Sales automation tools eliminate tedious tasks and allow sales reps to focus on generating revenue and building relationships. Learn how to automate the right way with Apollo.io.
by
Karli Stone
UPDATED Nov 19, 2024
5Min Read
Time is the only thing you can't buy.
This truth has a lot of implications, but especially so for sales leaders. From meetings booked to the number of customers converted how you manage your time in the sales world makes all the difference.
Yet, precious little is being done in the average workplace to make better use of everyone’s most limited asset.
A McKinsey & Company study found that many business leaders are not taking advantage of marketing and sales automation tools and all of their time-saving potential.
In fact, automation implementation in sales is severely lacking. This survey found that out of the hundreds of business leaders surveyed, only 26% are automating a sales or marketing process.
This is an unfortunate statistic because sales automation has the potential to disrupt the entire sales funnel. Early adopters of sales automation consistently report increases in customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, 10-15% improvements in efficiency, and a sales uplift potential of up to 10%!
The simple fact is: putting off implementing sales automation is costing you.
In this guide, we'll go over the benefits of sales automation, show you some examples of sales automation in action, and explain how you can use it to streamline your sales and improve your conversation rates.
Sales automation is the process of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to carry out sales tasks that are normally done manually. It’s any software-based solution that helps a salesperson perform their tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently.
Without sales automation tools, sales reps will spend the majority of their time doing tedious, non-revenue-generating tasks (i.g. finding contact information, entering data manually, and updating CRMs).
Sales automation frees up sales reps and allows them to spend their time on high-value activities that drive revenue and prioritize the customer experience.
You can use sales automation tools in endless ways. They can tackle a single, specific task or offer end-to-end solutions (like Apollo.io for example!).
Whatever your current sales process looks like, sales automation can better it.
Let's look at some of the specific ways that sales and marketing automation can take your sales process to the next level...
One of the best things sales automation can do for your business is improve your sales and marketing team's efficiency and productivity.
According to McKinsey, one-third of all sales tasks have the potential to be automated. Just imagine how productive sales reps could be if 33% of their tasks were handled for them…
It also helps prevent burnout among your sales reps. Nothing de-energizes and fatigues sales and marketing teams like hours of tedious busywork. When you implement an automation tool, it not only heeds efficient results but lightens the load of your sales reps and gives them valuable energy to put elsewhere.
People make mistakes. No matter who you hire or how they are trained, there will be human error committed in manual tasks.
Even for something as universal as a spreadsheet, it is reported that almost 90% of them contain errors.
Sales automation and AI technology can help you make huge steps towards reducing the negative impact that human error has on your sales. Sales automation software can also help you identify small issues before they become larger and more costly.
Over 41% of marketers say that sales automation is enabling them to generate more revenue and achieve higher customer conversation rates through email marketing alone.
Sales automation technology can help a sales manager set up exactly how they want their customer journey to look. The actions they want to be taken in specific accounts can be automatically triggered and executed, and prospects can be sent down sales funnels that are tailored to their needs.
This relieves sales reps from having to manually nurture prospects and allows them to have highly personalized experiences in no time at all.
Money talks…
According to McKinsey, 44% of firms using sales automation and/or AI report a reduction in cost in the departments where it's implemented.
Even with all the other benefits aside, sales automation reduces your cost, and that alone makes it a worthwhile investment.
An important part of any sales motion is testing and optimizing.
Sales and marketing automation tools store vast amounts of data, and many of them precisely track your sales activity and provide helpful sales reports and data analysis.
Automation platforms gather and store hundreds of data points. From measuring sales performance data to tracking marketing results, these data points can help you improve and optimize across your entire sales funnel.
Implementing an automated workflow allows you to easily monitor and respond to changes in customer behaviors, refine customer data, create new data-based campaigns, jumpstart lead generation, and so much more.
There are some amazing examples of companies using sales automation to completely revitalize their sales process.
Let's look at one together.
PaperStyle.com is an online business that sells custom invitations, flyers, cards, etc.
Their sales practice was to send the same message at the same time to their entire email database. But without any personalization or strategy, their open and click-through rates started to suffer.
