What is B2B sales automation?

B2B companies have long automated their spreadsheets and email sequences. What's different now? AI entering the mainstream.

New AI-powered sales tools are flooding the market weekly, each promising to automate different sales processes and tasks, and help businesses improve efficiency, enhance productivity, and scale growth easily. And businesses are lapping these up to automate their inbound and outbound sales workflows.

There are dozens of B2B sales automation tools that help with nearly every aspect of the go-to-market (GTM) process including marketing, sales enablement, outreach, or analytics. B2B sales automation is most often associated with a CRM (customer relationship management) system that automates sales activities in addition to being the single source of truth for all sales data.

Sales workflow automation is the process of automating not just individual tasks such as sending emails, but streamline processes such as lead management or engagement that include multiple subtasks—like multi-threaded sales outreach. In addition, they provide actionable insights that help refine and improve processes.

Sales automation, sometimes called sales process automation, is the strategy of using technologies to eliminate repetitive tasks, improve efficiencies and increase sales team productivity.

Sales automation tools help sales professionals better meet the changing dynamics of the sales process and provide value to their sales prospects.

By incorporating automation into sales activities, sales teams improve the customer experience. Organizations can become more efficient and can better move prospects throughout the sales funnel. Sales automation improves several processes throughout the sales cycle from lead generation to prospecting to onboarding to retention.

Historically, sales automation aligned around data capture and analysis and workflow automation, which involves automatically performing actions with that data. The rise of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) has expanded what sales automation can do. The best sales automation strategy combines traditional practices with new technologies like generative AI, machine learning and robot process automation (RPA).

Sales automation can boost sales performance and improve the bottom line, especially for small businesses that might not have many sales professionals to handle all of their sales process needs

The benefits of sales automation

B2B sales automation is a lot more than just making life easier for sales and marketing teams. Automation adds a lot of value to businesses. 

Here are some of the benefits of B2B sales automation tools:

• Automation tools help sales teams save time by handling time-consuming tasks such as sending bulk cold emails or scheduling meetings, and allowing teams to focus on closing deals and building relationships. 
• With fewer manual processes, sales teams can run their operations and workflows smoothly as there would be fewer human errors.
• B2B sales automation tools help speed up sales processes, automation helps shorten deal cycles, ensuring customers convert quicker and revenue flows in faster.
• Automating tasks takes over repetitive tasks, giving sales and marketing teams more bandwidth to focus on strategy, creative problem-solving, and customer engagement.
• Whether it’s managing leads or running campaigns, automation helps teams handle high volumes in a shorter period of time and scale sales.
• AI tools such as Highperformr can help identify high-potential leads from various sources and build lead lists.
• Centralizing and automating GTM processes can help teams maintain consistency in messaging across all communication channels, particularly when multiple reps from the same company are reaching out to leads.
• Most sales automation tools also come with in-built analytics that provide data on campaign performance, assisting in better decision-making and accurate forecasting.
• The use of B2B sales automation tools reduces response times, making interactions faster and more efficient. This improves customer engagement and builds trust with prospects.
• Automation tools can be used to maintain and manage a CRM that is error-free, organized, and up-to-date.

Types of sales automation software

Sales automation is an umbrella term used to describe automation of different activities or tasks in the sales process. There are dozens of different tools catering to the needs of each sub-function. Some handle specific niche tasks such as setting up meetings and blocking calendars, while others handle a series of tasks such as lead generation, lead enrichment, and lead prioritization as a whole. 

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The hundreds of sales automation tools available in the market today can be categorized into one of the following types. 

Lead generation software

Tools that can be grouped here typically handle the different tasks related to lead generation, such as identifying ICP leads, curating lead lists, enriching the contacts with basic information and intent signals, and prioritizing leads for outreach. Highperformr, Zoominfo, and Apollo are examples of sales automation tools that help with generating leads.  

