AI by department · sales
AI in sales: less typing, more selling
For sales teams and account managers who spend more time on the CRM, quotes and follow-up than on customers. AI puts requests into your CRM, drafts the quote and the first calculation, prepares meetings and lines up the follow-up. You keep the price, the relationship and the signature.
- Sales proposal from 4 hours to 1 hour
- Works with HubSpot, Salesforce and Dynamics
- The salesperson decides
- InRequest by emailSpecifications, a drawing and a question about lead time
- AIDeal in the CRMCustomer recognized, details completed
- AIQuote and calculationFrom the price list and earlier quotes
- HumanAccount manager approvesPrice and discount belong to the human
- DoneQuote sentThe follow-up is in the calendar
Sales proposal: from 4 hours to 1 hour
Worked with us
01 / What it is
What does AI do in sales?
AI in sales takes over the work that sits between the customer and the deal: reading requests and putting them in the CRM, drawing up quotes and calculations, preparing meetings and following up. The salesperson gets a draft and decides. Price, discount, relationship and the moment to call stay human work.
In the sales teams we talk to, a large part of the week doesn't go to selling. It goes to retyping a request into the CRM, to searching through last year's quote, to an Excel calculation only Mark understands, and to the follow-up that 'quickly' has to be squeezed in on Friday. That's exactly the work that lends itself to automation: high volume, digital input and an outcome you can check.
What AI doesn't do in sales: convince the customer. Trust, timing and the feel for a deal stay with the salesperson. AI makes sure that salesperson comes to the table better prepared, with more time and fewer loose ends.
01Requests into the CRM
Email, form or phone note: the deal is in there, complete.
02Quotes and calculations
A draft from the price list, terms and earlier quotes.
03Preparing meetings
Customer history, open issues and current quotes on one page.
04Following up
No more quotes that quietly disappear into the outbox.
02 / Sound familiar?
Why your salespeople sell so little.
It's not the people. It's everything that sits between the request and the signature.
The CRM
“Nobody has time to update the CRM. So it's not right. So nobody trusts the CRM.”
Last year's quote
“We take a quote for a similar customer, adjust it and hope the old price isn't still in there.”
The calculation
“Only Mark understands the calculation sheet. Mark is on holiday for three weeks in August.”
Follow-up
“We have forty quotes outstanding. For half of them, we don't know whether anyone has called back.”
Before the meeting
“Five minutes before the appointment, a quick leaf through the file. What did we promise last time again?”
After the meeting
“I write the report on Friday afternoon. If I still remember it.”
03 / Before and after
A week in sales, before and after AI.
Six tasks we automate in sales teams. The sales proposal has a client figure, the rest an indication. What it delivers for you, we calculate with your own volumes.
- Indication: 10 to 15 min per request
A request comes in
Before
Read the email, find the customer in the CRM, create a deal, save the attachments, tag a colleague.
With AI
The deal is in the CRM with all the details and attachments. The right account manager gets a heads-up.
- Client case: from 4 hours to 1 hour
Writing a sales proposal
Before
Find an old proposal, cut, paste and rewrite. An afternoon's work.
With AI
A draft in your structure, with the customer's question, the right references and the price from the price list. The salesperson sharpens it.
Making a calculation
Before
Copy details from the request into an Excel sheet, estimate hours and materials.
With AI
A first calculation based on earlier projects and the price list. The estimator checks the assumptions.
Preparing a meeting
Before
Leaf through the file in the five minutes before the appointment.
With AI
One page with customer history, current quotes, open complaints and what was agreed last time.
- Indication: 10 min per meeting
The report after the meeting
Before
Notes in a notebook, written up in the CRM on Friday. Sometimes.
With AI
Report and follow-up actions are in the CRM as a draft. The salesperson checks and saves.
Following up a quote
Before
A list in your head, or a reminder you click away.
With AI
After a week, a draft email in your tone, and a heads-up when a large quote goes quiet.
