I was reading an article “How to Sell Successfully in the Fourth Industrial Revolution” (written by Sandler Sales & Evernote) about how AI will change Sales in the future.  The article referred to data from Gartner inc. “Global business value derived from artificial intelligence is projected to total $1.2 Trillion in 2018 (a 70% increase from 2017) and is forecast to reach $3.9 Trillion in 2022.” Article link below:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/0uiibtmigzk2isl/Fourth_Industrial_Revolution_Sandler.pdf?dl=0

One of the key things that stood out to me was it was all forward looking; I say why wait. People spend their day doing tasks that are ripe for automation that is available Right NOW…!

I did some math using their numbers and according to the survey the average sales person spends 23% of their day, 110 minutes (1 hr 50 Min. a day) actually selling.  That is defined as on the phone or In-front of a qualified prospect or customer. They spend 60 % of their day doing Busy Work. Many of those were tasks that are ripe for automation: emails, data entry researching leads, meetings & check ins, Scheduling Meetings etc.  The final 17% of their day is spent in training & industry research – news, etc.

A significant portion of their day is spent with Busy Work 60% of the day roughly 5 hrs. It is an area ripe for attention, yet few seem to pay any attention to it. If we could re-capture 1 hr a day, selling time would increase about 30%.

How to accomplish this Now:

Email templates & Marketing Literature (Why re-invent the wheel) Time spent hunting down the company approved Marketing Literature & email formats instead put it in the Salesforce library. Emails can be automated such that when an Opportunity Status is changed the relevant email is sent ie. Welcome Aboard, Satisfaction Survey, Time to Renew etc. This email should be highly personalized addressing the person by name referring to that specific opportunity with the relevant products for that Opportunity. Is this level of customization possible in Salesforce, yes it is not only possible it is fairly easy.

Automate Approval processes:

How often do your deals drag and stall while waiting for approvals from management?  Need a discount, terms changed, special processes etc. sending e-mails following up is a huge time drain. With an approval process the Process becomes automated, it can be accessed and actions taken 24/7/365 and if someone is on vacation, no problem a delegated approver can substitute for that missing manager. You can even automate specific Discount Approvals by role. Sales person can get automatic approval for discounts up to 15%, the Regional Manager up to 20%, Vp up to 30% etc. and it is all documented.

Salesforce Lightning – Sales Process Builder

Many sales in Regulated Industries have statutory deadlines, such as Lenders, Financial Services, Banking, and Many others. Using the Process Builder, we can automate a large part of this process. It all starts with a Lead coming in via the Company Website using Salesforce Web to Leads connection. That triggers this process flow, which has three 48 hr Scheduled Actions.  Each action ques the person assigned to this prospect, via an email with a link to the relevant records. They are required to take a specific action to move the Loan through the evaluation process. The process required completion within 144 hrs. to meet regulatory & corporate requirements. The Process Builder can also suggest ways for the sales person to close the sale or up sell that prospect.

Deal Process Automation  Workflows & Flow Builder

When a deal closes the Salespersons, job is done right…. Well no, the rest of the team needs to swing into action and deliver. How will they get notified? Well let me introduce you to Workflows/Flow Builder, once a deal goes to closed all of the folks who need to swing into action can be notified by Salesforce, tasks assigned, a thank you email sent, and a satisfaction survey sent to the customer simply by changing the Opportunity Status to Closed Won.

Service Contract Renewal Task Reminder for SLAs & Contract Renewal set a task and assign tasks better yet create Process Flow that assigns these automatically.

Lead Qualification:  Pardot, & Marketing Cloud:

According to the Sales Trainers at Sander Sales (www.lrn2sell.com) about 90% of trade show leads never get any follow up. Considering the cost of trade shows this is a big financial ouch.  Sales people hate trade show leads and for a good reason a portion of trade show leads are: A. Not a Legitimate leads or B. Not ready to buy Now. This is where Marketing Automation can step in an separate the legitimate leads from the tire kickers, how? Pardot and Marketing cloud use customer journeys to qualify – disqualify the leads. Through a series of emails, website visits, etc we can Score and Grade Leads and even warm them from cold to warm.  Basically if a Lead is willing to take a series of actions we know they are interested, if not well we may dump them or continue to nurture them until they are ready.

I have met plenty of old school sales folks who say their industry is different, well it isn’t….One 30 yr Sales Veteran said ” Isn’t it kind of creepy to call someone based on them filling out a form on our website?” well would you rather a Competitor Call…? These days it customers expect you to call, or they get the feeling that you just don’t care. 

Not sure if any of you all ever experience, frustration with the Busy Work of Sales.  On the off chance you do it might be work a quick conversation.