At Floworks, we've been on an exciting journey to revolutionize the world of sales development with Generative AI. For the past few months, we've been pouring our hearts and minds into building an AI-powered Sales Development Representative (SDR). We call her Alisha, our sales AI assistant, and boy, has she taught us a thing or two about the future of sales outreach and the significance of AI in email marketing!

It all started when our team was drowning in emails and struggling to keep up with lead generation. We thought, "There has to be a better way!" This led us to explore how AI and humans can work together in sales and maximize conversions.

The Battle of Metrics: Silicon vs. Carbon

To understand the impact of AI in the sales world, let's break down the key performance metrics that separate silicon from carbon:

Accuracy Rate:

    • Human SDRs: 85-90%
    • AI SDRs (like Alisha): 95-98%

Function calling reliability:

    • Human SDRs: 90-95% (subject to human error and fatigue)
    • AI SDRs: 99.9% (barring system outages)

Response Time:

    • Human SDRs: 2-4 hours on average
    • AI SDRs: Near-instantaneous (< 1 minute)

Cost per 1000 prospects (4-5 emails each):

    • Human SDRs: $350 (factoring in salary and overhead)
    • Alisha AI SDR: $60

Booked sales calls per SDR (weekly):

    • Human SDRs: 10-15
    • AI SDRs: 30-40

These numbers paint a compelling picture, but the story doesn't end here. Let's delve deeper into the nuances of SDR work to see how AI and humans truly stack up in the ongoing debate of AI vs humans.

Human vs. AI SDRs

Explore the strengths of human and AI SDRs in our latest podcast. Learn how combining both can revolutionize your sales strategy and pipeline!

The Email Conundrum: Time is Money

Remember those days when we'd come into the office to find a backlog of unanswered emails? With Alisha, that's become a thing of the past. She's available 24/7, leaving less than 5% of emails unanswered. Compare that to the 20-30% our human team was struggling with, and you can see why we're excited!. Here's how the numbers stack up:

Human SDR:

  • Time spent on emails daily: 3-4 hours
  • Emails left unanswered: 20-30%
  • Average reply delay: 4-6 hours
  • Impact of delay: 15-20% reduction in response rate

AI SDR:

  • Time spent on emails daily: 24/7 availability
  • Emails left unanswered: < 5%
  • Average reply delay: < 5 minutes
  • Impact of delay: Negligible
The always-on nature of AI provides a significant advantage in maintaining engagement and reducing lost opportunities due to delays. In fact, if we reply even 1 minute late, the conversion rates can be reduced by more than half. Conversely, if a prospect gets a reply in under 1 minute, chances of conversion increase by a staggering 390%! This showcases the power of AI tools for SDRs in optimizing response times.

The Prospecting Process: Quality vs. Quantity

Personalization is key in modern sales outreach. Here’s what we found from our customers:

Human SDR Prospecting:

  • Time to personalize one email: 15-20 minutes
  • Emails personalized per day: 24-32
  • Emails personalized per week: 120-160

AI SDR Prospecting:

  • Time to personalize one email: Seconds
  • Emails personalized per day: Hundreds
  • Emails personalized per week: Thousands

While human SDRs provide a personal touch, AI can dramatically increase the volume of personalized outreach without sacrificing quality. Imagine boosting your email open rate by 2x! The secret lies in hyper-personalization at scale.

Here's how Alisha does it:

Dynamic Personalization:

Alisha goes beyond placeholders. From just the name & company name, she collects real-time data (Search Engine, news publications, LinkedIn, etc.) & creates hyper-personalized emails using AI-generated email templates.

Behavior-Driven Adjustments:

Messages are tweaked based on engagement. Clicked a link? A follow-up is ready. Opened but didn't reply? Interest is rekindled with a new approach, AI-optimized smart email follow-ups

Consistent Brand Voice:

Every message, every reply, maintains the same tone – professional, friendly, and on-brand.

The Meeting Scheduling: Simplifying the Process

Setting up meetings is often a complex back-and-forth. Traditional methods using scheduling links can be cumbersome and can even be perceived as impolite:

  • Prospects need to perform 3 extra actions
(open the link, check their own calendar, then book a meeting)
  • This complexity reduces the chances of meeting booking

With Alisha, the process is streamlined:

  • Meetings are booked with just an email reply
  • Prospects simply select an available slot from their schedule
  • Alisha handles the rest

The result? Meeting booking rates increase by 6-8x!

Alisha - AI SDR

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The Human Touch

Despite AI's impressive performance, human SDRs still hold some aces, showcasing how AI and humans can coexist in the workplace:

Emotional Intelligence:

Humans excel at reading between the lines and adapting to subtle emotional cues.

Complex Problem Solving:

When unique situations arise, humans can think creatively and outside the box.

Building Genuine Relationships:

While AI can simulate empathy, humans can form authentic connections that drive long-term loyalty.

The Future of Sales: A Symbiotic Relationship

As we've seen, both AI and human SDRs have their strengths. The future of sales likely lies not in choosing one over the other, but in leveraging the strengths of both.

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This approach answers the question, "Will AI replace humans?" with a resounding "No." Instead, we're seeing how AI and humans can work together.
  • Use AI for high-volume, repetitive tasks like initial outreach and scheduling.
  • Deploy human SDRs for high-touch, complex interactions that require emotional intelligence and creative problem-solving.
  • Implement AI tools to augment human SDR capabilities, providing real-time insights and suggestions.

Sales teams can now dramatically increase their efficiency and effectiveness. For example, an SDR on average sends 20 emails a day, but with the help of Alisha, their average can scale up to 1000 emails a day. This ultimately increases overall productivity, allowing each SDR to reach out to 30,000+ prospects in a month – a 50x increase in scale!

The Bottom Line: Collaboration, Not Competition

So, who wins the AI vs. human SDR showdown?

Plot twist: it's not a competition, but a collaboration. The real winners are the companies and customers who benefit from this powerful partnership.

With AI solutions like Alisha costing 6x less than a human SDR, the economic benefits are clear. But the true value lies in the synergy between human creativity and AI efficiency.

At Floworks, we're not just building an AI SDR. We're shaping the future of sales outreach - a future where human creativity and AI efficiency work hand in hand. And let me tell you, it's an exciting place to be!