Fears that automation is difficult to implement and no less difficult could see online businesses miss out on some remarkable opportunities.
Automation has long been used to hurry up time-consuming manual processes, helping businesses develop into more scalable, productive and, above all, profitable. But today, it has moved light years ahead, ushering in a complete recent era of solutions which can be each smarter and more economical.
So in case you’re pondering of jumping on the automation bandwagon, don’t think twice. Listed below are the five easiest ways:
1. Automate your pre- and post-sales processes
Automation helps implement higher communication between team members, enabling a better approach to guide management and sales. Tools like Zapier are a superb example. They mix pre-sales and after-sales activities on one platform, allowing you to administer every little thing in a single place.
Let me explain. Zapier is an online automation tool that connects various applications and services together to permit two-way communication between them. This opens up an infinite world of possibilities for you.
For instance, you can connect your sales and CRM systems to get a full view of your company’s performance. Similarly, you can integrate your Slack workspace with Zapier or other similar tools like Automate.io to attach it to apps that aren’t directly compatible with Slack.
Specifically, it gives you the flexibility to mechanically:
- Notify your team when a hot lead appears in one in every of your sales funnels
- Save specific files and reports to Google Drive
- Send Gmail emails as Slack messages
The list is essentially infinite. In a word, sales automation gives you excellent opportunities influence on the underside line, giving sellers more time to shut deals than to trace leads.
2. Activate your digital calendar
There’s nothing more frustrating than playing phone tag with a possible customer. Or sending multiple emails one after the opposite to rearrange a time that works for each parties.
Fortunately, there are many online booking tools available to show you how to schedule appointments and appointments in an efficient and hassle-free way. One such tool is Calendly.
Calendly mechanically syncs with your calendar to ascertain your availability and allows others to schedule appointments with you. To spice things up a bit, you can add Zoom to the combo. Connecting your Calendly account to Zoom (using Zapier or an identical service) will itself add a link to your meetings. This fashion you will not need to wait when it is time to fulfill.
3. Discover leads able to sell
Lead generation is the guts and soul of any sales team. Because without potential customers, there is no such thing as a business and thus no development opportunities. While there are numerous ways to generate leads, in response to HubSpot, 74% of companies use lead generation forms like Typeform.
Unlike regular forms that contain only just a few fields, similar to name and email address, lead generation forms contain customer-specific fields. Not only that, but being interactive and user-friendly, it encourages visitors to act.
Nonetheless, not all interactions are price your attention. In other words, not all leads enter the sales funnel with the intention of shopping for. Subsequently, it’s crucial to categorize leads based on their quality and level of interest.
Manually, the method is time-consuming, tedious, and vulnerable to human error. As an alternative, firms can connect Typeform to their Slack workspace. Zapier or one other automation tool can serve this purpose.
It mechanically classifies and categorizes submitted forms when certain criteria are met and your sales team might be notified via Slack quick message. It should also automate the technique of storing files from accomplished forms by uploading them to Dropbox, Google Drive or your preferred cloud storage service.
4. Improve email deliverability
With regards to keeping in contact with your audience, there is no such thing as a substitute for email marketing. While there are numerous apps available to assist with mass emailing by making your job slightly easier, automation raises the bar a step further.
Here’s how: You can integrate an email automation tool like Mailchimp with Typeform to sync data between apps and create powerful workflows. For instance, you can create Mailchimp email templates for every step of the sales process. The automation tool will take customer information from forms and send them “fully personalized” emails based on where they’re within the sales funnel.
5. Automate your workflows
Repetitive tasks make employees less engaged and fewer productive. They typically don’t require much work, but when you have got to share the identical meeting link with your team each day, enter the identical personal information into different contracts every week or so, and file financial reports every month, these small chores add up – and take a big chunk of your time away from work .
Automation is changing the sport by taking good care of such tasks and allowing employees to be more productive in jobs that require more attention.
Many tools can be found to automate the aforementioned tasks. For instance, Zapier’s Schedule tool can show you how to send weekly Slack meeting links. Nintex can mechanically generate documents for you, and Zoho can streamline expense reporting. You can mix these tools along with an automation tool that can autonomously track recurring tasks for every worker’s schedule.
Using project management tools that support automation – ClickUp and Monday.com are two good examples – can also show you how to automate your workflows. You can arrange triggers to automate repetitive actions on your tasks, similar to rescheduling or changing the assignee each time there is a status change.
Unlimited possibilities with the suitable investments
Automation guarantees limitless possibilities for online businesses. Just put money into the suitable tools and your teams can deal with creating value for each themselves and the corporate.
in regards to the creator
(*5*)Austin Rotter is a branding specialist with over ten years of experience within the industry. He’s related to hyper-growth tech firms, promising startups and Fortune 1000 brands, helping them cut through the clutter and make an impact within the digital world.