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Top 5 Reasons to Invest in Sales Automation Technology Investing in sales automation software to one's knowledge is a data-proven, blessing in disguise.

By Ambarish Gupta

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In today's highly-competitive business environment, the good news is, investing in sales automation is a logical move for SMBs that are unwilling to cede the race. For your sales head and your organization, sales is not a standalone function - capable of thriving on it's own.

Your most influential and prized possession - "prospects' and their pain points can be time-consuming, if they don't convert. However, considering the "real-life' experiences of your sales folks, investing in sales automation software to one's knowledge is a data-proven, blessing in disguise.

With time, sales has flit from old-fashioned cold-calling to newfangled email marketing; and implementing the right CRM with sales automation, like Salesforce, Base, and Oracle CRM On Demand, will reflect on this transformation. According to Forrester reports, here are five compelling reasons to invest in sales automation technology:

Increase close rates between 8 to 10 per cent

Today, several small and mid-sized companies combat disintegrated customer data and an expanding customer base. Adopting centralized, sales automation software can diminish much of the tedious, behind the scenes task, allowing your sales people to track prospects through the pipeline. As a result, you can study your target segment's behavior to create relevant content, and thereby, render personalized services to watch your close rates soar high.

Reduce time to sell by 10 to 15 per cent

In the rush to automate time-consuming work, sales function has reached its final frontier with the progression of sales automation systems. Essentially, not all of the contacts in your existing database are worthwhile, but put together, these contacts are the stepping-stone to develop, to nurture and to win the game of sales. This technology will not annihilate the need for high-touch customer interactions; but it will strengthen your capacity to reach the right customer at the right time, resulting in long-lasting customer relationships.

Boost revenue from sales employees by 3 to 5 per cent

Relieving sales employees from lackluster chores, encourage them to double their efforts in making sales calls (read: in-person and/or over the phone). Sales automation systems can help your sales team to quickly generate estimates, transform these estimates into proposals, close a deal, comprehend customers' order history at-a-glance, and proactively notify customers on their orders arrival. Equipped with information of the sort will support the division to upsell or cross-sell during communication - based on customer needs and current product offerings.

Shoot up customer retention by 5 to 10 per cent

The power of sales automation does not end with new client acquisitions. These automation tools tend to beget meaningful insights, which predict far-fetched customer requests, leading to higher renewal deals. Continuous follow-up messaging can draw the line between retaining and losing customers.

Having said that, this technology is more than just a central hub designed to manage the pipeline, and to track the order of business. If you happen to invest in high-tech software that provides web access to your contact list, and allows you to sync them to your mobile phone - it's a sure sign of progress.

Round-the-clock opportunity management

The old school thought of tallying sales-call sheets have been replaced with consistent ways of managing teams. Sales automation software assist sales managers with the tools necessary to instantly access every salesperson's business activities, figures, customer complaints and other relevant metrics, that help to manage growth and measure revenue. On that note, your management can strike the right chord, based on real-time information.

Hence, investing in the right sales automation technology can help you position customer details in a unified platform, which is accessible on-the-go, by all of your sales reps; and ultimately, this technology will dictate your lead conversion and your team's continuous performance - maximizing the overall sales.

Ambarish Gupta

CEO and Founder, Knowlarity Communications

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