“In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember that your competitor is only one mouse-click away.” – Doug Warner 

The customer is the Raison d étre of a business. Without the customer, there is no business. Keeping the customer as the focal point, technology can be adapted to ensure that the sales personnel spend their maximum time in finding new customers and delighting them. That is the reason why a faster customer onboarding system always means more business.

What is Sales Force Automation?

Sales Force automation software refers to the automation of repetitive tasks in the sales cycle so that they become efficient and error-free. This smoothens out processes and gives customers a delightful experience. With Sales Force automation, sales personnel are freed up to focus on customers instead of spending time on a variety of administrative tasks necessary to keep track of the customers.

What is the need for Sales Force Automation?

Sales Force Automation systems are basically software tools designed to help automate routine tasks within sales processes. They are commonly integrated as part of a customer relationship management system. Basic elements of a normal Sales Force Automation software include lead tracking, process tracking, order management and sales forecasting.

A faster customer onboarding system is always beneficial for a business. The faster you complete a sale, the faster your business grows. This is no rocket science; it is a simple business truth. Any technology or software that helps in faster customer onboarding is meant to be profitable for businesses. Time is a resource provided equitably to all and we have all been given 24 hours in a day. Did you know that salespersons actually sell only for 35% of their work hours? They spend the remaining 65% dealing with inefficient databases, checking customer profiles, repeat customers, and demand generation manually. 

Shocking, isn’t it? 

Instead of being out there, completing sales and onboarding customers, they are busy wasting their time on repetitive tasks which could be done in a fraction of the time using artificial intelligence.

So, what are the compelling factors that make it critical for a business to invest in Salesforce Automation?

• Missed Sales Opportunities –

If salespersons must spend time completing routine tasks and reinventing the wheel before they speak to every customer, there are bound to be missed sales opportunities. Nobody is perfect and they cannot be expected to remember all deadlines, appointments, and interactions regarding a prospective customer. It is possible that several opportunities are missed simply because the salespersons are overwhelmed by the amount of information that they must remember randomly. Sales force automation and CRM softwareprovide tools that let salespersons manage follow-ups for each customer including reminders about every deal. Such tools are a necessity in this competitive environment to enable salespeople to focus on increasing the number and quality of customer interactions rather than managing administrative tasks. Sales Force Automation software gives you the edge to generate more new customers and bring in more business from existing customers.

• Salesperson is a Brand Consultant 

Your salesperson represents your brand. He/she should be equipped to provide the customer with a delightful sales experience. Customers of today look up to the salesperson as a trusted consultant who can understand their needs and provide them with a customized solution. Salespersons can no longer afford to be focused only on the actual selling of the product or service. They need to be adept at providing a complete customer experience. They need to remain informed about the customer’s business needs, understanding the challenges and the possible solutions which he could offer. Salespeople need real-time analytics and updates about their customers so that they can address customer concerns better during meetings. CRM equips the sales team with the latest business information which enables them to provide personalized solutions to customers that meet their needs and expectations.

• Inefficient Prioritization

At the heart of success lies the ability to prioritize your task list. It is important to be able to segregate between 

·       the urgent and important 

·       important but not urgent 

·       urgent but not important

·       the not important and not urgent

In the absence of automation, this is not an easy task to be completed on an individual  

basis with respect to sales. It is sub-optimal use of resources if the sales force end up spending more time on lower quality leads instead of focusing on the best ones with 

maximum conversion potential. All leads are not the same and it is important to be able 

to prioritize them based on real-time information. This is where lead management software steps in. You can easily use sales force automation to assign a lead ranking to each potential customer. This would clearly differentiate between cold sales leads and hot prospects. You would also be able to track data on the potential value of the deal, estimated probability of closure etc. which could help in taking decisions regarding  optimum allocation of resources.

• Inability to make Accurate Business Forecasts

In the absence of information, a business cannot function. Optimum business decisions and efficient resource utilization are completely dependent on the availability of accurate top-line forecasts. If the future income projections are accurate, business owners will be in a better position to make intelligent decisions about the allocation of resources, budgets, and practically every aspect of the business. Future cash flow projection is the single most important piece of information that every business needs. Such information can be easily generated using the sales force automation software. The information can be converted into various reports based on different metrics. It offers a clear view of what succeeded and what failed as far as sales processes are concerned. A clear future cash flow projection by product, market segment, and geography helps the business to identify its core competencies which helps it to refine its marketing approach.

