How Paperplane Uses NLP to Update Salesforce Automatically

Managing customer relationship management (CRM) systems is a time-consuming task that often distracts sales reps from their core responsibilities of selling. This problem is not unique to individual salespeople; it extends to sales leaders and revenue operations (rev-ops) teams. As the number of B2B salespeople in the US grows, so does the need for a solution to this problem.

This is where Paperplane comes in. Paperplane is a startup that automatically updates Salesforce after each sales call using natural language processing (NLP). With Paperplane, sales leaders no longer have to spend up to 50% of their week piecing together what’s going on in their pipeline. They can spend that time winning more deals.

In this article, we will dive into the story behind Paperplane, explore its founding team, and how it is using NLP to solve a significant problem for sales teams.

How Did Paperplane Get Started?

Founded in 2022, Paperplane emerged as a solution to a problem that has been a thorn in the side of sales teams for years. According to the company, each of the 3 million B2B salespeople in the US spends 3-6 hours per week manually updating their CRM with data about their customers and live deals. This data entry is a problem at every layer of large and fast-moving sales teams.

The founders of Paperplane, Jack Hopkins, Daniel Kwak, and Ben Magolan, recognized this problem and set out to solve it. Hopkins had left Cambridge with a post-graduate degree in advanced computer science and peer-reviewed research in generative language models receiving almost 100 citations in the field. He had started a company applying LMs to API security, where he met Kwak, who led his Seed Round. Hopkins left this company to join Kwak and Magolan in building NLP for sales.

Kwak had previously led AI/ML investments at Point72 and worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. He had dropped out of his PhD at MIT applying ML models on mitigating turbulence modes in nuclear fusion reactors.

Magolan was previously an ML Ops tech lead at Xometry and a software engineer at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory. He attained his PhD in nuclear engineering at MIT specializing in reactor coolant modeling and simulation.

Together, they founded Paperplane with a mission to help sales teams save time and close more deals.

How Does Paperplane Work?

Paperplane’s solution is simple: it automatically updates Salesforce after every sales call using NLP. The company plugs into a sales team’s conversational intelligence platform, such as Gong, Chorus, or Wingman, and Salesforce.

After the call, Paperplane transcribes and extracts the required Salesforce fields (e.g., next steps, follow-ups, pain points, MEDDIC) and notes. The NLP model is built to retrieve the correct data regardless of phrasing and is grounded to mitigate hallucinations that are common with language models today. Paperplane does not rely on keywords, tracking words, or scripts to adhere to. It retrieves the right data, no matter how it is phrased.

Once the transcription and extraction are complete, sales leaders get the updates and notes they need in minutes. Sales reps no longer have to spend hours moving data from their notes into Salesforce.

What Are the Benefits of Paperplane?

The benefits of Paperplane are numerous, and they extend beyond just saving sales reps time. By automating the CRM update process, Paperplane helps sales teams gain greater visibility into their pipeline, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately close more deals.

Some of the key benefits of Paperplane include:

Increased productivity: By automating the CRM update process, sales reps can spend more time selling and less time on data entry. This leads to increased productivity and more closed deals.

Better pipeline visibility: Paperplane provides real-time updates on deals, giving sales leaders better visibility into their pipeline. This allows them to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Improved sales coaching: With Paperplane, sales leaders can listen to sales calls and read the notes in Salesforce to provide targeted coaching to their reps. This leads to improved sales performance and better results.

Enhanced customer experience: By having more accurate and up-to-date information in Salesforce, sales reps can provide a better customer experience. They can quickly answer questions, provide relevant information, and move deals forward more efficiently.

Increased revenue: With better pipeline visibility, improved sales coaching, and a more efficient sales process, Paperplane can help companies close more deals and increase their revenue.

Overall, the benefits of Paperplane are clear. By automating the CRM update process and providing real-time updates on deals, Paperplane helps sales teams improve their productivity, gain greater visibility into their pipeline, and ultimately close more deals.

How Does Paperplane Compare to Other Sales Tools?

There are a number of sales tools on the market that aim to help sales teams increase their productivity and close more deals. So how does Paperplane compare to other sales tools?

One key advantage of Paperplane is its focus on automating the CRM update process. While other sales tools may help with lead generation, prospecting, and other aspects of the sales process, Paperplane specifically addresses the problem of manual data entry into CRM systems.

Another advantage of Paperplane is its use of natural language processing (NLP) to extract data from sales calls. Unlike other tools that rely on keywords or scripts, Paperplane's NLP model is designed to retrieve the correct data regardless of phrasing. This makes it more accurate and less prone to errors.

Finally, Paperplane's integration with conversational intelligence platforms like Gong, Chorus, and Wingman sets it apart from other sales tools. By plugging into these platforms, Paperplane can automatically transcribe and extract data from sales calls, providing real-time updates to Salesforce without any manual effort from sales reps.

While there are certainly other sales tools on the market that can be helpful for sales teams, Paperplane's unique focus on automating the CRM update process and its use of NLP and conversational intelligence set it apart from the pack.

What Are the Future Plans for Paperplane?

Paperplane's founding team is focused on expanding the product's capabilities and growing the customer base. They have a clear vision of the product's future, and are committed to investing in R&D to make it happen.

One of their primary goals is to expand their integrations with other platforms. While they currently integrate with conversational intelligence platforms such as Gong and Chorus, they plan to integrate with more CRMs and sales enablement tools to provide a comprehensive solution for sales teams.

In addition to expanding their integrations, they plan to further develop their NLP model to improve its accuracy and ability to extract relevant data from sales calls. This will allow them to offer more sophisticated insights to sales teams and enable them to make better decisions about their pipeline and deals.

Another area of focus for Paperplane is to expand their customer base beyond fast-growing B2B companies. While this is currently their target market, they believe that their product can benefit any company that relies on sales calls to drive revenue. They plan to invest in marketing and sales to reach a broader audience and increase their market share.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Paperplane is an exciting startup that is using NLP to solve a significant pain point for sales teams. By automatically updating Salesforce after every sales call, they are saving salespeople hours of time each week and providing sales leaders with real-time visibility into their pipeline. With a talented founding team and a clear vision for the future, they are poised for success in the rapidly evolving world of sales technology.