Have you considered applying automation to sales?

Statistics show that many salespeople spend only a third of their productive time talking to potential customers. And the rest of the time?

According to HubSpot, 27% of salespeople claim to spend more than an hour a day adding data and filling in forms. In total, statistics suggest that this would be 17% of their time. A similar figure would be the time spent searching for leads, scheduling calls, holding meetings, reading reports…

All of this together often leaves us with very little time to devote to customer and prospect care, when this is really the most valuable task for salespeople.

Problems of oversaturation?

As we have seen, the salesperson's routine often includes a large number of hours devoted to administrative tasks, managing the customer portfolio, organisation, gathering information, etc.

Furthermore, traditionally, it has been the salespeople themselves who have been responsible for manually filling in the CRM. In other words, these are administrative functions both before and after the visit. Moreover, we must not forget that reporting visits manually to the CRM gives rise to errors, since it is often done with the subjective view of the specific salesperson.

This situation means that the Administration and Finance department is oversaturated, as it has to devote a great deal of time to providing sales support and correcting errors. This is in addition to its usual functions and across different channels at the same time.

In short, many company processes are slow and inefficient. That is where automation should come into play.

What does sales automation consist of?

Nowadays there are digital tools that make it possible to automate recurring sales processes. The aim is to minimise the repetitive activities that are done manually through the use of new technologies.

The aim of automation is for these activities to be carried out more precisely and efficiently while freeing people from these functions.

However, how does this improve your sales? In this article we present 5 advantages of sales automation.

Advantages of automating sales

Studies show that companies that use Artificial Intelligence for process automation generate 16% more leads. How? 

1. Optimisation of sales processes

One feature of process automation is that it manages to standardise them, whereas manually they are much more dispersed and irregular.

This standardisation means that there is greater quality and efficiency in the processes, since the established parameters are met perfectly with a minimum margin of error.

Furthermore, these systems also make it possible to monitor the results, so it is much more feasible to detect what works and what does not and to improve the sales strategy with solid knowledge. In this way, bottlenecks are avoided and objective, valuable information is available to improve sales.

 2. Improved productivity

Automation, by reducing the time spent on repetitive, lower-value activities, means that team productivity immediately improves.

AI solutions streamline the daily routine of salespeople, leaving more room for good organisation and devoting time to higher value-added tasks.

Companies that apply AI to streamline processes can offer the customer a faster and more intuitive sales cycle, with fewer intermediaries, which increases the chances of closing the sale.

In other words, companies that apply automation are faster in their processes, more efficient and detect opportunities more easily. In this sense, the automation is synonymous with greater profitability.

3. Data and process integration

Sales automation software has the ability to integrate with the company's existing database. For example, it could be integrable with an ERP or CRM that are already in use.

In today's sales, the fluid exchange of information is essential. It is advisable to opt for the integration of all digital tools to ensure that sales strategies are applied in a unified and effective way.

Among other things, integration allows for good recording of the activity of the entire sales team and allows sales opportunities to be detected more quickly.

Furthermore, if automation is applied throughout the company, this helps to ensure better communication between departments. For example, the fluid exchange of data between Marketing and Sales results in commercial content better adapted to the needs of both customers and salespeople.

4. Cost reduction

On many occasions, manual bureaucratic processes use paper as a medium. In this way, updating certain content or correcting errors means that the company has to repeat the expense.

An important advantage of automation is that it greatly reduces errors in commercial processes. By streamlining processes, the need to invest material, space and working time is reduced in drafting, reviewing and corrections. In the long term, this represents very significant savings for the company.

5. Increased engagement

Last but not least, automation is a good way to improve the customer experience, and therefore increase their engagement with the brand.

One of the great advantages of sales automation through Artificial Intelligence is the personalisation of customer service. An AI software constantly collects data about the customer, which allows it to detect patterns and recommend to the salesperson which content to show the customer based on their interests and sales opportunities.

Furthermore, by reducing the time the sales force spent on administrative processes, thanks to automation the sales team can spend more time offering good customer service and providing the human component in the best possible way.