If you’re not automating, you’re losing

Sales professionals have one of the most straightforward job descriptions out there: sell. However, salespeople only spend a third of their time selling, and sales managers spend twice as much time on administrative items than they do coaching their sales teams.

Modern salespeople battle two main opponents for their time, communication channels and sales tools. Reps have more ways of finding and contacting prospects than ever before, but each method requires its own time and attention. There’s the phone, SMS, email, social, direct mail, and more.

There’s tools that allow reps to communicate, as well as tools to collect, store, and analyze data. Data is crucial to sales success today, it allows us to make informed business decisions. Unfortunately, it also means that sales data must be accurately collected and stored, which has fallen squarely in the laps of sales reps.

With two-thirds of their day devoted to managing communication channels and collecting data, reps simply don’t have the time to sell. The solution is automation. Automation handles simple tasks like data entry so reps can spend more time selling. The result is that the sales teams who use automation earn more revenue simply because the reps have more time to spend with prospects.

Sales reps work faster with automation

Automation enables sales reps to work faster and more efficiently. Sales tools, such as sales cadence software, can automatically find present data when reps need it, as well as record sales activities and outcomes. Dialers can also work off of Salesforce lists, and queue up callers so reps can easily dial through a list of prospects in a short amount of time. All of this enables reps to connect with prospects faster and easier, and ensures that all connections are recorded accurately.

Automation creates more time with prospects

When administrative tasks are automated, reps have more time to spend with prospects. This not only increases the number of interactions, but it can also increase the quality of interactions. When reps have less to worry about outside of their calls, they can focus more on the actual conversations they have. They’re able to communicate more meaningful messages and share more insightful content.

Gain better data quality with automation

Another significant benefit of sales automation is more complete, up-to-date CRM records, which provide a thorough history and better picture of each prospect’s or customer’s situation for. Data accuracy translates to better and easier sales forecasting. Plus, it means that reps always know where they stand relative to their sales and activity targets. This helps them make adjustments along the way to stay on track each day, week, month, quarter and year.

Automation creates continuous performance improvement

Custom dashboards, call recordings, complete metrics, and best practice sharing ensure that coaching happens more regularly. Plus, managers are able to provide better feedback on a routine basis, which is important because sales coaching on a consistent basis with quality feedback has been proven to continually improve sales rep performance.

Gain greater market share with automation

Faster reps who spend a higher percentage of their time interacting with prospects and customers, who also have better data and receive consistent coaching, results in a greater market share for your company. They’re able to more effectively identify the best prospects to contact and when. They know what they need to do to hit the mark routinely with less effort.

The additional intelligence at their disposal allows them to understand their prospects and disqualify those who aren’t a suitable match for your product or service. Then, they’re able to guide their prospects through the buying process more easily, to a successful close. Plus, they have more time to deeply understand the needs, challenges and concerns of their prospects to provide the best solutions for their problems.

Automation provides scalability

Increased efficiency, more quality interactions with customers, better data quality and consistent performance improvements make it possible to produce more with your current team. This enables your business to grow without the need to hire as many team members. Effective sales reps who continually increase their productivity through consistent coaching are more easily retained, reducing rep turnover and the costs associated with this type of churn.

Automation creates increased revenue

All of these things lead to more revenue. Through more reliable forecasting, you’re able to plan for the future more easily, anticipating when additional staffing may be needed. This makes growth less stressful.

All these things add up to a competitive advantage. Start taking advantage of these improved efficiencies, productivity, financial improvements and more by automating sales process for your organization today. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain – especially a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.