Every salesperson should focus on identifying leads and closing deals quickly. Ignoring customers' needs and focusing on the internal and external operations of the sales process can lead to losing sales. Automating menial sales tasks can save time and resources and allow the sales team to be productive with a clear-cut focus on onboarding customers. New and advanced applications enable sales managers to perform at their best along with the sales team in sync with other systems that can help them acquire and retain customers.
This blog tells you everything you need to know about Sales Force Automation Software. It has been exclusively created to help you choose options that go light on the pocket when you seek to automate your entire sales chain. Firms that have currently implemented SFA automation are reaping the rewards.
What is Sales Force Automation?
Sales Force Automation (SFA) helps users automate specific processes throughout the sales pipeline. With the implementation of SFA, activities such as lead generation, opportunity prospecting, contact management, process reporting, team collaboration, and task management can all be automated.
How does that help? Well, streamlining these tasks helps achieve maximum efficiency in the sales process. Not only is lead-to-sale time rapidly reduced, but automated tasks are free of human error, which prevents leads from dropping out of the funnel. The above advantages transform into exceptional business results, which include greater sales in shorter time spans and exceptional customer relationships.
Sales force automation is the ideal solution to help sales representatives get their results and achieve the company’s goals.
What is the purpose of Sales Force Automation?
A crucial process like sales is also susceptible to inefficiencies. Not only are leads lost, but customer relationships are also in danger of being soured by ineffective communication and management. Salespeople are under pressure to meet targets and deadlines. However, if they let inefficiency take root due to manual processes, then the profit of the business is impacted.
Sales force automation cures the deficits in these manual processes. The software takes control of steps in the sales pipeline that need constant human attention and replaces them with smart, automated programs that do the tasks without hiccups. Need to score a lead? Store potential customers’ contact details? Send out important emails to converts?
The best sales force automation apps can take care of all these with minimal intervention of the sales team people’s responsibilities. Besides just automation, SFA systems also allow managers to focus on the overall sales process - a bird's eye view of procedures in place- and make additions or subtractions so that the pipeline may function better.
Finally, businesses need sales force automation for better customer relationships. The entire sales communication process can be tweaked to deliver the right message to consumers at the right time so that bonds can be cemented and customer service can be perfected at the same time.
How Does Sales Force Automation Help Salespersons?
A true revolution in the software industry, sales force automation continues to refine the sales pipeline for enterprises. Processes that would need manual input are now conducted effortlessly through automation. Think about activities like customer management and lead tracking—these are all activities that need rigorous follow-ups and constant input from salespeople.
With SFA automation, Salespersons can pursue goals closely related to the sales strategy. This includes deciding WHOM to categorize as a lead for the business, and WHAT needs to be communicated to them. Furthermore, administrative tasks tend to eat up a salesperson’s time. Now, they can focus solely on critical tasks such as pitching, following up, and calculating estimates.
Feedback loops are also important between managers and the feet-on-street squad. Thanks to Sales Force automation solutions, managers can devise methods to increase the efficiency of the salespersons and optimize the sales pipeline.
Finally, sales automation improves customer satisfaction and retention thanks to sales ' proactive nature. The systems implemented can analyze customer needs and processes that need optimization to better pitch the ‘right’ product to customers at all times.
Can SFA Tools lead to better performance of the entire organization?
Revenue-less, or precisely profit-less, businesses are on the verge of extinction in the digital age. A good sales process is absolutely necessary for any business's continued existence. In this regard, sales force automation is a boon to many industries. With good SFA tools and processes, establishments can overcome core deficiencies in their operations.
Firstly, sales force automation leads to better functioning of the entire sales department. It takes over administrative tasks and allows sales personnel to do what they are trained to do—SELL. Whether prospecting and pitching, up-selling and cross-selling, or solidifying the sales strategy, salespersons can now focus solely on getting the sale through the door.
Good sales boost the operations department as well - better planning of resources, quicker manufacturing turn-around times are a must have to ensure sales requests are satiated. Logistics and supply chain components can be better optimally tuned to ensure the last mile delivery of goods and services.
Marketing can fine-tune campaigns based on input from the sales department. Hyper-personalized offerings, bundles, and proprietary services can be mixed among customers for the best possible result, thanks to real-time monitoring of the sales process.
