Did you know that sales agents spend only 33% of their time selling? The rest is just spent on repetitive tasks such as manual administrative tasks, qualifying leads or demo building. This is where b2b sales automation tools come in handy - they use the power of software to eliminate repetitive & manual tasks, allowing you & your sales teams to focus more on what you do best: closing more deals. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of sales automation, examine the tools & discuss how these tools can benefit your business.

What is a Sales Automation Tool? #

While there are several ways to accelerate your deal cycle, sales automation is likely one of the most impactful strategies you can implement to effectively manage your sales cycle. First, let’s align on what we mean by sales automation - especially for B2B companies.

The concept of Sales Automation is all about using software to streamline & automate repetitive tasks in the sales process, which helps free up sales reps so they can focus on the more strategic aspects of their jobs, such as building connections & closing deals. There’s a range of digital tools that automate different parts of the sales process.

Imagine all those repetitive, time-consuming tasks like data entry, follow-up emails & lead scoring getting done automatically. This is the power you hold when you automate your sales.

Benefits of Using Sales Automation Tools #

If you want to grow your business, you need a way to manage more leads without losing the personal touch, brand consistency or quick responses. Sales automation tools help you connect with more leads & guide them through your sales process, while still providing genuine interactions that align with your brand.

Okay, we know it’s great & all. But some may ask “What is the benefit of this? Why should I care about automating these tasks?” Here are the top benefits you get from using sales automation tools.

Faster Sales Processes #

Money loves speed. To help your sales team work faster, automate repetitive tasks. This frees up their time to focus on closing more deals. More deals mean more revenue for your business, which aligns with your business’s primary goal.

Better Data Accuracy #

In addition to being faster than humans, sales automation tools are also better at communicating information accurately. One of the cons of letting your team perform those repetitive tasks is that humans can easily slip into error. This can affect the reporting, making it unreliable or incomplete.

But that’s not the case for software. It can quickly check and verify data, minimizing your chances of coming across false or duplicated information. This leads to improving the accuracy of your sales team and gives them powerful and reliable insights that are based on proper data.

Automated Lead Qualification #

Sales teams often spend significant time qualifying leads. However, implementing automated chatbots to handle lead qualification can save a significant amount of time. This approach ensures that your team focuses only on serious, qualified leads that meet specific criteria. By automating this process, you eliminate the inefficiency of manual lead qualification, reducing wasted time and effort on leads that don’t convert.

Now that we’ve tackled the importance of sales automation tools and their impact on your business, let’s explore some of the best sales automation platforms that would greatly help your team!

1. Rasayel #

Rasayel is a customer communication platform designed specifically for B2B sales over WhatsApp. It bridges the gap between your sales team and the WhatsApp Business Platform, offering a user-friendly interface for managing customer conversations. Rasayel goes beyond just communication; it simplifies the entire sales workflow and eliminates any time waste.

Sales Automation tools are especially crucial for B2B Sales processes. They allow you transform a B2B sales process, where once a business event takes place, the platform sets off predefined actions across your apps, customers or even employees.

Rasayel allows your sales team to leverage the familiarity & reach of WhatsApp to build stronger relationships with leads and close deals faster. This customer communication platform comes with automated chatbots that can be built with zero lines of code, in turn, helping your team automate their lead qualification process and only engage in conversations with serious and qualified leads.

Key Features: #

• Shared Team Inbox: Collaborate & manage customer conversations in one central location, ensuring no lead gets missed and facilitating seamless teamwork.
• No-Code Chatbot Builder: Automate lead qualification & basic interactions with easy-to-build chatbots, freeing up your sales agents for high-value conversations.
• Appointment Scheduling: Simplify scheduling with integrated functionalities that allow leads to book demos or calls directly within the WhatsApp chat.
• CRM Integrations: Integrate seamlessly with popular CRM systems for a smooth workflow and comprehensive data analysis.

2. Zendesk Sell #

Zendesk Sell is a powerful sales automation tool designed to simplify and accelerate the sales process. It empowers sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals by automating the administrative tasks that often slow them down.

Zendesk offers a variety of automation features. One key feature is automated task creation, it creates tasks for sales agents based on specific triggers. For example, a task could be created to follow up with a lead after they download the lead magnet from the website.

Another automation feature Zendesk offers is automated workflows, it handles all the repetitive tasks from lead scoring, to data entry, and follow-up emails. For instance, a sales agent can set up a workflow that automatically sends a welcome email to a new lead or assigns them to the appropriate sales agent based on pre-defined criteria.

Zendesk Sell integrates with various business tools, making it a central hub for sales activities and data. This allows your team to work smarter, not harder, ultimately driving sales growth and maximizing efficiency.

