Do you realize that the majority of the duties included in the sales process are repetitive and consume a significant portion of the sales representative’s time? The reality is that it becomes just too difficult to manage everything by hand beyond a certain point. Because of this, you should seriously consider investing in sales automation.
In point of fact, businesses that automate their sales processes get 16% more leads than their competitors who don’t use automation. Joining the league is required if you wish to achieve the same level of success. After all, in this day and age, making use of things that are designed to make your life easier is the responsible thing to do.
In this tutorial, we will discuss the benefits of automating the sales process, including the primary components that may be automated and the best procedures that should be followed. Therefore, keep reading till the very end!
What exactly does “Sales Automation” mean?
The term “sales automation” refers to the process of automating traditionally manual and labor-intensive sales processes with the use of software, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies. It makes it simpler for the sales staff to concentrate more on vital duties like cultivating leads and creating connections with customers.
Read our blog about sales CRM here.
What Are The Advantages Of Using Sales Automation For A Business?
Every company has its own unique set of requirements. However, there are a number of advantages associated with using software that automates sales. The following are some of the ways in which a company might gain from it:
1. It improves the sales team’s operational effectiveness, performance, and overall production.
When you relieve sales people of the stress of doing dull and repetitive duties, you can expect them to devote their whole attention on selling. Because of the increases in productivity and performance that will emerge from your use of automation, you will be in a position to complete an abnormally high number of sales.
2. It boosts accuracy while simultaneously accelerating the pace of the sales process.
The whole sales process may go more quickly and without the danger of mistakes caused by humans thanks to automation. Even what seems to be a little oversight in terms of sales might end up costing a company a significant amount of money.
3. By reducing the amount of time it takes to respond, it increases overall customer happiness.
Things move more quickly and there is less of a delay in reaction thanks to automation. You are able to respond to prospects more quickly, and you may give them priority. It is only reasonable that this would make prospects pleased, which in turn would increase their likelihood of converting.
If you pay attention to the consumers you already have, you may anticipate receiving repeat business from them. This is one task that cannot be completed by AI since no one would want to communicate with a robot. Therefore, delegate the monotonous work to the sales automation technologies at your disposal.
4. It improves the consistency of the data.
For there to be no inconsistency in the sales data throughout the company, it is necessary to maintain consistency. Incorrect data is another potential source of issues, which has to be corrected as soon as possible. The use of automation enables you to achieve just that. When you automate processes, there is a decreased likelihood of making mistakes, which is to the advantage of your team.
5. It enables one to save time.
To be successful, you should focus on working smart rather than working hard. Because of this, you should make the transition to automation so that every minute of your job may be used more effectively.
6. It assists in the identification of possible consumers.
Through the use of sales automation, you are able to separate prospective consumers from those who do not show sufficient promise. If you take this action, you will ensure that the only potential customers who enter the sales funnel are those who are interested in the product or service that you provide. Because of this, you are able to save the time and effort of the sales team by directing them to prospects that have a higher likelihood of converting.
7. It enables you to collect information about customers.
With the assistance of sales automation software, you will be able to gather necessary facts pertaining to consumers. You will have a better understanding of the needs of clients with the aid of this data.
Once you have a good understanding of their requirements and preferences, it will be much simpler for you to devise techniques that will assist you in concluding more sales. Being focused on the needs of one’s customers is crucial to one’s success, regardless of the sector in which one operates.
8. It makes it possible for you to keep up ties with existing customers
The activity of making sales involves a great deal of different steps. Some of them are unnecessary yet necessary when you are interacting with the potential consumers or existing ones. They consist of sending follow-up emails, as well as reminders and sending emails.
It is difficult to mail each one individually by hand. The load that is placed on sales personnel may be significantly reduced by automating the aforementioned tasks.
9. It makes the process of reporting more straightforward.
Managing the reports for a team is not a simple task. It is a drawn-out procedure. Having said that, after you have made the decision to automate it, you will be able to report to management with the assistance of sales CRMs. It will not be necessary for you to generate reports by hand, which will result in significant time savings. It is a good idea to put money towards automation.
First and foremost, businesses who have a restricted budget or a small workforce would benefit from automating their sales process. By doing so, one is able to make the most effective use of the resources that are now available to them.
The aforementioned advantages of sales process automation should be sufficient to persuade sales teams to use the technology.
Automating The Crucial Components That Make Up The Sales Process
It is possible to lessen the burden of the sales staff, as was noted in the preceding list of advantages associated with sales process automation. The majority of the sales process may benefit from the use of software in the following ways.
1. Emailing
The majority of a sales representative’s day is spent composing and sending emails to customers and prospects. The sales representatives are able to take a break and focus their efforts on duties that are more vital thanks to the automation of the email chores. For instance, they may chat with prospects and work on developing a connection.
In order to get started with email automation, you first need to take a more in-depth look at the typical email duties. The following are included in this category:
a) The standard emails that the representatives send every day.
b) The amount of time spent composing and revising emails.
c) The level of individualization and customisation of the picture that is required
It would be brought to your attention that the majority of the email duties are repetitive.
