The wise ones know, there are only two business operations - branding and innovation. Sales operation is the backbone of all businesses and companies work on the unique attributes that single them out of the crowd and try to acquire as much attention from the customers as they can possibly. The outbound sales strategy is revised regularly after a set period to ensure the numbers in customer acquisition remain sustainable.
As business holders, we are fast-forwarding in a technologically-oriented business ecosystem. The current business ecosystem is driven by technology and is yet to integrate itself with cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning. Today, we are going to discuss the possibilities of automating the outbound sales process. Let us find answers to two big questions - how and why.
First things first, for achieving a successful integration of automation with the outbound sales process, the process prior to integration should be well-defined in all senses. The ongoing maneuvers should be running in perfect synchronization. Here are some prudent ways one can follow prior to automating their outbound sales process.
Study Your Target Audience Well
It is an intrinsic theory that goes without saying - one should know their target audience before venturing into the desired business, especially if it is customer-centric. So, you should begin your journey by defining the ideal customer profile. The customer profile must cover every single aspect of their characterization. To help you better, you can use a few tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LeadIQ, Seamless AI, etc.
Get Started with Automating Email Prospecting
Nowadays, you can get access to various tools that can devise the perfect email templates based on the subject, predefined triggers, or rules. List out the prospective clients and start generating automatic emails using tools such as Mail chimp or Hubspot. Some of these tools are good enough to send personalized emails to individual prospective clients based on their profiles. Many people don’t fully embrace the power of email marketing in the first place.
Leverage the Powerful CRMs Available
Many call centers in India have experienced success in the journey of customer acquisition and the most significant reason behind the success is they possess high-end customer relationship management (CRM). The new-generation CRMs are capable of handling the entire call center service. It provides all the real-time insights, reports, and suggestions of the process. Some help-desk services are also in-tune with automated CRMs.
It is understandable that help-desk services and outbound sales processes have quite different approaches. However, a CRM can easily help you to automate your sales process by keeping track of the conversations, ruling out the prospects, and documenting the out-of-the-box concerns and queries you need to work on in your sales operation. You just need to explore the web a little bit to get access to one of those tools.
Try Implementing Sales Cadences
Now that you have made a point to the prospective customers/clients, you can try to bring them into the sales funnel. Generally, there are a series of actions and touchpoints representatives follow to engage prospective clients. We call them sales cadences and it is possible to automate this phenomenon by using some sales engagement platforms available on the internet. Some of them are Outreach IO, SalesLoft, etc.
Measure and Optimize the Automation Strategy
Whether it is an automated help-desk service or an inbound call center service, every call center in India keeps a close check on each and every call center strategy regularly. Failing to check the loose ends and irregularities in the strategy can be catastrophic for the whole sales operations. Therefore, we implore you to check the performance of your automated outbound sales process every now and then.
Measuring the performance of your automated outbound sales process will help you to make appropriate changes in the strategy. In time, you make small baby steps to perfect the sales process for achieving success. You can start using analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, etc, for tracking your marketing campaigns, open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These tools can provide you with many actionable insights.
Finally,
You can take help from some automated help-desk service strategies and use some of their tools and techniques. Call centers in India are good at leveraging unusual techniques for achieving results. We recommend you be a little eccentric in your approach. Don’t be conservative in your approach. Technology is sound, and there are many tools available in the market that can help you construct a decent automated outbound sales process.
Need for Automation in Outbound Sales Process
Let us first discuss the basic difference between a manually operated and automated phenomenon. Humans are prone to make mistakes and computer is not. Only if the inputs given by humans are faulty, the computer is bound to provide the wrong output.
- So, when it comes to automating the outbound sales process, we come across the same concept. By automating your sales operation, you can streamline a whole lot of things.
- Not only one can streamline the sales process, but one can also reduce inevitable errors caused by sales personnel.
- Therefore, it will increase the efficiency of the sales operation. You can automate routine tasks like data entry, lead nurturing, regular follow-up, email responses, and order processing.
- Once you start automating the sales process, you will realize you have increased efficiency and saved a lot of time altogether.
- Once you automate the routine tasks, you will have enough time to focus on more strategic and creative tasks such as building relationships and innovative methods.
- You would be able to close deals faster than you can expect. When you know the sales data is being processed accurately, regularly, and automatically, you will be content.
