Guide · Michel's Guides

The 7 AI Sales Tools Behind a $3.6M/Year Lead Gen Agency

Michel Lieben runs ColdIQ on 46 software applications and has tested over 100 AI sales tools. These are the seven he keeps, and the exact play to run with each one.

7 steps · ~12 min readClay · Instantly · lemlist · Common Room

What you will build

By the end of this guide you'll have a working AI sales stack that covers the full outbound cycle: an AI agent that automates a recurring internal task, a multichannel sequence that touches prospects on email and LinkedIn, a cold email machine with AI-generated copy and spintax, an AI notetaker that mines hundreds of sales calls for insight, a niche-friendly B2B database, a Clay table that scores leads and finds 13/13 email addresses, and an intent-signal layer that tells you who is in market right now.

This is the stack ColdIQ uses to run a lead generation agency doing over $3.6M per year. Each step maps to one tool and one concrete use case shown in the video, so you can replicate the setup without guessing at configuration.

You don't need all seven on day one. If you only adopt one, make it Clay (step 6): it aggregates 100+ data providers and replaces several of the others for enrichment work.

Prerequisites

What you need before you start

01 · LinkedIn account

Several plays rely on LinkedIn activity: connection requests, profile visits, voice messages, and post data.

02 · Software budget

The tools shown run roughly $27 to $149 per month each on entry plans; you can start with two or three.

03 · A defined ICP

AI search, lead scoring, and lookalike features all need a clear picture of who you sell to.

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Step 01

Automate one recurring task with a Relevance AI agent

Relevance AI lets you build custom AI agents for prospect research, lead enrichment, hyper-personalized newsletter emails, or customer support (Intercom's support agent Sunny runs on it). The fastest way in: describe a routine you already do manually and let the platform propose the agent for you. Michel's example is his weekend newsletter prep. He describes the workflow in plain English, the platform drafts the agent outline (fetch posts, rank, draft, send), and he swaps the placeholder tools for connected ones like 'get recent posts from LinkedIn' and a Slack integration. Keep human approval on each action while you test; once the output is reliable, switch approvals to automatic and add a weekly trigger so it runs every Sunday without you.

Step 02

Build a multichannel sequence in lemlist

lemlist is a multichannel sales engagement platform: email, LinkedIn messages, connection requests, profile visits, LinkedIn voice messages, and cold calls in one sequence builder. A proven flow: send an email first, then visit the prospect's LinkedIn profile (they get the notification), then send a connection request referencing the email. If they accept, follow with a recorded LinkedIn voice message; if they don't, branch back to email. To skip manual setup, use the 'Create with AI' feature: describe your offer, your trigger, and your tone, and it generates a full campaign, in Michel's test a 9-touch sequence of emails, a connection request, profile visits, and a closing LinkedIn message, with draft copy included.

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