Back in the day, sales representatives used to spend all day in the field, exploring leads, looking for potential clients and, well, selling.
Now, a sales rep spends less time in the field and more time completing tedious tasks and non-sales activities.
Further on, research suggests that now, sales reps only spend one-third of their day actually making sales, while the other two-thirds are spent on manual tasks such as writing emails, scheduling meetings, prospecting leads and entering data into the computer.
While all of these tedious tasks are necessary, one can’t deny they are time-consuming and dull, taking up all the energy that could be directed towards actual pitching and selling.
Fortunately, we live in the era of automation, which means all of these tedious, but necessary tasks can be taken over by software.
This way, you get to spend less time entering data into charts and more time exploring those leads and turning them into clients.
How can my company benefit from automating the sales process?
To put it simply, sales automation is the process of transferring manual, time-consuming tasks to a piece of software or other digital tools, so that you can focus on responsibilities that require a more humanistic approach.
This way, instead of spending countless hours shuffling papers and typing numbers, you and your team can focus on contacting leads, setting up meetings and selling products.
Sales automation can benefit your business in numerous ways, such as:
- increasing your sales team’s productivity and performance;
- making your business more efficient;
- ensuring you don’t miss any sales leads;
- speeding up the sales process and improving accuracy;
- increasing customer satisfaction by reducing response time; and
- keeping data consistent across your company;
Allowing better use of scarce resources, especially for small teams or budget-conscious companies;
A good sales automation software has the potential to skyrocket your revenue and help your business grow, but how can you know what to look for?
Every company has unique needs, which means you need to look for software that provides your team with the necessary tools to simplify their work. To help you out, below are two of our top choices, analyzed and explained.
1. ClickFunnels
At first glance, ClickFunnels may seem like your typical landing page builder and marketing platform, but this tool is much more than that.
At its core, yes, this platform is an all-in-one Software as a Service (SaaS), which provides a range of tools marketers, sales reps, consultants and managers can use to develop landing pages that generate money.
But the way it manages to speed up the lead generating and sales process makes it an excellent ally for any business looking to improve its numbers.
The sales process is very complex. It can take hours to gather all the information you need from potential leads, sort it out and then organize it so that you can start actually contacting clients.
If you use a software tool like ClickFunnels, all of these tasks are streamlined and anything you need from a potential lead can be found in one place. The only thing left for you to do is put your sales skills to work and close the deal.
ClickFunnels helps you build a sales funnel in one single place, without the need to use countless other applications or tools.
A sales funnel’s job is to help your team streamline the process of gartering customer data by guiding the customer’s attention towards the direction you want it to go.
The platform will teach you how to edit a funnel by using its templates and customizing them to your needs in a simple box-checking process. Then, based on your preferences, it will help you create a landing page with its drag and drop page builder.
You can add all sorts of elements that guide customer attention and make your landing page look professional.
ClickFunnels also allows for third party integrations, meaning you can integrate it with various software to help further facilitate the way you run your business. And, on top of that, it also has an affiliate program you definitely need to check out.
All of this may sound complicated, and to be honest, ClickFunnels does require some extra attention at first, so that you can learn all the tweaks and tricks, but once you get a hold of that, it will all seem like a breeze.
2. Chili Piper
How fast you get in touch with your inbound leads determines how likely you are to turn them into customers.
Studies show the longer you take to respond to prospective leads, the less likely are they to become customers, but trying to navigate countless Excel sheets and organize them takes valuable time, which you can use to actually contact those potential leads and win them over.
Chili Piper is a tool that automates booking and scheduling meetings, reducing response times and allowing potential customers to book meetings right away.
They will be able to see your calendar and schedule an appointment at a time that is convenient for them and you as well. What’s more, they can also choose to start a phone call right away, which will be rooted to your team based on the criteria you select.
To avoid getting bombarded by calls and ensuring only high-intent leads get in contact with your team, Chili Piper also qualifies your leads for you.
When they want to get in contact with you, potential customers will have to fill out a form on your website. Based on that, your best leads get the option to either you directly, while others will be given the option to book their meeting or send you an email.
This way, your team’s time is more valuably spent, talking to leads that have the highest potential of being turned into customers.
Chili Piper also provides loads of insight and reports, which are very helpful for understanding how you pipeline works.
Through these reports, you can find out how many people filled out the form on your website, scheduled a meeting or made a phone call to your team.
What’s more, you can also see how many of them canceled or rescheduled their calls or appointments, observing if there are any “holes” that need to be fixed in your sales funnel.
