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.