The entire sales process can be very demanding for every company that operates online these days. The main reason is that the online market is highly competitive and oversaturated with all kinds of offers.
Consumers simply have a difficult time deciding with whom to do business with, so companies tend to get creative with their sales outreach.
With hundreds, if not, thousands of potential customers or clients being interested in what you have to offer, it tends to get quite complicated to reach out to all of them in time.
After all, the more people decide to buy, the more profitable your business becomes. Tending to these leads manually is next to impossible. You’d have to have an army of employees working in sales only. That’s where automation comes into play.
By automating some of the most basic processes, companies can reach out to numerous potential leads in a relatively small amount of time. With that in mind, here are a few ways B2B companies can automate their sales outreach.
Email automation
The first step in automating a sales outreach is email automation. This task is the easiest to automate because you simply have to create an outreach email and schedule sending it out to specific parties at predetermined intervals.
This can be done on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis depending on how qualified your leads are. Email automation keeps leads in the sales funnel. They might not be quite interested now but by receiving your offers frequently, they may eventually change their minds.
Of course, once a lead shows interest, you will have to craft another email so that you can lead them down your sales funnel until they’re finally ready to buy your product or opt for your services.
This way, you can reach out to numerous potential clients at once and hope for the best. After that, you can segment your email list to separate interested leads from leads that aren’t ready to hook on your sales pitch.
Use VoIP
A sales outreach oftentimes requires a more personal touch. Some potential leads may require more information, and they want to talk to a sales representative. Moreover, if you determine that a particular lead is interested, you may be proactive and give them a call instead of waiting for them to call you.
This is where VoIP tools come in handy. VoIP tools can automate consumer data processing and other relevant information. This is particularly useful when a sales representative has to pull client info in order to understand the client’s needs and preferences.
That way, your sales rep can know exactly with whom they’re talking and what to say to engage a lead further. Aside from that, VoIP tools can integrate with other systems, such as CRM, for instance, and gather all relevant data and contact information so that sales personnel can have seamless access to whatever they need at every moment.
Social media automation
A sales outreach doesn’t just revolve around email and phone calls. As a matter of fact, social media is also a perfect channel for your automated sales pitch. This is especially true for LinkedIn as this social media platform is more B2B oriented than others.
What you can do is automate prospect research on LinkedIn that will allow you to gather information about potential leads by sorting through various and numerous profiles on this social media network.
Once you have your list of prospects, you can also automate your sales outreach and tailor your messages to your leads. However, before this can work in your favor, you have to make sure that your company has a well-established profile and presence on LinkedIn, so your prospects don’t easily disregard your messages.
Leverage retargeting
Automating your sales outreach is important, but you have to nurture leads as well. Automation can help in this endeavor as well. What you can do is leverage retargeting features in your CRM software, as well as leverage retargeting ads.
The purpose of this automated task is to ensure that your leads remain engaged and that you’re actually ensuring they are moving through your sales pipeline. If you use your CRM, you can pull information about your leads from all sources, such as email, phone, social media, etc.
This will allow you to set up and automate a retargeting campaign that will nurture your leads. For example, retargeting ads promote free trials, lead magnets, call-to-action, and other strategies that will gently encourage leads to move through your sales funnel.
Automating your sales outreach in a B2B environment can be challenging. There are a lot of leads to explore and certainly not enough time to cover them all. A missed opportunity can mean loss of business, which is why automation is of vital importance when it comes to reaching out to your prospects in time.
Author: Usman Raza is the co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts and a marketing strategist working with various brands online. Usman is the content marketing manager at PSD to WordPress, 2SecondPrayer, and The Dressing Table. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.