By Brett Farmiloe
Automation—today often powered by AI—can be a game-changer in the world of sales, allowing your team to multiply their efforts while reducing time spent on repetitive busywork. We spoke to 17 industry leaders about how they use sales automation tools in their businesses, from automating client onboarding emails to deploying AI-powered chatbots.
17 ways to automate your sales process
1. Automated email sequences
“Following up with potential customers used to mean a mountain of manual emails. Now, automated email sequences take care of initial outreach and keep leads warm while we focus on qualified prospects. This has freed up our time for personalized communication and closing deals. Automation also helps us score leads faster. By automatically sorting inquiries and prioritizing hot ones, we can jump on opportunities before they go cold. It’s like having a tireless assistant handling the mundane tasks, letting us focus on what truly matters: building relationships and converting leads into happy customers.”
—Matt Bigach, Nexus Homebuyers
2. Lead management
“One of our biggest challenges has been managing leads. We receive hundreds of queries every week, and manually segmenting these leads, following up on them, and tracking their journey is very time-consuming. We decided to automate this task using our application’s feature to automatically send emails from Google Sheets.
“We set up a Google Sheets file where we store all the contact information and details of our leads. With our app, we created a system where emails are automatically sent to these leads based on specific triggers. For instance, if a lead is marked as ‘hot,’ it triggers an automatic email containing a special offer; if they have a query, an automatic email with our FAQ section is sent. Each lead’s response is tracked, and the data is directly updated in the Google Sheets file. If a follow-up is needed, an automated reminder is set, and the respective sales rep gets a notification.
“This automation has not only saved our sales team’s time, but also ensured that no lead is missed. We’ve been able to significantly scale up our sales activities without increasing our manpower. With automated tracking and reminders, our process has became more streamlined and error free.”
—Mary Tung, Lido.app
3. Improved sales workflows
“Implementing automation has significantly streamlined our sales processes by enhancing efficiency and accuracy. For instance, we automate lead scoring and qualification using CRM software, which swiftly identifies and prioritizes promising leads based on predefined criteria such as engagement level or demographic data.
“Moreover, email marketing automation plays a pivotal role in nurturing leads through personalized drip campaigns, ensuring timely follow-ups and engagement without manual intervention. This not only saves time, but also improves conversion rates by delivering relevant content to prospects at each stage of the sales funnel.
“Additionally, we automate proposal generation using templates and document automation tools, allowing sales representatives to quickly generate and customize proposals tailored to each client’s needs. Automation has revolutionized our sales workflows by streamlining lead management, nurturing, and proposal generation, enabling our team to focus on building relationships and closing deals effectively.”
—Dhruv Shah, Yegital
4. Personalized emails
“We leverage AI to optimize our sales processes by using a Zapier integration with OpenAI. Every lead submission form goes through this integration, allowing us to draft highly personalized introduction emails within a minute of the person reaching out. This quick, tailored response makes prospects feel valued and helps us engage with them before competitors do. This strategy has significantly improved our lead conversion rates and demonstrates the power of AI in enhancing customer interactions.”
—Justin Silverman, Merchynt
5. Enhanced sales training
“One approach that has really worked is the introduction of an AI training program. It monitors our daily sales interactions and gives an instant response, pointing out the most vital areas for improvement. For example, we integrated an AI tool that grades call recordings to identify standout techniques used in successful scenarios and areas for improvement in situations where any given sales rep may have optimized or enhanced their pitch. This has streamlined our training process, and more importantly, improved the performance of the teams. I remember a new hire who was able to rise quickly and become one of our top performers in just a couple of months. It is proof that AI has a direct effect on our success in sales.”
—Lucas Botzen, Rivermate
6. Streamlined cold outreach
“One of the most time-consuming tasks in the B2B sales process is cold outreach. Whether you use email or LinkedIn, you have to personalize your messages, find prospects, send follow-ups, and handle every conversation on your own. You also have to deal with low response rates, of about 30% or less.
“You may feel like you waste a lot of time on activities that do not yield meaningful outcomes. For me, it was a sign that cold outreach has a perfect opportunity to be streamlined with AI.
“I know that automation is quite a controversial topic in cold outreach. People are skeptical of automated messages because they appear generic and machine-written. Professionals are concerned that using this type of communication will harm their relationships with potential clients because, in the B2B industry, making genuine contacts is more important than in any other field.