04 / Worked example
What does making quotes actually cost you?
More than you think. In the APO method we use in every engagement, each process step gets three numbers: how long it takes, with how many people, and how often. A worked example for quotes and calculations: 40 minutes, 2 people, 80 times a month. That's 1,280 hours a year. At € 45 per hour, that process costs € 57,600 a year.
AI doesn't take all of that away. We never calculate with 100 percent savings, and per step with 90 percent at most. The salesperson keeps checking, the estimator keeps checking the assumptions. But if half of those 40 minutes disappears, that already saves 640 hours a year. Hours for the customer who's still undecided.
And from practice: at one of our clients, writing a sales proposal went from 4 hours to 1 hour. Not because AI writes the proposal and the salesperson sends it blindly, but because the first draft is there, in the right structure and with the right references. The salesperson finishes it.
01Duration
40 minutes per quote and calculation.
02People
2 people: the salesperson and the estimator.
03Frequency
80 times a month.
04Value
1,280 hours, or € 57,600 a year at € 45 per hour.
Salespeople sell. They don't retype requests.
AI does the groundwork, the salesperson has the conversation and sets the price. The division of tasks is that simple, and that's how we keep it.
05 / Where do you stand?
From ChatGPT per salesperson to a sales process that runs by itself.
Most sales teams are in phase 1: every salesperson uses ChatGPT in their own way for an email. A fine start. The value is in phases 3 and 4, where requests, quotes and follow-up run on their own. Click through the phases and see what it takes.
Where are you? Click a phase.
- What it looks like
- People use ChatGPT or Copilot for an email or a summary. The handy ones save time, the rest watch.
- What you need
- Licences, a few ground rules and basic prompting skills.
- What it delivers
- Personal and hard to measure. The organization barely notices.
Our advice if you're here
Get your team to the same level in one afternoon. Then you'll see where work piles up.
06 / What to watch for
Six pitfalls with AI in sales, and how we avoid them.
Prices that aren't right
AI calculates with the price list it's given. That's why we connect to the source, not to last year's PDF, and a human approves every price.
A messy CRM
AI doesn't fix bad data. If the CRM is a mess, cleaning it up is step one. After that, AI keeps it tidy.
Emails that don't sound like you
Follow-up emails in your tone, based on your earlier emails. They only go out when you press send.
Spam instead of sales
AI can send a thousand emails an hour. You shouldn't want that. We automate the follow-up of real conversations, not cold mass mailing.
Customer data
Data stays in the EU, the AI only sees what it needs and everything is logged. The agreements on customer data are set before we build.
Building what your CRM already does
Does your CRM have an AI feature that solves it? Use it. We build where the work runs between systems.
07 / Yourself, a tool or a partner?
ChatGPT, the AI in your CRM or an AI partner: what suits your sales team?
Three ways to use AI in sales. They aren't mutually exclusive. Side by side, honestly:
| ChatGPT per salesperson | AI features in your CRM | AI Partnership with NinA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does | Writes an email or text when you ask for it | Summarizing, suggesting emails, notes within the CRM | Requests, quotes, calculations and follow-up across all your systems |
| Knows your prices and earlier quotes | · | Partly: what's in the CRM | ✓ |
| Works with CRM, ERP, price list and email at once | · | Limited | ✓ |
| Same quality for the whole team | Depends on who does it | Within the CRM, yes | ✓ |
| A human approves price and customer contact | If the salesperson remembers to | Configurable | Always, that's how it's built |
| Who builds and maintains | Everyone for themselves | The vendor, you manage it | A dedicated team from NinA |
| Suits | Small teams, first steps | Everything happens in one CRM | Quotes across multiple systems, high volume |
Swipe sideways to see all columns →
Many teams combine them: ChatGPT or Copilot for the odd email, the CRM for notes, and a workflow from NinA for the work that runs between systems. Want to get your team up to speed first? See AI training.
