Some of the common mistakes that companies make are using random technologies without proper strategies and internet tools that do not resonate well with their target customers. Thus, in this Expert Insight Interview, Kevin Snow discusses sales automation. Kevin Snow is a Founder and Chief Strategist at Time on Target, helping small businesses to integrate technology into their sales and marketing strategies and processes to scale effectively.
The interview discusses:
- Approaching sales automation
- The future of sales automation
- Integrating sales teams in decision making
The Approach
The purpose of automation in sales is to free up time for people to do more high-value tasks by completing all the tedious and repetitive tasks for them. However, sometimes people get addicted to automation and start thinking that automation will take care of everything. Thus, all the best automation systems have human touchpoints built-in as well. That way, high-value human activities still have to be done for the process to complete.
Another thing that people need to pay attention to when automating their sales process is to avoid being too aggressive towards their customers. For instance, start contacting customers only when you see that they are around the pricing page and not as soon as they enter your website. Buyers nowadays can get information and research on their own. Thus, the most important thing is to provide them with a great experience. Not all people consume information the same way nor want to engage the same way. It is your job to figure out if the best way to approach the prospect is through email, text, phone calls, etc.
The Future
People finally started adopting digital transformation, and the pandemic played a significant role in it. However, many companies went into reactive mode and tried to implement it fast and without much thinking of strategies and sustainability in the long run. Thus, the next step is to figure out how to optimize it and incorporate it into the hybrid-style selling process. The goal is to take all the benefits that automation can provide while leveraging activities that require real people to interact with customers.
Decision Making Process
Sales team should participate in designing digital transformation for the sales process. Managers do not know all the things that sales teams go through in their daily operations and what makes their work more effective. Also, a good understanding of what and why will something be used in the future will create less reluctance among employees once they start integrating the new process into their daily work.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
Comments