need to know about tl;dv:

  • Simpler approach: meeting reports contain “takeaways” throughout the call. AI does a good job of recommending these, plus they place a button in your meeting client so you can manually set markers with one click during a call. Great for when you know in real-time that something is important.
  • Integrations for automatically logging calls and highlights in HubSpot, Salesforce or Slack.
  • Easily create clips of takeaways or other key moments and share them.

The Verdict

tl;dv is my new everyday meeting assistant. It’s reliable, accurate, and has already saved me hours of sifting through sales/client calls to find information.

Read.ai is good too but worked on less than 75% of my calls. It also seems like it’s made for monitoring employees. These features don’t take away from the experience, but the bugs do. I’ll try it out again in a few months to see if they’ve ironed out the issues and improved the quality of action items and key questions.

tl;dv is offering 30% off your first 6 months if you click this link.

Read.ai did not offer a discount for our subscribers.

How will AI impact the sales industry?

Posted on by irc

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all over the news. Ever since the arrival of ChatGPT and AI art like Journey, everyone is asking one of two questions:

  • Will I be replaced by AI?
  • How can I use AI to get an edge?

Human sales reps won’t be replaced by AI anytime soon. AI can’t compete with humans when it comes to making phone calls, giving presentations, or providing a personal, confidence-inspiring sales experience. At least not yet.

Today’s buyers are the primary reason sales reps are safe for the time being. The technology will come, but when will humans be willing to interact solely with AI agents to close 6-figure deals? Similar to driverless cars, even if you’re told they’re safer, are you comfortable sharing the highway with 80,000 pound trucks driven by robots? People still prefer the company of other people.

So what is sales AI good for?

Today’s AI is incredible at comprehending language. This includes spoken languages and programing languages. This boils down to conditions and rules that, with enough training, AI can master. Since ChatGPT trained its AI model using pretty much the entire history of human text, it’s safe to say it’s receiving enough training. AI is excellent at researching as well.

Understanding language means AI can make the predictable aspects of sales much easier.

Digital sales experiences will change quickly. Well-trained AI can soon replace inbound reps who only work chatbots or inbound emails.

The same thing goes for operational sales processes like targeting or workflow automation. Targeting is a research task and automation is programming.

To clarify, the AI technology is already here (and improving rapidly), we’re more so waiting for companies to harness it and train it.

You can go on ChatGPT right now and teach it about your product, common objections and ideal responses, then have reps use those chat prompts to respond to leads. But, while that may improve response quality for some companies, it’s not convenient enough to be used at scale. We need products that interface with AI in order to use it at scale.

Here are some areas to keep an eye on:

  • Live Chat & Inbound Email — One of the most frustrating aspects of inbound sales is when reps find a way to mess up easy deals that should’ve been a quick close. AI does best with specific scenarios, reading and comprehension. So if buyers are coming to you ready to commit once you answer a few questions, AI can make a serious impact right away. One of my favorite prospecting tools, Reply.io has a conversational AI feature powered by ChatGPT that’s worth taking a look at.
  • Outbound Email — Writing personalized emails or introductions is time consuming, and most sales reps aren’t great writers. AI can do this much quicker than all sales reps, but the quality is inconsistent and therefore only better than some sales reps. Projects working on this include SalesGPT and Coldreach.ai but they’re not quite there yet. HubSpot is also working on an AI content assistant for prospecting emails, marketing emails and blogs.
  • Targeting — Check out this Twitter thread that uses ChatGPT to provide similar (if not better results) than a marketing research firm.
  • Operational Processes — Read.ai and tl;dv are AI meeting assistants that outperform non-AI competitors. Bardeen integrates in many ways that Zapier and Make can’t hack. Browse.ai replaces costly scraper bots capable of tracking your competitors websites and pricing. HubSpot’s ChatSpot (in beta) gathers reports and sends follow ups. All of these tools buy back more time for sales reps to sell.

This How Smart is ChatGPT graphic shows where AI lands in all major academic exams (99th percentile in the verbal GRE, around the 90th percentile in the reading & writing SAT, LSAT and bar exam.) I noticed a response saying this means AI is “only as good as a smart college kid.”

But hey, as long as it’s predictable and consistent, that’s not so bad.

How to Boost Your Sales on LinkedIn in 2023

Posted on by irc

With over 900 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for professionals looking to network and connect with others in their industry. But did you know that it’s also a powerful tool for businesses looking to boost their sales?

That’s right! LinkedIn can help you reach potential customers, build relationships, and ultimately increase revenue.

Let’s go over six cutting-edge strategies to help you unlock the full potential of LinkedIn and take your sales skills to the next level in 2023.

