How can you automate sales operations across platforms?

In any sales process, usually there are a ton of processes. Some of these processes such as prospecting and scheduling tend to be repetitive. Wasting sales team's time on such tasks reduces effectiveness. I have witnessed significant ROI impact automation brings to such processes. When I was handling a large offline sales team, our company introduced sales force automation. Within 6 months, armed by data from SFA, our managerial span of control increased 1.7X. Not only that, our customer response time (distributor complain resolution) reduced by 23%. SFA automated route scheduling, suggested SKU for-order, sales history, calling pattern (for managerial analysis), GPS based data on time spent with customers (retailers) etc.

Automating sales operations allows salespeople to focus more on human interactions, thereby enhancing their creativity and effectiveness. While salespeople do bring creativity to interactions, automating sales operations can indeed provide a holistic view by capturing and analyzing human interactions. It allows for better insights and decision-making, enhancing the overall sales process. Unlocking the potential for salespeople to laser-focus on nurturing relationships with prospects and customers could be the game-changer that propels a company to undeniable success, especially within the vibrant realm of sales.

1- Use a CRM system to track leads, opportunities, and sales activities. 2- Use a marketing automation platform to automate your email marketing, social media marketing, and other marketing activities. 3- Use a sales enablement platform to provide your sales team with the content, tools, and training they need to be successful. 4- Use a sales intelligence platform to collect and analyze data about your prospects and customers. 5- Use a sales chatbot to automate customer interactions. 6- Start with the low-hanging fruit. 7- Use a centralized platform. 8- Get buy-in from your team. 9- Test and iterate. By following these tips, you can automate your sales operations across platforms and improve your sales efficiency and effectiveness.

Why - and how automation helps you get there - in 5: 1. Save Sales team members time - manual steps automation 2. Coordinate efforts - multi-touch, cross channel campaigns 3. Prioritize higher value segments - lead scoring 4. Communicate as one - playbooks, templates and sequences 5. Understand what works - data enrichment and Sales reportings

Automation is an incredible tool, BUT it has to work alongside the other software you have in place. Always remember that automation should be supporting what you do, not making it harder. Before you bring on any automation technology dedicate time to fully understand how this will work for you and your business. Consider what areas or things you would like to automate, map it all out then overtime you can gradually build up your range of automations!

The sales tools market remains fragmented. However, Salesforce and HubSpot feature a wide variety of third-party integrations. You can definitely avoid using Zapier or IFTTT by choosing the right tools from the beginning without having to do custom coding. The downside to this is that often, a Salesforce or HubSpot integration is only available on a higher-paid plan. Since there is no point in having a CRM without syncing data to it, you should make sure that a CRM-sync is part of the sales tool offering as otherwise you will likely spend too much time on fixing data imports and syncing errors.

Sales Operations will require you to connect tools with each other. There is, in my opinion, no way around using an integration platform such as Make or Zapier. Why? Because of the very nature of Sales Operations processes. These processes are always changing and you cannot expect your tech team to maintain them and tweak them on an ongoing basis. One implication for this is that any CRM manager today should be proficient with at least one of these platforms.

Salesforce features extensive workflow builders such as 'Flow' that you can use to create If-This-Then-That scenarios based on actions and updates in the CRM. Alternatively, there are a variety of tools that allow CRM admins to push tasks or update requests into popular messenger services like Slack or Teams. Always expose tasks where users will likely see and interact with them. Task automation is most useful in high-velocity sales organizations as it helps sellers stay on track on what to do next. Do not overinvest in task automation if your sales playbook is not fully developed, as it is time-intensive and requires extensive quality assurance testing.

Automation is a powerful tool, but it can quickly add into the madness if its not properly integrated with your processes and current tech stack. Keep in mind, automation should enhance your processes, not complicate them. Before adopting any automation technology, invest time in comprehending how it aligns with your business. Identify specific areas for automation, create a comprehensive plan, and gradually expand your automation capabilities over time. This gradual approach is vital for a smooth integration into your workflow and overall processes.