We are launching a new series at "The Commission Corner" called "Nuggets".
These are special episodes where dive deep into topics.
Lorenzo shared his AI use cases with us.
AI cold calls? They actually work - if you do this.
Back in June, Lorenzo Saccardi and his team at Smartness set out on a mission:
Turn AI agents into effective outbound sales callers.
Not to replace human reps.
But to get more demos on the calendar - fast.
They started with an ambitious goal and learned a lot along the way.
Here’s a breakdown of what actually worked (and what didn’t):
1. Set an ambitious goal, then iterate back
↳ They started with: “Let’s book meetings with AI agents”
↳ Turns out: agents couldn’t fully close, but they could engage, qualify and follow up with great accuracy
2. Make the AI sound local and personal
↳ Used voice cloning (with ElevenLabs) to mimic regional accents across Italy
↳ Customized intros for each lead based on web data (like “You're a seaside hotel? Here’s how we help businesses like yours…”)
3. Test small and expect it to fail - fast
↳ Most edge cases? Found within the first 3–5 calls
↳ That’s when they learned what needed to be fixed
4. Don't just focus on sales
↳ They rolled out a support agent for after-hours calls
↳ Then marketing came knocking: “Can you call leads who download our whitepapers?”
↳ Now AI agents are also handling content follow-ups and candidate FAQs in HR
5. Buy before you build
↳ Tools like call recorders that auto-update CRM fields are game changers
↳ Smartness now captures goldmine-level insights from sales calls without reps needing to input anything
Their results?
→ 3,000+ AI-driven outbound calls
→ 200+ qualified callbacks
→ Human-like conversations up to 4 minutes long
→ Prospects unsure if they’re speaking to a real person
The kicker?
A customer once said mid-call:
“Oh sorry, I thought you were a pre-recorded message”
...and then kept talking.
AI is far from perfect, but it’s evolving fast.
And if you’re thinking of launching cold calling agents, Lorenzo’s one of the few who’s done it successfully.
📩 Ping him if you're curious about what’s under the hood.
The episode is now live, tune in!