In this post, we will dive into the topic of AI sales prospecting. Specifically, how to use AI to make emails that help build and convert your pipeline.

As a former Chief Revenue Officer for a healthcare technology company, one area I constantly aimed to improve was our email follow-up process after sales meetings and our monthly business reviews. Thoughtful follow-ups are critical, but time-consuming for busy sales teams. The buying journey is complex and emails often fall flat because:

1. Messaging doesn’t align with the buyers needs
2. The Call To Action (CTA) leads to things the buyer is not interested in
3. Many emails are not promptly sent following a meeting

This is where AI can make an impact. 

According to Exceed.ai, leveraging AI-powered tools in lead follow-up enables businesses to scale communications in a timely and personalized way, which directly impacts conversion rates and revenue. 

SOURCE: Yael Darom on Exceed.ai by Genesys 

The transformative potential of automated yet tailored follow-up utilizing AI sales prospecting can streamline the sales cycle and create a predictable sales funnel and pipeline. By using the latest AI capabilities, sales and marketing professionals can quickly generate customized, strategic follow-ups tailored to key healthcare decision-makers.

The key is providing the right prompts including buyer persona details, desired tone, goals, and calls-to-action. Effective follow-up progresses deals and strengthens connections with hospital executives and clinicians on purchasing committees. 

Over the past year, I’ve tested various AI writing tools to transform sales processes. For high-quality communications, I’ve found Claude.ai unmatched as one of the best ai tools for writing. Below are examples I created targeting fictional hospital buying committee members.  

The Power of Buying Committees and Personas 

In healthcare sales, developing buyer personas for the key roles on buying committees can help sales teams understand and address their unique priorities. For example, the Chief Financial Officer persona may be highly focused on return on investment and costs when evaluating new solutions and vendors. Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Officer persona is more concerned with clinical outcomes, innovations that can improve patient care, and support for compliance with evolving healthcare regulations.

By doing the work to map out detailed personas for each role on the buying committee, sales teams can craft targeted messaging and solutions for each decision-maker and increase their chances of winning the business.  

While tools like Microsoft’s Sales Copilot can do some cool things like auto-generate emails and meeting summaries, it takes some finesse to tailor a message that’s going to be personalized and feel like it wasn’t AI generated. Using Perplexity.ai, I asked it to write two emails based on our targeted personas. Here are the results.  

The CNO (Chief Nursing Officer) Message: 

Prompt: write a follow up email to the CNO of a large hospital (change to the actual name of the hospital) that is considering our services as a patient engagement software as a service platform. Use a professional tone with a specific goal of moving the opportunity forward and getting their support in this process.  

Dear [CNO’s name], 

I wanted to follow up regarding our recent conversation about implementing our patient engagement SaaS platform at your hospital.

Based on our discussion, it seems clear that modernizing your patient engagement strategy is a priority for your organization. Our platform provides a comprehensive solution to improve patient satisfaction, drive engagement, and increase revenue.

To move this opportunity forward, I suggest we schedule a call to review the details of our proposal and answer any additional questions you may have. We can also discuss next steps for getting stakeholder support and aligning on an implementation timeline that works for your hospital.

Please let me know some dates and times in the next week or two that could work for a call. I’m happy to accommodate your schedule.

Thank you again for considering us as a partner in improving the patient experience at your hospital. I look forward to further discussions.

Best, 

[Your name] 

[Your company]  

The Vice President of Strategy Message: 

Prompt: write a follow up email to the vice president of strategy of a large hospital (change to the actual name of the hospital) that is considering our services as a patient engagement software as a service platform. Use a professional tone with a specific goal of moving the opportunity forward and getting their support as a member of the buying committee for this project. 

Dear [VP’s name], 

I wanted to follow up on our discussion regarding implementing our patient engagement SaaS platform at your hospital.

As a member of the buying committee for this project, I know your support is critical for moving this opportunity forward. From our prior conversations, it’s clear that modernizing patient engagement aligns well with your hospital’s strategic goals.

Our platform provides comprehensive solutions to drive patient satisfaction, increase engagement, and boost revenue. I believe we can deliver significant strategic value that merits your endorsement of our proposal with the committee.

To ensure we secure your support, let’s schedule a call to review the details of our platform, including how we can customize it to meet your specific strategic objectives. Please suggest some dates and times in the next week that work for you.

With your backing on the committee, I’m confident we can align on next steps and timeline for a successful implementation at your hospital. I look forward to further discussion.