That is to say, sales people are required to do the same task many times throughout the day. Emails such as “welcome emails,” “demo emails,” “reminder emails,” and “thank-you emails” are among the most typical types of emails that sales representatives send.
They are even required to send emails to prospects in order to follow up with them. It may take a significant amount of time.
What about fully automating the procedure in its entirety?
You may better organize your time by using email templates, and you can also use them for other purposes. You may establish email sequences and automatic follow-ups by using a program that is designed specifically for automation. These kinds of solutions also provide you the ability to tailor the emails, which is essential for a sales representative. In addition, you will have the ability to monitor the clicks and opens of your emails. It provides you with a deeper insight into the kind of email campaigns that are likely to be successful.
2. The Prioritization of Leads
When you are trying to generate leads for your business, which is often where the process of making sales begins, there is typically a large volume. Some of them are simply killing time and wasting their life away there.
How then can you identify the customers that have a genuine interest in the product or service you offer? In order to accomplish this goal, there are lead scoring techniques available that are based on artificial intelligence. It assists in prioritizing leads, which enables sales representatives to work in the appropriate direction.
In order to score leads, you need to construct a model of the perfect consumer and list the criteria that should be used.
The time that sales representatives spend qualifying leads may be cut down significantly with the use of automation in the lead prioritizing process. It is of particular assistance to businesses that are struggling as a result of poor conversion rates and lengthier sales cycles. The reason for low rates and lengthy cycles is that sales representatives spend an excessive amount of time tracking leads that are not interested in the product or service in the first place.
3. Lead Enrichment
When it comes to prospecting, having access to extra information on the leads that have been generated may be of great use. Sales representatives will have a much easier time connecting with potential customers if they are familiar with the prospect’s company, its products and services, their vendors, and their presence on social media.
Before contacting them, it will please them to know that you have given careful consideration to your investigation. In the end, doing so will help to leave a positive impression on the leads as well as contribute to the successful completion of additional agreements.
There are a few different lead enrichment tools available, each of which collects information in an up-to-date manner from a variety of data sources. In a nutshell, automated lead enrichment provides sales representatives with a comprehensive profile of prospects, allowing the representatives to more effectively build relationships with those prospects and advance the conversation.
4. The Distribution of Lead
It is more likely that the lead will answer your call if you contact them immediately after they have signed up for your service. However, in the vast majority of cases, that cannot be accomplished. You can generate leads through a variety of channels, including websites, blogs, and social media platforms, for example.
It takes some time to distribute them to the appropriate sales representatives, which results in a time lag that is detrimental to the company’s operations. If you contact the lead too late, there is a chance that they will lose interest in the product or service you offer.
By automating the lead distribution, you can reduce the amount of time it takes for someone to respond to a lead, and as a result, you can close deals more quickly. When you have the right software, it is simple to distribute leads to sales representatives based on a variety of factors, including the customer’s location, the type of business they are in, the size of the company, and many others.
Because of automation, sales representatives are able to get in touch with prospects much more quickly than in the past.
5. Scheduling Meetings
When a sales representative pursues a lead and finds that the process to be fruitful, there is a requirement that they set up a meeting with the potential customer. However, planning is not as simple as it may seem because there is typically an issue with the available time slots. In most cases, the potential customer is not available, and the sales representative is unable to schedule appointments at times when the customer is available. It is possible for it to sound unprofessional as well. Because of this, you absolutely need to find a way to automate the process of meeting scheduling.
There are a lot of tools like that available to help sales reps. As a sales representative, one of your responsibilities is to provide the prospect with a link to your schedule, from which they can select the appointment time that works best for them.
If you do not want an all-in-one sales CRM, you can use a standalone application to schedule appointments and meetings instead.
6. Accountability
More than an hour of each day is required to be spent by sales managers in the process of creating reports and attaching them to emails. They perform this laborious duty in order to keep their team informed and to make sure that they continue to be motivated.
Everyone involved is kept informed about how things are progressing in the sales pipeline, as well as how the output can be measured.
The generation of reports is a process that consumes a lot of time because it requires a lot of manual data entry and tabulation. It is also possible that an error was made while recording the data, as this is something that could happen. It’s possible that it will result in an inaccurate report.
Therefore, by making the decision to automate the process of report generation, sales managers will have a much easier time of things, and the entire team will have access to reports that are free of errors. In addition to that, you are able to produce a large number of reports in a relatively short amount of time.
You can create automated email reports by making use of a reporting automation tool or a sales CRM.
In order to Successfully Implement Sales Automation, Here Are Some Best Practices to Follow
While automating your sales process can be beneficial to your overall sales cycle, you will need to follow a few steps in order to implement it in the most effective manner.
1. Carry out an in-depth analysis of the sales procedure.
It is necessary to examine the sales process and determine the strategy that is currently being utilized before moving forward with automation. If you do so, you will be able to determine how long each activity takes and what tasks would benefit most from being automated.
2. Make it perfectly clear what it is that you want to accomplish.
After you have finished determining the shortcomings of your current sales process, the next step is to establish goals and define what you hope to achieve by automating the sales process. This step should be done before you begin the automation process. You should be aware of the areas that could benefit from computerization.