Paper Style decided to invest in sales automation. They used data and analytics to create targeted campaigns for an ideal customer profile: brides and their friends.
They established a set of email triggers:
Any prospect who completed one of these actions was put into a targeted, and personalized email campaign. Using their sales automation software, emails were sent out to their leads not only at the perfect time but with email messaging that met their interests.
A 244% increase in Open Rate, a 161% increase in Click Rate, and a 330% increase in Revenue per Mailing!
It's safe to say that Paper Style found a lot of success with sales automation tools...and you can too.
It’s no secret that start-ups and SMBs have less cash and fewer resources.
If you are a small business leader, you might be thinking, "I'm not sure I can afford to invest in sales automation software..."
But, that's exactly the reason why you should!
Automated sales tools work around the clock for you, at no extra cost. It cuts out the extra tasks that you may not have the budget or the hands for (such as managing customer data, digital sales, social media, email marketing, etc).
In fact, small companies are the leaders in AI spending. They invest in a sales automation solution because it has a high ROI and helps them penetrate their new market.
Here are some additional pointers for start-ups looking to invest in sales automation software:
It seems obvious, but you can't automate your sales process if you don't have the tools to do the automating.
Not only is Apollo a sales engagement platform that provides you with intelligent sales automation software, but it gives you all the tools you need to efficiently manage and optimize your entire outbound strategy.
Let's look at how Apollo can help you crush your sales goals with the most powerful automation features on the market…
Finding qualified leads can be one of the biggest challenges in sales.
It's reported that almost 69% of sales professionals believe it's the trickiest part of their jobs.
That's why Apollo.io is made to seamlessly sync with your CRM.
When Apollo and your CRM software are synced, the information in both apps communicate and continuously auto-sync with each other. When a sales rep makes a sale (or performs any other sales action) in Apollo, it'll be instantly logged into their CRM.
Say goodbye to hours wasted on manually updating CRMs…
Our other sales automation prospecting powerhouse is the Apollo Chrome Extension.
The Apollo Chrome Extension helps you identify potential customers more precisely than any other platform on the market. It allows you to target qualified prospects, gather contact information, and automate engagement all within a single LinkedIn window.
Want to see how easy it is to put into action? Check out this video on how to add your contacts to a sequence directly from LinkedIn.
Once you identify your ideal prospects, Apollo can help you automate your outbound messaging.
Workflows is one of our features that opens up endless sales automation opportunities.
With Workflows, you create rules based on triggers you choose, deciding exactly what you want to automatically happen and when.
A few examples of some Workflows you can set up include:
If you're looking to take advantage of the benefits of sales automation, you can't afford to overlook this powerful Apollo feature. There are 18 templates and counting you can use out-of-the-box, and it's easy to create your own too.
To learn more about Apollo's sales automation tools, check out our AI & Sales Automation page here.
Pipeline management is the process of tracking and overseeing sales opportunities. A good pipeline manager is constantly monitoring leads, updating their pipeline, and keeping tabs on their team's sales cycles.
When it comes to managing and planning your sales cycle, there is no better tool than Sequences.
Setting up a sequence allows sales professionals to manage their outbound system from end-to-end. They can set up timed steps (automated emails, phone calls, action items, etc), step triggers, tasks for SDRs, or specific sequence permissions.
With Sequences, your outbound strategy is yours.
Send your prospects down pre-designed and pre-strategized sales funnels and watch your conversion rates surge!
Apollo does even more to support pipeline management automation.
Apollo's Job Change alerts let users know in real time when leads and prospects have changed their professional status. This is especially useful when managing your pipeline because contacting a lead in the first few weeks of their new role is one of the most profitable times for selling.
With Job Change alerts enabled, not only are you alerted to new automation opportunities but you can always trust that your CRM is accurate and up-to-date.
We’ll close with this: sales automation is the future of sales.
Forrester predicts that automation tech spending will increase from $11.4 billion to $25.1 billion by 2023. It’s predicted to be one of the most important business solutions in the coming years…
Don't be the last to implement an intelligent sales automation system. Sign up for a free Apollo.io account today.
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