Sales organizations require efficiency and automation in order to be successful. For inside sales reps, this becomes even more important since they need a cadence, workflow calling tools, email and real-time insight to do their jobs effectively. As inside sales continues to grow, sales organizations are realizing they need to invest in tools that enable them to focus on productive selling. And one of the most important tools for these teams is sales force automation (SFA).
What is Sales Force Automation?
According to Techopedia:
"Sales force automation is an integrated application of customizable customer relationship management (CRM) tools that automate and streamline sales inventory, leads, forecasting, performance and analysis. SFA tools include Web-based (hosted CRM) and in-house systems. SFA is also known as sales force management system."
In other words, SFA streamlines the sales process and helps sales reps work more efficiently by automating sales tasks and providing insight into the team's performance. It's a critical tool for the modern sales team.
Why Does It Matter?
As explored in an earlier blog post, over $21.8 billion has been invested into MarTech companies with the goal of driving millions of dollars in revenue for marketing teams. But what about enabling sales teams with the right technologies?
In a recent TechCrunch article, experienced investors Bruce Cleveland and Doug Pepper explore the term "RevTech", otherwise known as sales force automation. They believe this industry is equally important and too profitable to ignore.
“This new category of enterprise applications builds on the success of transactional customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and consists of enterprise applications targeting revenue. We’ve coined the term ‘RevTech’ to define the emerging category of these revenue-centric technologies.”
By definition, marketing automation solutions provide value by “[enabling] marketing teams to identify prospects more quickly and convert them into qualified leads for sales more effectively.” While this can directly translate into revenue, RevTech applications “use the transactional data captured by CRM systems to generate predictive guidance at the moment of value,” Cleveland and Pepper explain—“the precise instant when a decision needs to be made by an individual, manager or executive.” In other words, when integrated with the right applications, you can use your CRM system for predictive analysis, which is at the heart of driving conversions.
How Do You Find the Right SFA Solution?
Finding the right sales force automation solution for your sales organization is critical to effectively enabling your team. Here are some tips for selecting the right SFA solution for your sales organization:
- Understand the unique needs of your sales organization. Different types of sales teams will have different needs.
- Pinpoint your pains and know what issues you want to overcome. By identifying those, you will be able to more effectively identify a solution that can address them.
- Know what functions and features you need. Review with your team to ensure you aren't missing anything.
How Salesvue Can Help
Our Math of SalesTM solution is built to deliver real-time analytics that reveal who, what, when, and how many of your team’s sales activities are driving revenue and which are falling short so next steps can be measured and effective. It answers questions like:
- Do you truly need to hire more reps? or…
- Are your current reps and processes unproductive?
- Do you just need more leads in the funnel? or…
- Are your current lead sources inefficient?
- How many prospects, precisely, will your team need to hit goal next month?
- How many ‘touches’, precisely, does it take for your team to set an appointment?
- How many ‘touches’, precisely, does it take for your team to close a deal?
- How much of your current revenue forecast is real?
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