“Captivated by automation’s vast potential, we ran a cold outreach automation test. Along the way, we discovered some tricks that allowed us to streamline sales outreach while maintaining a human face.
“Above all, automation doesn’t mean that the entire message has to be written by ChatGPT. We applied a blended approach: writing messages with our own words while using AI just to adjust the writing style to the communication style specific to the given industry. We also found out that it helps to check grammar or personalize service messages at scale.
“Since we started to automate our cold outreach, we have limited the time we spend on writing and pitching to around 30% and use this time for follow-up, crafting more personalized messages, and establishing meaningful connections. The less time spent on generic messages, the more time you can devote to your existing contacts, resulting in higher conversion rates.”
—Martin Kanaan, Makolab
7. Shift from transactional selling to empathetic selling
“Our team optimizes sales processes by leveraging AI, deploying a chatbot with natural language processing. This tool provides profound insights into customer preferences and pain points. Analyzing this data allows us to personalize sales pitches, proactively address concerns, and offer tailored solutions. This shift from transactional to empathetic selling fosters deeper connections with customers, significantly increasing sales and emphasizing genuine understanding and resolution of customer problems.”
—Brian Staver, Net Pay Advance
8. More efficient sales workflows
“Automation has significantly streamlined our sales processes, particularly in managing lead follow-ups and nurturing workflows. One example of this is the implementation of automated email sequences to engage with leads at different stages of the sales funnel. By leveraging automation tools within our CRM system, we’ve been able to set up customized email sequences that deliver relevant content and messaging based on the prospect’s behavior and engagement with our website or previous communications. These automated sequences help ensure consistent and timely follow-ups, without requiring manual intervention from our sales team.
“Additionally, we’ve automated several other tasks and workflows to improve efficiency and productivity across the sales process. For instance, we use automated lead scoring to prioritize and qualify leads based on their engagement level and fit with our ideal customer profile. This helps our sales team focus their efforts on the most promising opportunities, resulting in higher conversion rates and faster sales cycles.
“Furthermore, automation plays a key role in scheduling and managing sales appointments. We utilize automated calendar booking tools that integrate seamlessly with our CRM system, allowing prospects to book meetings directly based on our team’s availability. This eliminates the back-and-forth communication typically involved in scheduling appointments, saving time for both our team and the prospect.
“Overall, automation has been instrumental in streamlining our sales processes and improving overall efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks and workflows, we’ve been able to free up valuable time for our sales team to focus on building relationships with prospects and closing deals.”
—Daniel Merrill, OnCourse CRM
9. Personalized content
“I leverage AI to optimize sales processes by focusing on personalized SEO and automated content creation. I’ve found that utilizing an AI-based SEO and backlinking system can dramatically improve organic traffic. For instance, our content and backlink strategy analyzes search trends and competitor activities to create targeted content. This approach resulted in a 28% increase in organic traffic within a few months, offering significant visibility gains and lead generation.”
—Hansjan Kamerling, Adaptify AI
10. Automated lead qualification
“Our AI chatbot captures and qualifies incoming leads before escalating those with high buying intent to our sales team for live interactions. This ensures my team spends more time selling rather than on administrative tasks, increasing our conversion rates significantly.
“For example, our AI chatbot provides the sales team with crucial lead information, meeting context, and objectives. This AI-powered handoff allows us to have informed and efficient sales conversations, reducing the preparation time while increasing meeting relevance. Since implementing this tool, we’ve seen a threefold increase in the number of qualified leads and a substantial reduction in no-show rates because prospects can engage with us instantly.
“Additionally, AI updates our CRM with meeting summaries automatically. This not only keeps our data organized and accurate, but also enables us to tailor follow-up actions based on precise insights. By using AI to handle the busywork, our team focuses on high-value activities, leading to accelerated pipeline generation and higher sales quotas being achieved faster.”
—Aleks Gollu, 11Sight
11. Sales leads allocation
“Automation has been a game-changer in streamlining our sales processes. Specifically, we’ve implemented AI to automatically analyze and categorize incoming leads from our website based on the type of business and its size. This system then promptly assigns each lead to the most appropriate sales representative. This not only accelerates our sales cycle but also ensures a more accurate and efficient allocation of leads, significantly boosting our team’s productivity and response time.”
