Fatal Flaw #1 Lack of Automation in a Sales Organization

The first fatal flaw that I would like to address is a lack of automation. For years, businesses have been run on paper. It was common to see a spinning rolodex on every corporate desktop. Memos, announcements, invoices, contracts, leads, PO’s, and reports would pile up on desks, in filing cabinets and in storage boxes. Even though computers have been around for decades now and all processes can be replicated via software, there are still businesses that are trailing this trend. Just like the paper vs. paperless debate, there is a new movement towards automating Sales and Marketing activities with the same hesitation.

I compare automation to going paperless because of the similar transitional mindset. It is hard to justify new expenses when it isn’t clear on their impact to overall costs (or revenues). As with any change, organizational buy-in is also a hurdle that must be overcome. And finally, why fix what isn’t broken. So, companies ease their way into it, starting with email auto-responders, pre written email templates and CRM for sales management.

What types of activities can be automated?
I am sure everyone has seen different types of automation in practice, from an email auto-responder to a pre-recorded voice message. Automation has continued to progress as lead nurturing companies have begun to surface. They employ automation to send out correspondence on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, but automation can go much further. Automation can:
· Share data between systems
· Send notifications
· Schedule tasks and events
· Trigger phone calls
· Send emails, faxes, and direct mail
· Route leads
· Assign and reassign ownership
· Generate support responses
· Facilitate lead response strategy
· Leave messages

Activity: take a look at your interactions with your prospects. List 5 activities, which, in an ideal world, would happen automatically without you thinking about it, such as follow up to a demo, or the creation of a quote? What activities would you add to your current process if they were done automatically?

What are the benefits of automation?
· Consistent interaction and message with prospects and customers
· Reporting
· Manage timing of responses
· Eliminate liability of human error
· Focus employees on more productive activities

Why automate?
There are really two reasons to automate. The first reason is time. If you can streamline processes and automate workflow, you can perform what you are currently doing with fewer people or you can achieve more with the same number of people. If your sales reps have more time to prospect and cold call because they are not bogged down with manually dialing phone numbers, writing emails, sending faxes and creating quotes, you will undoubtedly generate more sales. If your sales managers don’t have to manually hand out leads only to track them down at the end of the week, they will have more time to focus on increasing the abilities of the sales team.

Take a look at this excerpt from the white paper The 15 Time Wasters of Typical Sales Departments:
“Up to 60% of all calls a sales rep makes can go to voicemail or an answering machine, either directly or when routed by a receptionist. If a lead generation rep makes 200 calls in a day and 60% of these calls go to voicemail, he or she could leave 120 voice messages that average about 1 minute long. A single rep could waste 2 hours leaving messages—and that doesn’t include the time spent dialing and being transferred to a decision-maker’s voicemail box!
Most reps don’t make that many calls and don’t bother leaving nearly that many messages, but what if they could? We have seen call-back ratios that range from less than 1% to as high as 22%.”

If you could automate the process of leaving a message in all mailboxes while speaking to all live answers, could that have a positive impact on your productivity?

The second reason is competition. In business today, you have to be continually progressing or else someone else is going to pass you by. One of our clients informed us that in their particular industry, 80% of all deals go to the company that contacts the prospect first. Companies are constantly trying to get a leg up on their competition in order to capture more of the market. By automating your processes, you can gain an advantage over your competition which can help capture new business, retain existing business and garner referrals.

In conclusion, automating tasks, activities and processes can positively impact your organization. It is important to stay on the cutting edge (but be wary of the bleeding edge technologies out there) to help increase revenues, reduce costs and keep a competitive advantage in your industry.