Authors Carl Frey and Michael Osborne estimated the probability of computerization of over 700 different occupations.  The study found that among the roles least threatened by automation was the one of a Sales Manager. Researchers explain sales’ slim 1.3% chance of automation thanks to the job heavily relying on workers’ high degree of social intelligence.  But, while sales undoubtedly depend on effective and honest communication, one cannot diminish the importance of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning in sales automation.  

As an experienced Sales Manager reading this, you may wonder how Artificial Intelligence can assist you with all the communication, proposal writing, process monitoring, and customer management tasks you’re currently laboring. Intelligent Automation technologies can help salespeople work more efficiently, make smarter and data-based decisions, and deliver a personalized customer experience.  

Read on to discover just how beneficial AI can be in automating your sales processes. 

What is Sales Automation? 

An average salesperson’s day consists of mostly manual tasks, such as back-to-back communication with prospects and clients, order and inventory management, task assignments, post-conversion client support, and much more. 

Sales automation tools aim to, well, automate these tasks – partially or entirely. Therefore, sales automation represents the application of software, algorithms, and other digital devices in conducting and streamlining sales tasks.  

Automation in sales aims to make all processes, from planning to closing the deal, more efficient, straightforward, and personalized. From generating engagement and nurturing leads to establishing proposal details and writing follow-ups, sales automation tools help businesses increase efficiency and reduce cost. 

How Sales Processes Benefit from Artificial Intelligence- presented by facts

According to a Harvard Business Review survey, 30% of early AI adopters experienced an increase in revenue.  In addition, Salesforce’s data suggest that over 80% of sales leaders who use automation tools report witnessing benefits in customer retention and nurturing and increasing sales reps’ productivity. 

Yet, adoption of the right automation tools means that sales professionals will yield more profit but will do so more efficiently while at the same time ensuring a seamless experience for clients. Luckily, AI-based sales automation tools aren’t reserved for the best IT companies out there alone – nowadays, sales automation is a necessary feature of small and medium businesses alike. 

Here’s how AI-based automation tools help your sales teams:

1. AI-powered Sales Automation Personalizes the Customer Experience

Personalization lays the foundation of client trust, conversion, and retention. Customers seek human interaction when interacting with brands – not AI bots – but such a scenario is barely possible for most businesses.  

Sales and personalization intertwine throughout the customer journey. For example, intelligent automation tools can assist in setting up the first contact with a lead through website chatbots or self-service customer support systems.   

Conversely, AI tools can allow sales departments to perform in-depth behavioral or firmographic segmentation of business prospects based on an individual’s or company traits. Your client research process will yield high-value, conversion-ready customers by leveraging these specific, actionable data.  

Besides the meet-and-greet phase, AI helps personalize ongoing project communication and post-conversion retention.  

Sales automation software with AI capabilities can help you do the little things to make customers feel special – remind you to send a follow-up email, prevent you from communicating inaccurate information or allow you to stay in the loop with all project details. 

Last but not least, intelligent automation tools can store abundant data on leads, project details, conversations, and notes. So, in case of a necessity to swap between salespersons, the replacement sales agent can review all information and pick up the client effortlessly and seamlessly. 

2. AI Endows Data-Based Decision-Making 

Sales automation software relies on accurate, actionable – and foremost – historical data. For example, AI-based sales automation tools can be invaluable in lead scoring, i.e., the process of determining the worthiness of leads. Lead scoring via AI entails measuring prospects’ likelihood of converting into a customer based on different cues.  For example, these sales automation tools can use signals from social media or search queries related to yours to assess how likely is the lead to convert.  

In addition, sales tools can collect and store data from every interaction with a prospect, whether by email, text, chatbot, or phone call. These AI-powered tools can be used to map large datasets and extract detailed insights from all the collected data using advanced computer science techniques. They really make sales reps’ jobs easier when it comes to analyzing huge amounts of information. This knowledge doesn’t only help the sales representatives prioritize the most promising accounts, but they also help them make predictions and forecast future results. Sales automation tools continuously reanalyze these customer data and build them into comprehensive user personas that continually evolve.

