Market leaders are embracing automation to increase sales. 67% of marketing leaders are currently using some form of marketing automation. Another 21% say they plan to add it within two years. They move to automation is because it works. Companies using automation across different marketing channels report increased lead generation and revenue.

Here are 8 ways that sales and marketing automation can help your organization.

Improve Efficiency

Anytime you reduce the manual workload for your sales team, it gives them more time to spend with potential customers. Automation software like Mixmax can connect multiple systems like your marketing efforts and your CRM to reduce manual, repetitive work by your sales team.

For example, the software allows sales users to create workflow automations to eliminiate manual tasks so they can focus on selling. For example, when a prospect has opened an email more than ‘X’ times, an automatic follow up email can be sent, a Linked In connection request can be sent to the prospect, and a task in your CRM can be automatically created to remind the sales rep to call the prospect.

These workflow automations provide your sales team with business intelligence on which customers engaged with your messaging and can help determine interest. The sales team can then spend time make a real, authentic connection with the warm prospect.

Email Templates

Email has become a powerful and effective way to connect with sales prospects. But your emails efforts are only effective if they provide valuable information quickly. In fact, research has found that if your sales team can follow up to an inquiry within in one hour the chances of closing that sale increases by 7x.

To respond this quickly, your sales team doesn’t have time to write custom emails or cut-and-paste messages. Rather, leverage emails templates that automatically populate the most important part of the email. Create templates for commonly asked questions during the sales process and train the team to use templates when these inquiries come into the inbox. Additionally, leverage merge tags to add customization like the prospect’s name and business name.

Personalization

Adding personalizations to your sales efforts helps your prospect feel valued. Consider creating unique landing pages for each industry you serve and share those links with the right prospects. If they see that the sales team understands their unique needs, they may be more interested in using your products or services.

Additionally, email marketing can be set up to send customized emails based on targeted prospects’ behavior, interactions, or past purchases. Messages can recommend when it’s time to upgrade or share a new feature that may specifically help their business. These automatic personalizations help craft authentic relationships at scale.

Improved Lead Intelligence

Whenever someone looks at your online proposal or presentation, it’s a potential buying signal. When it happens, it’s time to attempt to move that prospect to the next phase of the buying cycle. Automation tools like Acquire’s chat bots use artificial intelligence to provide helpful information and try to get the prospect further down the funnel.

Sequencing

Buyers typically follow a pattern in their journey.

1. They have a problem or desire
2. They start to research solutions
3. They become aware of your brand or products
4. They comparison shop
5. They make a purchase decision

Prospects want – and need – different messaging at the different phases of the customer journey. Automation solutions can sequence marketing messages to match where buyers are in the process and help move them to the next phase. For example, automatic email sequences can be set up when a customer becomes aware of your product. Consider having them download a white paper that provides valuable information in exchange for their email address. You can then send a series of sequential emails outlining your product and how it is different from your competitors. If the prospects opens all emails in a sequence, it may be a good time to send a final email with special pricing.

Tracking

Taking care of your current customers is crucial. Repeat sales and renewals grow your revenue base while reducing your customer acquisition costs. Sales automation can track contract lengths and work either with sales teams or independently to create renewal offers.

These offers can be customized depending on the customer’s prior history.

Scheduling Appointments

One of the most time-consuming tasks for sales teams is nailing down a time and date with prospects. It seems easy, but the back-and-forth can often drag out for days. Automation can connect your calendars and allow prospects to schedule immediately. The right email solution can read the calendar of the sales person or demo team and automatically place available times in an email. Then the prospect can simply select a time that works for them and the event will automatically be added to both calendars. This seamless automation can create a better experience and save hours.

Consistency

Using sales automation can also increase the consistency of your marketing materials. Once customers are identified, the automation can surface industry-specific information, pain points, and solutions. By creating this information in advance, and with the entire team, the content will be more uniform and well thought out. This will also prevent rogue or incorrect information from being provided by different team members.

The Benefits of Contract Automation

Automation can be a great help when you’re doing contract work. From planning to purchasing, and everything in between, automation is the best way to keep everything on track. Want to know how to easily manage contract workflows? Look no further than construction automation software. This type of software streamlines the planning and scheduling while supplying a comprehensive risk analysis to its users. Managing contracts can be dodgy sometimes, so having the means to keep all contracts together—along with risk assessments and automatic retrieval for each one—can mean the difference between a successful project and an enormous failure.

The Benefits of Sales Automation

Sales automation can make a dramatic difference to your bottom line. By using smart automations, you can improve your team’s efficiency, cutting down manual tasks and allowing them to spend more one-on-one time with high value prospects. Email and chatbot automations can increase your outreach and improve the experience for your leads. Finally, using templates and other automations can ensure each prospect gets the same experience with your business and ensure that opportunities don’t fall through the cracks.

With more tools than ever before, Automation has never been easier and more valuable.