What is sales automation?
It’s what gives your superstar sales team more time to talk to prospects.
If there’s one thing a good salesperson dislikes, it’s administrative tasks that cut into the time spent calling and talking to potential customers. As a business owner or sales manager, your job is to ensure salespeople are using their time doing what they do best: generating sales.
Automating your sales process is one way of the best ways to do so. You’ll enjoy these benefits, and they are only the tip of the iceberg.
Follow Up Reminders
Fail to follow up in a timely manner, and you risk losing a sale.
Following up isn’t complicated. It’s just something you have to remember to do. But with incoming leads and quarterly targets to think about, it’s hard to remember that prospect who said “they’d think about it.”
Well, guess what? That prospect who needs to think about it is low-hanging fruit. All they may need is a nudge in the right direction. This could come in the form of an email with some sales enablement content or a follow-up call.
Your sales team can set automatic reminders to follow up after chatting with someone.
Email Marketing Is Simpler
After chatting with someone, a sales rep may determine that:
- They’re close to making a purchase and just need some follow-up
- They’re probably not going to make a purchase anytime soon, but they fit the buyer persona and may want to make a purchase down the line
If they fall into that second category, they probably don’t warrant a follow-up call. Now, this is where that prospect might fall through the cracks. With an automated sales process, you can set them up to receive a stream of spaced out emails that supply product information and useful content. They continue to be nourished until they show serious interest and once they do, your sales team can work its magic.
Painless Demo Scheduling
No one has time to play scheduling tag. Is a prospect interested in a demo of the product? Your sales software can link directly to your schedule so that a prospect can pick from one of your available time slots.
Making the scheduling process easier also increases your chances of the prospect actually booking a time. The more cumbersome scheduling gets, the more likely plans are to fall through.
Easy-To-Use Templates
Whenever you communicate with clients via email to book a demo, send a helpful video, or pass along a detailed whitepaper, you have to write a message.
An abrupt message won’t do since you’re trying to build a rapport. But writing something thoughtful takes time and effort in addition to even more time spent proofreading, so you don’t make a bad impression.
Sales reps typically send out variations of the same email multiple times. Creating email templates for different stages of the sales process allows anyone to quickly and easily send out detailed, pre-edited emails. They can simply insert the name, customize the intro to reflect a recent conversation, and hit send, saving ample time.
Transcribed Sales Calls with Key Insights
If you speak to several people a day, five days a week, it’s hard to remember every detail of every conversation. But you better believe that prospects remember what you talked about with them.
What if you could review the key takeaways and action items from each of your calls?
Select sales automation tools transcribe sales calls and pull out key insights. A sales rep can quickly skim over the main points of the last call, and easily pick up where they left off on the next one.
Sales automation tools are a smart way to eliminate many of those irritating but necessary administrative tasks. Of course, even the best sales tool can never replace a friendly and knowledgeable sales team. With this in mind, give your salespeople the tools they need to be as effective as possible.