You have ambitious plans to find and convert more clients, and you already know all the things you need to do. But you\u2019re just one person (or a small team) who doesn\u2019t always have the time to nurture every single lead according to an \u201cideal\u201d sales process. That could take you weeks or even months of planning and execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s so easy to feel frustrated and overwhelmed by the steps you need to take to warm up your prospects for a sale, especially if you handle all your communications manually. And now you\u2019re wondering if you should just automate your sales process to make your life easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solution seems straightforward: Just set up the automation once, so you don\u2019t have to think about it later. Let autoresponders and marketing automations handle all your customer touchpoints \u2013 from the initial contact through every follow-up. No leads will ever get left behind on your to-do list. And you\u2019ll only need to swoop in and close the deal when you know <\/em>they\u2019re absolutely ready to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, depending on your industry and business, there are a couple of problems with lead outreach automations. One, if you try to automate everything, you risk coming off as impersonal or insensitive to your prospects<\/strong>. Using autoresponders and scheduled content might even discourage some customers if the message isn\u2019t right. <\/strong>Furthermore, if you use apps like WhatsApp to interact with leads, you could get banned <\/strong>because they have pretty strict rules against automated messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With all these risks involved in sales automation<\/a>, can you still make it work? Absolutely! But you\u2019ll need to know what you should and should not automate in your sales process<\/a>. And the simplest answer to that is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should not try to automate everything in your sales process, especially<\/em> the customer-facing tasks<\/strong> (like following up with a lead to schedule a showflat viewing). However, you should definitely automate tasks that are internal to yourself so you can take a huge chunk of the planning work off your plate. Let\u2019s dig into the specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to quickly connect with new leads who initiate a conversation with you, or submit interest through your website or ads online. You\u2019ve heard that it\u2019s always better to contact leads as soon as possible, but you can\u2019t be checking your phone at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, you might be considering using autoresponders <\/strong>so you can instantly reply to new prospects and customer enquiries. But should you even use them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, they are acceptable in some cases where you make it very<\/em> clear that the message is an autoresponder (and by no means your actual reply). For example, it\u2019s still fine if your autoresponder says something like, \u201cThanks for reaching out to us at ACME Residences. We\u2019ll get back to you shortly!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, you\u2019re simply acknowledging that you\u2019ve received their message, and you\u2019ll be reaching out with more details later. Most people are going to be okay with that. However, if you try to do more than that with an autoresponder, you might end up annoying your prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you try to engage the lead in a conversation with an autoresponder, what happens if they reply to the message, thinking that you\u2019re actually there and available to chat? You will leave your potential customers hanging, and they might even feel irritated enough to never reply again.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine walking into a physical shop and the salesperson says, \u201cWelcome! How can I help you today?\u201d<\/em> You answer, \u201cYes, I\u2019d like to buy a laptop for work.\u201d<\/em> And then the salesperson just walks away without responding<\/em>. How would you feel and react? \ud83d\ude20\ud83d\ude24\ud83e\udd28<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your customers would probably feel and react the same way if you tried to automatically start and drive conversations using autoresponders. You could end up with irritated customers who feel like you\u2019re wasting their time because, to them, you stopped responding abruptly. Therefore, avoid using autoresponders in a way that makes your prospects think you\u2019re currently at the other end of the line attending to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, you should not even be using autoresponders on apps like WhatsApp where users are not allowed to use automated messaging, according to the official Terms of Service. In fact, you could get banned or even face legal consequences<\/strong> if you use unofficial tools to set up WhatsApp autoresponders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The closest thing to an autoresponder you can get on WhatsApp is the \u201caway message\u201d feature. But it can only be triggered if the customer messages you on WhatsApp themselves. Plus, you can only set one type of away message at a time, with no personalisation, and you\u2019ll still run into the same problem of leaving the conversation hanging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once your initial outreach is out of the way, you should keep engaging with your leads regularly. Or at least that\u2019s what the sales gurus say. But the problem is that your sales cycle could be really long, especially if you sell big ticket items like cars and properties. As your contact list grows, you might find it difficult to keep every lead warm and engaged over the weeks, months, or even years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s where it becomes incredibly tempting to set up automatic \u200cfollow-ups as well. You might think to put every lead into an automated messaging funnel<\/strong> that sends out different messages at specific intervals; each targeting a different stage of the customer buying process. Additionally, you might even try to schedule appointment reminders for your customers to be super high touch and proactive. Once again, you can use CRM tools to set up automated reminders for yourself to follow up<\/strong> with your leads and customers. This could be an automatic push notification on your phone, let\u2019s say, after three days or a month has passed since you last interacted with a lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the reminder, many CRM tools like Privyr will even give you the option to quickly select one of your pre-written messages to send to the lead, so you won\u2019t have to type everything out yourself. It\u2019s absolutely fine to automate these because you still serve as the final checkpoint before a message is sent. And you\u2019re the one who hits \u2018send\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The automated system shouldn\u2019t be sending messages on your behalf. As smart as they can be, you\u2019re the one who knows what is appropriate to send and when to send it. And taking the time to complete that last inch of review makes a huge difference in creating a pleasant experience for your prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83e\udd1d First outreach: Should you automate this?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Potential setbacks:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Alternative solutions:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\ud83d\udcac Follow-ups: Should you automate them?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
So why shouldn\u2019t you automate follow-ups? \ud83e\udd14 You might be able to get away with automating follow-ups that aren\u2019t meant to be super personal, such as \u201cHey, just wanted to let you know that we\u2019re running a promotion in June\u201d<\/em>. But ultimately, automated messages lack personalisation, as well as the foresight to understand what your prospect needs to hear at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPotential setbacks:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Alternative solutions:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Before you go\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n