08 / How we approach it
From first conversation to quotes that prepare themselves.
We build within the AI Partnership. You start with the € 6,000 AI Quick Scan: one day on site, and within a week you know what AI delivers in your sales process.
- 01
Intro call
Fifteen minutes
Where does the work get stuck: in requests, quotes, calculations or follow-up?
- 02
AI Quick Scan
One day plus a week
We walk through the sales process from request to signed quote. Three numbers per step, a business case per opportunity, and a twelve-month roadmap.
- 03
First process live
Quarter 1
Often requests into the CRM or the draft quote. Connected to your CRM and price list, tested on real quotes, with a salesperson who approves everything.
- 04
Expand
After that
Calculations, meeting preparation, follow-up. Every month you see what it delivers in hours and euros.
09 / Cases
From request to proposal, in practice.
The same principle in every case: AI does the groundwork, a human decides.
10 / Questions
Frequently asked questions about AI in sales.
What can AI do in sales?
In sales, AI can read requests and put them in the CRM as a deal, draw up quotes and first calculations from the price list and earlier quotes, prepare meetings with the customer history, write reports and line up the follow-up. The salesperson checks and decides on price, discount and customer contact. At one NinA AI client, a sales proposal went from 4 hours to 1 hour this way.
Can AI automate quotes?
The drafting, yes; the deciding, no. AI takes the details from the request, finds similar earlier quotes, calculates with the current price list and prepares a draft in your structure. A salesperson or estimator checks the assumptions, the price and the discount before the quote goes out. The more complex the calculation, the more important that check.
Does AI also write my sales emails and follow-ups?
AI prepares them as drafts, in your tone, based on your earlier emails and what was agreed in the meeting. You read and send. We don't build systems that send mass emails on their own: we automate the follow-up of real conversations and quotes, not cold outreach at scale.
Which CRM does AI in sales work with?
With HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and other CRMs with an API, as well as ERPs such as Exact, AFAS and SAP for prices and items, and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email and calendar. We usually build in n8n, with custom work where needed.
Is AI in sales also something for a small sales team?
That depends on the volume. An AI Partnership with NinA AI starts at € 4,500 per month and has to earn itself back at least twice in the first year. With a few quotes a month, that doesn't pay off. Then it's smarter to teach your team to work with ChatGPT, Copilot or the AI in your CRM, for example in a workshop. With dozens of requests and quotes a week, it does become interesting.
What does AI for sales cost at NinA AI?
You start with the € 6,000 AI Quick Scan. Building happens within the AI Partnership: package S costs € 4,500 per month (30 hours), M € 7,500 (50 hours) and L € 12,000 (80 hours), for a minimum of twelve months. What goes live is covered by a maintenance contract from € 245 per month, including AI usage: Bronze runs on your own servers, Silver and Gold on our platform in the EU. All amounts excluding VAT. We only start if the partnership as a whole delivers at least twice the investment in the first year.
Will AI replace my salespeople?
No. AI takes over the retyping, searching and preparing. The conversation, the trust, the timing and the price stay with the salesperson. What we see: salespeople get time back for customers, and new salespeople get up to speed faster because the knowledge behind your winning quotes is in the system.
Further reading
- AI in marketingContent in your tone, product copy in every language and reports that build themselves.
- AI agentsDigital colleagues that plan, execute and report in your systems.
- AI PartnershipA dedicated AI team that builds, measures and maintains, process by process.
- Writing quotes with AIFrom request to proposal, step by step.
More time for the customer, less for the CRM?
Book an intro call. Together we'll look at where most of the manual work in your sales process is, and what it delivers to hand that over to AI.
01
Intro call
Fifteen minutes, no strings. Where does work get stuck and what do you want to achieve?
02
AI Quick Scan
One day on site. Within a week, a business case and a roadmap.
03
AI Partnership
A dedicated team that builds, trains and shows what it delivers every month.
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