Have you ever had a job that required you to do the same thing every day? Probably not your favorite job ever. Similarly, salespeople who are bogged down by monotonous tasks can easily lose their enthusiasm for their jobs, as well as their effectiveness and productivity. Fortunately, sales automation can keep your team motivated, focused, and productive. Automation can improve your sales process in many ways when used properly.
Let’s define sales automation, how it works, and some of the tools and functions it includes.
- What is Sales Automation?
- Working Operation of Sales Automation
- Which Sales Automation Tools Are Most Effective?
So, what is Sales Automation?
Sales automation relieves your reps of manual, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks. It automates those tasks instead. Similar to how robots can speed up assembly lines and free up human workers to do more creative work.
Granted, too much sales automation can be harmful. You can’t automate everything. People don’t like “spammy” phone calls or mass emails. However, using automated tools to augment the sales process can really boost your team’s efficiency.
Working Operation of Sales Automation
No two businesses are alike. So sales automation can vary depending on your industry and business needs. Ultimately, sales automation is designed to help you move prospects through the sales funnel and into paying customers.
The following are some examples of how sales automation can help at various stages of the buying process:
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Awareness Stage
This stage is all about introducing prospects to your brand and enticing them to buy. You also want their contact information so you can build a relationship with them.
One strategy to achieve these goals is to create a lead magnet (e.g., a piece of gated content that can only be accessed after the prospect provides you with an email address). Your lead magnet is likely to be automated. For example, submitted prospect data can be automatically uploaded to your CRM. It may even alert a sales rep to follow up with the prospect.
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Evaluation Stage
In this stage, you want to nurture leads and encourage them to learn more about your brand. Sales automation can also help achieve this goal. For example, you can set up an automated email sequence based on a trigger (such as the prospect signing up for your newsletter, putting a product in the cart, and so forth). This email sequence is auto-generated. It keeps your brand in front of prospects and adds value to their buying process.
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Decision Stage
Now that your prospect has come this far, it’s time to sell them. Action-oriented content helps close the deal: free trials, promo codes, etc.
Again, automation can help in this stage of the buyer’s journey. To convert a lead into a customer, you could make the final email in your middle-of-funnel email sequence the “deal closer.”
Of course, the above process is just one example of sales automation. The possibilities are endless when it comes to automating your sales process.
Which Sales Automation Tools Are Most Effective?
Time is money and knowledge is power, they say. Sales automation combines both worlds. It frees reps from mundane tasks and gives them valuable consumer insights. Here are some examples of important sales automation tools you should consider implementing for your team:
1. CRM Tools
Many automated tasks rely on your CRM system. It can help you build contact lists, organize and segment your audience, nurture leads, and close sales. Many CRM tasks can be fully automated with just a little programming. The sun is your CRM, if sales automation is the solar system.
2. Lead Scoring Tools
Automated lead scoring tools can quickly identify high-value leads for your reps and help them prioritize their efforts. These tools analyze large customer data sets to find common traits and patterns that predict outcomes. (For example, leads who sign up for your email newsletter are 25% more likely to convert than other prospects.)
3. Email Templates
This is a simple but effective form of automation. Instead of starting from scratch every time a sales rep wants to nurture a lead, they can use a pre-defined template. This allows for both personalization and a consistent brand experience. (It also saves time!)
In summary, sales automation is vital in today’s business. They can’t (and shouldn’t) replace people. But automated tools will make your sales reps’ lives easier and help them be more productive, effective, and motivated. Achieve higher conversion rates by nurturing leads and winning new customers.