What is Sales Automation? The Definitive Guide

Sales teams and businesses are under increasing pressure to deliver more leads and sales with less time and fewer resources. Streamlining your sales efforts becomes less challenging if you embrace sales automation tools. It’s estimated that 30% of sales processes can be automated, and these tools can assist you in managing leads and increasing the efficiency of your sales pipeline, letting you close more sales.

What Is Sales Automation?

Sales automation uses AI technology to reduce repetitive tasks like organizing lead information. Automating processes saves time and also reduces errors from manual work. Plus, it lets your sales team spend more time on what they do best: selling.

What Can You Do With a Sales Automation Tool?

Sales automation tools capture customer data by pulling information from various sources, like email, and storing it in your customer account records. Your sales team can use these tools to automate follow-ups for lead nurturing, invoices, pay reminders, and sales pipeline management.

If generative AI powers your automation tool, it can create call summaries, develop sales reports, or generate emails. You can even streamline the training process for new team members using an automation tool.

Sales Automation Funnel

Automating your sales funnel is a key aspect of sales process automation. It allows you to bring in leads more easily and automatically guides them through the awareness, consideration, and decision stages for you.

How Does Sales Automation Work?

Sales automation tools collect and update data when specific triggers occur, like when you receive an email or phone call or when a lead moves to the next stage of the sales process. Many automation tools pair this data with generative AI and predictive AI, giving your sales team new insights and ways to speed up the sales cycle.

Data Is Updated in Real-time

Every interaction with your leads creates data. Automation tools sync this information across your tech stack as it changes, so your sales reps always see the latest data.

Data Is Analyzed

AI-powered automation tools analyze sales data to measure key performance metrics, surface insights, and spot trends. CRM tools with predictive AI can even use historical data to recommend the best actions your sales team can take to move deals forward faster.

Data Is Used To Create New Things

Many sales automation tools now come equipped with generative AI, which enables them to create content for you. They can write emails to leads, conduct research, write sales pitches, generate sales forecasts or reports, and more.

What Are the Benefits of Sales Automation?

The biggest benefit of sales automation is making the entire sales process more efficient. Here are several other benefits your team can expect.

Optimize Your Sales Force’s Unique Skills

Anyone can perform data entry, but not everyone can make sales. Automation tools handle repetitive sales tasks, so your team can spend their time on customer-facing activities, showcasing their unique personality traits and skills to build stronger customer relationships.

A Transparent, Lean Sales Workflow

Sales automation tools help organize and streamline your entire sales operations so you can do more with less. Team members have a clearer understanding of their role, it becomes easier to onboard new salespeople, and it creates a more positive customer experience.

Accessible, Accurate Data in One Place

Automation tools eliminate manually searching for sales or customer information. Accurate, up-to-date data is stored in a centralized location—easily accessible by your whole team.

Fewer Opportunities for Error

It’s human nature to make mistakes, but they can be costly in the sales process. Automation tools perform repetitive tasks faster than people, and you don’t have to worry about them making errors due to fatigue or boredom.

What Are Examples of Sales Automation?

With sales and marketing automation tools, your sales reps can devote more of their time to personal interactions. A few ways your business can use automation include:

Scheduling Meetings

Instead of wasting time going back and forth trying to set up meetings, automation tools allow prospects to schedule them instantly. When prompted, they’ll see your sales rep’s availability and can choose a day and time that works for their schedule.

Sending Personalized Emails

Email automation tools use customer information (like their preferences and where they are in the buyer’s journey) to send personalized emails—whether you need to send one email or thousands. For example, you can send welcome emails to new prospects, a drip campaign to educate and move prospects through your funnel, or even post-purchase follow-ups.

Prospecting

The tool’s prospecting features automatically scan the web and send lists of new prospects to your reps on a monthly or weekly basis. With its lead scoring function, your team will know which contacts to prioritize and waste less time on those less likely to buy.

Reporting

Sales reports are essential for understanding the health and performance of your team, but they’re time-consuming to generate. Automation helps your team create reports quicker using real-time data. And, you can even automate report delivery so the information gets to the right people without delay.

Auto-dialing

Predictive dialing eliminates manual calls. This feature reduces downtime between sales calls and helps your team connect with more contacts within the same timeframe. Depending on your automation tool, predictive dialing can also log, record, or summarize your calls for future reference.

Chatbots

AI chatbots allow visitors and prospects to ask questions and get support without interfering with your sales team’s work. Chatbots use AI technology to answer questions and collect leads using your business’ tone and style.

How Does Sales Automation Improve the Sales Process?

Sales automation streamlines the entire sales process, from gathering leads to closing sales, so you can make more deals in less time.

Sales Process Automation

Sales automation software can boost productivity and revenue by handling time-consuming parts of the sales process, such as finding leads, answering initial inquiries, scheduling sales calls or appointments, and following up with prospects. Automation leaves your reps with more time to do their primary role: selling.

Data Collection and Centralization

Sales automation software allows you to gather and access organized, real-time prospect data more efficiently, which is crucial for your sales team to personalize their efforts.

Lead Scoring

Leads are the lifeblood of every business, but some leads are more likely than others to turn into buyers. Sales automation tools can score and rank your leads based on their preferences, behaviors, and how they interact with your brand. That way, your reps can focus their efforts where they have the highest chance of conversion.

Lead Distribution

Sales automation tools use data from initial inquiries to assess a lead’s needs and assign them to the most appropriate sales rep. This step ensures a fairer lead distribution process for your team and matches leads with the best-fit rep to address their queries.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Top sales automation software offers automated surveys to measure customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) after every human or chatbot interaction. Measuring and tracking your CSAT score helps your sales team identify any friction between customers and your team so you can quickly address it before it negatively impacts deals.

Order Management and Tracking

Sales automation tools integrate with other software, apps, and platforms you use to streamline operations further. For example, they automate invoice generation, subscriptions, order tracking, loyalty programs, and more. Customers can manage and track their orders using a chatbot 24/7, reducing the burden on your staff.

How To Integrate Sales Automation With a CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is an automation tool that stores and organizes data from every lead interaction in real-time. Many CRMs include sales automation features; others allow integration with separate sales automation apps. When paired, they automatically pull relevant data from emails, quotes, and other communications into your records to enhance your sales operations.

Automate Your Sales Process With Podium

AI technology and sales automation tools support your business by streamlining your lead generation and sales pipeline efforts, giving your reps more time to build and nurture relationships for improved conversion rates.

Consider a tool like our AI Employee, Jerry, for your sales automation needs. Jerry responds to leads around the clock, so you don’t miss out when your business is closed. Our AI Employee can have meaningful, human-like conversations with prospects and steer them towards specific outcomes. Jerry also helps your team stay productive during work hours, handling customer interactions when things get busy. Watch a demo to learn more.