5 sales automation software features to look out for

The responsibilities of a sales manager are vastly different from that of a sales rep. From increasing revenue and profitability to ensuring your team meets targets, a lot rests on your shoulder. How do you manage so many tasks simultaneously during the busiest quarter of the year? Automation is your answer. But, just like the tasks, your requirements for sales automation are also different. While sales reps need a sales automation software to automate manual tasks, as a sales manager, you would need the tool to derive actionable insights on sales – something that you have to do repeatedly every month or quarter. 

Let’s look at some responsibilities of a sales manager that a sales automation software can help address: 

• Get visibility on the entire sales process and sales activities

• Predict revenue accurately 

• Break silos within the sales team

• Derive in-depth performance insights

• Track individual and team performance

You can automate many of these responsibilities without having to surf the entire sales database. From providing a visual representation of data to helping you accurately predict sales revenue, here are some features you should look for while purchasing a sales automation software. 

Sales automation software for managers: 5 features to look out for

1. Visual representation of sales data 

The amount of data a sales manager has to sift through may be overwhelming. Especially when you are putting together monthly or quarterly numbers to present to the upper management. You also have to evaluate the performance of your sales reps and understand how you can optimize it for better results. You can manually create reports using spreadsheets and send them, but this takes time and effort. 

With a sales automation software like a CRM, you can automatically generate and schedule reports for yourself, giving you the option to customize them according to various attributes and factors. 

So you can generate a report to analyze an individual’s and your overall team’s performance, or even forecast the month’s sales figures all within a sales automation software. This helps you save time, track your sales cycle, streamline efficiency, and reduce mistakes.

You can find answers to questions like: 

• Which lead source consistently gave the best leads?

• How much revenue will the company make this week, month, or quarter?

• Is the sales pipeline brimming with sufficient leads?

• Do we need more sales-ready leads?

• Which deals are stuck in the pipeline and why?

2. Sales territory assignment 

Your sales reps are spread across different cities and towns, especially with the remote working phenomenon sweeping over companies. So how do you distribute sales responsibilities? 

Territories help your sales reps generate new leads and hit their sales quotas in a particular region. They must also continue building their existing customer relationships within that territory. 

While your reps should have access to enough leads, they should ensure they are not overwhelmed with too many leads they can’t handle and are stretched too thin. 

A sales automation software can help you assign sales reps according to your chosen condition – round robin basis or according to different regions. You can decide how leads are assigned to reps – and this task can be automated too. 

3. Assigning scores to leads 

Your sales team has a vast pool of leads, and they are not sure which leads to go after. As a manager, you must set the criteria for your sales reps. 

You have to define which type of leads are promising: 

• What are the buying signals to go after? 

• Is it demo requests, discovery calls, or visual cues? 

You can call the shots by setting the minimum requirement for lead scores – based on cues from leads. Your sales reps can invest their efforts more on leads ranked by a lead scoring tool. 

4. Sales pipeline 

It’s hard to keep track of deals in your pipeline – especially if some leads are unsure of your product. A sales automation software can provide a much-needed visual representation of deals in your pipeline. It can also spot deals rotting away and help your sales team take quick action. 

Knowing which deals will convert within a specific time frame also helps you be aware of the revenue you will make during that particular period. 

5. Sales forecasting 

Looking into the future may not be possible, but having a sales automation software that can help predict revenue and let you know if things are on track – wouldn’t that be useful as a sales manager? 

A CRM with sales automation capabilities can help you with just that. Predict the revenue your company will make in a certain period or plan your sales activities accordingly. 

Wondering which sales automation software to choose? Take Freshsales for a spin, and see the difference.