- Not only that, you can get a lot of valuable-actionable insights to work upon. The technology has become so robust to the level that if it is leveraged properly, it can bring more to the table.
- Automation can help in forecasting the next stages of operation and help in the decision-making process. The ability to foresee the next turn of events is very critical in the realm of business and AI gives you that power.
- When you are making data-driven decisions, you are ensuring higher chances of success with all your business actions.
Sales automation also allows your workforce to try innovative approaches and tailor their messages to be greatly effective. Sales automation is not just an option, it is imperative because it improves productivity, reduces cost, and enhances customer experience.
Components of Sales Operations Prudent for Automation
Were you aware that sales representatives allocate just 40% of their time to actual selling? The rest of their time is inadvertently or purposely spent on non-selling tasks such as research and administrative work.
As a sales manager, it is crucial to minimize your reps' involvement in non-selling activities and maximize their selling efforts. This is where sales process automation can be beneficial in streamlining your team's workflow and optimizing their sales performance.
Lead Generation Automation
Prospecting or lead generation automation is one of the primary benefits of sales automation. Reps often struggle to generate new leads, nurture them, and convert them, requiring some form of assistance with these tasks.
Sales automation software is the ideal solution for this, as it can analyze the leads in the sales pipeline and assign them to the most skilled reps based on factors such as geographic location, past experience, and other specific criteria.
This approach is highly effective and can result in an improved conversion rate. By leveraging static data and insights from past prospects, a sales automation tool can create a target prospect profile.
This allows for the automation of the lead generation process, enabling the tool to identify ideal prospects that best match the services provided. As a result, reps can spend less time prospecting and focus more on converting these prospects, ultimately increasing productivity and efficiency.
Sales Follow-Up Automation
Were you aware that 44% of sales representatives abandon a prospect after just one follow-up attempt? It's important to recognize that your target customers are often busy with various activities and may forget to follow up with reps, even if they are interested in a product. Failing to follow up with these leads puts you at risk of losing out on valuable opportunities. From a sales perspective, it is a huge loss to bear.
However, manual follow-ups can be time-consuming, and crafting individual emails or repeatedly pasting the same email can hinder your reps' productivity. To address this issue, consider creating a few follow-up email templates and automating the process. By scheduling follow-up emails, you can ensure that you are pursuing each valuable lead two or three times, increasing the likelihood of a successful conversion.
Employing sales automation software can be a fruitful practice for your sales team. This software allows you to stay informed about your prospects' thoughts, where they stand in the decision-making process, and whether they are considering your product or service. Having this information provides greater clarity and can inform your sales strategy.
Appointment-Setting Automation
Scheduling meetings is a routine task for sales representatives, but sending meeting invitations via email can be cumbersome, particularly when prospects have conflicts with the suggested time and need to reschedule. In short, scheduling meetings via email can be a messy process.
A better approach would be to utilize a sales process automation tool that handles meeting scheduling on behalf of your team.
With this tool, your prospects gain direct access to your calendar, enabling them to select a time slot that aligns with both of your schedules. Simply add the scheduling link to your emails, and prospects can take care of the rest themselves. This secondary sales automation tool can save countless hours otherwise spent on email exchanges.
Read More: Using Artificial Intelligence to Empower Sales Operations
Conclusion:
After reading the above information, we trust that you have gained a better understanding of sales automation and its advantages. It is important to recognize that your sales representatives are already tasked with challenging activities such as cold calling and lead qualification. As a result, it is crucial to avoid making their job even more challenging by burdening them with excessive manual tasks.
By utilizing sales automation tools, you can streamline your sales process and empower your reps to work more efficiently. Sales automation software can assist your reps with tasks like lead generation, prospecting, email marketing, and scheduling meetings, to name a few. This frees up more time for them to focus on building relationships with prospects and closing deals, rather than getting bogged down with administrative tasks.
Moreover, sales automation software provides data insights that can inform your sales strategy and help you identify areas for improvement. This type of tool can help you optimize your sales process and enable your team to work more productively.
In conclusion, sales automation tools can have a significant impact on your sales team's performance, enabling them to work more efficiently and effectively. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, your reps can spend more time building relationships with prospects and ultimately closing more deals.
