Reports online depict that businesses that align their sales metrics with business goals can amplify their sales by 30%, all thanks to improved sales operation efficiency. Another factor driving optimal sales is choosing the right automation software.
The benefits of sales force automation go beyond eliminating the need for manual interventions. It simplifies workflow, streamlines sales outcomes, and drives the overall success of the business—in short, enabling businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
If you are considering switching from traditional sales management to sales force automation, this 1Channel guide will offer a comparative analysis to make your switch worthwhile.
4 Common Challenges that Traditional Sales Management Doesn’t Address
It is futile to entirely eradicate the concept of traditional sales management because it is pretty efficient and effective for smaller teams with fewer complex operations.
That said, the manual processes are often limiting, especially for a business that’s expanding and growing at an alarming pace. Some of the common shortcomings that traditional sales management doesn’t address are:
1. It Lacks Real-time Data Access and Visibility
With a heavy focus on manual data entry and updates, businesses that solely rely on traditional sales management often find it hard to have access to real-time data and visibility. In short, the available data is usually outdated or incomplete. This hampers the reports that sales managers create about the sales operation since getting access to sales performance, pipeline status, and customer interactions is delayed.
2. It Leads to Inconsistent Sales Process
Another major downside to traditional sales management is inconsistent sales processes. Individual sales representatives follow their individual selling processes, which can lead to inconsistencies. This, in turn, makes it difficult for sales managers to enforce a structured sales process across the team, leading to poor sales outcomes.
3. It Limits Scalability
As previously mentioned, traditional sales management is ideal for smaller businesses or teams and doesn’t fare well when the business grows and expands. Since elements like manual tracking and reporting are involved, it becomes increasingly difficult to scale. As the team grows, managing sales data manually leads to inaccuracies and a lack of transparency.
4. It Has Poor Integration with Other Systems
Traditional sales management systems often operate in silos, with limited integration with other business tools like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, marketing automation, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This often leads to fragmented data and duplication of effort, derailing the entire sales process.
6 Benefits of Sales Force Automation Over Traditional Sales Management
Now that you have a list of a few challenges that come with using traditional sales management, it is time you also peek into the benefits of field force automation and why it would be a better fit for your business.
1. Increased Efficiency
Automation is directly proportional to improved efficiency and productivity. Irrespective of the niche, business, company or industry, integrating automation removes the repetitions of mundane tasks. In the case of field sales teams, the common tasks like follow-ups, scheduling calls, manual data entry, etc., are taken away with the right salesforce and marketing automation software.
This allows the field sales team, aka the sales representatives, to maximise their potential and use their resources to focus on tasks that will translate to better sales.
2. Enhance Data Accuracy with Reduced Errors
Unlike traditional sales management, which calls for manual data updates after every sale, salesforce workflow automation automates the process of data entry. With every sale, the data is updated in real time, maintaining transparency and accuracy.
Not just that, the accurate data update also ensures that the sales team is on the same page with up-to-date and precise data, which is often a driving factor in managing the right business decisions and for sales forecasting.
3. Real-time Sales Tracking
Another benefit of sales force automation is its ability to provide instant access to critical sales data. This allows the sales manager to keep track of their sales record, find loopholes and shortcomings where strategy modifications need to be made, and implement the right marketing tricks that drive further success.
Given the rising competition in the market, businesses need to stay ahead, and access to proper data makes that process much more streamlined. Since reporting in traditional sales management is often delayed, it leads to reactive decision-making, which the automation software fixes seamlessly.
4. Improved Customer Relationship Management
An often less talked-about benefit of SFA is the comprehensive dashboard access. With software like 1Channel, you get access to a one-stop dashboard that keeps track of customer profiles, including past interactions, buyer history, and preferences. This data works like a boon for sales reps, allowing them to deliver a personalised experience to the customer and forge a stronger relationship with them.
Choosing the right tool will automate multiple aspects of customer interaction, including follow-ups, reminders, personalised deals and more, making the customer feel more valued.
5. Grows with a Growing Business
Software and tools are meant to drive growth for a business instead of limiting them. Hence, a well-developed sales force automation software like 1Channel grows with your company. Be it the growing sales team, customer bases or territories, SFA software's flexible and accommodating nature adapts to those expanding business needs.
From handling larger volumes of data to simplifying customers' data access, an SFA tool enables smooth growth without the need for additional administrative support.
6. Increases Sales Pipeline Visibility
SFA systems do more than automate the sales process; they also provide clear visibility into the sales pipeline. This allows the field sales representatives and the sales manager to assess where their leads stand in the pipeline, enabling them to prioritise which customer to tend to first to drive a successful conversion.
Instead of wasting available resources on leads that have little to no chance of conversion, the clear sales pipeline visibility allows the sales manager to make better decisions, prioritise the high-potential leads first, and then fix the bottlenecks in the process.
Drive Growth with 1Channel Sales Force Automation Software
The growing popularity and need for SFA are not arbitrary but factual needs. Looking at the benefits of sales force automation software, it is safe to say that if you want to stay two steps ahead of your competitors, adapting these latest advancements to your marketing and sales is necessary. From scalability to real-time insights, the right SFA tool will do everything for you.
With 1Channel, you can access tailored sales force automation solutions for your business.
Book your free demo today if you are ready to ditch the traditional sales management processes!
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