Is your sales process automated?

Some know that they need to automate this process and do so in a half hearted approach. Others work it like a finely tuned engine, generating lead after lead and seeing the results firmly on the bottom of their bottom line.

It's interesting to see what makes a company take a step back and look at their sales process. Having worked with hundreds of small businesses over the years, many still don't 'get it' when it comes to sales process automation. Instead, they try ad hoc ways to automate their sales process or just 'wing it' and hope for the best. 

On top of this, there is the issue of technology. While many small businesses are using platforms like Salesforce, just as many cannot quite figure it out as to how to use it properly rather than just use 10% of the technologies capabilities.

Thinking about what it takes to generate a lead for your business and how to get a lead to buy from you is ultimately the only way to start building a complete sales process automation platform and integrating your knowledge into a software solution that best suits your needs.

What process automation means to your business is that you can ensure that your sales pipeline is being worked even when you are not there to manage it and it means that you can monitor and repeat tasks or steps in a predictable way so the quality or outputs you are producing are consistent allowing for it to be tweaked and changed when required.

Capitalizing on your businesses successes and understanding why your top sales people win accounts and keep them is imperative to building a winning sales process automation system in your company. Giving ownership to key personnel and ensuring that they are empowered to manage this process and have the right tools to effectively report on its successes and failures is equally as important to the entire sales process. 

Do you have your sales process automated? Are you using the reporting from sales process automation to improve your business and sales processes? What systems are you using and how do they compare to what is on the market today? Do you integrate your sales process with social media? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself and as a small business owner - this may be key to taking your business to the next level. Good luck!