Sales force automation is the process through which bureaucratic and repetitive tasks in the sales sector are automated, increasing productivity and allowing employees to focus on more strategic activities for the company's growth.
Small businesses, with low sales volume, may even be able to manage all the processes and still be able to pay attention to customers. However, for enterprise companies, it will be difficult to keep everything working and still guarantee the quality of service that consumers deserve and will demand from you.
Automation is the future, so if you don't want to be left behind, you'll need to learn how to adapt your company to this new reality.
Want to know how all this works in practice? In this article we will explain what sales force automation is, how important it is for the growth of a company and how it works in practice (in addition to its main advantages).
Automation is the process of replacing human tasks that are repetitive, and will be automatically performed by a system or even a machine. The term sales force, on the other hand, refers to all the processes involved in the buying journey, from capturing leads to after-sales.
Therefore, by sales force automation, we are referring to the use of software focused on automating bureaucratic tasks present throughout the sales process, making it much more agile, productive and efficient.
You must have heard that famous quote: “time is money”, right?
You can be sure that this is the purest truth, after all, we use our time to execute/produce what will generate us money. Therefore, the more we produce, the more we earn. Right?
Now, can you imagine how much time is spent on bureaucratic tasks in the day-to-day of an organization? This is one of the main problems solved by automation — but is not the only problem that needs to be solved.
With this new process, employees are free to perform more strategic tasks, accomplishing what no robot is capable of doing: building a more consistent relationship with consumers.
To make all this clearer, let's check out some examples of sales force automation and then the main benefits that this practice can generate for your business.
Now that you already have an overview of the concept, you must be wondering: how this works in everyday life? Let's see some examples of what sales force automation can do for your business in practice.
Have you ever imagined improving your customer relationship and, at the same time, discovering how your shopping experience was? Through automation, it is possible to schedule sending a "thank you" email after each new purchase, or even sending a satisfaction survey as soon as the customer receives the order.
It also allows you to automate the management of prospects, adding the contacts received in each of the service channels to a spreadsheet. In addition, it is possible to classify leads according to the stage of the funnel, identifying the best moment for your team to contact you and close the sale.
And more!
We all know that no customer likes to keep repeating the same information every time they change accounts, right? Automation works omnichannel, integrating and storing the entire history of interactions of each consumer with your business, providing personalized service.
These are just a few examples of how sales force automation can be used in your day-to-day business. Check below what benefits this can generate in the daily routine.
Sales force automation is capable of generating several advantages for any type of business. To stay on top of the possibilities, we will mention below some of its main advantages:
With a sales automation system, repetitive and bureaucratic tasks, which were done manually, are now done automatically, which considerably reduces the time spent on their execution, allowing you to do much more in less time.
Repetitive tasks performed manually tend to generate errors at some point, after all, we are not machines. However, by automating such functions, in addition to gaining productivity, the number of errors is considerably reduced, saving time and money by avoiding rework.
Another great advantage of sales force automation is the increase in the efficiency of processes, which start to work in a much more organized way, contributing to a considerable improvement in business results.
Good sales force automation software enables greater integration between the tools used by the company. With this, it is possible to have access to all information in one place, in an organized way, in addition to generating reports that provide a more timely monitoring of business performance.
It creates a centralized database, facilitating access to information by the entire team. Doing so, it is possible to know where each consumer is in the purchase journey, which allows us to offer a personalized and much more efficient service, capable of delighting and raising the level of customer satisfaction.
Now that you already know what sales force automation is and know its main advantages, you must be wondering: “how do I implement this technology?”
In general, this procedure is made through a sales force automation system, which is nothing more than a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. However, it is also possible to achieve this objective through the integration of different technologies capable of fulfilling this function.
The time has come to replace archaic practices and embrace what technology can provide. The future of the market goes through automation, which allows improving the quality of service and increasing productivity, achieving results that could never have been achieved without the support of such systems.
There are several tools that can be used to automate the most varied processes. Therefore, when choosing a sales force automation system, it is very important to be aware of what kind of functionality your company needs and what each software has to offer.
This post was written by Zendesk, a platform specialized in developing solutions focused on customer service, such as Zendesk Sell, a globally consolidated sales force automation CRM system capable of maximizing your team's productivity and increasing your company's revenue.