Key Automation Features: #

• Automated Workflows: Streamline repetitive tasks like lead scoring, data entry, and follow-up emails, freeing up agents for high-value interactions.
• Intelligent Lead Management: Capture, qualify, and nurture leads with a centralized system that prioritizes efforts based on potential value.
• Deal Pipeline Management: Visualize your sales pipeline, track deal progress, and identify potential roadblocks for better forecasting and on-time closings.
• Built-in Communication Tools: Seamlessly connect with leads and contacts via email, phone, or even social media, all within the Zendesk Sell platform.
• Mobile CRM Access: Empower your sales team to stay productive on the go with a mobile app that allows them to manage leads, deals, and communication anywhere, anytime.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator #

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful sales automation tool designed to help you find, connect with, and engage high-value prospects on the world’s largest professional network. It goes beyond basic LinkedIn searching by offering advanced filters and lead-generation features to simplify your prospecting efforts.

LinkedIn’s vast network and Sales Navigator’s automation features help sales teams significantly improve their prospecting efficiency and connect with the right decision-makers at the right time.

Key features: #

• Advanced Lead Search: Identify ideal prospects based on specific criteria like industry, job title, company size, and even skills. Leverage saved searches to stay updated on relevant leads as they join LinkedIn.
• Lead Scoring & Prioritization: Sales Navigator assigns a score to each lead based on their fit and engagement level, allowing you to prioritize your outreach efforts towards the most promising opportunities.
• Automated Drip Campaigns: Create and schedule personalized email sequences that nurture leads and keep your company top-of-mind throughout the buying journey.
• Saved Leads & Account Lists: Organize your target audience into segmented lists for targeted outreach strategies and track their activity on LinkedIn.
• InMail Credits: Send direct messages (InMails) to qualified leads, even if you’re not connected, to initiate conversations and build stronger relationships.

4. ClickFunnels #

ClickFunnels is a sales and marketing automation platform designed to simplify the process of building, launching, and managing sales funnels. It empowers businesses to create high-converting sales funnels without needing extensive coding knowledge.

It is simply an all-in-solution when it comes to building sales funnels. Founded by none other than Russell Brunson. He is a sales funnel expert with hundreds or even thousands of seminars on teaching entrepreneurs how to optimize their sales funnel. So he is the go-to in this space and he managed to build a tool that simplifies the process of building a complete sales funnel without using multiple tools.

Key Features: #

• Drag-and-Drop Landing Page Builder: Create beautiful and functional landing pages, opt-in forms, and sales pages with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, with no coding required.
• Pre-Built Funnel Templates: Get started quickly with a library of pre-designed funnel templates for common marketing goals like lead generation, product launches, and webinars.
• A/B Testing & Analytics: Optimize your funnels for better performance by running A/B tests and analyzing detailed conversion data to identify what resonates best with your audience.
• Email Marketing Automation: Automate email sequences to nurture leads, deliver targeted content, and promote special offers throughout the sales funnel journey.
• Order Forms & Payment Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with popular payment gateways to accept secure online payments and deliver digital products automatically.

By leveraging ClickFunnels’ automation features, businesses can streamline the customer journey, automate repetitive tasks, and ultimately increase sales conversions.

5. PhoneBurner #

PhoneBurner is a cloud-based sales automation tool designed to simplify the outbound calling process and boost sales team productivity. It allows sales agents to make more calls, connect with more leads, and ultimately close more deals.

Sales teams can use PhoneBurner’s automation features to significantly increase their call volume, improve efficiency, and ultimately close more deals via effective communication.

Key Automation Features: #

• Power Dialing: Automate the dialing process by automatically feeding leads into a call queue, allowing agents to focus on delivering their pitch and handling conversations.
• Automated Call Recording & Transcription: Capture every call for later review and coaching purposes, and utilize transcriptions to identify key talking points and areas for improvement.
• Customizable Call Scripts & Templates: Streamline communication and ensure consistency with pre-written call scripts and templates that can be adapted for different scenarios.
• Call Analytics & Reporting: Gain valuable insights into call performance with detailed reports on call volume, duration, and connection rates to identify areas for improvement.
• CRM Integrations: Integrate seamlessly with popular CRM systems to centralize all customer data and communication history for a unified view.

6. LeadsSquared #

LeadSquared is a comprehensive sales and marketing automation platform designed to speed up the lead capture process, nurture those leads, and manage the entire sales pipeline in one central location. It empowers businesses to automate repetitive tasks, improve communication, and ultimately convert more leads into paying customers.

By offering a multitude of automation features, sales teams can leverage LeadSquared to help them in many ways. For instance, they can automate lead nurturing, enhance communication effectiveness, or acquire valuable insights to enhance their sales and marketing endeavors.

