05 Mar
Automation is incredibly valuable in sales because it can reduce the salesperson’s time spent on other tasks besides selling, therefore giving them more time to sell. This is why we selected four highly effective sales force automation systems for you to consider.
What Is Sales Force Automation?
Sales force automation is the running or operating of administrative tasks. For sales people, it can be used to send a series of follow up emails in a predetermined timeline or it can be used to create reports on their customers or sales trends with a click of a button.
According to a Forbes study, nearly 2/3 of sales people’s time is spent NOT selling. So, what are they doing instead?
- Emailing
- Inputting Customer Information
- Creating Reports
- Sharing Calendars
- Baking up Files
- Online Forms
- Researching
- Sorting Data
- Lead Nurturing
- Customer Service
- Updating Contact Information
- Etc.
Sales force automation is key to fulfilling your sales strategy. But first, make sure you’ve done this part right – you can check out our full sales strategy guide which you can use as a fundament for all of your sales efforts.
Sales Force Automation Pros
The pros of automation software are endless, hence why they are so desirable. The most obvious pro is the value of time and how much of it you will be saving, but there are many other pros like:
- Increased the productivity
- Increased efficiency
- Improved accuracy and an accelerated sales process
- Preventing sales leads from falling out of the sales pipeline
- Adds quality to the sales tasks
- Reduces response time (which can increase customer satisfaction)
- Can help the sales data be consistent across your sales organization
- Maximizes the use of your sales team
- Decrease the costs of sales
- Receive automated data reports
- Keep records and collect data
- Minimize human error
With all these benefits, imagine where your company could be in the next five years due to automation!
Sales Force Automation Cons
Too much of anything can be a bad thing and that applies to automation. Customers enjoy human interactions and if everything is automated it can take away the feeling of hospitality. Be cautious of how much automation is used and if you use mostly automation make it as personable as possible. There has to be a balance of automation and human interaction and once you find that balance it will be smooth sailing.
Sales Force Automation Systems
Since salespeople have multiple repetitive tasks that are demanded of them every day, we have four automation tools we suggest implementing to eliminate the repetitive daily task. The goal is to let the sales team focus on selling and let the automation software focus on everything else!
Sales Force Automation System #1: CRM
Your customer relationship management (CRM) tool is critical to your daily operations. This tool is the sole software in which every other automation software is linked to. It helps manage and analyze customer interactions, track and nurture leads, and store contact information.
While automated software helps immensely with pre-sales, CRM does the most to help with post-sales. Essentially, it keeps the existing customers happy and coming back.
Sales Force Automation System #2: Automated Dialing Software
A sales automation tool like a power dialer is especially useful for making sales calls fast and makes following up with leads simple. Take the Power Dialer for instance, it has a built-in CRM, allows you to easily upload and update campaigns, view live reports, monitor and whisper coach during live calls, follow-up with leads through emails/text/call 4x faster, and so much more.
Although automated dialer software can do a lot, it can not write the follow-up email or make the follow-up call for you. Learn how your sales team can master the sales follow-up through statistics, techniques and templates created just for you!
Sales Force Automation System #3: Automated Emails
Emails are a big part of a salesperson day, whether it be email campaigns or responding to inquiries. Automating this task will make email campaigns more time efficient for both the customer and the sales agent.
Customers or potential customers want a quick response and appreciate emails with updated information, discounts, deals, etc. By providing quick responses and updated emails, you are keeping the customer in the sales pipeline and creating a loyal customer. After all 90% of customers are likely to purchase more than once, especially if they receive information that is relevant/beneficial to them
Sales Force Automation System #4: Automated Reports
Reports take up more of your day than they should. Using an automated tool to create reports for you would provide you and your sales team with much more time. Also, it boosts morale to be able to send weekly, monthly and yearly reports to show the sales team’s success and the goals that have been reached.
Your software will need some guidance on what information to provide in the report. Therefore, you need to know exactly what you desire from the software. In another article we talk about the importance of sales call reports, how to use them, and what to include in your reports.
BONUS: Sales Force Automation System #5: A Chatbot
Chatbot is one of the best ways to retain future customers and get them started on the sales funnel, while also giving a customer experience at the very start of their process. Responding to them quickly, while they are on the site is bound to gain their attention.
While many companies have chatbots on their website they don’t respond nearly as fast as the potential customer is willing to wait for a response. According to the Drift, the number one reason people use chatbots is to get a quick response. Oftentimes companies fail to respond fast enough due to being preoccupied with selling or other tasks. If, however, you were to use a chatbot that could answer these questions immediately, it could potentially retain more customers that would have otherwise gone to the competitor to answer their question.
Now that you know how helpful sales force automation can be, you can try our sales management tools.
Works Cited
UK act.com. 2021. An Overview of Sales Force Automation and its Benefits for Sales. [online] Available at: <https://www.act.com/en-uk/sales-force-automation> [Accessed 26 February 2021].
Drift. 2021. What Is Sales Force Automation? The Complete Guide | Drift. [online] Available at: <https://www.drift.com/learn/sales-force-automation/> [Accessed 26 February 2021].
Frost, A., 2021. Sales Automation: The Ultimate Guide. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: <https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-automation> [Accessed 26 February 2021].
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