5 AI-Powered Strategies to Close Your Deals and Fill Your Pipeline for Q1 2025

Welcome to our 10th episode of C-Suite Sidekick hosted by Summer Poletti! In today’s milestone episode, we'll delve into "5 AI-Powered Strategies to Close Your Deals and Fill Your Pipeline for Q1 2025." Whether you're in financial services or SaaS, we've got actionable tactics to help you drive growth and close those elusive deals, especially as the crucial fourth quarter approaches. From optimizing email subject lines to leveraging AI-enhanced CRM tools, we cover it all. Get ready to supercharge your sales process with practical insights that you can start implementing right away. Join us to ensure you kick off 2025 with a full pipeline and strong momentum. Subscribe, leave a review, and check out our previous episodes for more valuable content. Let’s dive in!

• Episode recorded and edited using Descript
• Repurposed content, such as this description created using CastMagic
• Visit Rise of Us for more information about Summer's services
• Connect with Summer on LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro to mini pod
• 1:01 Today's Topic and Why It's Important
• 2:26 Strategy #1
• 3:27 Strategy #2
• 4:36 Strategy #3
• 6:09 Strategy #4
• 7:46 Strategy #5
• 8:52 Wrap It Up

Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to the C-suite sidekick. I'm your host summer. Polenti and if you're new here, welcome. This is our 10th episode and we're expanding our reach to platforms like apple and Spotify. When I first started this podcast. I heard a stat that like, 90 something percent of podcasts don't even make it past nine episodes. So in the beginning, I kept it very small and intimate and in my own network, And when I realized that I've got some staying power. Now on the 10th episode, it's time to go bigger. Whether you're in financial services, SaaS, or somewhere in between this podcast will help equip you with actionable strategies to drive growth. Close more deals and make the most of your resources. At rise of us. You're the superhero CEO. And I'm your sidekick. I help you leverage what you already have, whether that's people, processes, or tech, and find ways to boost your revenue growth without a huge increase in spending. And today we're driving into a hot topic. AI powered strategies. But don't worry if AI is still new to you, whether you're skeptical or curious, I'll keep things simple and practical so that you can start implementing these ideas today. And if you're already friendly with AI, I hope you come away with an extra little nugget that you can use. In our last episode, we talked about why your deals might be stalled. Today, we're going a step further and showing you how to use AI to unstick those deals and ensure that you close the year out strong. Fourth quarter is the most important quarter of the year for many in financial services and SaaS. Prospects are aiming usually for a January 1st start. And if you miss that window, you risk the deal bumping out an entire quarter, or it might even be a year before they're ready to move again. Whether you're on pace to meet your revenue goals or you're a little behind, there is no room to let deals sit idle. And with 56% of companies missing their revenue goals in 2023. And now is the time to ensure that you're not part of that staff 20, 24. I'm sharing five AI powered strategies that can help you close deals faster and fill your pipeline. For Q1 of 2025. Why not start next year off with some momentum while we're at it. Strategy number one, AI for email, subject line optimization. Have you ever spent ages crafting a perfect email only for it to go on answered. That's where AI powered subject. Line optimization comes in. Whoa, that's a lot of words. If you're newer to AI or you want a versatile tool. Chatty PT is great. If you are an AI guru or you want a specialist try something like per Sado, both can analyze successful email patterns and suggest subject lines, proven to increase open rates. I've used AI to generate subject lines when I was stuck. All I had to do was describe what the email was about and ask it to give me multiple suggestions. This way, I don't have to be a copywriting expert to get high converting subject lines. And you don't either. And just think of it this way. If your prospect opens your emails, you're already halfway re-engaging those stall deals. Strategy number two. AI for generating follow-up emails. Now what happens after that first email? You're probably need to follow up. And we all know from experience that this is often where some deals get stuck. You're not alone. If you've ever stared at a blank screen, wondering what to say next. This is where AI can help. Generating follow-up email templates. When I'm stuck. I upload a few notes from my last conversation with a prospect into chat, GPT, and ask for follow-up suggestions. Here's a tip. Tell your AI a goal. Like I need to re-engage this prospect and let it generate a few ideas. Now I'll be honest, AI outputs can be robotic or even downright cheesy. Like I hope this email finds you well, which I feel like we all know is a pretty generic opener. You need something a