• Employ Modern Customer Acquisition techniques

It is important to know your customer well to be able to provide him with a satisfying experience. It is not practical to expect one salesperson to know everything about a customer, especially if he is new or has been transferred from another function. 

Studies show that collaborative selling increases productivity by over 25%. The integration of cross functional teams will help to improve sales performance. It is always better to use CRM software to consolidate customer information based on real-time data. This reduces dependency on the individual salesperson and eliminates the risk of knowledge loss when a resource is away or has left the organization.

• Reduction in inefficiencies of open sales methods

It is unbelievable how much of a salesperson’s time is taken up by repetitive routine administrative work which could have been productively spent, otherwise. In the absence of sales force automation, this is not possible. If you want your sales team to focus on their core competence which is relationship building with customers, it would be prudent to consider buying sales force automation software. That is the only way your sales team can have access to smarter real-time data regarding their customer’s needs which would enable them to recommend an optimal solution. The software not only eliminates the need for repetitive manual tasks but also maintains real-time information on each prospective customer. This enables more efficient and effective workflows and a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

• Continuous Performance Appraisal

If you can’t measure a metric, you can never improve it. When it comes to sales, it is of critical importance to track each sale back to the salesperson. The Sales force automation software provided by Celusion Technologies has performance tracking tools which include

·       Goal Sheet and Targets to assign revenue goals for each employee and compare with actual performance
·       Sales Activity insights to track activities performed by each member and provide guidance
·       Sales Performance Analysis to measure performance across user, product, branch, or location.
 

These reports would give you a pretty accurate idea of what is working and what is not. It will also be a fair and transparent method to gauge employee performance. It will not only reveal how much sales an employee has generated but also the percentage of opportunities that have resulted in a successful conversion. These are powerful performance measurement tools. This could also serve as the best sales training system .Nothing makes a person work harder than his peer performance. A transparent appraisal mechanism like this would keep team members on their toes and continually motivated to improve their own performance. Healthy competition always pushes team members to raise the bar and improve continuously. 

• Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Sales

With the advent of artificial intelligence, a lot of information gathered and analysed manually in the past is now being done efficiently and effectively by software. This has freed up a lot of time for sales teams to focus on their actual work which is to follow up leads and close deals. Artificial intelligence can easily manage routine tasks, study the prospect’s level of interest and suggest the next steps to be taken. These are routine and repetitive tasks which were done by humans in the past but that  is no longer the case. Most businesses have switched to sales force automation software for these activities. Using Artificial Intelligence to identify potential leads and complete routine tasks enables sales personnel to meet prospective customers and end in successful customer onboarding. In a dynamic marketplace, this is a competitive advantage over peers and that explains why more and more businesses are switching to this software.

• Informed Decision Making

Information is the heart of business decisions. The quality of the real-time information impacts every business decision. The sales process would definitely improve if the salesperson had better information about the customer and his needs based on past interactions that anyone in the company had in the past. An aggregation of such information is a goldmine for the salesperson for he doesn’t have to spend time figuring it out from the scratch. Maintaining customer wise data in a central database accessible to all employees is the key to the success of this software. This eliminates the need for multiple data sources and also records information from every possible source. This keeps the salesperson up to date when he sets up a meeting with the customer which leads to considerable time-saving and also provides a great customer experience. It eliminates the need to ask the same questions and move on towards finding suitable solutions. This ensures forging a  better relationship with the customer and improves the prospects of successful closure. A cumulative database ensures that all past history is stored for each customer which eliminates the risk of information loss, incase of employee turnover.

• Streamlining the Sales Pipeline

Synchronization of the process workflow between marketing and sales teams ensures more conversion of potential leads into actual sales simply on account of the regulated follow of real-time information. Staying on top of customer information is the most critical aspect of a business. By automating the routine pieces, the Sales Force Automation software ensures that the focus is completely on the customer whose needs the sales team is geared up to fulfil. Integration of the customer onboarding platforms along with enterprise tools like CRM and Sales Force Automation provides a business with a complete system to gain a competitive advantage.

In Conclusion, it can be said that companies that are harnessing the power of sales force automation are forging ahead of their competition and delighting their customers. 

After all, it is the duty of every business to keep their customers happy if they want to survive in the long term. We, at Celusion Technologies, provide several customer-centric solutions.

For more information about who we are and how we can tailor digital business solutions for you, please visit www.celusion.com