With AI automation tools, sales departments can now leverage the granularity of ideal customers’ practical, actionable traits. Besides fine-tuning the lead sampling process, AI sales automation software assists in analyzing the hurdles in your customer journey. By importing the prospect communication details into your sales tool, you can assess the most significant hindrances of your sales funnel.

3. AI Tools Provide Insight into Lead Generation Pitfalls 

Once you understand why your prospects don’t turn into customers – whether it be a high price, prolonged deadline, or differed project requests – you can craft a business deal that strikes the perfect balance between your and your client’s needs. 

Every interaction between a sales team and potential customers harbors invaluable data on how you can improve your lead gen processes.

Every stage in your sales funnel is managed and driven with the help of data. AI can help you create measurable outcomes and also improve effectiveness at each stage. Integrate the data into AI automation tools and identify the most common issues your leads face, which responses they value the most, and how you can improve your churn rate with these findings. 

AI Cuts Back on Repetitive & Time-Consuming Tasks 

As a salesperson, you are well aware of how time-consuming many sales tasks like sales data input, response to emails, and proposal/contract-writing process can be.  So why not automate these tedious tasks?  

From project pitches and initial project proposals to follow-up emails and final contracts, much of the day-to-day sales reps’ communication can be automated – giving them the time to focus on tasks that actually matter. Certain sales software can utilize library or analytics data to help managers further personalize and tweak their proposals and emails. In addition, these tools allow salespeople to automate client communication by scheduling emails or meetings. 

Overall, AI can help sales representatives:

• automate end-to-end daily tasks and streamline sales processes
• make faster and smarter decisions thanks to predictive forecasting and next action suggestions
• provide sales reps with data-driven insights and customer patterns to help them prioritize effectively and focus on the right prospects
• save salespeople time and money, and at the same time increase productivity and efficiency

To Sum Up 

The foundation of sales lies in expansive personalization and effective communication. The profound importance of the human touch may appear counterintuitive to the increased demand for automation and integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into the industry. 

However, sales automation tools – especially those backed by AI – offer massive opportunities to managers to make more informed decisions and target valuable and inclined prospects. In addition, automation takes on repetitive, manual tasks, allowing sales reps to focus on establishing personal relationships with leads.  

Sales automation software will not make sales reps obsolete in any foreseeable future; rather, AI and salespeople should work hand in hand to boost sales performance and profits.  

Author bio 
Travis Dillard is a business consultant and an organizational psychologist based in Arlington, Texas. Passionate about marketing, social networks, and business in general. In his spare time, he writes a lot about new business strategies and digital marketing for SEO Turnover. 

What would you rather do: spending your work hours entering data for potential customers into a spreadsheet or taking the time to connect with the people who actually are your customers?

Instead of working on the computer, it’s time you have the computer work for you. This way,  you can focus on the aspects of sales that matter most. Taking your business to the next level involves exploring the available options for workflow automation for sales. 

What Does “Sales Automation” Mean? 

First of all, let’s establish a definition for the broad phrase of “sales automation.” Utilizing a sales automation process involves relying on tools to achieve the sales goal of your company. These tools can range anywhere from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to AI-powered platforms. The benefit of workflow automation in your sales department is that it frees your workers from rote responsibilities without making their jobs irrelevant. The tools you use allow your sales representatives to give more attention to qualified leads or potential customers. Your automation through the sales cycle can assist you through the steps from lead generation to opportunity creation and finally customer acquisition. 

Workflow Automation for sales can be completely taken care of with a Business Process Management (BPM) Software, with built-in CRM functionalities. This software “aligns the delivery of business objectives in terms of organizational goals, services, or products that customers need, through the process management and improvement.” Comidor Low-Code automation platform is easy-to-use, accessible, and elastic. It supports your sales department and provides all the necessary tools like lead and opportunity management, and customer journey, to streamline sales processes, and complete repetitive sales cycles successfully.

