Sales force automation: How to close more deals

Why you need sales automation software

There are many steps in the sales cycle, including identifying potential leads, making introductions, building a business relationship, pitching your products or services, fulfilling orders, and following up. For many sales professionals, leads and customers are all at different stages of the cycle, which can often be burdensome to track and manage. Sales automation helps streamline every step of the sales cycle, which not only assists sales professionals in their day-to-day efforts and frees up their time, it also helps teams and leaders get a quick, consolidated view of everything in the pipeline. Having a centralised view of everything you’re working on turns a multi-faceted effort into a simplified, manageable experience.

The benefits of sales force automation

Win more, faster

Driving consistency across the sales cycle, the features of sales force automation maximise your efforts and help you zero in on what matters most

Build stronger relationships

Have a direct line into all your contacts, interaction history, and any relevant information to cultivate lasting, trusted relationships.

Keep your team on the same page

See conversation history, know who has worked with each customer, and improve internal communication with a centralised view of all current prospects and customers.

Measure progress

See results with up-to-the-minute accuracy and know how your progress stacks up against sales forecasts.

Features of sales force automation

Help buyers progress

Offer personalised, engaging experiences that help support customers’ consideration processes.

Track buyer engagement

Get insight into how customers engage along every step of the sales process.

Measure performance

Interactive dashboards show real-time updates, helping you see where sellers are most successful.

Manage opportunities

Get the details of each deal, monitor progress, and advance opportunities through the funnel.

Store contacts

Create unique profiles for each customer, track conversation history, and make customer and contact information easily available to your team.

How sales force automation relates to CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to software that focuses on the customer lifecycle, storing account data and transactions, and making this information centrally available to team members working in marketing, sales, customer service, and related leadership roles.

Sales automation refers to a set of features that focuses on streamlining the sales process, such as managing contacts, creating a single view of leads, monitoring and managing pipelines, setting up appointments, etc.

Although CRM and sales automation are very similar, they are indeed different. However, sales automation may or may not be included as part of a CRM solution. As you evaluate customer relationship management and sales automation tools, look closely at what features are included.

What to look for in sales automation tools

As you start researching tools for sales force automation, make sure you find a solution that can offer the following capabilities:

Seamless integration

Streamline workflows by unifying sales data across your other marketing and customer service tools.

Real-time results

Stay on top of results with real-time analytics and performance dashboards you can customise to meet your needs.

Mobile and social

Know how everything is going, wherever you are. Update data via mobile and track conversations with prospects on social media.

Artificial intelligence

Ease your workload with built-in intelligence, prioritising your tasks and alerting you when to follow up with prospects or customers.