Depending where you are in your company as far as job title, sales, marketing or customer service, you’ve probably spent more time than you wish managing an ever increasing list of day to day operations. Have you ever asked yourself why? Limited resources, inexperienced staff, too many repetitive tasks; these are just some of the issues that can be solved by the addition of one thing; automation.
Sales, marketing, customer service and even project management all contain tasks that can be easily automated. Why is this? Within the workflow of each department exists tasks or actions that consistently happen over and over. Those repetitive tasks can be better handled through an automated process. With a process in place, actions and responses can be much more easily tracked and analyzed.
As you fully integrate the CRM automation platform within your department, you’ll be able to determine what’s working, what’s not and where to best spend your time. Think of it as a virtual assistant capable of targeting areas that are lacking and helping you overcome those things.
Let’s look five statistics regarding the use of automation:
- B2B marketers who implement marketing automation increase their sales-pipeline contribution by 10%. (Forrester Research, The Forrester Wave™: Lead-To-Revenue Management Platform Vendors, Q1 2014 , Jan 2014).
- 25% of Fortune 500 B2B companies have adopted marketing automation. (ClickZ, Fortune 500 B2B Adoption of Marketing Tools study , Feb 2013).
- 63% of companies that are outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation. The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups, 2013 Lead Generation Marketing Effectiveness Study , Nov 2013)
- Companies using marketing automation see 53% higher conversion rates (initial response-to-MQL) than non-users, and an annualized revenue growth rate 3.1% higher than non-users. (Aberdeen Group, Marketing Lead Management Report , Jul 2012)
- 78% of successful marketers cite marketing automation systems as most responsible for improving revenue contribution. (The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups, 2013 Lead-Generation Marketing Effectiveness Study , Nov 2013)
You’ll find a wealth of information contained within this blog and our website (Soffront.com). From sales to service and everything in between, the following chapters will give you an in depth overview of the many facets involved with automating a business.
Welcome to the World of automation!
The overwhelming nature of sales, marketing & customer service Whether you’re a manager or employee, time remains as elusive as ever. Too many tasks scheduled throughout the day. Followed by interruptions, technical issues, customer complaints, and more. Confusion reigns as you try to deal with these occurrences in the most efficient way possible. You try everything. Working more hours, hiring more staff, offer less products and services. Nothing works. You still lag behind.
This scenario repeats itself every hour of every day of every week throughout the global business community. And it’s not going to change anytime soon. Timely demands will remain consistently high for the foreseeable future.
The culprit? You can blame technology, or the Internet, or even Steve Jobs if you want. It doesn’t change a thing as we now live, work and play in a 24/7 world.
In looking at sales, marketing and customer service, you’ll see how this ‘round the clock’ demand creates additional strain upon the three departments. How do you sell to a faceless entity? Are website visitors seeing ads? Or have an issue with your product and I need a solution right now! There are many ways that you need to get a message across
