Sales is the life force of every business. However, many a time, the sales personnel end up spending their precious time on manual tasks instead of actual sales. As per the report published in Forbes magazine in 2018, “nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of reps’ time, on average, is spent in non-revenue generating activities, leaving only 35.2% for functions related to selling.” This could seriously affect the company’s revenue and profitability in today’s competitive environment.
This is where the Sales Force Automation comes into the picture.
The automation simplifies the sales process and diminishes the repetitive and time-consuming tasks to be performed by sales teams, thus, allowing them to concentrate on selling. The best part – it can be used by every business size. The research group, Aberdeen concluded, the best-in-class adopters of sales force automation systems saw their deals increase in size by an average of 27%.
WHY IS SALES FORCE AUTOMATION REQUIRED?
Automating sales processes by sales crm software can save valuable time for sales representatives by eliminating the need to spend time on ineffective prospecting, data entry, call scheduling, or administration by handling basic tasks thus, allowing the team to prioritize and focus on leads. Companies that invest in automation can see up to 451% increase in qualified leads, 70% faster sales cycle times, and 54% improvement in meeting sales goals. In one study by CSO Insights, 89% of companies who aligned sales and marketing saw enhanced productivity.
This article will explore the benefits of adopting sales force automation in businesses.
REGAINING LOST OPPORTUNITIES
In traditional sales, the executive puts down the contact details on paper and then follows it up. This process is not only ineffective, but also time-consuming and daunting, and could easily result in loss of business opportunities. As humans err, it is possible that the executive may miss out on a significant client. Sales Force Automation by sending reminders vis-à-vis every potential business opportunity results in enhancing the number of leads as well as the quality of lead interactions, thus, leading to enhanced business generation.
SMART SALES FORECASTING
To effectively manage the sales pipeline, every sales department needs to accurately forecast sales figures. This includes analysis of past sales records, current sales database, pipeline opportunities to provide insight into the future opportunities. Sales force automation enables the organizations to sift through bulk data in a short time of time resulting in quick, and better business decisions. Automated report generation with sales automation not only saves time but also helps the sales personnel in tracking market trends, consumer behaviour, and the other key information required for sales forecast analysis. Data can be easily analysed through data visualization tools like Tableau that simplifies raw data into easily understandable forms which can then be presented to the team as dashboards, worksheets, etc. Power BI, another data visualization tool, also converts data to interactive dashboards and BI reports.
LEAD MANAGEMENT
Leads are indispensable to sales. Sales Force Automation software generates a better and intuitive lead management system. The software enables automated lead conversions by extracting leads from marketing campaigns, website visits or outbound calls, and thereafter, notifying sales reps about the generation of new leads. Some AI-powered software also helps in assessing and prioritizing leads based on different specs like their company, role, location, and so forth. The process can also be set up in a manner wherein it is possible to automatically assign leads to the correct sales rep based on company metrics such as industry, location, size, or availability of the rep. This reduces the guesswork when it comes to the assignment of leads, and better follow-up.
POOR PRIORITIZATION
At many a time, it is not the number of leads, but the quality of leads which pose a real challenge. No company wants its best human resource to work on the poor-quality lead. Sales Force Automation tool helps the organizations in prioritizing, and assigning lead ranks to each potential deal thus, allowing them to allocate resources in the best optimal manner. It also facilitates in tracking indicators vis-à-vis the importance of a deal like assessing the overall value, or the estimated probability that the deal will close, thus, allowing the managers to assign proper resources to every deal.
INCREASED SALES TEAM PRODUCTIVITY
The sales department is one of the most burdened departments in any organization. From scheduling sales appointments to sending follow-up messaged to tracking orders, sales reps perform a multitude of functions in a single day. However, with a sales force automation software, these manual administrative tasks can be mechanized and can save time, effort, and money, thus, boosting the operational efficiency of an organization. Once these tasks are automated, a sales team can direct its focus on business strategies and decisions which generate more revenue and sales.
Thus, the need to adopt the sales force automation for your business is ‘NOW’. The surveys undertaken by a multitude of organizations have already shown that the sales force automation software successfully enhances sales closure and minimizes administration time. By optimizing the sales strategies, and automating the sales processes, the sales force automation software can provide an edge to the business over competitors.