Conversica Alternatives to Grow Your Business in 2021

If you think about a typical customer journey or sales funnel, you’ll encounter many of the same kinds of steps along the way. The potential customer needs to first be exposed to your company or brand. Then, they may want to learn more about the products and services you have to offer. The customer might or might not reach out to you, and then your sales team can do their job to close the deal.

This may be a bit of an oversimplification and overgeneralization, of course. But, it provides a useful framework from which to assess how your potential customers become leads. And how those leads can turn into sales.

Conversica is a highly regarded name in this space. There are also several Conversica alternatives worth considering. If you want to focus more time on closing deals with warmer leads, Conversica (and alternatives to Conversica) could be just what you need.

How Does Conversica Work?

At its core, Conversica aims to automate lead qualification using artificial intelligence. This includes email, SMS text messages, or website chat. Potential customers interact with AI Assistants in the earlier parts of the sales funnel. This means that Conversica’s AI Assistants engage with customers within minutes. They answer their inquiries and nurture the relationship while the customer is still interested.

The engagement is prompt, personalized and persistent. It also means that potential leads don’t fall through the cracks like how they might under a more traditional framework. The Conversica system can pre-qualify 100 percent of new leads instantly. A customer can get product brochures, register for webinars and events, set up sales appointments and more.

Conversica empowers your sales team to be more effective and efficient. They’re only interacting with warm leads that have already been pre-qualified. It’s an effective system, but it can prove costly depending on your needs. Plans start from $2,999 per month. This quickly goes up with additional “skills” and use cases.

Which Conversica Alternatives Are Best?

The main aim of alternatives to Conversica is similar, if not identical to Conversica. You want to engage customers and increase the quality of leads for your sales team, ultimately benefiting your bottom line. Consider this Conversica alternatives review in 2021 as a solid starting point.

Exceed.ai

Conversica says that it can “unleash your revenue teams to engage and act at scale.” Similarly, Exceed.ai says it can “automate your lead conversion journey into sales ready meetings.” Here, a similar type of AI virtual assistant engages with your customers in human-like, two-way conversations via email, SMS or website chat. The interactions are personalized and allow you to pre-qualify your leads at scale.

The AI chatbot is included straight out of the box, which isn’t the case with all Conversica alternatives. You get a clean, easy-to-understand interface, plus convenient integration with CRMs that you may already be using. It also integrates with tools like Calendly, which should make your sales team happy.

The starting price for Exceed.ai is comparable to Conversica at $1,950 per month. The difference is that you get more customizations at no extra cost, offering a better value.

Saleswhale

Don’t let neglected leads fall through the cracks. That’s the promise of Saleswhale. Conversica and Exceed.ai strive to engage with every potential customer over several channels. By comparison, Saleswhale takes a more proactive approach.

It actively seeks out to identify neglected leads and approaches them with a proven conversation playbook. This is where artificial intelligence really kicks in. The AI interprets responses and handles replies dynamically, in real time, handling all sorts of common scenarios. When the system identifies a lead that’s sales-ready, it introduces a member of your sales team to the conversation so they can close the deal.

This is great for converting inbound leads on your website. It’s also for situations like following up after a webinar or breathing new life into dormant leads. As an added bonus, Saleswhale offers a free monthly plan to get started. However, as your needs grow, you’ll likely upgrade to the $1,495/month Plus plan to unlock more features and capacity.

Drift

Other alternatives focus on automating the lead qualification process using artificial intelligence. Drift cuts to the chase with its revenue acceleration platform. The end objective is the same; it’s just that Drift is much more upfront about it. With Drift, you can “deliver personalized customer experiences in real time.” 

Like the others on this list, the automated chatbot from Drift serves a similar purpose. Normally, many businesses ask customers to fill out a form. Then, they have to wait for one of your human employees to follow up. In contrast, Drift engages with customers live, in real time, with a personalized conversation. This includes booking meetings with your sales team, for example. Drift offers deep integrations with your sales and marketing tools too. This way, the conversational AI works to support your goals without adding extra steps.

You can get started with a free plan to see if Drift is right for your company. From there, you’ll need to contact them for pricing on Premium, Advanced and Enterprise plans.

Choosing the Right Alternatives to Conversica for You

When shopping around for Conversica alternatives, it’s important to recognize that there is no one size fits all solution. Every company and organization is different, with a different budget and different needs. If you have a smaller business with fewer than 200 leads per month, Saleswhale might be a good fit. If you’re a bigger business and seek more features, Exceed.ai could be a good choice too.

At first glance, it may feel like quite a leap of faith to spend thousands of dollars on a conversational AI for lead nurturing. The truth is that this can be a very worthwhile investment in your business. If your sales team can focus its time and energy only on high quality, pre-qualified leads, it means that you are much better equipped to grow at scale.

Artificial intelligence represents the natural evolution of sales and marketing. And Conversica and its alternatives are leading the charge, one live chat at a time.