Sales automation: the future of CRM software

Joel ‘Cap’ Capperella is a solo-preneur in the business of helping small businesses raise their marketing and sales game. He brings over 20 years of experience in marketing of software and SaaS, working with both big fish like Oracle and with smaller startups. He’s an active contributor to some of the most influential business publications, such as The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com and FastCompany. We sat together with Joel to hear his thoughts on the future of sales automation.

What does sales automation mean to you?

That’s a pretty good question. To me, its mainly about making sales management less of a burden, time- and energy-wise. Sales automation is anything that makes it easier for the sales person to connect with potential customers, get them into the pipeline and subsequently accelerate the journey throughout the pipeline. It all boils down to removing barriers to connect, engage, listen and build relationships.

Wat is uw visie op verkoopautomatisering?

Het moet passen in het bredere idee dat gegevens mensen in een organisatie dienen en niet andersom.

In het begin was CRM vooral gericht op verkoopmanagement, waarbij veel tijd en middelen werden geïnvesteerd in gegevens in plaats van mensen. Die logica wordt omgedraaid nu gegevens en algoritmen steeds meer voor mensen gaan werken, in plaats van andersom.

Dit is de richting die de verkoopautomatisering op zou moeten gaan: software moet niet alleen snel en gericht verkoopmanagement mogelijk maken, maar nog belangrijker is dat CRM ook verschuift zodat het meer gericht is op het menselijke element van verkopen. Het nieuwe CRM gaat over verkopen alsof mensen belangrijk zijn.

We’re seeing the same tendencies in HR. HR management tools used to revolve around administrative tasks required to manage a workforce. Yet today, HR software is becoming more and more people-centered. It’s keeping employees engaged, connected and productive. It helps them do their jobs more effectively and manage their career development more personally.

To me, sales and people (HR) are connected like two sides of a circle. They seem opposed, yet are very related. You can’t make sales without employees and you can’t hire people without sales. Software that helps both sides, to put people at the centre and data at their service, will make the relation between people and sales in organisations all the more circular, as it should be.

Wat zijn jouw beste tips/richtlijnen voor verkoopautomatisering?

There’s so much information out there. And it’s becoming more and more everyday. Somewhere in that pile of data is the exact piece of information, often a combination of bits of data, that you need.

Gebruik software die het doodeenvoudig maakt om telkens weer bij dat ene stukje informatie te komen. De echte magie is dat meerdere tools samenkomen op één plaats, zodat je de informatie onmiddellijk kunt gebruiken om resultaten te boeken.

Which sales automation tools are you using?

I’m currently using HubSpot CRM, not Salesflare, mostly because I got a very good deal on it. I have it integrated with ActiveCampaign, my marketing automation platform. I use Zapier to automate tasks between Evernote, Google Sheets and my CRM. For extra hands to help me with some design work, finding email addresses or something like that, I turn to Upwork.

Any tactics you would like to share?

I’m a big content believer. Content is a huge way to connect and engage, plus you can use it in all the different stages of the sales process. The key is to carefully measure what type of content is working best in different stages.

For example, I set automatic series of emails after a specific offer. For each one I will track the recipient’s reaction to it; how long it takes him or her to react, how often he/she opened the email, whether he/she visits my website and how long etc.

Deze metriek van betrokkenheid bepaalt hoeveel tijd ik moet besteden aan een persoon voor conversie.