Sales intelligence tools

Sales intelligence tools or data enrichment tools are those that help enrich and enhance leads with details such as contact information, firmographic and technographic data, intent signals, and other insights that will help drive sales effectiveness. Zoominfo, Highperformr, and Clay, are some of the most popular sales intelligence tools in the B2B space today. 

Outreach automation tools 

Outreach automation tools assist with streamlining communication with prospects by automating repetitive tasks such as sending bulk outreach emails or email sequences, follow-ups, and tracking prospect engagement. These tools are essential for scaling outreach efforts. Smartlead, HeyReach, and Hubspot are examples of sales automation tools that help with email automation and outreach. 

Workflow automation platforms

Workflow automation platforms are used to automate and orchestrate multiple sales tasks. In addition to automating individual tasks, workflow automation platforms help combine and automate different related tasks. 

For example, platforms like Highperformr can be used to automate inbound workflows or tracking job changes. The workflow can be configured such that all CRM contacts are tracked periodically, and any time there’s a change, it triggers immediate data enrichment and AI enrichments, and also triggers alerts to sales teams once the contact information has been updated with the latest data and AI insights.

Challenges with sales automation

Sales automation makes life a lot easier for sales and RevOps teams but as with any other form of technology, it is important to be aware of the issues that might crop up while automating sales tasks and using sales tools extensively. 

Lack of personalization 

Automating repetitive sales activities such as sending cold emails or outreach messages on LinkedIn can result in generic bulk messages which aren't personalized. Generic messages usually bring very low response rates which is why personalization has now become the norm in most outbound sales teams. Sales automation tools need to make sure this requirement is met.

Change management & learning curve for sales tools 

Automating sales tasks requires changing the way things are done. Workflows might change when certain sales tasks are automated and this requires the entire sales team to adjust to the new way of working. In addition, using sales automation tools requires training and additional support as not all sales tools are intuitive and easy to use.

Inaccurate messaging and targeting 

Sales automation involves automating tasks such as qualifying leads, sending bulk emails and running outreach campaigns. Handing such tasks over entirely to sales tools without monitoring progress could result in inaccurate targeting or inaccurate lead qualification, and misalignment in messaging. Email campaigns ideally need to be monitored to track effectiveness of the messaging and see if the messages resonate with the target audience, and if not, the messages need to be tweaked. Automating the process entirely may result in inaccurate targeting and messaging. 

Consistent evolution of technology and automation 

With AI entering the mainstream and technology advancing, sales tools are evolving rapidly. This could mean that a tool you use today and a process that you automate might get outdated in a matter of months. This requires you to constantly keep a check on the space, and ensure that you use sales automation tools that are constantly evolving and use the latest technology.

Data privacy 

Among the most common tasks that are automated are data enrichment and CRM updates. With platforms like Highperformr, sales teams can configure workflows to consistently update databases and automate the process of alerting relevant stakeholders once a task is completed. But this involves handling a lot of people's data and personal information. Automating these tasks leaves you with risks of data leaks or security breaches. 

How sales automation works

So, how does automation work to improve your sales process? 

In a nutshell, sales automation improves efficiency, enhances productivity, enables scaling of operations, updating your CRM data regularly, ensuring that data across tools is synced and updated,  

Automation involves identifying repetitive tasks and training software tools to handle those tasks. The tasks could be those that don’t require creative thinking or the human touch, those that involve repetitive work like periodic updates. 

This includes tasks such as lead qualification, sending bulk emails, scheduling meetings, tracking metrics periodically, etc.  

Implementing sales automation: step-by-step guide

Here’s a step-by-step guide taking you through how you can implement sales automation in your organization: 

• Start with auditing your current processes and assessing your sales process. What are the tasks that are being done manually that you can automate, which are the tasks that are taking up human time and effort, etc.
• Once you identify the possible automation opportunities, it is important to decide which ones to actually automate and which processes should remain as is. For this, it is critical that you set clear goals and objectives so you can plan your automation accordingly. For example, if your goal is to scale processes, you need to automate tasks such as scheduling emails or sending bulk emails. If your goal is to improve efficiency, you need to automate tasks such as CRM enrichment
• Then comes the aspect of choosing the right sales automation tool. Be sure to pick the one that is ideal for your team and organization. What works for another company might not be the ideal solution for you.