little jazzier in order to get the responses that you need. So it's important to review the suggestions and tweak them to fit your own style. AI doesn't replace you. It just helps kickstart your creativity when you're stuck. Strategy number three, AI for customer segmentation. Once you've re-engage those prospects. The next step is to target the right ones with the right message. AI powered tools can help with customer segmentation. Allowing you to identify which prospects are most likely to close before year end, and which ones might need nurturing for Q1 of 2025. I've personally used AI to break down large customer lists into micro segments. For example, in one project, AI helped me analyze customer data and segment clients based on engagement levels. Research has shown that B2B buyers expect some level of personalization based on past interaction. For example, have you ever left a trade show? And gotten an email from a company that, you know, you didn't visit. And it says thank you for stopping by our booth. That is a huge miss in today's world. And AI can help you segment less and create. Targeted emails that don't make it look like you're clueless. So this allowed us to tailor messaging and offers to each group, ensuring that the high priority prospects got immediate attention. In financial services, you could use these segments based on portfolio activity or upcoming tax planning needs in SaaS. It might mean targeting customers. Who've engaged with your platform, but haven't yet made a decision. Strategy number four, AI for competitor analysis. I try not to be biased here, but of these five. I think this one is my favorite. With fourth quarter being so competitive and. Financial services and SaaS, both being incredibly competitive industries. Staying ahead of your rivals can make or break your year end results. AI can automatically track what your competitors are doing from product launches to pricing changes and give you real time insights. And what AI is doing here is being your research assistant and. Conducting that research. Much faster than a human can. I've used AI in a similar capacity for a client of mine. After identifying their key competitors, my GPT was able to quickly research and analyze those competitors. Cross-referencing the data with my client's ideal customer profile and buying personas. From this AI helped us generate. Detailed competitor personas that highlighted my client's competitive advantages and disadvantages as well as strategies for how the sales team could win deals against each competitor. Now, when the sales person is up against a specific competitor, They refer back to the smart playbook, enter anonymous deal information, including the competitor, and the GPT helps them strategize on how to win that deal. It's like having a competitive analysis expert on the team available at any time to offer real-time insights, tailored to the specific situation. Strategy number five. AI enhanced CRM for deal tracking and followups. We would be remiss if we didn't talk about this because. Most. CRMs already have some amount of AI integrated into them. Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho. They all have it. If you're not using it now is the time to try it out. These features can help you track deals, remind you when to follow up and even suggest the next best action based on past interactions with that prospect. For example, if a deal has gone cold, your CRMs, AI can identify patterns and alert you when it's time to reach out. It's like having a personal assistant keeping tabs on every prospect in your pipeline. And this ensures that no deal slips through the cracks, especially in these critical last months of the year. And even better. The AI in your CRM is more geared for making sure these deals don't stall in the first place. So check it out. And by the time Q1 comes around, you've already built relationships with potential buyers who are ready to engage. Let's wrap it up and bring it all together. As we head into fourth quarter. Now is the time to act. Remember, unfortunately, over half of B2B companies missed their revenue targets last year. And we don't want any deals sitting idle by using these simple AI powered strategies, whether it's optimizing your email, generating followups, segmenting your customers, or staying ahead of competitors, you can close these deals before the end of the year comes and you can kick off 2025 with some great momentum. And don't forget. AI does not replace your intuition and experience it enhances it. So if you're feeling stuck or unsure of what to do next, try using AI to help brainstorm ideas, just like you would with a trusted partner or colleague. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to subscribe to the show, leave a review and check out past episodes. I've got a lot more content coming your way, including an upcoming beginner friendly AI guide for anyone who's still hesitant or curious about, how AI can fit into your workflow. You can connect with me on LinkedIn I'm summer Polenti rhymes with spaghetti, or you can find me online@theriseofus.com. Thanks for listening and here's to closing out the year strong.