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The sales process is infinitely more sophisticated these days — and more time-consuming. Most sales reps want to spend their time with prospects doing what they do best: selling. 

However, an endless list of tasks seems to stand in their way. Though important, this non-selling work can detract from crucial conversations and follow-ups that could lead to closing a deal. This is where automation can help. 

Sales automation can streamline your most repetitive tasks so you can focus on better understanding buyers, engaging them at key moments, and hitting revenue goals. Generally speaking, the less time you can spend on data entry, the better. 

Entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield might have explained it best: “There’s a lot of automation that can happen that isn’t a replacement of humans, but of mind-numbing behavior.”

Here are eight ways you can automate your sales activities right now.

1. CRM data entry

An up-to-date customer relationship management (CRM) platform is crucial for sales team success. However, keeping that system updated and, thus, useful for sales, takes time. A lot of time. 

CRM automation tools can help with this dilemma. Software like Weflow speeds up and simplifies CRM updates by automating activity tracking, logging emails, and updating Salesforce for you.

Weflow even goes one level deeper to surface deal insights and help you manage your pipeline better.

2. Lead enrichment

You could spend a decent part of your workdays just analyzing leads and determining which leads to pursue and in what order. 

Speed up this process with lead enrichment. Solutions like ZoomInfo and Apollo.io can fill in the gaps about your leads coming in so that you can better assess and move the right ones forward.

You can more easily find and engage your ideal buyers with Apollo.io’s AI-powered workflows and lead-scoring functionality. ZoomInfo offers a powerful database with over 150M verified email addresses that can get you reaching out sooner. 

3. Sales outreach

Cold calling and sales outreach are daily activities for reps. When done well, personalized, targeted outreach in a variety of formats can lead to closed deals.

But without the proper tools, mass outreach efforts that rely solely on email or calls can get lost in inboxes and voicemails, missing their target completely. 

Tools like Outplay automate outreach across channels, including SMS, email, chat, social media, and phone calls. The custom outreach sequences you create can meet prospects where they are and deliver personalization that piques their interest.

Outplay can be the difference between faceless cold emails and targeted outreach that shows prospects they’re working with a real person. 

For outbound calling, look to tools such as Orum and Nooks to automate cold calls with parallel dialing, voicemail detection, CRM syncing, and built-in metrics. Nooks even offers an AI-powered “virtual sales floor” for better collaboration and coaching. 

4. Sales call transcription

Transcribing calls can help sales teams analyze conversations to identify trends and opportunities. Plus, it can remind you what has been discussed with prospects to tailor future demos and follow-ups. 

Of course, sales teams know about the importance of transcripts. But did you know that with AI, transcription software can now summarize video calls, pull out highlights, and deliver feedback? 

That’s how tools like Fathom work. This AI meeting assistant records video calls and delivers immediate call transcriptions with its own analysis added. Then, the software syncs with your CRM to add call notes and updates. 

5. Lead routing and scoring

For larger sales teams and organizations with a steady stream of leads coming in, efficient lead scoring is necessary. You only have so many hours in a day. Why waste it on contacts that will never become customers? 

Accurately managing, scoring, and routing the best leads to the most appropriate sales rep ensures that the highest-priority contacts get the most attention. The problem is that keeping a running spreadsheet of who was assigned is cumbersome. 

Chili Piper, Leandata, and other tools can help automate lead routing by instantly connecting buyers with the right reps based on territory, company size, and beyond.

You create the rules for better distribution across your team, and these solutions will make sure handoff is as smooth and automated as possible. 

For enterprise teams, check out Breadcrumbs’ lead-scoring model that analyzes your data and makes recommendations. Integrations with your CRM and tech stack simplify the path from prospect to customer to upgrade. 

6. Scheduling meetings

“Is Tuesday at 10 am open for you?” 

“How does next week look?”

Is there anything more painful about the sales process than trying to schedule meetings without the help of automation? The endless back-and-forth, sending calendar invites, the post-demo follow-ups — these are productivity killers. 

Instead of wasting time, use a tool like Outplay Meeting Scheduler to integrate calendars with your website for immediate booking, add meeting slots directly into emails, and trigger workflows for calendar events.

Plus, round-robin scheduling factors in your own rules to auto-distribute leads to the next best team member. 

7. Compensation management

Compelling sales compensation, including commissions and incentives, can drive reps to close deals faster and reach bigger goals. However, keeping track of closed deals and earnings can be a bit of a headache.

Sales reps really shouldn’t have to spend precious work time tracking and monitoring their own quotas and progress — especially when there are tools that can do it for them. 

QuotaPath and Forma.ai, for example, can automate compensation management by supporting even the most complex compensation plans.

You can build plans and make adjustments easily so that sales are automatically tallied, records stay updated, and commissions are paid out accurately and quickly. And that keeps everyone happy. 

8. Direct mail and gifting

Gifting can help your sales team foster positive engagement, accelerate time to close, and boost close rates.

Adding a personalized touch can go a long way in building connections with prospects. But if you don’t have a simple process to follow so that direct mail and gifts ship fast, you could miss your window of opportunity. 

Platforms, including Sendoso and Reachdesk, are built to support automated, fast fulfillment for gifts ranging from cocktail kits to pretty much anything you can find on Amazon.

Add a handwritten note and your own branding, and voilà! Your prospects will receive a customized gift at just the right time that also keeps your company top-of-mind.  

Speed up sales with the help of automation

You can’t automate everything. However, by using software to streamline tasks, you can dedicate more time to selling.

Try out any of these tools — most have a trial or money-back guarantee — and start seeing the impact of automation today.