How automating the sales process reduces small business hiring costs and challenges
A small business faces many challenges, and the hiring and training of employees is near the top of their list. One way to address these challenges is to improve productivity using business automation tools.
AI has led to the development of productivity-related platforms that improve efficiency and lower costs. Investments made to automate repetitive tasks and improve business processes typically provide a good return on investment. This is particularly true when automation reduces the time and money a company spends on hiring and also lowers employee turnover.
A technology now being introduced automates the labor-intensive step of the sales process. It reduces hiring challenges while increasing productivity.
An Automation Addressing Small to Mid-Size Business Hiring Challenges
Vitaly Golomb, founder and CEO of Sofielabs, was a guest on the podcast series Experienced Voices(TM). Golomb spoke about his company’s launch of an AI sales automation platform focusing on one part of the sales process. It replaces Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) who primarily qualify inbound leads in the sales pipeline for the account managers.
The platform addresses the poor handling of leads and the high employee turnover of the SDR position, making it a candidate for automation. The SDR position experiences turnover because it is typically staffed with entry-level people on the sales team. Those who do not leave, aspire to be promoted out of the job, creating an ongoing cycle of recruitment and training.
Sofielabs’ AI sales platform also better qualifies an inbound sales lead, offering an account manager a high potential customer. The technology also significantly improves response time and engagement with customers is a personalized experience that they are unaware is technology.
The platform builds on existing customer relationship management software, extending workflow automation. It eliminates human-prone errors such as poor lead follow-up or wrongly qualifying a lead that wastes an account manager’s time. It takes over repetitive processes such as sending automated follow-up emails, providing consistency while saving precious worker time.
“What we’re seeing in our AI platform pilot is the set up of three times more qualified calls for the sales reps without increasing the marketing budget”, says Golomb. “That’s a tremendous effect when talking about half of your company’s budget being marketing and sales”.
As small business owners hear more and more about the growing role of artificial intelligence taking over everyday business tasks, they do not want to be left behind. But they have concerns about how best use of it. The following is a description of the AI sales process described by Golomb.
Automating the Sales Development Representative’s Position
Here is how automation brings greater efficiency and productivity to the sales process.
With artificial intelligence a request is sent within the first two minutes of a lead, it goes into LinkedIn to the prospect company’s LinkedIn profile and then to the company’s website where intelligence is gathered.
From this we gain an understanding of who this person is and their role in that company. We ask how does that relate to the product we are selling, right?
We have the sales playbook for the company and our own sales best practices. In under two minutes, we create a very personalized custom response to that prospect in 35 languages, 24 hours a day with qualifying questions.
We engage with them saying we saw your interest on our website. We have three questions for you and then will set up an appointment with an account executive to give the prospect a full demo.
Those three questions will always be personalized, always custom that are qualifying questions that do two things. Because answer is sent so quickly, we have the best chance of getting a deal. The other part is that we act as a gatekeeper and protect the account executive’s time. This is because currently they make a sales appointment, but the lead has not been correctly qualified.
Depending upon what is learned in the call, a follow-up may be scheduled in 30 days or in six months and at that time we requalify them and set up that appointment.
Automating the Hiring Process
While Sofielabs’ automations address the sales process pipeline, small to medium size businesses also seek to make the hiring process itself to be more efficient and less costly.
Select Software Reviews offers an article titled, 10 Best Recruiting Automation Software Solutions-2023. They identify key tools to use in the recruiting part of the hiring process such as AI-resume screening, automated job listing and interview scheduling and onboarding.
With the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence impacting almost every aspect of a small to midsize business, it needs to be recognized as a key part of a small business’ operations, impacting the company’s operating goals and strategies.
Most importantly, there is a growing arsenal of automation solutions and tools that a small business owner can choose to improve a company’s operations and profitability. Automation is also a powerful tool for improving the client experience, helping to grow relationships with customers when it is integrated well into the business.
AI will be bringing more and more benefits of automation. It requires a forward-looking mindset that once embraced puts a small business on the path to sustainable growth.