Examples of Workflow Automations for Sales 

There’s a multitude of ways for you to automate your workflows in the sales pipeline. You can experiment with different methods to figure out which works best for your team. We’ll give you a few examples here, but there are many more features than we have time to cover today. 

 1. Sales Guidance 

You can set up automatic reminders or nudges for your sales representatives, so they know exactly who to connect with and when. Your automation should match your leads to the representatives that will be the best at helping them get what they need. Certain software programs are able to automatically set up appointments with clients that fit into your reps’ schedules. 

 2. Lead Management 

There’s only so much you can do on your own when trying to generate leads for your business. Automating that process allows your team to focus on the leads you have. Whether you’re looking for B2B lead generation, or a B2C one, an automation tool may be the best way to go. An automation tool can generate a list of potential leads that is curated to keep your team away from spending a majority of their time hunting down customers. An automated system can also track your potential customers’ engagement with your website and alert your representatives when it’s the right time to make a sales pitch.  A Low-Code Automation Platform enables your business to manage all the leads obtained in an automated manner. This means that a tool like Comidor provides a dedicated area to your leads for exploiting your chances to convert them into valuable clients. Through workflow automation, you can monitor and filter leads based on various criteria and receive automated e-mail and SMS notifications to be notified immediately as soon as a lead is generated from your website or any other source. 

Here is an example of a lead management workflow that incorporates smart notifications, and automated tasks assigned to the sales team members.

Explore more sales and marketing workflow examples here.

3. Customer Connection

You can use sales automation tools and systems to take care of customer outreach through automated emails and automated voicemails. Your reps can craft different email drafts that can be sent to potential customers at various points in your sales pipeline. Even though the copy will be the same, the automation personalizes it to the customer and reaches out to them at the ideal moment. Your reps can also use a tool that allows them to craft different voicemails to leave when a customer doesn’t answer the phone. This way, your reps aren’t scrambling to go through their sales pitch and instead can leave a message that will make your customers want to return the call.

4. Research and Data Logging

An automated system should be able to filter the overwhelming amount of information into a list your team can tackle. You’ll know exactly what social media hubs, forums, and more to target for potential leads. As you connect with these customers, your system will also track the outcome of your marketing efforts in real-time. Your reps won’t need to take extensive notes and load them into a system, the system does all the tedious work for them. With all that extra time, your reps can spend their newfound hours nurturing relationships and closing sales so you can grow your business.

The Benefits of Sales Automations for Your Team 

Automating your sales process benefits everyone in your organization. Your sales representatives will be able to focus on meaningful connections instead of tedious data entry. Your managers will have a more clear picture of the sales pipeline and will be able to lead their teams more efficiently.  What’s more, your customers will be happier because they received exactly what they needed at the time they needed it. Everybody wins. Additionally, sales automation systems have been proven to save time, increase efficiency, and reduce human error. 

Automating Your Sales Process 

Automating your sales process shouldn’t be a daunting task any longer. Let’s examine the steps to get started. Comidor Low-Code Automation Platform will guide you through the process. With Comidor, you can visualize all aspects of the sales process with drag-n-drop functionality. You’ll have access to all of the tools you need to collaborate with your team and your customers.  Data streams available over the full sale processes, pipeline and sales funnel charts, event metrics dashboard, ticket creation, and campaign management are only some of the features offered by Comidor built-in CRM functionality. 

Are you ready to accelerate your sales cycle? Book a call with a Comidor expert and explore your sales automation options.

It’s time to stop wasting your time with manual tasks when you could be building better relationships; closing more sales; and producing more revenue for your business. Explore the options for automating your sales process and put yourself ahead of your competitors. 

Author’s bio: John Dubay is the Managing Partner at Leads at Scale, an outsourced sales support company that helps B2B companies generate well-qualified leads at scale, ready to be closed.  

To get an executive buy-in, starts by never talking to an executive about Low-Code BPM. Instead, talk about what they care about : Results. Outcomes. Impact. Value.

