Sales Automation Tips for Sales Superstars

If you are not automating your business’ sales process, you might be wasting time, money, and resources. Sales automation can help your marketing be more effective, your team be more productive, and give your business the ability to really grow. How do you do it? The following are some sales automation tips to get you started.

#1 ’ Work with Marketing Department

It’s important to collaborate with your marketing team and establish a mutually agreed upon definition of a qualified lead. This ensures that your sales team will receive quality leads from the marketing department. Then you have to trust that your marketing team is doing their very best to nurture your prospects.

#2 ’ Have a Detailed Buyer Persona

Having a thoughtfully considered persona will help you know exactly which audience you are looking for. Carrie Ann Williams of Andana Consulting says the following, ’’Really know your audience by having well thought-out personas. The goal of automation is to initiate and maintain relationships with your audience. By having clear personas, you have a better understanding of the content that will be valuable to them, the way that they buy your product or services, and how to best automate your marketing to bring them real information they can use.’’

#3 ’ Create a Clear Message

To have a successful marketing campaign, you have to make sure that the message you are conveying is clear and compelling. If it doesn’t resonate with your target market it won’t be opened, read, or acted upon.

#4 ’ Use Notifications

Sales automation gives your sales team real-time notifications so you can reach potential customers when they are available. This will save your reps valuable time.

#5 ’ Know Where Customers Are in the Sales Cycle

In order to know which content is best going to reach your prospects, you have to know exactly where they are in the sales cycle. Someone who is only at the very beginning of the sales process in which your sales rep is in the midst of information gathering, will need much different content and communications than someone who is ready to buy.

#6 ’ Pay Attention to Prospect Activity

Automation can provide you with valuable insights about your prospects activities (on your website, regarding emails, etc.), which in turn will allow your sales rep to frame conversations appropriately.

#7 ’ Know Your Customers’ Interests

Not only do you need to know what your prospects are looking at, you need to analyze the information to further tailor sales conversations with them. For example, pay attention to how long your prospect stays on specific website pages and which products they spend time looking at. That will help your rep understand what the prospect’s business needs are, and where to start an effective conversation.

#8 ’ Segment Customers Correctly

’’Segment your customers by behavioral attributes when sending marketing emails. The kind of email that will convert a highly active customer is different from the one that brings back an inactive, one-time purchaser. This kind of data-driven targeting has yielded great results for many of our clients.’’ ’ Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics, for Business 2 Community article, 10 Sales Automation Tips All E-Commerce Startups Should Use

#9 ’ Personalize Email

Prospects want to feel valued, so never underestimate the importance of personalizing emails and other communications to them. For many people, receiving generic, nondescript emails that really have nothing to do with them personally, it’s a huge turn off. Email automation will help you sort data, learn insights, and give you the information you need to reach prospects in a personalized way.

#10 ’ Use the Right Tools

In order to automate your sales and marketing, you have to have the right tools to do it. Customer relationship management (CRM) software will do that for you quickly and easily. You are able to manage your sales pipeline, know where your customers are in the sales process, and record and recall important prospect information that will allow you to reach them where they are. Finding a CRM that works for you, your team, and your prospects is key to getting the most from sales automation.