Sales automation ensures that manual or repetitive tasks are automated using software, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other tools.
In other words, sales automation makes sure that daily, weekly and monthly tasks are taken off the hands of sales employees so they can focus on what's important and leave time to give prospecting actions more personal attention.
The benefits of sales automation
Sales automation can benefit your business in many different ways:
- Improves the productivity and performance of the sales team;
- Speeds up the sales process;
- Prevents human error;
- Ensures that leads don't fall between the cracks;
- Reduces the time it takes to respond to customers;
- Keeps data consistent across your organization;
- Allows you to achieve more with a small team.
The pitfalls of sales automation
Unfortunately, there are also things that can go wrong with automation. For instance, you would most likely never want to automate the entire sales process. Prospects can notice this immediately and experience the efforts as impersonal. As a sales person, it remains important that you add a human factor to the process. Therefore, use sales automation only to automate the processes in the background, whilst ensuring contact with your prospects is personal.
Sales automation options in HubSpot
HubSpot CRM allows for various automation options through dedicated tools and functionalities. This encompasses, among other features, the following options:
- Default pipeline automation: Set up deal pipeline automation to personalize default close date settings or establish additional automated actions that activate when deals progress through specific stages.
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Sequences: Using the sequences tool enables HubSpot users to dispatch a series of targeted, scheduled email templates to gradually engage relevant contacts. In addition to sending mailings, further actions are present such as automatically generating tasks to remind users to follow up with your contacts.
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Workflows: Set up workflow assets to optimize your business processes and improve overall efficiency. You can define specific enrolment criteria that automatically add records and initiate actions based on predetermined conditions. Furthermore, you can execute a variety of actions on related records, such as updating their associated information to keep data up to date and relevant.