—Justin Silverman, Merchynt
12. Automated lead prospecting
“In sales, efficiency is everything. One tool that’s streamlined my workflow is LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator. It automates lead prospecting through advanced filters. It allows you to search by industry, job title, company size, and specific skills mentioned in a prospect’s profile. This eliminates the tedious process of sifting through endless lists and helps me target the right decision-makers within a company, saving me valuable time and ensuring I connect with the most relevant leads.”
—Juan Carlos Munoz, CC Creative Design
13. Appointment setting
“Streamlining our sales process through automation has been a game changer for us. A key example is our implementation of Beyond Orbit’s omnichannel AI bot. This AI bot has significantly improved our SDR appointment-setting by taking over several time-consuming tasks. The bot can initiate conversations with website visitors or respond to inbound inquiries via text, email, or even voice calls. It can then qualify these leads by asking a pre-programmed series of questions to assess their fit and interest. If the lead is qualified, the bot can then automatically schedule appointments directly on the calendars of both the SDR and the prospect, eliminating the back-and-forth of finding a mutually agreeable time.
“The beauty of the AI bot is that it can work 24/7. Even outside of business hours or when our SDRs are busy, the bot can keep the conversation going with potential customers, answer basic questions, and nurture their interest until a live SDR can connect with them. This ensures no leads go cold and keeps the sales funnel constantly flowing.
“By automating these tasks, our SDRs are freed up to focus on higher-value activities, like crafting personalized outreach and engaging in meaningful conversations with qualified leads. This has resulted in a significant boost in their overall productivity and appointment-setting success rates.”
—Shawn Boehme, PanTerra Networks
14. Automated administrative tasks
“We’ve significantly streamlined our sales processes by integrating HubSpot Sales Hub, especially for automating tasks for our SDRs and AEs. Utilizing HubSpot’s email sequencing and CRM functionalities, we’ve automated lead-nurturing emails and the updating of deal stages based on predefined triggers. This reduces manual entry and ensures timely follow-ups, allowing our team to concentrate more on strategic interactions rather than administrative tasks. The result is a more efficient sales cycle and better conversion rates, showcasing how targeted automation can enhance both productivity and effectiveness in a fast-paced fintech environment.”
—Aimie Ye, Centime
15. Attention-grabbing emails
“Email outreach plays a critical role in sales, whether it’s reaching out to inbound leads or outbound prospects. However, manually crafting these emails can be time-consuming and may not yield the desired results. That’s where AI comes in. AI-powered tools enable salespeople to quickly generate high-quality email content and attention-grabbing subject lines. This automation allows for scaling up outreach efforts, focusing on personalization, and increasing the chances of emails being opened and engaged with.”
—Travis Willis, Aspire
16. Inventory management
“We’ve significantly improved our sales and customer interaction processes through the use of automation. One standout example is the automation of our inventory management system. This tool dynamically updates our stock listings on our website and alerts our sales team in real-time as inventory levels change. It allows us to provide accurate information to customers instantly, avoiding the frustration that can come with inquiring about models that are no longer available.
“Additionally, we’ve automated parts of our client communication, particularly in post-sales follow-ups and service reminders. Once a purchase is completed, our CRM system automatically schedules and sends personalized thank-you messages and maintenance reminders based on the specific truck or trailer purchased. This not only keeps our customers engaged but also enhances their satisfaction and loyalty by providing timely, useful information without delay.
“These automation practices have not only streamlined our operations but also allowed our sales team to focus more on direct customer interactions and problem-solving rather than on routine tasks. As a result, we’re seeing smoother workflows, more satisfied customers, and an overall increase in sales efficiency. This approach has proven crucial in maintaining high standards of service and operation in the competitive truck and trailer market.”
—Michael Sensano, Apple Truck and Trailer
17. Strategic decision-making
“Automation has truly revolutionized the way we make decisions. By automating sales analytics, we are able to produce reports on sales performance, customer interaction data, and market trends. This empowers us to pinpoint areas needing enhancement, adjust our strategies to suit evolving market scenarios, and acknowledge the most successful sales approaches. For our app, this depth of understanding is crucial for staying competitive in the dynamic tech sector.”
—Luca Castelli, Detectico
About the Author
Post by: Brett Farmiloe
Brett Farmiloe is the founder and CEO of Featured, a platform where business leaders can answer questions related to their expertise and get published in articles featuring their insights.
Company: Featured
Website: www.featured.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
