Why Your Small Business (SMB) Needs Sales Force Automation Software?

Sales force automation software is used by sales teams to optimize their sales strategy by providing sales reps with powerful automation to streamline certain processes.  Some use CRM software; however, there are subtle but significant arguments for using one CRM software over another.

The reason companies seek to optimize workflows is to improve the overall customer experience. When sellers have the tools to focus entirely on personalizing their offers, prospects tend to respond positively, which results in higher conversion rates. The tools these reps use most often are sales automation.

Many entrepreneurs think that sales force automation software is designed specifically for large companies because of its higher prices, but that’s not true. There are tons of advantages for SMBs, and those advantages tend to outweigh the disadvantages. Small businesses in particular benefit from this software because these automations make it easier for small teams to handle larger workloads without sacrificing the finer details that may or may not make a deal.

Here, we’ll tell you why your small business should consider using sales force automation software right now.CRM software and sales force automation software
Before we dive into why sales force automation software is a necessary purchase for small businesses, we need to discuss how it differs from CRM software . These differences are subtle, but necessary to determine .

software is right for your small business.

CRM software is mainly used for contact management. This means organizing contacts, automatically storing them in an easily accessible and shareable database between reps and managers, lead scoring, and much more. There are thousands of integrations that come with CRM software to make it easy to integrate existing data from other programs into a synchronized dashboard. StartupCRM , has a particularly effective sales dashboard.

Sales force automation focuses on automating specific business tasks such as tracking customer interactions, controlling sales, and analyzing sales forecasts and performance. All of these automations are important for sales reps because they need to be able to prioritize their leads and customers to improve the overall experience. However, these time-consuming tasks cannot be skipped either.

This is where sales force automation comes in.

So what are the differences exactly? Both seem to be focused on making the rep’s life easier. More often than not, the best sales automation software incorporates elements of CRM software while the best CRM software incorporates elements of automation software. The difference is where in the pipeline you want to optimize.

If you’re looking to optimize the start of the sales funnel, you’ll want the CRM software to determine which contacts are important to the sales team. If you’re already attracting hundreds of leads, you want SFA software to optimize workflows and keep leads growing so salespeople can focus on delivering a personalized experience. In short, CRM software focuses specifically on managing contact data, while sales force automation focuses on user experience and the sales funnel.

Sales force automation delivers much-needed benefits for your reps
Now that we know what the differences are, let’s figure out what the exact features your employees need in sales force automation software.

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are often used by sales teams to start a conversation with a lead on a website or social network. Today they are powered by AI, which makes them much more enjoyable and useful. They can even direct customers to an advisor who is waiting for them to simplify the entire sales process.

According to several studies, the call from the first minute of a new prospect increases the chances of obtaining a conversion of 391%, which is dizzying. Instead of having a rep remember to make that call when their schedule is already full, a chatbot can initiate the conversation and automatically direct the call to the rep.

2. Automated Tracking

Follow-ups are just as important as conversation starters when it comes to generating new leads. It also plays an important role in retaining current customers. If a prospect is interested in a product, a chatbot reaches out to them, and they’re not sure if they’re ready to get started, the worst thing an advisor can do is pass on the prospect. next. They should let the lead know that they’re available anytime to answer more questions, then check back in a day or two to see if anything has changed.

It’s also important for customer retention, as businesses save huge amounts of money by establishing a solid base of repeat customers. It costs more to generate leads than to retain current customers. The automated follow-ups that come with sales force automation software make this process very easy for salespeople. All they have to do is set some parameters like scheduling a previously created email to be sent two days after first contact or 1 day before a quote expires .

3. Sales forecasts

This feature is a must on StartupCrm because of its effectiveness for salespeople. Sales forecasting looks at all the data collected by your business and determines where it’s headed – whether you’re going to meet your short- or long-term goals, whether you need to change your business strategy, or whether everything’s going well.

Salespeople and sales managers can do this on their own by tracking certain metrics that can be calculated using standard calculation formulas; however, sales force automation is starting to take advantage of AI, making it instantaneous to calculate and analyze all that data. You can choose the indicators you want to track, then the software will present this data in the form of an attractive visual graph, chart or table that is easily accessible to the whole team. The time spent doing it manually can finally be used to enjoy other important tasks.