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As artificial intelligence has become an increasingly powerful technology across multiple industries, many of us are wondering how we can harness the potential of AI to improve our operations and increase conversions. Business owners and sales leaders have a powerful AI tool that can potentially revolutionize their sales pipeline in 2024: custom GPTs.

While many sales teams have already started using OpenAI's generative LLM ChatGPT and other programs for parts of their sales process, such as writing emails and proposals, sales-related custom GPTs can take this automation to an even deeper level bring level.

ChatGPT can provide business managers and sales reps with a good starting point for automating their workflows. However, with custom GPTs, they can create automations specifically tailored to the needs and challenges of their everyday lives. In this way, custom GPTs are not a “shortcut” for business owners and sellers, but a valuable tool to help them optimize their workload.

Related: OpenAI now allows users to build their own version of ChatGPT

What are Custom GPTs?

Launched in 2023, GPTs are essentially a specially trained version of ChatGPT that individuals and businesses can customize to their individual needs and goals, requiring little to no programming. Nevertheless, users have a greater degree of control over the output of a custom GPT as the behavior of these models can be permanently changed through custom instructions during the build and training process and can be further configured via the GPT builder's advanced settings.

The most important difference between a custom GPT and a regular chatbot is that a custom GPT pulls from a personalized data source. For example, a custom GPT can be trained using a company's data and frequently asked questions, allowing the model to return more specific answers.

While tools like ChatGPT can be useful for creating general templates and can even be made more specific with special prompts, custom GPTs offer an unprecedented level of customization, making them invaluable tools for sales teams. When using a custom GPT, a user does not need to provide the information they want to retrieve in the prompt – the bot will automatically access this data.

Related: How to Write a Successful Sales Script with ChatGPT

What use cases are there for customized GPT solutions in sales?

Automated workflow tools like Zapier even already offer the ability to integrate custom GPTs into workflows via their API. By integrating custom GPTs with Zapier, business leaders can connect their personalized models to other applications such as calendar apps, email, and CRM platforms to have a dedicated, personalized AI assistant that meets their needs.

One of the easiest ways to implement custom GPTs into a sales operation is to use the model to design automated email responses to incoming messages. For example, if your company is running an advertising campaign, you can train your custom GPT to design replies to replies to your outbound emails. For the knowledge you use to train the model, you can upload files that contain information about the action, frequently asked questions, and even a style guide. This ensures that the model generates specific and accurate responses that match the brand's identity and message.

While you can set up your custom GPTs to do all the work for you and automatically respond to requests, many have found that it's best not to rely on full AI automation. The human team should continue to act as quality assurance during these stages of the sales process, checking elements like grammar, formatting, and personalization that a model may not get right on the first try. However, it's worth noting that having the sales team do a quick read-through of a draft created by a custom GPT is far more time efficient than creating everything from scratch.

Companies can use custom GPTs to create custom chatbots that can be integrated into their website's UI. This functionality allows potential customers to ask the chatbot specific questions, which can then be answered using the knowledge base provided to it during the training process. A custom chatbot is a great way for a business to answer their customers' most frequently asked questions, as the GPT is available to potential customers virtually any time of the day.

Related: What does ChatGPT really mean for businesses?

What are the benefits of custom GPTs for sales?

One of the biggest benefits of implementing custom GPTs into your sales operations is that you and your sales team can spend more time on qualified leads. Continuing the email example, if a company sets up a custom GPT to design responses to requests for more information, the automation could provide the prospect with the information they need to become a more informed, interested lead that is prepared for conversion.

Additionally, like virtually any form of AI automation, custom GPTs are a way for companies to improve their customer experience. Because custom GPT can handle simple interactions, prospects can expect faster responses. When it comes time for the salesperson to become more involved in the process, the customer receives better service because the sales team can focus solely on servicing the customer and not on the earlier part of the sales pipeline.

The great thing about custom GPTs is that, as the name suggests, they can be customized to fit the unique needs of each business. The variety of use cases that custom GPTs offer business owners has made them an incredible tool for the sales process.

From increasing the capacity of sales teams to the ability to provide top-notch customer service to qualified leads, the benefits of custom GPTs for sales will be deep and far-reaching. Now is the time to embrace this new AI automation paradigm and maximize revenue potential.

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