Automation Sales Get Ahead of the Competition by Automating These 5 Sales Processes Tess Boissonneault Feb 25, 2021 9 mins read Any salesperson will be quick to tell you that the most important thing about their work is relationships. Sales teams are uniquely qualified to connect with prospective customers, show them the benefits of a product or service and, ultimately, close a deal. In reality though, a significant portion of a Sales team’s time isn’t spent selling, but taking care of administrative sales processes. Surveys show that sales professionals spend just one-third of their time communicating with potential clients; the rest is spent sending emails, doing data entry, scheduling calls, and researching leads. Fortunately, there are ways to optimize your sales team’s skills and time. Chief among them is automation. Sales automation is enabling sales teams of all sizes to refocus on the customer and on the quality of engagement by streamlining the daily administrative tasks that have congested sales workflows and productivity. Give your Sales Team a boost with automation Sales automation is no longer a thing of the future, nor is it a new trend: Sales teams across all industries are experiencing first-hand the benefits of implementing automation solutions. The now robust technology plays a critical role in sales operations and enhances virtually all levels of the sales funnel, from lead generation to deal closing. One of the key benefits of automation technology is that it can take care of repetitive tasks that have traditionally taken up much of your Sales team’s time. This includes a plethora of things, from email, follow-ups, to meeting scheduling, to customer data entry. In this sense, automation provides support to Sales teams, freeing up valuable hours so they can focus on high-value leads and quality customer engagement. Used strategically, automation software can provide more than support: comprehensive automation solutions such as Wrk can enable your Sales department to go above and beyond. By exploiting untapped lead generation avenues, improving customer communications through regular, personalized contact, and by staying up to date with real-time sales data, Sales teams can truly flourish with automation at their sides. Critically, advanced automation solutions will not require you to overhaul your entire Sales department and its processes. Integration into existing systems is painless and requires minimal upskilling. Wrk’s automation solution can be connected with any software, from legacy systems and internal software to commonly used platforms like Salesforce, Hubspot, and DocuSign. Finally, implementing automation into your sales processes will enable your business to keep up with the increasingly digital nature of sales. Though the pandemic has been a catalyst for the acceleration of virtual selling practices, the trend is not expected to slow when the pandemic does. Ready to learn more about sales automation? Learn more about sales automation 101! “As customers increasingly learn and buy digitally, sales reps become just one of many possible sales channels,” said Cristina Gomez, Managing Vice President at leading research and advisory company Gartner. “Because of this, sales organizations must be able to sell to customers everywhere the customer expects to engage, interact and transact with suppliers.” By 2025, Gartner estimates that 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will be digital. Five sales processes to automate today Today, sales automation has progressed well beyond simply sending out mass emails with personalized greetings. Sophisticated platforms, such as Wrk, offer businesses an end-to-end solution that automates all parts of a given process, including manual tasks, data analysis, and task delivery. Below are 5 sales processes that can (and should) be automated. Lead generation Finding new leads is a key part of the sales process, and many sales teams will have tried and true methods of finding new buyers. Lead generation automation can bolster these practices and unlock new opportunities for your sales team. Automation streamlines many typically time-consuming tasks, like searching for leads via social media and sending out email campaigns. It can also find new leads through targeted advertisements. Automation solutions like Wrk allow sales teams to connect with their customers. Photo Image: Antonio Janeski Automation solutions also simplify lead scoring, gathering information about prospective clients from various sources, analyzing it, and identifying the strongest leads. Detailed lead profiles are passed along to sales professionals, who can then put their energy into engaging and negotiating with prospects. Many businesses are already reaping the benefits of the technology: in fact, roughly 77% have reported increased lead conversions since adopting sales automation. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Once your sales pipeline has a steady stream of new leads, automation can also improve how your sales team manages them. With automated CRM, sales teams no longer have to manually update and sort potential buyers using spreadsheets—something which, according to Hubspot, used to take up to 17% of a salesperson’s day. CRM software automatically inputs customer data, qualifies leads, and categorizes them based on relevant criteria, such as their interactions with your business. For instance, a lead that attended a webinar will automatically be funnelled through a different sales channel than one who subscribed to an email newsletter. Automated CRM also digitizes and centralizes all customer data, enabling team members to easily track client journeys, even while working from home. Proposal development Each customer’s needs are unique, therefore generic proposals and quotes are rarely an effective strategy to successfully close a deal. However, manually crafting custom proposals, sending them, and following up eats up valuable hours. Sales automation facilitates every step of the proposal development process. With it, sales teams can automatically draft tailored proposals and quotes that integrate specific customer data, relevant product information, and prices. Fully end-to-end automation solutions like Wrk can also automate the signature acquisition, internal contract approvals and, if necessary, reminders. Providing accurate quotes or proposals in a timely manner will give your sales team the competitive edge they need and ensure that potential sales don’t slip through the cracks. There is a way to shorten the sales cycle by providing prospective clients with the information they need to make a decision swiftly. Our automated Quote & Proposal Development Wrkflows are designed to do just that! Deal management Sales can be a heavy touch process, involving many email exchanges, phone conversations and face-to-face interactions. It is up to the sales team to keep track of these meetings and follow the lead’s progression. Because salespeople are typically engaging with more than one client at a time, it can be difficult to maintain a clear visual on every deal. That’s where sales automation comes in. Automated deal management will automatically log and track all customer interactions, as well as schedule appointments and prompt follow-ups. Automating scheduling alone can save sales teams up to 12% of their day! Moreover, automated deal management can provide valuable insights, including when correspondences were opened, whether documents were downloaded, etc. Our Deal Management Wrkflows can help your Sales team streamline communication, nurture client relationships, and ultimately attract more business. Reports & insights Reporting is another time-consuming but necessary part of a sales team’s responsibilities. Sales managers typically spend hours every week or month putting together comprehensive sales reports for their teams and directors. Sales automation takes practically all the legwork out of this process, gleaning and parsing data from CRM and sales files, and generating succinct reports that are easy to digest. Automation can be used to streamline the creation of various types of measurable insights, from sales standings to revenue reports, and can be programmed to send them out to team members, providing accurate, real-time data on a regular basis. Report and document automation can help you turn your data into actionable insights quickly and pivot where necessary. Use automation to boost your sales processes today Though communications and sales tactics are evolving to meet the needs of an increasingly digital era, the main tenets of the job are the same: it’s still all about building relationships. Sales automation allows teams to really put their skills to use and focus on the customer, by taking care of—and optimizing—everyday sales processes, as well as boosting sales teams in areas they excel at, such as communication. No longer do sales professionals have to spend their days replying to perfunctory emails, or checking and double-checking their schedules: sales automation clears the path, enabling them to do what they do best, sell. Discover how the Wrk Platform can enhance your sales processes by visiting our Sales Hub today or read our latest eBook to learn how to fill your revenue gaps with automation! 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