Automation is not brand-new technology. For decades, people have been finding ways to make life easier by having machines and devices do their work for them. Most recently, advancements in automation technology have and are continuing to make waves across almost all industries, especially the business sector.
For this article, we focus on some of the best ways automation is helping businesses secure more leads and, at the same time, increase sales:
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Faster responses to RFPs
A request for proposal (RFP) is a public announcement made by a company or client in the market for a product, service, or agency. Organizations that want to secure that RFP will have to make their proposals quickly, and in doing so, they have to ensure that their responses are professional, concise, and contain the right content.
RFP response programs automate the RFP response process, making it simpler and more efficient. With such a tool in their tech stack, a company will make great bids without scouring through content or spending hours trying to make the perfect proposal. Furthermore, they will manage all RFP-related projects, documents, and tasks in one place, allowing for better productivity and organization.
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Automated personalized cold emails
Automating cold emails is one thing; automating personalization in said cold emails is another. Personalization is key to increasing open and read rates of cold emails. In fact, recipients are 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines than those without.
Although personalizing every email seems to be a painstaking process, it can actually be automated with simple template-building tools. Here is an example of a template that most companies use to personalize cold emails:
Subject line: Better revenue for [prospect’s company name] this 2021
Hi, [prospect’s name],
I have recently come across your article [article title] and share the same thoughts, so I figured I should reach out and start a conversation.
I have a proposal to help [prospect’s company] secure ten times more customers by the end of the year. I recently helped [another client/prospect’s competitor] achieve 50% more of their sales goals last month.
[Prospect’s name], let’s talk about it more in detail in a quick phone call. What day and time would work best for you?
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Finding information on leads for email content
Mentioning something relevant about the prospect is one of the best techniques in building rapport and personalizing cold emails. For example, if the email mentions a recent article that the prospect has published or perhaps an interesting fact on their LinkedIn profile (e.g., the school they went to), the prospect is more likely to read the email all the way through and even reply to it with a positive response.
Unfortunately, finding bits and pieces of information to personalize emails is a tedious process. For this reason, companies like Dux-Soup and Phantombuster have features that allow lead list builders to scrape LinkedIn profiles for prospects’ information. Not only does this kind of technology make lead generation more efficient, but it also allows sales professionals to filter information that they can use to create better connections with clients.
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App integrations for better communication
More often than not, clients expect immediate responses to their messages, especially when they are in the last stages of the sales funnel when they are about to decide if they want to purchase or not. That said, sales professionals have to stay on top of multiple communication channels to ensure that they provide speedy responses to each lead.
For obvious reasons, keeping track of multiple communication platforms is inefficient and can often lead to missed opportunities—sales professionals have a lot on their plate as it is. By using a tool that integrates multiple platforms into one main communication channel, sales pros can receive notifications for every message they receive regardless of where they receive it.
For example, if one client sends a message on a web app, the integration tool lets the salesperson know by sending a notification on a communication tool like Slack. In this way, the salesperson won’t have to check multiple pages periodically to ensure that every lead and client receives attention.
These are just some of the best automation applications in the sales process, which is traditionally monotonous and time-consuming without the help of technology. With how far automation technology has come in most recent years, we can only expect more developments to arise and make processes in both B2B and B2B a lot easier.