What is a Sales Force Automation Software?
Sales Force Automation Software is an online tool that helps businesses automate parts of the sales pipeline in real time. The SFA software helps businesses reduce time spent on mundane sales tasks such as inventory management, lead management, quote management, contact management, etc., thereby improving business efficiency and, by extension, revenue and profits.
Sales force automation systems increase the efficiency of everyone in the sales department, not just the process itself. They help reduce the pressure of redundant tasks and improve customer retention and goodwill as well.
Why do businesses need good SFA Software?
Sales force automation software is worth an investment for most enterprises. Here are a couple of reasons why:
- Better efficiency of the sales team: Acquiring, targeting, communicating, and retention of customers now becomes the primary goal of salespersons
- Honing in the Sales Pipeline: Managers can better focus on processes and strategy thanks to sales force automation
- Better customer retention: Get customers to love your product with a better-functioning sales team that knows exactly what they want, how they want it, and when they want it.
- Best Lead Control: Assign, control, and qualify leads cautiously in a shorter time, with sales force automation eliminating redundant actions!
- Better Management of Lead territories: Knowing exactly where the maximum revenue/clients come from.
- Better Opportunity Management: Know how to manage client interactions for sales and other tasks so that the entire funnel/pipeline remains unaffected.
- Forecast: Getting to know how many sales you’re going to complete, at what time, and by when!
- Reporting and Analytics: Figuring out best-performing sales products, thanks to the visualized reports provided by sales force automation tools.
- Competitive Intelligence: Sales force automation software prevents companies from stagnating only on a single strategy and helps them evolve on the business front.
What are the benefits of Sales Force Automation Software?
SFA Solutions benefits businesses - small, medium, or large - depending on the scale of their implementation. Some of the biggest advantages of their implementation are:
Top 6 Free and Open Source Sales Force Automation Software
*Freshsales - Offers a Free Trial period
#1 SuiteCRM
Regarded as one of the best open-source sales force automation software in the world, SuiteCRM boasts over 1700,000 downloads and comes with over 20 functionalities to ease and quicken the entire sales process. The SFA tool helps you model and implement your own sales process, tailor-made for distinct customers while increasing loyalty. The automation of tasks gives companies the chance to increase customer loyalty and increase efficiency. The SFA solution boasts over 5.8 million customers and a thriving community of developers, both of who actively participate in increasing the functionality of the software.
(Source - SuiteCRM)
The most important features of SuiteCRM are as follows -
- Accounts Module
- Opportunity Analysis dashboard
- Reporting and Analytics Tools that help users generate reports based on real-time data.
- The target lists module helps create engaging campaigns to improve conversion rates
- Contacts Module
- Personalized real-time dashboards
- Case Management module to track customer issues
- Configuration studio allows businesses to create a personalized solution
- Document storage
- Workflow analysis function
- Invoice Tracker
- Email Marketing
- Quotes assessment
- Task handling tracker
- Campaigns Analyzer
- PDF Templates
#2 Bitrix24
The company renowned for a plethora of free and open-source software, Bitrix24, also provides free and open-source sales force automation software. The sales management tool helps buyers train their sales staff and manage and collaborate with partners while also combining traditional CRM functions. The SFA software is available as a cloud solution with a limit on the number of users based on the opted plan or an on-premise open-source sales force automation software.
(Source - Bitrix24)
Some features of the Bitrix24 sales force automation system are as follows -
- Tools to manage sales, including leads, deals, contacts, and pipelines.
- Email Marketing functions
- Document management
- Easily manages processes like estimates, invoices, payments, and product catalogs
- Third-Party integration
- Reporting and Analytics dashboard
- Workflow management systems
- AI-powered sales
- Omni-channel contact center solution
- Partner Management Tools - Collaboration, Support, Training
- Calendar Management tools
- Business Process Designer
- Online Meeting Manager
- Enterprise Social Network
#3 VTiger CRM
A dedicated open-source sales force automation solution, VTiger helps increase the all-around performance of your sales team and reduce turn-over time. They claim to be trusted by over 300,000 businesses worldwide, providing visualized sales pipelines and forecasting, instant customer response tools, multi-channel communication, sales meet scheduling, team performance optimization, and more! That’s not all - it also allows you to import data from multiple CRMs. The company prides itself on software products that are easily customizable, easy to use, and provide world-class customer support.
