From the top of the sales funnel to closing, the sales process has a lot of steps. In many cases sales begins with marketing initiating the first touching point. It could be socials, ads campaigns, or email marketing, and from there, prospects flow through the funnel hopefully landing in a closed deal. This process has many steps that are supported across several departments. Closing deals takes time, resources, and collective effort. Sales automation automates all the sales steps for an efficient buying process for customers, the team, and the business. 

And speaking of efficiency, if you already have a sales automation tool in place, and it’s ineffective, you’ll find information here, too, that can get you on the right track quickly.

Why is This Important? 

Sales automation increases productivity, accelerates the sales cycle, and increases revenue.

According to a CSO Insights study, 62% of a salesperson’s time is spent on responsibilities that do not produce revenue. Businesses invest a substantial amount of money in their sales team, only for them to spend most of their time on administrative tasks.  Sales automation grants sales teams more time to dedicate to generating revenue for your company. From eliminating manual tasks to shrinking the sales process, automation greatly benefits businesses. And, incorporating AI into the sales process not only brings innovation to the sales cycle but smart insights that allow you to share accurate and necessary information with your customer. 

Where to Start? 

Prospecting is the perfect place to start. There are hundreds of databases packed with data that enable your sales team to streamline hunting. Many customer databases such as ZoomInfo also incorporate job titles, personas, company size, revenue, along with prospect’s contact, thus eliminating the daunting task of doing this manually. What also comes with this is the ability to create prospect campaigns that trigger a series of emails, calls, and other touchpoints as soon as a prospect enters your sales funnel. 

What to Take Into Consideration?

We mentioned all of the benefits of incorporating automation into your sales process. However, like all things, there are things to take into consideration. 

If your implementation is not done diligently, there may be a lack of personalization. Imagine a prospect enters your sales funnel only for them to be bombarded with emails that do not address them by name. It comes off as a scam and can scare off potential customers. Another thing that comes with implementing automation into the sales funnel is the challenges. Money, time, and effort are all important when investing in digital tools. Incorporating collaboration and setting aside time to discuss and learn your company’s pain points, gaps, and needs will make for a successful implementation. Why is the tech stack important? The CRM your company decides to implement must integrate with the sales automation that your company is interested in. 

At some point or another, closing a deal may require cross-functioning departments to be involved. Having an automation process, clear communication, and concise data make this easier. 

At AdVic, our Salesforce® consultants will take a dive deep into your sales operations – or your current inefficient sales automation tool –  to understand the best ways to revolutionize your sales processes through customized automation solutions. Let us show you how we’ll do that today.

Related Resources:

How to Use Automation to Accelerate the Sales Cycle

Top 3 Reasons to Integrate Billing with Salesforce CPQ

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Andrew Deutsch, CEO of Fangled Tech, was a recent guest on AdVic’s “Salesforce Simplified” podcast and talked about converting sales no’s into yes’ by analyzing important data he says may be “leaking” within your sales funnels. Then we dug into transforming sales teams into selling machines, and more. Here are some highlights from that conversation.

What changes are we witnessing in the sales world today when it comes to generating, nurturing, and converting leads into customers? 

“I don’t know if I would call it a change as much as a maturity. Many people are starting to recognize that they don’t know what a lead is. And if you asked a bunch of different salespeople, even those in the CRM world, there’s a piece of lead that’s missing that really it’s become valuable. The difference between a suspect and a lead. So suspects are people who you don’t know, but very possibly could do business with you. Once they become a lead, there’s at least a clue that says that this is somebody who could do business with you as you start to narrow those things down. I think that the maturity now is that people are recognizing that the sales funnel leaks. And it’s good that it leaks. And it has more stages in it. Although, many times the sales process allows stages to be in microseconds rather than having to actually, physically in your mind, go through each stage. So, those are some of the concepts that I’m seeing that are different as folks are maturing and really understanding that process.”

Bottom Line: 

• Lead vs. Suspect.
• Suspect: unknown, however can possibly become a customer.
• Lead: provides greater detail on who the suspect is.
• Maturity: understanding leaks in the sales funnel.
• Maturity in the sales funnel allows for greater understanding of “leaks” and the expansion of phases throughout the sales journey.

It was interesting that you used the term “leaks” when referring to sales funnels. What would be leaking?

“I’m speaking in generalizations because it’s not everyone, but there’s always been what I’ve called the ‘kiss or kill’ mentality… As you’re going through the leads in your funnel, if you get a ‘no,’ they’re gone. They’re not viable. There’s no future for them. And now with tech that’s out there, those no’s have value. When you rule out a lead, you may discover that if you’re paying attention to those pieces of it, it may lead to the need for a new product development. Maybe the reason that all of those people left your funnel is because there’s a need that you’re not meeting, or they don’t recognize that you do meet the need that they’re looking for. In the old days of the sales funnel, you would see a chart where the first two steps are sales. I mean the first two steps are marketing and then they turn it over to the sales team. And of course, I always call that throwing a turd over the wall. ‘Here it is guys, go sell it.’

“A true sales funnel is an hourglass. You’re collecting customers at the bottom of the hourglass and continuing to nurture them.”

“In the maturity of the sales funnel, now marketing needs to go further down the funnel before sales. Marketing has learned that they need to be involved at every level to check the leaks, the stuff that’s leaking out of the funnel that didn’t make it. And also at that point of sale, because if marketing is not involved at that point, how are you going to convert all those people who just bought your product into voracious advocates for your brand? They’re going to go out and shout from the hilltops, how wonderful it was to do business with you. So, a true sales funnel is an hourglass. And you’re collecting those customers at the bottom of the hourglass and continuing to nurture them. Not just because you expect them to buy again, because you expect them to love your brand so much that they’re going to convince the world that there’s no other business out there you should be doing business with.”

Bottom Line: 

• A “leak” is no longer a lead. 
• Leaks provide valuable insight to a company’s future development, as their needs can become a new product.
• Marketing is more involved in the sales funnel from  checking  ‘leaks’, to point-of-purchase.
• Sales funnels are comparable to hourglasses, as customers are continuously nurtured even after purchase  to become ambassadors for the brand.

How do we turn sales teams into selling machines?

“The mistake that people have made in the past is thinking that salespeople are only motivated by commissions. So, one of the things that we do is we actually look at our salespeople as human beings, not as selling machines, as we convert them into that. Because when you really understand what are the personalities, and motivation structures, and the attributes of the human, and compare those to high-performing salespeople, what you find are the true motivation strategies of your sales folks.

“The way to create monstrous sales teams that go out is to actually understand and know the personas and every detail of your people. And treat them as individuals in ways that get them to work together as a team.”

Bottom Line:

• By understanding that sales people are human and not machines, enables a relationship that influences them to perform at their best.
• Understanding what motivates salespeople.
• Design training and development in a way that people can connect and identify with.

If you think your company’s lead, sales and brand advocates need better tools to navigate your company’s sales funnels and stop the “leaking,” why not have a chat with an Ad Victoriam consultant today about solutions that will plug those leaks? Fill out the brief form below, or reach us here. 

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Resource Articles:

Four Ways Salesforce CRM Improves Lead Conversions

Sales is Not a ‘Churn and Burn,” It’s a Partnership (Blog or Podcast)

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