Are you overwhelmed by the thought of having to manually input sales data into a CRM? Do you dread updating spreadsheets with your latest lead totals? If so, it’s time to consider sales automation.

What is sales automation? What’s its main benefits? How is it working?

In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to sales automation and explain how it can benefit your business. Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll discuss the different types of software that are available for sales automation.

What is sales automation?

Sales automation is the use of software to automate sales-related tasks. These tasks can include anything from lead generation and tracking to customer relationship management (CRM).

Sales automation allows businesses to streamline their sales process and improve efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can free up time for their sales team to focus on more important tasks, such as building relationships with clients and closing deals.

There are a lot of tasks that can get automated through the sales process:

  • Lead generation: Automated lead generation software can help you generate leads through online forms, landing pages, and even social media.
  • Lead nurturing: Once you’ve generated a list of leads, you need to nurture them until they’re ready to buy. This can involve sending automated emails, making phone calls, and scheduling appointments.
  • CRM: A CRM system can automate many of the tasks involved in customer relationship management, such as contact management, task management, and opportunity tracking.
  • Reporting: Sales automation software can also help you track your sales data and generate reports. This data can be used to improve your sales process and make more informed decisions about your business.

automation sales

What are the benefits of sales automation?

Now that you know about sales automation, the idea is to udnerstand why it can be so beneficial.

In fact, there are many benefits of sales automation, including:

  • Improved efficiency: Sales automation can help you to streamline your sales process, saving time and improving efficiency ;
  • Increased accuracy: Automating data entry can help to reduce errors and ensure that your data is always up-to-date ;
  • Better organization: A sales automation system can help you to keep track of your leads, customers and deals in one place ;
  • Increased sales: By improving the efficiency of your sales process, sales automation can help you to increase your sales ;
  • Improved customer relationships: Sales automation can help you to manage your customer relationships more effectively, providing a better experience for your customers.

To sum up, sales automation can save you time, improve your data accuracy, help you to keep track of your sales process and even increase your sales.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Wait for the next part to come!

How does sales automation work?

Sales automation systems typically work by integrating with your existing processes, including your task manager, CRM, but also channels such as LinkedIn, emails, etc…

The question you’re probably asking now is how to build the greatest sales automation strategy to save time and increase your number of generated leads?

That’s what we’re going to explore right now, step by step!

Step 1: Set up your sales goals

The first step is to sit down and define what your sales goals are. This will help you to determine what tasks you need to automate and how you can best use automation to achieve your goals.

For example, if your goal is to increase sales by 20%, you’ll need to focus on automating tasks that will help you generate more leads and close more deals.

Below is a list with some common objectives you may want to follow:

  • Increased Lead Generation by 30%;
  • Decrease the time taken to close a deal by 20%;
  • Increase customer satisfaction by 10%.

Careful: each one of your objectives must respect a methodology. We advise you to use the SMART objectives’ methodology:

  • Specific: You Must Have Clear and Concise Objective;
  • Measurable: you need to be able to track and measure your progress ;
  • Achievable: your objectives should be achievable and realistic ;
  • Relevant: your objectives should be relevant to your business goals ;
  • Time-bound: your objectives should have a deadline.

Step 2: Focus on the sales channels you want to target

Once you’ve defined your sales goals, it’s time to focus on the channels you want to target.

Sales automation systems can be used to automate tasks across a variety of channels, including email, social media, websites, and even phone calls.

To determine which channels you want to target, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Which channels are my customers using?
  • Where do my leads come from?
  • Which channels generate the most sales?

The answers to these questions will help you to focus on the channels that are most important to your business.

Here are the main sales channel you can use in BtoB to generate more leads:

  • Social media: LinkedIn is the most popular social network for business professionals, making it a great channel for lead generation. Automating tasks such as sending connection requests, LinkedIn cold messaging, and invitations to connect can help you to reach more prospects and generate more leads ;
  • Emails: Web forms are a great way to capture leads from your website. Automating tasks such as sending follow-up emails and lead nurturing emails can help you to convert more leads into customers ;
  • Phone calls: Cold calling can be a great way to generate leads, especially if you’re targeting businesses. Automating tasks such as call scheduling and lead management can help you to make more effective use of your time ;
  • Twitter: Twitter can be a great platform for promoting your brand and generating leads. Automating tasks such as sending tweets, following users, and creating lists can help you to reach more people and generate more leads.

sales channels

Step 3: Set up budget & ressources

Now that you know which sales channels you want to target, it’s time to set up a budget and allocate resources.

Sales automation systems can be expensive, so it’s important to make sure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

To do this, consider the following elements:

  • The features you need: Not all sales automation systems are created equal. Make sure that you’re getting a system with the features you need to support your sales goals ;
  • The price: Sales automation systems can be expensive, so make sure that you’re getting a good deal ;
  • The company: Do some research on the company to make sure that they’re reputable and have a good track record.

Once you’ve considered these elements, it’s time to allocate resources.

To do this, ask yourself at least these questions:

  • How many salespeople do I need?
  • How many leads can each salesperson handle?
  • How much time will each salesperson need to spend using the system?

The answers to these questions will help you to determine how many salespeople you need and how much time they’ll need to spend using the system.

Step 4: Try & choose your sales automation tool

Now that you know what you need, it’s time to find the right sales automation tool.

There are a lot of different sales automation tools on the market, so it’s important to take your time and choose the one that’s right for you:

  • LaGrowthMachine;
  • ZohoCRM;
  • Pipedrive;
  • HubSpot Sales CRM;
  • etc…

All of these tools gives you the ability to try their software for free, so take advantage of that and test out a few different options before making your final decision.

When you’re trying out the different tools, pay attention to the following elements:

  • Ease of use: The sales automation tool should be easy to use and understand ;
  • Features: Make sure that the tool has all of the features you need to support your sales goals ;
  • Price: Choose a tool that’s within your budget ;
  • Customer support: Choose a tool that has good customer support in case you have any questions or problems.

Step 5: Implement & Train your team

Once you’ve chosen your sales automation tool, it’s time to implement it and train your team.

The first step is to set up the system and make sure that it’s working properly.

Next, you’ll need to train your team on how to use the system.

Make sure to give them plenty of time to learn the ropes and get comfortable with the system before expecting them to use it for real sales.

Finally, once they’re trained and comfortable, start using the system for real sales and monitor your results.

Sales automation can be a great way to improve your sales productivity and close more deals.

For Achieving the Success You must Follow these steps