Mike Boyle:

You know Brad, just like anything else, there’s pros and there’s cons. Talk to me about the pros and cons of automating the sales and revenue process.

Brad Brochocki:

So, in terms of pros, what people realize immediately with sales automation software is speed and ease of use. These software companies are spending loads of time and loads of money to make the processes easy for you as possible and as fast as possible because they want you to realize is that immediate ROI, that now when you can use this tool, your time is being opened up to focus on actually closing deals as opposed to the several steps that go throughout that whole sales process.

And then once you enter the software, to be able to be up and running quickly. The last thing you want is to sign up for something and then it takes weeks to months to learn how to actually use and maximize that software. So in pros, you’re going to be able to move faster and ideally these processes that seemed complicated, all of a sudden become much easier and much easier for you to learn quicker.

In terms of cons, a lot of times with sales automation software, if not implemented correctly, you’re running into a lack of personalization. Now, I gave that example earlier of prospecting tools and email automation software.

Mike, I’m sure you’ve gotten an email in the past that almost seemed spam-like where someone has reached out to you and clearly it wasn’t addressed to you. There’s no personalization. It feels like this is an email that you are one of thousands of recipients receiving, receiving a mass email which immediately turns you off as a prospect.\

Mike Boyle:

Oh yeah.

Brad Brochocki:

So, when you’re looking at that, that’s why the implementation and configuration is so important. While I mentioned it’s really easy to be up and running quickly, it’s that ideally, you’re also working a implementation team, a professional services team, an account manager to understand what you’re looking to do with that software and how you can add your brand, your tone of voice, all the important things that add personality to your messaging whether that be phone calls, emails, collateral, that when that’s done correctly, sales automation software is great.

Though that con is that a lot of people don’t want to spend that time or money or effort to put that in place and that’s where you end up seeing some messiness of almost a spam-like outreach to customers. And then kind of adding onto that is that if it’s not configured to meet your needs, it’s not going to work.

All of us, big picture, follow a very similar sales process. There’s typically outreach. Initial first call or conversation. There’s the sending of a proposal or quote. Then you go into contract or deal negotiation. You sign a deal. You fulfill your obligation, whether that be a product and or service, and then you work on renewing or upselling or adding more value for a future term for that customer.

But if any of that software isn’t built or configured to meet your exact needs, then you’re creating extra work. So, while a lot of software services claim to be out of the box, that this is built just for you, the best software has some professional services involved where they’re going to help build the right product and the right software. So, it’s ticking all the correct boxes that your company needs. And when that happens, then sales automation software is just amazing.

Mike Boyle:

And just like anything else, there’s challenges Brad. How do you overcome the challenges that come with sales automation software?

Brad Brochocki:

When you’re dealing with challenges, definitely there is an initial time and cost scare especially when speaking to upper management, especially when dealing with people who are signing the exact deals to get the sales automation implemented for your company because there’s some sticker shock.

When you look initially at sales automation software, it can be timely. It can be costly. So, with that, it’s really important to point out quantitative ROI and timeline and the benefit you’re going to receive because when we talked about the beginning of really` the best parts of sales automation software is that increased productivity, accelerated sales cycles and revenue growth that you can argue that anyone signed up for sales automation software.

So, it’s really important and it’s usually the job of the seller to make sure to provide examples of customers who’ve had success with that software, case studies, and success stories.

These are the things that are so vital to show that before this process and before this automation was installed, customer A was dealing with these problems. It took this long to close a deal. It was costing this much money.

And then after implementation, you saw this immediate ROI of a shortened timeline to revenue, increased deal size, and more productivity for your team. So it’s really important in those initial conversations to make sure that you’re getting the configuration and professional services needed to implement the software appropriately. And then with that, make sure that you’re onboarding quickly and realizing that value so your decision makers and your buyers feel very comfortable with that investment.

Mike Boyle:

He’s Brad Brochocki. He’s Conga’s Director Of Digital Transformation For Automation. You’re listening to the Salesforce Simplified Podcast. I’m Mike Boyle. Brad, as we continue on here, can you talk to me about the different types of sales, automation software and what are the best features to look for?

Brad Brochocki:

Yeah. We touched on this briefly earlier but depending on the persona, sales actually gets broadened to several different departments in a company because when you’re going through that sales process, you’re also interacting with marketing. You’re dealing with legal, possibly. You’re dealing with finance, all these people who can be a part of closing a deal.

What you find to be universal is that typically across departments and a company, they’re all working under a unified CRM. So, the first step is you need to make sure when you’re evaluating your software, that it works with and/or integrates with your CRM. So, whether that be Salesforce or HubSpot or Zoho or whatever it might be, that you are getting a software that works well and ideally integrates directly with that CRM. Because the way you’re doing business, you want to have one source of truth, one source of data in one place that all your business can be managed and the last thing you want is set different pieces of software, several different vendors that you’re interacting with, doing deals with, dealing with contracts, renewals, all this information. So, it simplifies that process.

So, when you can find automation software that works with your CRM, that’s check one. Check two is that you’re looking for comfort and that ease of use. So something that you’re familiar with and that’s why I talked about the integration of the CRM is that typically then you’re working under the same user experience or user interface of that CRM.

