Sales automation: The key to boosting revenue What is it, Examples & Tools [2023]

Any business lives off sales. It does not matter what exactly you sell – the existence of the company depends on sales. However, with their increase, the load on employees and the amount of information that needs to be processed increases. When business processes are not automated, the sales department has to deal with such a routine. 

If this happens, other important tasks are ignored – managers do not have time to close deals and process applications.  

There are two possible ways to solve this issue:

1. Recruit more staff, but often this way is not the most effective. It is impossible to inflate the staff indefinitely, especially since any profit can eat us.
2. The second way, which we will talk about in more detail, is sales automation.

In sales have you ever: ​

• Lost a deal because you forgot to follow up?
  
• Spent precious minutes adding opportunities or leads to your CRM?
• Overlooked an issue in your sales process for a dangerously long time?
• Called leads in alphabetical order rather than best fit?
• Went back and forth with a prospect figuring out a good time to meet?
• Wasted half an hour digging through your files to find the specific deck or customer testimonial you needed?

Sales automation might just be the answer to all your problems, lets get a better understanding as to what is automation, some examples and the advantages. 

What is sales automation?

Automation in sales refers to the use of technology and software to automate various tasks and processes involved in the sales process. This can include tasks such as lead generation, customer outreach, follow-up, and closing deals. 

By automating these tasks, sales teams can streamline their workflows and focus on high-value activities such as building relationships with customers and closing deals.

So in a nutshell sales automation is the creation of a system that takes care of all the repetitive parts of your sales process. Fortunately, there are many applications and various programs that will make this task easier for you. According to studies, More than 30% of sales-related activities can be automated.

These platforms, known as customer relationship management (CRM) software, help centralize all information about each potential customer. 

Effective CRM is the key to optimizing and automating your sales process, as it gives your sales team more time to build and develop profitable relationships with potential customers. 

From a sales point of view automation in sales can help sales teams save a lot of time, increase efficiency, and improve the customer experience. 

By automating repetitive tasks, sales teams can focus on building relationships and closing deals, ultimately leading to increased revenue and growth for the business.

5 sales automation example​

1. Digital marketing automation: Sales and marketing teams could use automation for emails, for example automatically sending personalized emails to prospects and customers at scale. This is very useful to save a lot of time if you have a lot of customers, it can automate the process of follow-up emails, sending personalized content and tracking email open rates and click-through rates.
2. Lead scoring: By using customer service automation tools to score leads based on their engagement, sales teams can prioritize the leads that are most likely to convert, increasing the chances of closing a deal.
3. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software: CRM software can automate the process of managing customer data, tracking sales pipelines, and identifying opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.
4. Sales forecasting: Automation tools can help sales teams predict future sales trends based on historical data, providing valuable insights for strategic planning and resource allocation.
5. Chatbots: Chatbots can automate the process of customer support by providing quick and accurate responses to customer inquiries. This can improve customer satisfaction and lead to increased sales and loyalty.

Advantages of sales automation ​

For any organization, sales are the lifeblood that ensures success and sustainability. That is why it is so important to do it right. And to do it right, it is vital to automate the sales process as much as possible. Let me show you why sales automation is important for any organization.

Increases productivity. Sales automation frees up your sales team to focus on what they do best. For example, by automating the sending of email messages about potential customers, a sales representative can perform more productive tasks, such as meetings and establishing profitable relationships with potential customers.

Saves time. Sales representatives never have enough time to do what you hired them to do and sell. Statistics show that sales representatives spend only 35.2% of their time on income-generating activities.

Increases profits. Whether you admit it or not, every business exists for one thing – making a profit. And the more profit an organization gets, the more it can grow and have an impact. Sales automation leads to increased profits not only because it increases productivity, but also because it gives each sales representative a proven formula to follow.

Now that you know what sales automation is and what benefits you get from it, let's look at some advanced sales automation techniques that will help you make sure you're doing everything right. 

Best practices of sales automation that guarantee success

For many who are not familiar with sales automation, this may seem like a thorny path. And the truth is, if you don't know what you're doing (or getting an incompatible CRM), it could be. Let's take a look at some advanced sales automation techniques that will help you get on the right track.

Study your current process. Each organization has a unique sales process. Before switching to the sales automation bandwagon, you need to study your current sales process.

By examining your current system under a microscope, you will gain a better understanding of all the actions in the sales process, the time spent on each action, and the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of each action.

Identify the processes that need to be automated. After you have carefully studied your sales process, the next step to sales automation will be to determine which processes need automation.

In general, each sales process follows the same formula – search, qualification, meeting, and closing. However, what happens at each of these stages is unique to each organization. And in most cases, most of the actions at each stage can be automated.

Learn software that can help with automation. Once you have identified the processes that need to be automated, the next step is to investigate the different types of software that can be used to automate the process. With the increasing number of vendors offering sales automation services, this may prove to be a daunting task.

9 useful marketing Automation Tools you can use to automate your sales processes.

1. Constant Contact – Best all-around marketing automation software
2. EngageBay – Best for sales, customer service, and marketing automation
   
3. HubSpot – Centralizing your tech stack
   
4. Acoustic – Best for enterprise multi-channel marketing automation
5. Act-On – Best for marketing agencies
6. Freshworks CRM – Best for Ecommerce
7. Pardot by Salesforce – Best for B2B companies
8. ActiveCampaign – Best for B2C marketing automation
9. Sendinblue – Best for email, chat, and SMS marketing automation

Key takeaways

There are more than a dozen different accounting systems in the digital services market, ranging from free to complex designers that are assembled individually for enterprises. But many of them automate only individual business tasks. 

The trick is that marketing alone, automation of the sales department, or business processes do not work, you need to implement everything together. Business is a puzzle that works only when everything is implemented together.

Sales automation is amazing, it allows sales departments to work more productively. But for the sales process to be successful, human participation in some components of the process is necessary. For example, make a call, meet with a potential client, and even close a deal.

This means that it is important for sales departments to automate as much as possible, but never lose touch with their potential customers.