1. Make your profile shine

In the world of business, first impressions matter, and your LinkedIn profile is no exception. Since your LinkedIn profile is frequently the initial interaction between you and prospective customers, optimizing it to leave a lasting impression is crucial.

To optimize your profile, start by ensuring that it’s complete. That means filling out every section, including your education, work experience, and skills. Make sure to include your current job title and a clear and concise headline that accurately reflects your area of expertise. This will help potential customers quickly understand what you do and whether you’re the right fit for their needs.

Next, it’s essential to use a professional photo. Choose a high-quality headshot that portrays you in a positive and professional light. Avoid using photos that are blurry, low-quality, or inappropriate. Remember, your photo is one of the first things people will see when they view your profile, so make it count.

Another key component of optimizing your LinkedIn profile is to write a compelling summary that highlights your unique selling proposition. This is where you can showcase your skills and experience, as well as your passion for your industry. Use your summary to demonstrate your expertise and explain how you can help potential customers achieve their goals.

Lastly, use relevant keywords in your profile to make it easier for people to find you. Think about the terms your potential customers might search for when looking for businesses like yours, and include those keywords in your profile. This will help your profile appear in search results and increase your visibility on the platform.

2. Smartly cast your net(work)

Connecting with your target audience is crucial to building meaningful relationships on LinkedIn — and you can’t make sales without establishing relationships first.

The first step is to use LinkedIn’s search feature to find potential customers who fit your ideal customer profile. This can include people in your industry, companies you want to do business with, or individuals with whom you share common interests.

When sending a connection request, it’s important to include a personalized message that explains why you want to connect. Avoid using generic messages, as they are less likely to be accepted. Instead, take the time to research the person you want to connect with and personalize your message accordingly to show that you are genuinely interested in connecting with them and increase the likelihood of them accepting your request.

Once you’ve connected with your target audience, it’s essential to engage with connections regularly. Comment on their posts and share valuable content that they will find interesting and relevant to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build trust with your connections.

However, it’s important to remember that quantity doesn’t always equate to quality when it comes to LinkedIn connections. It’s important to manage LinkedIn connections carefully and keep your network relevant. You should regularly review your connections and remove those who are no longer relevant or active on the platform. That way, you can ensure that your network is focused on your target audience and increase the effectiveness of your sales efforts.

3. Ignite engagement with valuable content

Sharing valuable content on your LinkedIn profile is a great way to establish yourself as an industry expert, build trust with your connections, and ultimately boost your sales. When sharing content, it’s important to make sure that it is valuable and relevant to your target audience.

One effective way to share valuable content is to create and share your own blog posts, articles, and videos. These types of content allow you to showcase your expertise and share insights on relevant topics in your industry.

Another way to share valuable content is to curate content from other sources. Share articles, blog posts, and videos from reputable sources that are relevant to your target audience. When sharing content from other sources, be sure to add your own commentary or perspective to the post, which can help establish your own expertise and point of view.

4. Utilize the power of LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups is a powerful tool for businesses looking to build relationships with potential customers and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Joining relevant groups helps you connect with others who share your interests and engage in meaningful conversations that can help you grow your business.

To utilize LinkedIn Groups effectively, first search for groups that are relevant to your industry or niche. You can do this by using LinkedIn’s search feature and filtering the results by group. Once you’ve found a group that looks interesting, join it and start participating in conversations.

Engage in conversations by commenting on posts, sharing your opinions, and asking questions. Engaging with posts in LinkedIn Groups will help you build relationships with other group members and demonstrate your expertise in your field. Additionally, sharing valuable content, such as articles or infographics, can help establish you as an industry expert and attract potential customers to your profile.

5. Add more value with LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads are a great way to reach your target audience on the platform. With LinkedIn Ads, you can target your ads to specific industries, job titles, and locations, making it easier to reach the right people. This targeted approach can help you save time and money on your advertising efforts and increase the effectiveness of your sales strategy.

When creating LinkedIn Ads, it’s important to use compelling ad copy and visuals that grab your audience’s attention. Your ad copy should be clear and concise, and highlight the benefits of your product or service. Additionally, your visuals should be eye-catching and relevant to your ad’s message. By doing so, you can increase the likelihood of your target audience engaging with your ads and ultimately converting into customers.

Finally, it’s important to set a budget for your LinkedIn Ads and monitor your spending carefully. This will help you ensure that your advertising efforts are cost-effective and align with your overall sales strategy.

6. Don’t forget to measure

Measuring your results is an essential part of any successful LinkedIn sales strategy. Tracking your engagement and reach allows you to determine what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your approach accordingly.

