Sales automation is the latest in modern marketing and sales workflows.

Running a business has so many aspects that it’s impossible to handle all of them without a large team. This makes it hard for small businesses to succeed in a competitive market. But, now, apps like Callingly (shameless plug) are making the sales process easy for sales teams.

It’s simple really. The less time your employees are spending on routine tasks, the more they can contribute to your brand’s growth.

So, what are the dos and don’ts for sales automation? And how can you maximize your company’s efficiency?

How can sales automation help you?

Before we start exploring how to use it, you need to understand what the process can do for you. These are apps that automate specific vital tasks, so you don’t have to worry about them.

• MissingLettr: Social media posting
• ActiveCampaign: Regular emails to your mailing list
• Zapier: Auto-updates between your CRM and marketing system
• Clearbit: Lead scoring
• Slack: Notifications for updates
• Klaviyo: Audience segmentation
• Webflow: Building CTAs, forms, etc. and other information capture tools or funnels

Dos

Lead scoring

Not all leads are equal. As a marketer, you know how important lead scoring is to maximize sales. Generally, the system adds potential customers to a ranking system where they get points based on actions like asking for a demo or going to the pricing page. Then, based on where specific leads are in the sales funnel, you use targeted content to nurture them. Lead scoring is the biggest plus in sales automation, and a definite one to do in our book.

Email communications

The second step to the lead nurturing process is automating email content. Once you’ve identified the valuable leads, your sales team can focus on drawing in those customers. A common misconception is that automation makes the process of talking to a customer impersonal. But that simply isn’t the case. You can curate content to your viewers. If you use it right, you can send targeted emails with personalized content addressing each individual.

Immediate contact

Capturing a lead when their is strongest intent to purchase can boost conversion. Research shows that even slight delays of 30 minutes or more decrease the chance of future contact with a new lead by 21 times.

Multiply that with the number of potential leads you get in a day. A hundred? A thousand? Even small businesses will find it impossible to respond to every new lead within the first half-hour. If you want to avoid losses, you need to automate this process today. We built Callingly to help here by reducing lead call back times to under 30 seconds.

Social media posts

It’s the mark of a good business that they update their social media pages regularly. Remember, regularly is not the same as often. Your customers need to know when they can expect new content. That can mean twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays or once a week on a Friday. It’s entirely is up to you. The same goes for timing. If your viewers know you’re going to put on video content on Facebook at 5 pm on a Friday, they’ll be waiting.

You should automate your pages, so you’re posting at high traffic hours and also outside of working hours. Tweaking small things like this will uplift your business and give it a more professional outlook. Additionally, potential leads will know you’re dedicated to their service and will be more likely to convert.

Don’ts

Tool not strategy

The worst mistake users make is becoming utterly dependent on their software. Callingly may be the best automation app out there, but it’s still just a tool. And while it makes your life easier, it’s not a marketing strategy. Success in business is all about knowing where to use which resources. To see positive results, you need to get your sales experts to create a fool-proof strategy. Do the brainwork, then put it into practice and automate it.

Following someone else’s list

Often business owners will decide to automate a few tasks and simply pick a list off the internet. This is the wrong approach. There’s so much benefit you can get from automation, but you have to fit it to your business. Whether it’s lead scoring or email marketing, spend time analyzing your business before you put this system into practice.

Identify the areas in your structure that require the most time and are routine tasks. That list will vary depending on the type of business you have, the customer base you’ve created, and the strategies you use. Use tools like Zapier to then automate this.

Don’t automate the wrong things

Knowing what you can and cannot automate is the key to sales growth. You need to curate your strategy to your audience. For example, you can schedule posts on your social media pages. However, you should not forgo the process of writing individual personalized messages depending on the type of leads you get from each platform.

Rush to use

Automation offers a lot of varied and complex services. Spend some time getting used to how the app works before you apply it to your business. For example, a beginner may set an email that sends to their entire mailing list. But, all your leads aren’t at the same level in the sales funnel. Sending your potential customers stale or irrlevant email content is not the way to increasing sales. Alternatively, users who spend time getting acquainted with the software know that they can send personalized content by setting different touchpoints.