3 Ways to Automate Your Sales Process and Work More Deals

Sales are the lifeblood of your business. That’s true no matter what your industry or niche might be. However, if your sales process is too convoluted, it can cost you leads and, ultimately, deals. 

The good news is that automation can help. With the right steps, you can streamline key parts of your process, freeing up time for you and your team to do what you do best – close deals by working directly with qualified, interested leads.

Of course, there are tons of automation options out there today and they’re not all created equal. Choosing the right tools requires starting from an informed position and knowing what you want to automate in the first place. Below, we’ll discuss three ways to automate your sales process and work more deals so that you can choose the appropriate tools and technology to support that automation.

Web chat

A great deal of your marketing is designed to drive traffic to one place – your website. However, once leads reach your website, what does your strategy involve? Most businesses use a combination of informative content and sales copy to inform and position their brand as the solution to the challenge the lead is facing. And that’s great.

It’s not always enough though. 

What happens when a lead has questions that aren’t answered in your landing page copy or other content on your site? Unless you have a clearly outlined path to a robust gated lead magnet (or more than one), your lead may want to ask a question or get information immediately. That’s where web chat comes in handy. This allows direct communication between customers and the brand.

More and more customers today expect the businesses they patronize to have website chat available. To avoid needing staff to manage the chat 24/7, you can automate the process with an AI and human-powered website chat tool.

AI can be trained in your brand voice and with your proprietary information to offer accurate answers to most questions. For questions that are more complex or of a sensitive nature, chats can be handed off to an experienced human representative. 

Phone call

Yes, this is another hoped-for outcome, and it can put you in direct contact with that lead. However, what if your office is closed? What if your team members are busy? What if your phone lines are tied up? What if the lead isn’t really a great fit for your business? 

By using an answering service, like Smith.ai, phone calls can be handled 24/7 — even on nights, weekends, and holidays — to make sure you never miss a lead. Virtual receptionists can go beyond just note-taking to take important actions as well, such as spam blocking, payment collection, and appointment scheduling. It’s a great way to automate your sales process and make sure all qualified opportunities are explored.

Lead enrichment

More and more, customers expect the businesses they buy from to know them and their history. They expect a personalized experience and aren’t content with a purely transactional one. While that can lead to greater customer loyalty and retention, it requires more legwork on your end.

Automating your sales enrichment process can pay major dividends. Enrichment is the process of gleaning information about potential leads, adding it to their profile, and then using it to customize your outreach efforts and interactions. It’s about taking a largely impersonal process and tailoring it to their unique needs, goals, budget, and experience with your brand at various touchpoints.

You can use automation to capture important information from a variety of sources, including customer service records, sales information, and more. However, you can also dig deeper, including information from the individual’s social media account, job title, and more. 

Lead screening and intake 

Lead generation is critical, but we can’t pretend that all leads are the same. Chances are good that you and your team spend a significant amount of time interacting with potential customers only to find that they’re not well suited for what you offer. Maybe their goals don’t align with your business’s products or services, or perhaps their budget doesn’t match up. It could be that they’re simply not ready to move forward and won’t be for quite some time. 

These interactions eat into the time you have available to interact with qualified leads who are ready to convert into customers. The more poorly-suited leads you communicate with, the less time you have to spend with those who are ready to do business with you immediately.

That doesn’t mean that low-quality leads should be ignored. They may convert into customers down the road, so it’s important that you communicate, gather information, and help them move forward at their own pace. The trick is balancing the two. Automation can help. With automated tools and the right partnerships, you can ensure that your leads are screened, information is captured, and poorly qualified leads get the support they need without eroding the time you have available to spend with better-suited leads.

The right partner can help you automate and streamline

As you can see, automating key aspects of the sales process can pay off in the end. Of course, you’ll need to tap the right tools and form relationships with trusted partners. At Smith.ai, our virtual receptionists and industry-leading AI tools can help you transform your sales processes, free up the time you need to focus on qualified leads and turn more conversations into clients.

From 24/7 answering to expert lead screening and intake, detailed call intelligence and metadata, call recording and transcriptions, and AI and human-powered website chat, we help your business thrive. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.