LinkedIn’s analytics tools provide valuable insights into your profile’s performance, allowing you to track your engagement and reach over time. These tools enable you to see how many people are viewing your profile, engaging with your content, and clicking on your links. When you monitor these metrics, you can identify which content performs well and adjust your strategy accordingly.

It’s also essential to track your conversion rates, which can give you insight into how effective your sales strategy is. This means tracking how many of your LinkedIn connections convert into customers and analyzing what factors may be influencing this conversion rate.

In addition to tracking your analytics, it’s also essential to pay attention to feedback from your connections and customers. Customer feedback will help you identify pain points, concerns, and opportunities for improvement in your sales strategy.

Wrapping up

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to boost their sales in 2023. By optimizing your profile, connecting with your target audience, sharing valuable content, utilizing LinkedIn Groups, using LinkedIn Ads, and measuring your results, you can build relationships with potential customers and increase revenue.

With these six tips, you can make the most of LinkedIn in 2023.

10 Ways to Find Anyone’s Email Address

Posted on by irc

Over the years, I’ve sent thousands of emails and have leveraged dozens of different methods for finding email addresses.

After doing this for so long, I’ve narrowed down my list of ways to find email addresses to these 10:

1. Use email lookup services

If you have the budget and are looking to automate your sales process, email lookup services are the easiest way to find someone’s email address.

There are lots of tools available. Some are better than others, but they all work in the same basic way. Just input a name, website, or both, and they’ll give you what you’re looking for.

With some services, you can even find email addresses using LinkedIn URLs.

Here are some of the most popular of these services with a breakdown of what they offer:

  • Voila Norbert
    • 50 free searches total as a part of your trial.
    • Paid accounts start at $49/month for 1,000 searches.
  • Hunter
    • 50 free searches per month
    • Paid accounts start at $49/month for 1,000 searches/month
    • Search for email addresses using a domain, a person’s name, or both.
  • Find That Email
    • 50 free searches per month
    • Paid accounts start at $29/month for 500 searches/month.
    • Use their Chrome plugin to find email addresses from social network profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
  • RocketReach
    • Paid accounts start at $75/month.
    • Includes options for phone number lookups.
    • Plug in LinkedIn URLs to find the email address of a specific LinkedIn profile.
  • Clearbit Connect
    • A Chrome extension that gives you 100 free lookups per month.
  • Snov.io
    • 50 free searches per month.
    • Paid accounts start at $29 for 1,000 searches per month or 500 bulk searches per month.
    • Available as a web app or Chrome extension.
  • Contact Out
    • This service is supposedly the most accurate on the market. By their own claims, they’ve found 75% of emails in the western world.
    • Their Chrome extension lets you easily find email addresses based on LinkedIn profile pages.
    • Pricing isn’t publicly available.
  • FindThatLead
    • 50 free searches per month.
    • Paid accounts start at $49/month for 5,000 searches/month.
  • AeroLeads
    • Paid accounts start at $49/month for 1,000 searches/month.
    • Searches include phone numbers, full name, company name, title, and URL.
  • Name2Email
    • A completely free chrome extension that gives you unlimited searches per month.
    • No bulk email search features.

Even though these services are great, they aren’t perfect. Sometimes, you’ll enter a URL and get no results.

Other times, they’ll only give you email addresses that are simple guesses or are no longer valid.

 

2. Guess and verify

Most email addresses follow one of many common formats.

Because of this, you might be able to find anyone’s email address as long as you have their first name, last name, and website domain.

Here are the most common email address formats:

  • First name (nick@theirc.me)
  • First name + last name (nickrubright@theirc.me, nick.rubright@theirc.me)
  • First name + first letter of their last name (nickr@theirc.me, nick.r@theirc.me)
  • First letter of their first name + last name (nrubright@theirc.me, n.rubright@theirc.me)
  • Initials (nr@theirc.me)

This is great, but formatting an email address into all of these formats would be time consuming.

Instead, you can use Email Permutator from Metric Sparrow to generate email addresses in these formats.

 

Once you have this list, you can throw these email addresses into an email verification tool like Neverbounce or Zero Bounce to see which of them (if any) exists.

 

3. Reach out on Twitter

Twitter is a great way to reach people with short messages.

The downside here is the fact that the messages are limited to 280 characters.

If 280 characters isn’t enough for what you’re trying to tell them, simply ask for their email address. Lots of people do this with a good amount of success.

To have success with this, make sure you use a real, personal Twitter profile and give them a compelling reason to respond.

In any case, engaging with your prospects on social media is smart to do before sending initial or follow-up emails.

4. Use Twitter’s advanced search features

Since many people are asking for email addresses on Twitter, that means lots of people are sharing them, too!

You can use this behavior to your advantage with Twitter’s advanced search.

