Case Study: Using AI to Create Context-Aware Automated B2B Sales Communications

Explore how the Cloud Combinator team used a Large Language Model to effectively create
context-aware automated email communications for a sales generation and communication
platform designed to connect businesses with precise target audiences.

About The Customer

Find Me Sales is an innovative startup that offers a comprehensive sales solution designed to
enhance business-to-business (B2B) interactions. Their service helps businesses connect with
potential clients by providing access to a real-time database of over 200 million companies
worldwide.
Find Me Sales customers can utilise filters - such as location and business activity - to identify
ideal business sales leads. The platform also offers real-time alerts on new company formations
within targeted markets - ensuring customers are always equipped with the most current and
relevant data for their sales campaigns.
Extending beyond just lead generation, Find Me Sales also provides its customers with a suite
of tools to manage outbound sales effectively. This includes CRM integration, a range of email
tools, customisable automation flows, and comprehensive campaigns designed to streamline
sales processes.

Customer Challenge

While the email templates offered by Find Me Sales were excellent resources for customers
hoping to connect with prospects, the team felt that generative AI could help them offer a
service that kept them ahead of their competition. The decision was made to explore automating the generation of contextually relevant emails for various stages of B2B communications between customers and live-database prospect businesses.

A context-aware email automated communication tool would help Find Me Sales address a
series of challenges:

• Staying Ahead of Competition: The Find Me Sales team recognises the need to
  leverage generative AI to offer a service that offers more than competitor platforms.
• Automating Email Generation: The team wanted to explore the generation of
  contextually relevant emails for various stages of B2B communications between
  customers and live-database prospect businesses. For maximum effectiveness, these
  emails need to be tailored to both the broader context of the company and any prior
  interactions with the customer.
• Increasing Market Share: By offering bespoke email creation, the Find Me Sales team
  aim to increase the effectiveness of their tool for current customers and attract new
  ones, potentially bolstering their market share.
• Rapid Adoption of AI in the Sales Industry: The rapid adoption of AI in the SaaS sales
  industry puts pressure on Find Me Sales to stay agile and implement innovations to
  remain competitive.
• Enhancing Prospect Engagement: If prospect engagement metrics fall behind those of
  competitors, customers could seek alternative platforms.
• Reducing Manual Effort: Without automation, the crafting of personalised emails
  remains labour-intensive and time-consuming, reducing the effectiveness of customer
  sales operations and potentially driving customers to explore alternatives.

Partner Solution

To address the evolving needs of Find Me Sales and its customer base, the team at Cloud
Combinator developed an automation process with, at its core, a Large Language Model (LLM)
generating context-aware email communications.

Key Components of the Solution:

• Amazon Bedrock: Bedrock served as the perfect space in which the different elements
  of the Find Me Sales solution could be brought together. As a platform that allows for
  exceptional behind-the-scenes technical integration - while offering a user-friendly
  interface that can be confidently handed to business without requiring extensive
  in-house AI/ML knowledge.
• AWS Lambda: This serverless computing service was pivotal in handling the data
  processing workflow. Lambda functions were created to manage the flow of information
  from APIs, ensuring efficient processing without the need for dedicated server
  management.
• Amazon S3: Used for storing complex prompts required by the LLM. These prompts
  were crafted to provide both context and specific tasks that the LLM needed to generate
  appropriate email responses. This setup allowed for scalable and secure storage of
  prompt data, crucial for the dynamic needs of email generation.
• API Integration: The system was designed with an API that fed information into the
  Lambda function, which then accessed structured prompts from Amazon S3. The API
  integrated seamlessly with Find Me Sales' existing infrastructure, allowing for smooth
  data transfer and minimal disruption.
• Prompt Engineering: The success of the LLM depended heavily on the quality of the
  prompts, which were designed to understand the context deeply and generate emails
  that were not only accurate but also contextually relevant to ongoing conversations.

This solution meant Find Me Sales could generate emails that were tailored to the specifics of
each customer interaction. In turn, this ensured that each communication was relevant, timely,
and more likely to engage prospects effectively.

Training and Handover

Beyond the creation of the email automation processes, the Cloud Combinator team provided
comprehensive resources to ensure that the Find Me Sales team was fully equipped to utilise
the new system.

In line with the Cloud Combinator AI & ML Project Accelerator framework, we provided a
detailed handover of the system - including video guidance, and in-situ comments and notes
that the Find Me Sales team could refer back to whenever required. This video resource and
detailed comments covered all operational aspects of the solution, such as managing new types of email prompts and troubleshooting common issues - ensuring the platform remained efficient and effective with no external support required.

Results and Benefits

The solution the Cloud Combinator team provided proved that automated, context-aware email
tools could be offered to customers, with Find Me Sales confident that the LLM and surrounding AWS services operating behind the scenes would produce accurate and valuable
communications.

Naturally, any project that involves the handling of customer data also demands the utmost
security - and this was especially important for Find Me Sales, for whom data security is a key
selling point. Cloud Combinator’s position as an Advanced AWS Partner meant we could be
absolutely confident that data processing and storage always met or exceeded these stringent
demands.

"The collaboration allowed us to explore different generative AI models to discover which would work best in a production environment. The solution moved the feature from research into internal user testing and trials. Find Me Sales is now working on further development to bring the solution to a wider audience as part of the sales platform."

Will Crosthwait , Founder, Find Me Sales 

Why Cloud Combinator?

While many of Cloud Combinator’s clients come to us directly, Find Me Sales were referred to
us, owing to our status as an Advanced AWS Partner. The referral was made on the basis of our expertise integrating cutting-edge AI/ML technologies into existing business processes without service interruption - something that was essential to Find Me Sales and their customer base.

Our Cloud Combinator program also meant that Find Me Sales could explore the concept of
intelligent email automation without diverting funds from other parts of the business - an
important factor for any ambitious startup. The Cloud Combinator process didn’t just give Find
Me Sales access to funding for the development of their automation tools though - it also
ensured an ultra-compact timeline, delivering a proof of concept in less than 14 days,
helping to keep Find Me Sales ahead of the pace in an ultra-competitive marketplace.

Client Satisfaction

“Working with 3GI and the Cloud Combinator team has been a great experience ever since we got introduced by AWS. Nathan and Anton took time to understand our requirements based on existing research and this helped to inform the selection of the best generative AI model for the task. The solution has moved the feature into testing, and we look forward to releasing it fully in the near-future."

Will Crosthwait , Founder, Find Me Sales