3. Think about your choices.
After determining what it is that you require, the next step is to select an automation tool. However, considering the fact that numerous other businesses operating in your sector could be utilizing the same sales automation tool, it is necessary for you to investigate the alternatives at this point.
4. Establish a group for automated processes.
You need to organize a team of workers who will keep a close eye on everything that happens during the implementation process in order to make sure that the process goes smoothly and that you don’t end up in a tangled mess.
5. Carry out tests on the automated procedure
It is necessary to conduct a trial run prior to moving on to the stage of implementation in order to discover any problems or obstacles that may arise.
6. Making preparations for it
After you have finished the trial, you will need to begin the automation process and have a procedure that has been carefully planned out. Both training the sales rep and helping them become accustomed to the new system are equally important steps to take.
Automation of Sales Processes Using Office24by7
Let’s take a look at Office24by7 now that you’re familiar with the advantages of automating sales and the ways in which it can make each stage of the sales process more effective.
In the blink of an eye, you can go from prospecting to outreaching to closing deals with the help of Office24by7’s sales outreach automation suite. You will be able to automate the sales process by utilizing our platform, which will allow you to transform a task that would normally be daunting into an experience that you will look forward to. Our software enables outreach through multiple channels.
Prospecting
When it comes to the prospecting stage of a business, there is a large database available that can be used to find information about businesses and professionals. Before making contact with prospects, you are able to obtain sufficient information about them through the use of lead enrichment.
Before moving on to the next step, you can verify the email addresses you have retrieved by using the email verifier tool that is available on Office24by7. If you do this, you will prevent the possibility of sending emails to incorrect email addresses, which could have a negative impact on your campaign.
Outreach
You are able to launch outreach campaigns through a variety of channels when using Office24by7, such as email, Linked In, and the phone. We are able to assist in the development of email marketing campaigns and automated follow-up sequences.
To increase the number of people who open your emails, you should make use of the templates that are available and add some personalization. We also provide mass image personalization of emails, which can be done on a large scale.
Our campaign builder is the unique selling proposition (USP) of our platform because it assists you in portraying the plan of action and how to carry it out. You have the choice to construct your campaign from scratch or make use of the templates that are already available to you and organize the flow of your campaign.
You are able to conduct an analysis of the number of opens, clicks, replies, and bounces using the email tracking feature that we provide.
Closing
Deals can be managed through a Sales Pipeline, and you have complete control over how each stage of the pipeline is structured and configured to meet your needs. You will have the ability to monitor the progress of your sales team in this manner. You always have the option to take a quick look at prospects who have been in the pipeline for an excessive amount of time.
You can use our meeting scheduler to schedule meetings with interested prospects. This tool makes it easier to schedule meetings by syncing them with Google Calendar, so the process is more streamlined.
Additionally, our software is able to assist with revenue forecasting.
The sales CRM makes it simpler to manage prospect data. It helps maintain a record of the conversation history in a single location so that you can monitor your progression on a more regular basis.
The Greatest Fallacy Behind Sales Automation
It’s possible that once you realize the potential for automation in the sales process to help you close more deals, you’ll see it as a blessing in disguise. On the other hand, having an abundance of a beneficial quality can at times be problematic. Believe it or not, there are also drawbacks associated with excessive use of automation.
The absence of human interaction is the primary consideration behind the decision to refrain from fully automating the sales process. Certain activities appear mechanistic and soulless in the absence of human involvement. The vast majority of potential customers will not be satisfied if all of the tasks are automated and they are unable to communicate with any humans.
For instance, if you call customer service, you would prefer to have a human on the other end of the line rather than a robot answering your questions and concerns. That connection between people is what’s most important. A human being cannot be replicated and excels at certain tasks far beyond the capabilities of any machine.
Prepare Yourself For the Automated Sales Process
You can automate monotonous and time-consuming sales tasks by making use of software and artificial intelligence (AI). It is to everyone’s benefit to act in this manner because doing so helps save the time and effort of salespeople. Many of the tasks involved in the sales process can be automated, including emailing, lead prioritization, lead distribution, and report generation, to name just a few.
You should not fully automate the sales process, despite the fact that there are many advantages to sales automation and that automating sales tasks is popular among the vast majority of businesses in today’s world. Reserving it for laborious and time-consuming tasks is a good idea because there is no warmth in the work you do if no human touch is involved. There will never be a substitute for humans, and automation will only ever supplement the work that we do.
FAQs
What exactly does “sales automation” mean?
The term “sales automation” refers to the process of automating traditionally manual and labor-intensive sales processes with the use of software, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies. It makes it simpler for the sales team to concentrate more on critical responsibilities.
What are the advantages of utilizing sales automation software?
You can automate monotonous and time-consuming sales tasks by making use of software and artificial intelligence (AI). It helps salespeople save time and effort, which is a huge benefit. Many of the steps in the sales process can be automated.
What are some of the drawbacks associated with using sales automation?
The lack of a human touch is the primary factor that prevents us from automating every single step of the sales process. Certain activities appear mechanistic and soulless in the absence of human involvement.