(Source - VTiger)
The features of VTiger are:
- Streamline sales operations
- Email Marketing
- Collaboration Tools
- Manages Customer data to provide complete visibility into pipelines
- Document storage
- Calendar integration
- Calculus AI engine
- Task Management
- Sales Analytics and Reporting Dashboard
- Workflow Management
- Mobile Support
#4 X2CRM
The open source sales force automation software is a Gartner 2019 Magic Quadrant inductee for sales force automation and lead management. It is composed of a modern architecture CRM tool that combines the benefits of workflow management and automation on a single platform to users’ advantage! The software also consists of an X2RESTful-API, which can integrate into any modern framework, while the X2 Hub Cloud Connector helps users stay connected to a variety of Google services.
The X2 Sales Platform helps boost sales performance. Forecast growth, check a visualized sales pipeline, and prevent deal fall-outs.
(Source - X2CRM)
Some of the most important features of X2CRM are:
- Sales Funnel Reports
- Sales Process Pipelines
- Email Marketing Management
- Quoting tracker
- Invoice management
- Alerts and notifications
- Reporting and Analytics Dashboard
- Contact history and management
- Opportunity tracking
- Record and document storage
#5 FreeCRM
A completely free sales force automation software, FreeCRM promises complete control and excellence in all your sales activities - from tracking leads to channel marketing. The software has a customizable interface to help you filter data and show you exactly what you want to see. The SFA tool runs on Amazon AWS cloud service and simplifies sales processes for businesses irrespective of their size. The free CRM app is available on Android and Apple app stores.
.png)
(Source - FreeCRM)
Some features of FreeCRM are as follows:
- Unlimited Storage
- Data Backup
- Quickbooks
- Social Media Integration
- Email Marketing
- Data Import Tools
- Data Analytics and Reporting Dashboard
- Forecasting systems
- Document management
- User-Role Authentication
- Google Sync
#6 Freshsales CRM:
This sales force automation system is the latest in the Freshworks stable, known for its excellent suite of enterprise software. The SFA solution is trusted by over 40,000 customers and offers organizations a better-managed sales pipeline. The software’s AI-powered backbone helps you not just score leads better but also converse with audiences better, create forms, and manage the activities of salespersons better.
(Source- Freshsales)
Some of the best features of Freshsales are as follows -
- Lead Management
- Customizable sales view to give a brief picture
- Facilitates Omni-channel conversation with customers
- Contact Management
- AI-powered tools to avoid bottlenecks
- Email Marketing
- Reporting and Analytics Dashboards
- Workflow Management
- Territory Management
- Sales Sequences
- Third-Party Integrations
- Webforms
- Deal Management
- Account Management
Besides the above, there remain many options in the market such as SalesforceCRM, Pipedrive, and Copper, each with unique features and pricing. However, one of the most popular options in the market is Zoho Corp's specialized sales CRM.
Zoho CRM
One of the best sales force automation software, Zoho’s CRM promises to transform your business with its offerings. The CRM tool refines sales force automation with its many subsets of tools, which help with customer engagement, sales effectiveness, and administrative tasks. Zoho can also integrate with nine core productivity applications. The SFA tool is not only reasonably priced but also offers a free trial.
(Source - ZohoCRM)
Some of the most interesting features of Zoho sales force automation CRM are as follows:
- Lead Management
- Deal Management
- Account Management
- Contact Management
- Workflow Automation
- Forecasting
- Advanced analytics tools for deeper insights
- Highly customizable to meet business requirements
- Possible integrations with over 800+ apps
- No hidden costs
- Mobile platform independence
Conclusion
If your business is in the old stream of initiating and executing sales processes, then sales force automation can be the best investment for you. Sales force automation tools help businesses clean up a stagnating system that could be the difference between their continued profit-making or decline on the sales side. Whether it be local sales or international cross-selling, SFA software has the features to automate menial sales tasks.
Besides just free and open-source sales force automation software, we have published a buyer’s guide detailing different kinds of sales force automation technology. Head over to our GoodFirms’ Software Directory, and get the ideal software for all your needs.