Best regards, 

[Your name] 

[Your company]  

“AI’s power lies in its ability to assist, not replace. It can provide salespeople with valuable information but cannot replicate the intricate art of relationship-building and personalized persuasion that comes from human interaction. AI can analyze data but cannot replace the empathetic understanding that comes from truly listening to a customer’s needs. This is where the distinction between tool and seller becomes most apparent.” 

SOURCE: Mace Horoff, via LinkedIn  

Using personas and AI sales prospecting allows you to personalize messaging and follow-ups tailored to each stakeholder’s motivations and goals. AI tools like Perplexity.ai can help develop detailed profiles on key decision makers. For example, Perplexity may show the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) has been in her role for 8 years with a focus on staff retention and satisfaction. This data lets you highlight how your solution improves nurse workflows. 

Aligning Personas with their Priorities 

Now, let’s have Claude.ai read and write a few words on what the CNO would care about with direct alignment to the company’s recent financial report. Based on their 2024 Operating Capital Budget here are a few items that stand out.  

1. Volume and Revenue Trends: The CNO would care about the projected increases in inpatient and outpatient volumes, as well as the corresponding revenue assumptions based on payor mix and gross charges. Understanding these trends is crucial for the CNO to align nursing staff and resources to meet the anticipated patient volumes and revenue streams. 
2. Labor Expenses and Efficiencies: The CNO would be concerned with the budgeted labor expenses, including reductions in outside labor and overtime costs. Additionally, the CNO would be interested in the analysis of full-time equivalents (FTEs) and the associated budgeted FTE roll forward, as this directly impacts staffing levels and workforce stability. 
3. Non-Labor Expenses: The CNO would want to understand the projected increases in non-labor expenses, particularly in areas such as drug and supply inflation, as well as the impact on nursing operations and resource allocation. 
4. Operating Margin and EBIDA: The CNO would be interested in the operating margin and operating EBIDA (Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, and Amortization) percentages, as these financial indicators provide insights into the organization’s financial health and its ability to support nursing initiatives and patient care. 

By closely examining these financial aspects, the CNO can make informed decisions to ensure that nursing resources are aligned with the company’s financial goals and operational efficiency, ultimately contributing to the delivery of high-quality patient care. I selected one of these items and had Claude rewrite it to include in my follow-up email as part of the opening sentence.  

My Claude.ai prompt for # 2 – I asked for a non-sales focused opening for my email. Here’s the result.

With labor representing over 50% of hospital expenses, I know you are laser-focused on optimizing your nursing workforce as Chief Nursing Officer. Our intelligent nurse workflow platform is proven to increase productivity by 7% and reduce outside labor spending by 15% – the solutions you need to stabilize staffing and control runaway expenses.

As you can see, this makes for a very powerful opening vs the initial one drafted above. 

The Power of Account-Based Marketing

An account-based approach that deeply targets key decision makers can greatly amplify sales and marketing efforts compared to more generalized, broad-based strategies. With account-based marketing, your sales and marketing are tailored to influential individuals at each targeted healthcare organization. By leveraging your sales playbook, personas and buying committee insights for a given hospital, you can create orchestrated, multi-channel campaigns with precise messaging unique to the key stakeholders at that institution. 

This level of personalization helps you connect with executives and clinicians in a meaningful way that resonates with their specific priorities and motivations. The account-based approach enables having strategic, customized conversations versus just delivering generalized sales pitches. 

AI technology enables rapidly generating the highly personalized content and follow-up messages required to execute account-based strategies at scale. Rather than just blasting the same generic emails to every prospect, AI sales prospecting allows efficiently tailoring outreach while still maintaining the human touch. 

Compared to broad-based marketing efforts, an AI-powered account-based approach drives greater engagement, conversion rates, and sales velocity. When outreach is strategically tailored for key decision makers, they are far more likely to give it their attention and engagement. This personalization can be a key competitive differentiator in the healthcare market. 

Conclusion 

AI offers immense potential to enhance sales follow-ups by quickly creating tailored messages for key decision makers. By taking an account-based approach, sales teams can drive faster deal velocity, build stronger client relationships, and mutually beneficial partnerships. 

The combination of AI and a deep understanding of buying committees and personas can provide an invaluable competitive edge. Those organizations that fully leverage AI-powered follow-up and account-based strategies tailored to healthcare will see dramatic improvements in sales performance. 

With the ability to rapidly generate customized personas and follow-up messages at scale, AI can help streamline outreach while still maintaining the all-important human touch. Sales professionals adept at leveraging AI will be able to focus more time on building genuine connections and relationships with prospects. 

Do You Want to Learn More? 

We are helping many healthtech clients grow their sales pipeline. If you want to learn more and see how this approach could work for you, let’s schedule a call. 

Source: Unsplash – Kaitlyn Baker