Last week, we looked at how sales and revenue leaders can create a lead distribution process that drives revenue. Today, we’re sticking with the theme of scaling operations and digging into how you can automate your sales process for more efficiency.
Why bother spending time on sales process automation? Because even small improvements to your process can add up to significant gains in revenue.
Research by HubSpot shows that 61% of businesses using automation reported exceeding revenue targets in 2020. And according to Hinge Research, businesses that integrate high-level automation into their sales process see approximately 16% more leads compared to those that have low-level or no automation.
If your sales team could convert 16% more leads, how would that change your business?
The opportunities to automate are vast and, of course, dependent on your business and market. To help get you started, we’re providing three easy ways to automate your sales process for more efficiency.
(Note: The recommendations here assume that your team is using a CRM with at least basic automation capabilities.)
Automate Lead Intake and Routing
Whether your site is built on a CRM-powered content management system like HubSpot’s CMS Hub, or you have your lead forms integrated with your CRM, you have what you need to capture and distribute leads from forms on your website automatically.
If you’re already syncing leads with your CRM, that’s a great first step – but let’s look at what else we can do here to improve efficiency:
- Set up automation to thank the contact for their submission and set expectations for next steps
- Route the contact to the appropriate salesperson based on any number of criteria and assign ownership
- Send an email to the corresponding salesperson with the contact’s conversion information for helpful lead-nurturing context
- Update the contact’s lead score based on properties and/or engagement
- Add the contact to any relevant lists for proper segmentation and reporting
All of these things can be done with one workflow. If there’s room to further streamline how leads are captured to ensure timely follow-ups and accurate routing, this is where we typically recommend starting to add sales process automation.
Use a Meeting Scheduler Link to Book Meetings and Demos
The meeting scheduler link may seem like a small thing, but in our experience, this tool can greatly simplify the process of booking meetings, reducing friction and creating a better experience for both your team and your prospects.
Here’s how you can use a meeting scheduler link to book meetings with less friction:
Choose a Meeting Scheduler Tool: There are several meeting schedulers available; our favorites are Calendly and HubSpot Meetings. If you haven’t already, sign up for an account.
Set Up Your Availability: You can provide your availability by integrating your calendar and specifying the days and times and days you want to be available for meetings, and the duration of each meeting. You can also set up custom availability for specific events or time off.
Create Your Meeting Scheduler Link: Once you’ve set up your availability, create your meeting scheduler link. This is a unique URL that you can share, allowing people to book a meeting with you directly from your calendar.
Here’s an example of HubSpot’s meeting booking page:
Share Your Meeting Scheduler Link: Here’s where you can get creative. Beyond sharing your meeting scheduler link in emails and adding it to your email signature, where else might this tool reduce friction for your leads and prospects? For example, some of our clients like to include a team meeting link on the thank you page of a demo request form if the lead meets certain requirements. There are also tools like Chili Piper’s Form Concierge that allow leads to book a meeting right from the contact form.
Manage Your Meetings: Once you’ve set up your meeting scheduler, you can also use this tool to manage your meetings, including confirming appointments, rescheduling and canceling.
We all know it’s a hassle to play email tag when trying to nail down a meeting time. Your scheduler simply provides a much more streamlined process for everyone involved – saving time for your sales team and improving the conversion rate from lead to meeting booked.
Automate Open Quote Reminders
For businesses with a high volume of quote requests, there’s plenty of time to be saved by automating how these are managed.
Rather than manually checking on what quotes are still open and following up with prospects who haven’t signed off, why not create a workflow that automatically reminds prospects about the quote and alerts the salesperson when the quote is about to expire?
Setting this up is simple – here’s what a very basic version of this might look like using HubSpot:
It’s quick and easy to get this in place, and the benefits could be significant.
Taking the Next Steps
Regardless of what industry you’re in or how big your sales team is, chances are your business could stand to gain efficiency by spending some time on sales process automation.
These are just three ways to get started, but hopefully, they provide a good jumping-off point for your business to begin adding more automation to your sales operations.
One final note: automation, when well executed, is a great thing. Automation set up incorrectly resulting in awkward errors, crossed wires or other misfires – not so great. Avoid the latter by working with a partner who has expertise in automation.