Middle ranks managers and organizations’ prosperity

Organizations adapt slowly to change, unless managers in the middle ranks, like a project manager, business analyst or an operational manager, identify and promote the need for change.

People at that level gather valuable business intelligence from direct contact with customers, suppliers, colleagues, and even competitors. They’re in a position to foresee when the business falls behind the market. Moreover, they can detect early signs that a partnership with existing legacy system vendor won’t work out (see our article on Legacy Systems Modernization). According to McKinsey Global Survey on digital transformations (Graph.1), the success rate of the transformation efforts is positively correlated with the management team’s communication of a given change-story element during the transformation.

Emphasize    “What’s in it for the Business”

Graph.1: Unlocking success in digital transformations

Don’t focus on the Low-Code BPM system

While you are researching the market, contacting one solution vendor after the other, doing platform trials and demos, trying to understand what solution could best solve your business pain, you become prone to get excited from the features and technical details of a system. Thus, a conversation with your boss on those features and details is to begin.

Don’t do this. Your senior management team (SMT) really isn’t interested in finding out how any systems work. They don’t attach importance to what new features systems bring to the market or what they can do. Giving them this information will switch them off before they get started. The SMT is interested in business cases for investment in projects and systems which solve a problem. Cost savings, productivity improving, faster app delivery are some problems the SMT wants to solve. They don’t care about the nuts and bolts of how you are proposing to do this, at all. Instead, they do want to know that you will do it, and what resulting benefits you will bring.

Don’t focus on non-strategic benefits

Low-Code BPM, like Comidor, which is one of the best BPM solutions of 2019 according to SoftwareWorld, can deliver plentiful results at a lot of organization’s levels.

If you are an Operational Manager,  installing a new easy-to-use, easy-to-customize Low-Code BPM system, will undoubtedly make your life a great deal easier.  But, explaining this to the SMT will not make them reach for their cheque books (metaphorically). Oddly making your life easier is not at the top of the SMT’s list of concerns. Therefore,  it is better not to include it in your business case. Instead of that, think how a benefit for you, might result in a strategic benefit for the whole organization.

Step #1: Simplicity is key – so be result specific

One of the reasons that low-code BPM systems make our lives easier is the time and cost saving. As well as saving a Quality or Operational Manager’s time, a BPM system also saves the time of all its end users. Now, it is more likely to get the interest of the leadership team. How?  By explaining for example, how each time someone makes a request, they will save at least 15 minutes.  As this is an action repeated 10 times a day, by 1,000 employees – that is 150,000 minutes or 2,500 hours saved each day.  This procedure results to millions of dollars of efficiency savings each day. Also, the quantification of the cost of inactivity and your business opportunity cost is equally important. Consequently, be prepared to have a benefit checklist ready to support your case in your discussions with your boss.

Step #2: Implementation risk – address outcomes and failure fears

Strategic cross-organizational low-code BPM implementations often involve political battles in terms of how the business will operate tomorrow. The fear of the unknown is a powerful and dangerous force. People resist the change because of the fear of complicating old processes (the devil we know) with new technology. New technology may hinder team’s day-to-day tasks or lead to new digital failures (Graph.2). Identify, communicate and commit the team and the resources needed to implement the solution. Finally, set up a decision-making support plan. In this way, the management has full control on approving each targeted milestone.

Graph.2: Gartner “Make Legal Digital-Ready”

Step #3: Target the topics your business executives are invested in

Before approaching a prospective sponsor for your low-code BPM solution need, have an idea about their priorities, and the critical points of importance. Target the topics they are invested in, and the issues they care about more than other execs of the leadership team do.
Your HR director may focus on managing employee on-boarding and spreading teams across offices in different geographic regions. The major concern for your head of operations may be to control risk.  On the other hand, your director of customer success may envisage a platform that standardizes service levels and reduces time to market cycle. A platform that results in happy clients.

