sales-skills/sales-people-ai

People.ai (Backstory) Platform Help

People.ai rebranded to Backstory on April 21, 2026. Same platform, same data infrastructure, new name. This skill uses "People.ai" throughout since that's what most users search for.

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

1. Which People.ai capability are you asking about?

   • A) Activity Capture (auto-logging emails, calls, meetings → CRM)
   • B) Deal Intelligence (risk signals, stakeholder mapping, single-threading detection)
   • C) Pipeline & Forecasting (pipeline health, revenue predictions, coverage analysis)
   • D) MCP Integration (connecting AI agents to People.ai data)
   • E) CRM Sync & Data Quality (Salesforce/Dynamics/Oracle sync issues)
   • F) Pricing, plan selection, or comparison with another tool
   • G) Something else — describe it

2. Which CRM are you on?

   • A) Salesforce
   • B) Microsoft Dynamics
   • C) Oracle
   • D) Multiple CRMs

3. How big is your sales team?

   • A) Under 20 reps
   • B) 20-100 reps
   • C) 100-500 reps
   • D) 500+ reps

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already contains enough context, skip to Step 2.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the question is about... | Route to... | |---|---| | Conversation intelligence / call recording / coaching | /sales-gong [question] or /sales-note-taker [question] | | Revenue forecasting strategy across tools | /sales-forecast [question] | | Deal health assessment methodology | /sales-deal-inspect [question] | | CRM data quality strategy (not People.ai-specific) | /sales-data-hygiene [question] | | Building outbound sequences | /sales-cadence [question] |

When routing, provide the exact command.

Step 3 — People.ai platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full platform reference — modules, integrations, MCP setup, pricing, known issues.

Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Focus on the user's specific situation:

• Activity Capture setup: Connect email (Gmail/Outlook) and calendar first — immediate value from auto-logging. Call integrations (Zoom/Teams) come second. Historical data analysis starts on day one (2 years back).
• Deal Intelligence adoption: Start with pipeline health dashboards for managers, then roll out risk alerts. Single-threading detection is the highest-signal feature for deal risk.
• Forecast accuracy: People.ai improves forecasts by replacing rep-entered data with activity-backed data. It doesn't generate forecast numbers — pair with CRM native forecasting or Clari for roll-ups.
• MCP integration: Connects to Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot. Useful for natural language queries against your revenue data. Enterprise tier required.
• vs Gong: People.ai captures activity data (emails, meetings, calendar); Gong captures conversation data (call recordings, transcripts). They're complementary, not competing. Many enterprises run both.
• vs Clari: Clari focuses on forecast roll-ups and submission workflows; People.ai focuses on the data layer (activity capture + deal intelligence). People.ai feeds Clari — they're often stacked.

If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.

Gotchas

• No call recording or transcription — People.ai captures activity metadata (who emailed whom, which meetings happened, call duration) but does NOT record or transcribe calls. For call recording, use Gong, Fathom, or another CI tool.
• Enterprise pricing only — no public pricing, no free tier, no self-serve signup. Custom quotes based on team size and modules. Budget $50-100+/user/month based on market reports.
• Salesforce sync delays — activity data can take 1-2 days to fully process and appear in CRM. Don't expect real-time dashboards for call data.
• Adoption requires executive sponsorship — reps see People.ai as "management watching" if not positioned as a productivity tool. Frame as "no more manual CRM logging" not "we're tracking your activity."
• Multi-CRM complexity — supporting Salesforce + Dynamics across regions is a strength but adds implementation complexity. Plan for 2-4 week deployment per CRM instance.
• Data quality depends on email/calendar hygiene — People.ai can only associate activities with CRM records if contacts exist. Garbage contacts = garbage activity mapping.
• Backstory rebrand (April 2026) — all people.ai URLs redirect to backstory.ai. App login remains app.people.ai. Documentation and community content still references "People.ai."

Related skills

• /sales-gong — Gong platform help (conversation intelligence — complementary to People.ai's activity capture)
• /sales-note-taker — Comparing AI note-takers or wiring their APIs into CRM/warehouse
• /sales-forecast — Revenue forecasting strategy, pipeline coverage, commit validation
• /sales-deal-inspect — Deal health assessment, stakeholder mapping, MEDDPICC extraction
• /sales-data-hygiene — CRM data quality, deduplication, enrichment strategy
• /sales-coaching — Building a sales coaching program, onboarding reps
• /sales-scratchpad — Scratchpad platform help (Salesforce-native AI workspace — lighter-weight alternative)
• /sales-weflow — Weflow platform help (Salesforce-native revenue AI with activity capture, CI, forecasting)
• /sales-clari-copilot — Clari Copilot platform help (conversation intelligence + Clari forecasting)
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do

Examples

Example 1: CRM data is stale — reps don't log activities

User says: "Our Salesforce data is terrible. Reps don't log emails or meetings. We're evaluating People.ai to fix this." Skill does:

1. Confirms People.ai's core value: automatic activity capture — every email, call, and meeting logged without rep action
2. Explains the deployment path: connect Gmail/Outlook → connect calendar → connect Zoom/Teams → 2 weeks to full visibility
3. Notes that People.ai captures 2 years of historical data on day one
4. Warns about contact matching: People.ai maps activities to CRM records, so contact data must be reasonably clean first Result: Implementation plan with realistic timeline and prerequisites

Example 2: People.ai vs Gong for a 50-person sales team

User says: "We're choosing between People.ai and Gong. 50 reps on Salesforce." Skill does:

1. Clarifies they solve different problems: People.ai = activity data (emails, meetings, calendar); Gong = conversation data (call recordings, transcripts, coaching)
2. Notes many enterprises run both — People.ai feeds the data layer, Gong provides call-level insights
3. If budget allows one: Gong if coaching and call review are the priority; People.ai if CRM data quality and pipeline visibility are the priority
4. Flags pricing: both are enterprise-only with custom quotes Result: Clear decision framework based on primary pain point

Example 3: Connecting People.ai to Claude via MCP

User says: "We have People.ai and want to query our revenue data through Claude." Skill does:

1. Confirms People.ai announced MCP integration in February 2026
2. Explains what it enables: natural language queries against structured CRM + unstructured conversation data
3. Notes enterprise tier is required for MCP access
4. Suggests example queries: "Which deals are single-threaded?" "Which accounts had declining engagement this quarter?" Result: MCP setup guidance with practical query examples

Troubleshooting

Activity data not appearing in Salesforce

Symptom: Emails and meetings are happening but not showing in CRM Solution: Check email/calendar connections in People.ai admin. Verify the contact exists in Salesforce — People.ai can only associate activities with known CRM records. Check sync status in the People.ai dashboard. Activity processing can take up to 24-48 hours for call data. If specific emails are missing, check if those email domains are excluded in sync settings.

Low team adoption

Symptom: People.ai is deployed but reps ignore it / don't see value Solution: Position as a productivity tool ("no more manual CRM logging"), not a tracking tool. Show reps their own data — "here are 15 hours you saved this month on data entry." Enable pipeline views that are faster than native Salesforce. Get manager buy-in to use People.ai data in 1:1s and forecast calls — once managers use it, reps follow.

Inaccurate contact/account matching

Symptom: Activities are logged but associated with the wrong contacts or accounts Solution: People.ai matches activities to CRM records based on email addresses and calendar invitees. If contacts have outdated email addresses in CRM, activities won't match correctly. Run a data hygiene pass on contact emails first (use /sales-data-hygiene). Check People.ai's matching rules — some require exact email match, others use domain-level inference.