In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, the “speed to lead” is often the difference between a closed deal and a lost opportunity. But as your business grows, your Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) often find themselves buried in a mountain of manual research, LinkedIn scrolling, and email drafting.
What if you could automate the research, personalise the outreach at scale, and double your response rates?
At ibusinessformula, we’ve been diving deep into the new HubSpot Sales Agent (formerly known as the Prospecting Agent). It’s not just another AI writing tool – it’s an intelligent sales partner. Here is our 4-week “Trail Map” to help you implement this technology and revolutionise your prospecting results.
Week 1: Setting Up Your Basecamp
Success with AI starts with the quality of your data. Think of the Sales Agent as a high-performance engine. It needs clean fuel to run.
- CRM Hygiene: The Agent researches prospects by scanning their websites and LinkedIn profiles. If your CRM data is messy, your outreach will be too. Ensure your “Company” and “Contact” records have valid URLs.
- Define Your Selling Profiles: Don’t try to boil the ocean. Start with three specific profiles:
- Establish Your Voice: Use Custom Instructions to define your brand. Do you want to sound like a “helpful consultant” or a “bold disruptor”?
Pro Tip: For your first 5 contacts, stay in Semi-Autonomous Mode. This allows you to “Review and Approve” every email the AI drafts before it hits “Send.”
Week 2: The Warm Start
Now that your foundation is set, it’s time to test the Agent on live leads.
- Focus on Warm Prospects: Start with people who have already engaged with your brand. They are more likely to respond, providing you with faster feedback on whether the AI’s messaging is hitting the mark.
- Refine the Logic: Are the emails referencing the right company news? If the AI is missing the mark, go back to your Custom Instructions and tighten the guardrails.
- The Gold Standard: Aim for a 30% response rate. According to HubSpot’s latest data, that is the benchmark for high-performing Sales Agents
Week 3: Scaling & Full Automation
Once you trust the Agent’s output, it’s time to take the training wheels off.
- Trigger-Based Enrollment: Set up a HubSpot Workflow to automatically enrol any contact with a Lead Score > 50. This creates a “Marketing to Sales Bridge” where leads are contacted while they are still “hot.”
- Adaptive Outreach: This is the game-changer. Enable Adaptive Mode, which allows the AI to adjust its follow-up timing and content based on prospect behaviour (e.g., visiting a pricing page or opening an email 3 times).
- Go Autonomous: Switch your best-performing profile to Fully Autonomous. The Agent is now researching and prospecting for you while you sleep.
Week 4: Optimisation and Global Reach
In the final week, we focus on maximising ROI and expanding your territory.
- The Performance Review: Compare your AI-driven sequences against your traditional manual sequences. Look at the data – How much time did your SDRs save? Most teams see a 95% reduction in research time.
- Go Global: If you target international markets, toggle on the Multilingual feature. The Sales Agent can now communicate in over 200 languages, localising your outreach without you needing to hire a multilingual team.
The Bottom Line
The HubSpot Sales Agent isn’t about replacing your sales team; it’s about unleashing your sales team. By automating the “grunt work” of prospecting, your reps can spend their time where it matters most – having actual conversations with qualified prospects.
