Automation is the future. For a long time, enterprises have known this. Way back in 1989, the Havard Business Review estimated that automation had successfully cut direct labour costs to just 8-12% of total production expenditure in a manufacturing company. However, technology is now starting to seep into other business areas.
Consider the contact center. Operations can automate desktop processes, quality management, and even entire customer queries. Yet, there are many more automation opportunities out there, particularly in regards to sales.
6 Tasks to Automate for Higher Sales Revenues
“Automation tailored to sales operations is a win for companies, customers, and sales reps,” reports McKinsey & Company. Here are six examples where this proves to be true.
- Strategy and planning - By analyzing historical and real-time data, contact centers can uncover the best time to reach out to customers. Operations can then harness workforce management (WFM) software to automate resource allocation in line with these findings.
- Lead management – Analytics tools can qualify leads and prioritize them. With automation, the contact center can then action follow-ups to convert customers or upsell.
- Configure, price, quote (CPQ) - Contact centers can automate a workflow where bots assess customer requirements, set pricing, and formulate quotes. It is even possible to create a discount management flow.
- Order management – To complete the sales process, contact centers can exploit the power of automation to check on available credit levels, invoices, shipping, procurement, and other order-related services.
- Post-sales engagement - Automate customer follow-ups to overcome common post-purchase issues, avoid returns, and secure loyalty. It may also help upsell spare parts, run through maintenance info, etc.
- Administrative support – Analytics helps automate administrative tasks, such as post-call summaries. It also speeds up the reporting process, giving managers real-time insights to enhance sales performance.
Of course, these recommendations hinge on technology maturity. Robotic process automation, natural language processing (NLP), and speech analytics are critical technologies to bring these use cases to life.
Yet, by generating an appropriate ecosystem, sales teams will make fewer errors, optimize resources, and bolster revenues.
The State of Automation in Sales
Despite this potential, the maturity of sales automation programs lags far behind those of other business areas.