Step #4: The power of example – Competition pressure

The management executives identify themselves as business leaders. They assume themselves as the ones who should accept the responsibility and the opportunity to take their business forward and change their business model. Two thirds of surveyed CEO’s in Gartner’s latest insight report “Make Legal Digital-Ready”, said they are constantly adapting to change (Graph.3).
There is no better way to catch their attention than by presenting examples of successful low-code BPM projects in your sector. In other words, demonstrating competitors that are riding the low-code BPM wave and transforming their way of doing business, attracts the management executives’ attention. Connect the dots in their new products, services, client satisfaction and ultimately market share with the role of BPM solution in your competitors’ growth story.

Graph.3: Gartner “Make Legal Digital-Ready”

Step #5: Involve Other believers-build a “coalition”

The more people you get in your corner, supporting your ideas and providing first-hand experiences, the more urgent and legitimate the initiative seems. Your BPM “coalition” should include those professionals with a mix of organizational credibility and executional expertise. This likely means enlisting IT leaders, managers, and some process participants, too. Building a “coalition” generates organizational buy-in more quickly and on a larger scale. This happens because more people contribute their own energy and resources. For instance, one “coalition member” might have access to important data to support your business case. Another might have a good personal relationship with one of the top managers you’re trying to present your low-code BPM pitch to. By recognizing these advantages, you become more successful in supporting your business case.

Step #6: Bring in an Expert

Since we are in the process of doing something for first time in your organization, sometimes you need the support of an outside expert to break through a wall. An outsider, that could be a digital transformation team of consultants, has the independence to challenge traditional thinking and break down paradigms. Use those experts to send a clear message on market awareness and trends and bring executives to their own aha moments regarding change management.

Step #7: Get the Timing Right

It’s very crucial to find the right moment to raise your ideas. That moment might be when organizational priorities shift, when new executives come on board, or when business crisis occurs. Successful project proposals are reported when they are related to greater sensitivity than others to timing. You should notice when more people begin to care about a larger topic or trend, related to your idea to “catch the wave.”

In addition to keeping a close eye on larger trends and events, it’s important to be mindful of deadlines. If an idea relates directly to an imminent product launch or software release, by all means speak up. Now is the time to be heard.
As you support your business leaders in their efforts to transform the business,  you find your business culture becoming more accepting to implementing those necessary systems. This business culture optimizes the business function as a whole. See (Graph.4) McKinsey Global Survey on digital transformations.

Graph.4: Unlocking success in digital transformations

Conclusion

Sell the opportunity to leave a legacy. You will find out that many executives are passionate about what they do. They really care about making a lasting impact on their organization. Implementing a process improvement culture makes a real difference to business teams and to the success of an organization. Execs are about to leave a legacy with the support of engaged teams and professionals, who are executing processes aligned to the business strategy like yourself.

Return on investment (ROI) is the benefit to the investor resulting from an investment of some resource. A high ROI means the investment gains compare favorably to investment cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments (Wikipedia).

It seems quite interesting and challenging, doesn’t it? ROI is a really simple-to-understand indicator for decision making and the simplicity of the formula makes it easy to choose variables to calculate any kind of cost component.  We tried to collect all the tips that a sales and marketing department can use in order to boost their ROIs and have efficient investments.

E-mail Campaigns

Retargeting all these people, that visited your website and…simply left, is the number one way to increase ROI through sales and marketing, according to Quincy Smith from Uplift ROI. However, what really matters is to make only targeted campaigns, according to Larisa Aslanyan, Digital Marketing Expert from iNexxus, who quotes “The more informed we are about our audience interests and demands, the more ROI we receive”. Ben Cohen, CEO and Founder of BobCar Media, also underlines the importance of targeted email campaigns: “Wasting time, energy and ultimately money on a list of contacts that are not targeted can be detrimental”. Orun Bhuiyan, marketing technologist and co-founder of SEOcial, goes one step further, as he describes how the content of a targeted campaign should be. So, after having created your group recipients write them a short email (9-13 words long), adding their name at the subject and a short question at the body, for example, “Are you still looking for a project management system for your company?”

