Making a sale can be a time consuming process, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  There are many steps in the process that can be automated in such a way that saves time and makes it easier to close the sale too.

Good follow-up with your prospects and detailed tracking of their progress through the sales process is one of the keys to success in sales.  This can, however, be a limiting factor due to time constraints.  There is hope however, since many of the necessary steps can be automated.  Below is a list of steps in the sales process that can be organized and automated to make the job of selling easier and less time consuming.

1. Sending relevant, valuable information to EVERY PROSPECT on a scheduled, recurring basis helps you keep your name in front of the prospect and increases top of mind awareness.  It also helps set you up as the helpful expert, which is better positioning then a begging salesperson.  

2. Communicate to prospects efficiently, aside from the normal, time-consuming, one-on-one methods.  This can be done in several ways, including such things as a newsletter, special reports, how-to tips, market updates, advice, etc.  These communications can be sent via email, direct mail, voice broadcast, or fax.

3. Log all communications between your office and the prospect in an organized fashion.  One of the keys to good follow-up is good record keeping, especially if the prospect is being contacted by more than one person.  Even if you are doing all the contacting yourself it is impossible to keep every detail for every prospect in your head, and the more prospects you have the harder it gets.  You need to keep track of these details accurately to get the most out of each contact with the prospect.  Otherwise you will miss opportunities to make upsells and cross sells, not to mention the primary sale. 

4. Arm yourself and your sales reps with an arsenal of specific information that can be sent to prospects upon request.  These different marketing tools should be designed to educate the prospect as to how you do business and what sets you apart from your competitors.  It should also move the prospect along through the sales process and help them in making a buying decision.

5. Track the progress of each lead through the sales pipeline, so you always know where every lead stands.  This way you will know which prospects to focus the most time and attention on and you will also be able to spot holes in your sales process where prospects may be falling out.

The good news is that it’s actually very easy to do all of this automatically.  There are several good customer relationship management systems available that will make many of these steps a breeze. 

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