Key Features: #

• Multi-Channel Lead Capture: Capture leads from various sources like website forms, landing pages, webinars, and social media, centralizing all lead data for efficient management.
• Lead Scoring & Qualification: Qualify leads based on their behavior and engagement level, allowing your sales team to prioritize their efforts toward the most promising leads.
• Automated Lead Nurturing: Engage leads with automated email sequences, personalized content, and triggered workflows to nurture relationships and move them closer to a sale.
• Sales Pipeline Management: Visualize your sales pipeline, track deal progress, and identify potential roadblocks for better forecasting and on-time closings.
• Built-in Communication Tools: Seamlessly communicate with leads and customers via email, phone, or even SMS directly from the LeadSquared platform.

7. ClearBit #

Clearbit is a powerful B2B sales intelligence automation tool that empowers businesses to identify, connect with, and engage high-value prospects. It goes beyond basic contact information by providing enriched data and insights to personalize outreach and significantly simplify the sales process.

Key features: #

• Real-Time Lead Enrichment: Automatically enrich your CRM and marketing automation platform data with real-time firmographic and technographic insights, ensuring you have the most up-to-date information on your leads.
• Lead Scoring & Targeting: Identify and prioritize the most promising leads based on firmographic and technographic data to optimize your outreach efforts and target the right accounts at the right time.
• Automated Workflows: Trigger automated workflows based on specific lead behaviors or data points, such as sending personalized emails or assigning leads to sales agents for follow-up.
• Multi-Channel Prospect Identification: Uncover high-potential prospects across various channels like social media, websites, and company databases to expand your reach and identify hidden opportunities.
• B2B Contact Discovery: Find contact information for key decision-makers at your target accounts, eliminating the need for manual research and saving valuable time.

8. Gong #

Gong is a revenue intelligence platform that goes beyond basic sales automation by capturing, analyzing, and providing actionable insights from customer interactions. It empowers sales teams to identify strengths, weaknesses, and coaching opportunities within their conversations, ultimately driving improved win rates and revenue growth.

Using Gong’s automation features, sales teams can gain valuable insights from customer interactions, optimize their sales approach, and ultimately achieve greater success through data-driven coaching and best practice sharing.

Key features:

• Conversation Intelligence: Automatically record and transcribe all sales calls, meetings, and demos, providing a complete record of every customer interaction for analysis.
• Deal Coaching & Insights: Leverage AI-powered insights to identify key talking points, analyze sales rep performance, and pinpoint areas for improvement in communication and deal progression.
• Automated Win/Loss Analysis: Gain insights into the reasons behind closed deals, both wins and losses, to identify trends and optimize your sales strategy for future success.
• Best Practice Sharing: Surface and share top-performing sales calls and coaching moments across the team, promoting effective communication techniques and accelerating the onboarding of new agents.
• **Data-Driven Sales Coaching: Empower sales managers with data-driven insights to provide targeted coaching and feedback, helping agents improve their skills and close more deals.

9. Woodpecker #

Woodpecker is a multi-channel outreach automation tool designed to streamline the follow-up process and increase response rates for sales teams. It empowers agents to send personalized emails, voicemails, and even social media messages at scale, saving them valuable time while ensuring consistent and persistent communication with leads.

This tool helps sales teams personalize outreach at scale, automate repetitive follow-ups, and gain valuable insights to improve their communication strategy and ultimately close more deals.

Key features: #

• Multi-Channel Follow-Up Sequences: Create automated follow-up sequences that combine emails, voicemails, and social media messages to reach prospects across their preferred channels and increase engagement. -Personalized Outreach at Scale: Personalize email templates and voicemail scripts with dynamic content based on lead data, ensuring each message resonates with the recipient.
• Automated Lead Scoring: Automatically score leads based on their engagement with your outreach efforts, allowing you to prioritize those showing the most interest.
• Real-Time Activity Tracking: Get real-time insights into how your outreach sequences are performing, including open rates, clicks, and responses, to measure effectiveness and optimize your approach.
• Team Collaboration Tools: Share best practices, collaborate on outreach campaigns, and track individual & team performance for improved accountability.

Conclusion #

To sum it up, we covered a lot of topics including, what is sales automation and its benefits for your sales team. We also discovered our top picks when it comes to sales automation tools to help you choose what suits your needs and goals in mind.

In 2024, you will hear the word automation a lot. It’s almost a buzzword similar to the word internet in the 90s. The reason for this is it’s actually the future of work. Our day-to-day job changed significantly from 20 years ago to now. Jobs now are being simplified, and repetitive and boring tasks must be automated to help employees achieve more in less time. Sales jobs, of course, are included. At the end of the day, automation tools are a must-have if you want to stay ahead in 2024, especially in sales.

Frequently Asked Questions #

About the author

Omar Nabil

Omar Nabil, a former programmer, discovered his passion for writing while working on websites. Combining analytical thinking with creativity, he crafts brand stories that emotionally resonate and inspire action.

@Omar Nabil on LinkedIn