Examples of sales automation

• CRM integration: B2B sales automation tools can handle logging sales calls, meeting outcomes, and follow-ups directly into your CRM, saving time and reducing admin workload. The tools ensure these updates are structured and synced without much manual effort and help maintain data hygiene.
• Lead generation: Automation can streamline and scale the process of finding leads that match your ideal customer profile (ICP) and reaching out with personalized messages, making outreach more efficient. 
• ICP filtering & prioritization: B2B sales automation tools also help filter and sort through thousands of leads, identify ICP leads, and prioritize them for outreach.
• Lead assignment: Sales managers can rely on automation to assign leads to reps, ensuring timely follow-ups and eliminating the hassle of manual distribution.
• Notetaking using AI tools: AI-powered tools track meeting minutes and conversations, helping reps focus on selling while ensuring the notes are detailed and precise.
• Lead enrichment with signals: AI-native B2B sales automation tools like Highperformr help track and consolidate social signals and buying intent signals to enhance lead profiles, improving the relevance and effectiveness of cold outreach.
• Pipeline management and follow-ups: AI and automation can be used for lead management and tasks such as follow-up emails, meeting scheduling, and managing other lead-nurturing activities at scale.
• Customer activity tracking: AI-powered automation tools monitor customer or lead activity, highlighting high-potential leads for the team to engage with at the right time.
• Competitor monitoring: AI and automation can be used to track competitors’ social activity and identify new leads engaging with them. Highperformr is a B2B sales automation tool that helps automate the process of tracking and curating all social interactions and other activity of competitors on social media.
• Sales meeting scheduling: Tools can be used to automate the process of arranging sales meetings, sending reminders, and updating calendars.

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Future trends in B2B sales automation: 2025 and beyond

The world of B2B sales is only going to get more interesting and exciting, with dozens of modern companies launching AI and automation tools for B2B sales automation and marketing automation. 

For example, AI SDRs have already become commonplace. Many B2B companies are using AI SDRs to scale prospecting. Companies that didn’t have large outbound motions are able to quickly and easily set up an outbound engine using a handful of employees assisted by sales automation tools. 

Here are some shifts and trends we are seeing in the B2B sales landscape: 

Signal-based selling is the future of sales

AI-native products like Highperformr enable companies to identify real-time first party insight to drive signal-based selling. Companies will be able to track job change signals, technographic data, hiring plans, competitor interactions and other such signals during their prospecting. 

Personalization will be a requirement, not a luxury

Tailored experiences and personalization will no longer be an option. AI-driven content automation will help sales development representatives (SDRs) craft hyper-relevant messaging based on each prospect’s activity and business needs. We will see more companies using content personalisation automation as part of their GTM activities to provide prospects and customers custom experiences.

AI will help scale processes faster

Modern AI-first products will help improve sales processes, and enable companies to experiment with different applications of B2B sales automation. Lead qualification, automating follow-ups, and providing predictive insights for sales engagement. Instead of manually researching and organizing data, sales teams will rely on AI to identify high-value leads and optimize outreach strategies.

Social selling will become the norm

LinkedIn and other social platforms will be at the heart of sales because most professionals today spend time on social platforms like LinkedIn or X. AI-native social media management tools are making it easier for sales reps to engage with ICP leads. Products like Highperformr enable you to track audiences engaging with you on social media, and identify leads from your social audience. 

Spearfishing will replace spray-and-pray

Companies will invest in spearfishing rather than taking the spray-and-pray approach, because AI tools now enable companies to identify their ICP leads with precision and go after targeted leads.  

Better customer relationships

GTM workflow automation will make it easier for companies to nurture relationships with customers. For example, AI makes it possible to use B2B sales automation tools to make pipeline management, lead scoring, customer segmentation, and other such tasks for customer engagement.