Automation

It’s a fact that Automation has entered the world of sales and marketing and we can say that it brought a revolution in the way potential clients are treated. Automation can be used either for tracking traffic and downloads from social networks for example, as Yuimi Vashum, Outreach Manager of Wise Calvin, suggests, or setting up efficient systems utilizing technology for acquiring and maintaining leads and following up on these leads with automated emails and email marketing campaigns according to Tali Rapahely, president of Armour Title Company.

Personalized way to connect

Jonathan Kendall, President & CEO of Pop Up Selling, quotes that “The one-sized-fits-all sales methodologies and the singular revenue-based sales-management style are outdated. The salesperson needs to be taught to be able to connect and sell to everyone in all generations”. In addition, Patrick Delehanty, Digital Marketing Specialist with Marcel Digital, summarizes the way salespeople should work in three words: “Empower – Engage – Embrace”. A brand that is actually a human is what all people love, so empower employees to utilize their expertise and be thought leaders. An empowered employee is also constantly engaged with customers or audience and willing to respond and listen to the customers at any time. Embrace refers to change, not staying locked to the past and refusing any change is a one-way road to failure.

Ads

Maximize ROI by ensuring that your online ads are of high quality is what Luke Rees, Digital Marketing in AccuraCast, suggests. Furthermore, Jason Lowry from Finch has a certified Google AdWords professional team to discuss their AdWords objectives and then optimize for a specific ROI goal. On the other hand Christopher Gaundreau, marketing professional and host of Content Show, sent us a really interesting approach for using Ads. He suggests not using the name, logo, and a cute tagline at your company’s ads, but to try instead “to give something away that lines up with your business in exchange for the contact information of your lead”.

Social Media

Having successful social media campaigns, link building and SEO can also have a positive effect on ROI value, Alexander Ruggie, Public Relations Director for Milestone SEO, underlines and he continues saying that “capitalizing on social media can take a company from Mom n’Pop straight to the top in the blink of an eye.”

Keep Track of Results

David Scott from Scott on Marketing and Bryce Liggins from Brolik both agree that it needs a lot of testing to finally find the best method for your company to increase its ROI. Using different ways to measure the success of every single marketing campaign is the only way to find the one that fits best to you and will end up increasing the ROI. David also underlines the fact that you do not have to spend millions of dollars before knowing if marketing works or not. Start testing small ($5-15) and continually improve until you have your economics on the stage you want and then expand.

SMS Marketing

Bob Bentz, president of ATS, suggests SMS marketing as a good way to boost your ROI, as the read rate is 4x than of email messaging. Sending two times per month an SMS keeps your name in front of your customers and prospects and since the message is coming via text message and they know that they will read it.

Value

The most important thing for David Hoffeld, CEO of Hoffeld Group, is to give customers a reason to use your product. Offering something of meaningful value, consistent with your brand, people will respond with a renewed interest in your company and product.

Testimonials

Real testimonials from real users or customers are really powerful according to Ben Cohen, who uses them to create case studies to show potential clients how your company has made their life easier. “It’s a great content marketing strategy and tactic that is backed up with proven stats and results to ultimately increase total ROI for future products and endeavors.” Furthermore, Curtis Peterson, Digital Marketing Manager for Smartfile, suggests using testimonials around the submission button in order to decrease the anxiety that the user might have before clicking it.

Easy-to-use

One of the most common phrases used in sales and marketing campaigns is “easy to use”, but unfortunately in most cases, this is not true. Bennett Lauber, CEO of The Usability People, underlines the importance of designing and creating systems “to better match the mental model and experiences of actual users”, thus software companies can significantly improve their bottom line.

Price

Last but not least, is the price of the product, which should be very carefully defined, as, in order to stay competitive, the entrepreneurs use low prices and ultimately the exact opposite happens. Chad Reid, Director of Communications in JotForm, points out that “consumers view value in different ways and pricing yourself out of competition is going to kill your ROI”