When people share their email addresses in Tweets, they often attempt to hide them from bots by replacing “.” and “@” with things like “dot” and “at,” or by separating the parts of their email with spaces.

So when using Twitter’s search, you can use words like “email,” “me,” “contact,” “reach,” “dot,” and “at” to find times they may have shared their email address in a tweet.

If you want to search for exact phrases, like “email me,” just surround that phrase in quotes.

 

5. Leverage Google search operators

Using Google, you might get lucky by typing your prospects name and “email address” into the search box.

Unfortunately, if your prospect has a common name, this may be difficult. This is where Google search operators can come in handy.

Basically, search operators are a way to further filter your search results in Google. For example, if you put “site:irc.me” into your search, it will only show results for that domain.

You can use some of these to your advantage when looking for email addresses.

Here are some examples of search strings you can use to find email addresses in Google:

  • [name] + email (or) email address
  • [name] + contact (or) contact information (or) contact me
  • [name] + email
  • [name] + contact

If you know what site your prospect is a part of, try these:

  • site:companywebsite.com + [name] + email
  • site:companywebsite.com + [name] + contact
  • site:companywebsite.com + firstname.lastname [at] companyname.com
  • site:companywebsite.com + firstnamelastname [at] companyname.com
  • site:companywebsite.com + firstname [at] companyname.com
  • site:companywebsite.com + firstname_lastname [at] companyname.com

If these don’t prove successful in Google, try another search engine. Different search engines use different algorithms, meaning the results will be different.

 

6. Contact them through their email list

If the person you’re trying to contact has a website or blog, you can often reach them through their email list.

Usually, these emails are sent out using their personal email address at this domain.

This means that when you get emails about new blog posts from this email address, you can respond to it and they’ll get your email!

This can be a great way to build relationships.

Here’s an example of how I did this to connect with Neil Patel:

All I did was sign up for his newsletter, and when I noticed a typo in the article he sent out, I replied to the email.

Granted, I wasn’t pitching him anything here, but this is just to show that the concept works.

Keep in mind that, sometimes, these emails will be sent out from generic email addresses like newsletter@domainname.com or similar email addresses.

If you reply to these, your response might still forward to the contact’s personal email address, so it’s still worth a shot.

 

7. Ask for an introduction through their generic email or contact form

Most big websites and companies have generic email addresses listed on their site (such as info@domainname.com) or have contact forms on their site.

Usually, emails sent through these are handled by assistants or the company’s support team.

So to get in contact with the right person, just send a simple message through this channel asking for an introduction. Something like this will work:

For best results, it’s best to use a signature in your email that clearly describes who you are. If you’re using VA’s to collect contact information for you, make sure their signature mentions the fact that they work for you.

 

8. Check about us, contact, or author pages

Sometimes, finding an email address really is as simple as looking for the right page on your target’s website.

Many companies will list email addresses on contact, about us, or meet the team pages.

If the site is content heavy, they may even have author pages that contain the author’s email address.

Sometimes, finding these pages directly on their website can be difficult. If you’re having a hard time finding them, you can try typing the following search strings into Google:

  • site:example.com about
  • site:example.com contact
  • site:example.com team
  • site:example.com + your contact’s name

While I’ve found using Google to be the best approach for this, you can also try typing these common URL formats into your browser:

  • example.com/contact
  • example.com/contact-us
  • example.com/contact-me
  • example.com/about
  • example.com/about-me
  • example.com/about-us
  • example.com/team
  • example.com/our-team
  • example.com/meet-the-team

 

9. Use Facebook

When people set up a Facebook page, they often enter as much information as they can and then forget about it. This includes email addresses.

The email addresses they entered can usually be found on the “about” section of their Facebook page:

Since Facebook blocks web scrapers, this method can even work when the email finding tools mentioned above, like Hunter or Rocket Reach, don’t find anything.

 

10. Ask people in your network for referrals and introductions

If the person you’re trying to reach is on LinkedIn (as they probably are) you can check to see if someone in your network is connected to them.

Just pull up their LinkedIn profile and look for mutual connections in the “Highlights” section of their profile page.

Once you see which of your contacts might be able to connect you, shoot them an email or LinkedIn message and ask for an introduction.

In addition to asking for introductions to specific, targeted prospects, you can also use referrals as a way to expand your prospect list to gain more opportunities.

This is usually best done after you’ve delivered some kind of value.

For example, after writing a guest post for a site I often ask the editor of the site if they can refer me to anyone else who’d be interested in accepting a guest post from me.

If you’ve added lots of value over the course of your engagement, they’re often more than happy to help.

 

Did I miss anything?

There you have it – 10 ways to find anyone’s email address.

Just be sure to use them responsibly.

Looking for more? Check out our Sales Team Starter!