What is Sales Automation?

Sales automation refers to the process of streamlining all repetitive, manual, time-consuming work which slows down the productivity of the sales team. This automation process is built using software, artificial intelligence (AI), and other digital tools. Establishing an automation process will radically decrease the workload of the sales team freeing up time and energy to connect with prospects and closing more deals.

What feature can you automate in sales?

Automation of tasks can be done on various levels. Some obvious repetitive tasks like sending bulk emails can be automated. Automation can be done for trigger-based actions. For managers, automation can help in assigning tasks to team members and forwarding relevant information. Here are some of the crucial features that can be automated in sales:

• Email Automation: Emails are typically the most common means of messaging and communication for sales reps. Imagine the amount of time you can save if all the repetitive email-related tasks you used to do manually can be automated. Email automation can be done on multiple levels - like sending bulk emails automatically at a particular time, sending follow-up emails after a certain pre-decided interval, trigger emails based on email viewed, clicked & replied status. Having email-automation software can streamline the quality of work and save a lot of time.
• Prospect Management: Storing data of a ton of prospects in your CRM makes it difficult to distinguish them based on opportunities and priority. Sales automation tools can help you implement trigger-based actions to move prospects through different stages based on engagement. For example, let's say after getting a follow-up of a certain email, you want to move those prospects to the next stage for further engagement. You can implement automated actions for such instances. This way you'll not miss out on any potential opportunities.
• Sales Alerts: Sales automation softwares can give alerts to the salespeople whenever your leads take a sales specific action. For example, let's say if someone spends 10 minutes or more on the landing page, the sales rep will get a notification. You can set up your criteria to notify salespeople. This will help in generating new potential leads.
• Workflow Automation: Sales engagement platforms provide you with workflow automation features. Using this you can define and run your campaign automatically. It also provides flexibility to customize the workflow to improve conversion rates. Creating a workflow takes care of creating repetitive tasks and you analyze workflow through performance insights to figure out which workflow suits better. Also, based on the engagement through workflows, you can automate the movement of prospects through different stages.