So, Conga, for example, all of our products are built on the Salesforce platform. So, if you’re familiar with Salesforce, when you’re using a Conga product, it has that same look and feel of being in Salesforce. So, part of that adoption, part of that speed to use or speed to revenue that you’re realizing is that how quickly you can start using and comfortably maximizing the use of that software.

So, comfort’s number two and number three is speed versus cost. So, there’s this tricky balance when evaluating sales automation software is that some people want something that’s low cost but then typically when something’s low cost, it might take a long time realized value or if it’s low cost and doesn’t take a long time to implement, it’s probably not the best automation software for you especially if you’re a fairly complex company.

So, there’s that fine line of people willing to then spend money but they want to realize immediate value. But the longer you make sure that the software is implemented and configured to meet your company’s needs, is that then you’re realizing the best automation software for your company. So, I like to say that sometimes a longer timeline and a higher cost actually gets you better software for your company that’s going to pay dividends in the long term.

Mike Boyle:

Brad, what would you say to the small or medium-sized company that’s listening to this podcast right now? Would sales automation benefit them too?

Brad Brochocki:

A hundred percent because, in this instance, you’re likely dealing with less bandwidth and a smaller team. You know it’s really easy to justify and a lot of times, sales automation companies will sell to these large enterprise companies cause they can sell hundreds of seats or licenses, solve these larger problems. But when you are a small team, which my background is working kind of in the startup space and for these small companies that might have between 10 and 20 employees.

In that instance, you might have a sales team of three or four people. So, if you have three or four people responsible for bringing in revenue and keeping your company afloat, you want to make sure their time is maximized. So, it’s extremely important to realize how can I make sure with the few employees dedicated towards sales that I have, that I can ensure that they’re spending their time in the right way and not spending all that time I mentioned earlier, not actually closing deals or making sales.

So, where sales automation software comes in is if you can invest that right money really in the right process and realize that ROI immediately, then you can slowly build on that. But this makes arguably even more sense for SMBs because their value of an individual employee, arguably, is greater than that of larger companies.

Mike Boyle:

Something we talk a lot about, doesn’t matter what podcast we seem to be doing here, is best practices. So talk to me a little bit about best practices and the ones to follow for implementing a sales automation system.

Brad Brochocki:

Yes. I usually divide this into four steps. First is to really identify processes that could be automated. I named several on this call but everyone’s sales cycle is unique. So it’s really identifying almost that large list of here are all the steps we have in our sales process and maybe highlight or underline the ones that seem to be problems.

Are these where deals are getting hung up? Is this the longest part of your sales cycle that you think could be cut down? What are those processes that just make sense of this seems to be a problem for our company that we’re looking to automate and/or shorten to become a more productive team that can realize revenue faster?

Number two is you need to learn how to interact with your CRM and data management tools because as I said earlier, that’s equally as important because if you have an automation software that’s separate, how are you tracking the data analytics? How are you making sure that everything is talking to each other? And then you’re also dealing with two separate logins, two different interfaces that your team then has to manage, learn to get a deal done. So, if you can find something that interacts with, integrates with your CRM, that’s the second thing we recommend.

Third is to identify vendors that can help you take that first step. It could be something as simple as sending out an RFP or scheduling some initial demos with sales in automation software and really doing your part to work with them of what are your pain points and what are you looking to solve? Because from the sales automation point of view, they can give you a standard demo. But most of these companies specialize in making sure they can provide a solution that fits your specific needs and that’s going to help identify is that you have now ideally found a vendor that integrates with your CRM, solves those processes you’re looking to get automated, and they check all those boxes you need to fix that initial process and/or problem.

Number four is that we really recommend that you start off with one process or one step. What is that biggest pain point you have? And then you grow from there. One thing that we try to deter prospects from doing is biting off more than they can chew because the last thing you want to do is to dip your toe and take that first step towards sales automation. But you’re sold a bunch of software that frankly, you’re not going to utilize. You don’t have the bandwidth for and you don’t use.

So, then come to renewal time, all of a sudden you’re dealing with disgruntled customers who feel like they were cheated. So from the customer point of view, we say what’s that one thing you’re looking to solve? Is it your proposal and quote solution? Is it contract management? Is it your renewal process? Is it order fulfillment. Whatever it is, start with automating that step and perfect it and from there grow. So, your automation tools will grow with you as you mature and you don’t need to bite off more than you can chew. Begin automating those biggest bottlenecks and then expand from there. 

Mike Boyle:

Obviously, we’re going to have one or two people listening to the podcast that are less interested in some of the really cool features of sales automation that we’ve been talking about here and they only care about hey, solve my problems. You kind of touched on this a little bit a moment ago but what would you say to that person?

Brad Brochocki:

Salesforce automation software has quantitative-proven benefits that it’s going to save your team time. It’s going to shorten your deal cycle and it’s going to make your company more money.

So, like I’ve said, focus on that biggest problem area, identify what’s that one thing you can fix first if time and/or budget is an issue and go there. And I can assure you, if you ask any sales automation company, they will be able to pull up, in your industry, in your company size, other examples of companies they’ve helped solve that exact problem and give you quantitative proof points of how this sales automation software helped that company and could help you.

Mike Boyle:

Last question I have for you today Brad is what is your advice on getting buy-in from the C-suite in terms of purchasing a sales automation software system. You want to spearhead this? How do I get that buy-in from the tough folks upstairs?

Brad Brochocki:

Yes. First steps, it’s really being transparent. One of the biggest problems I’ve witnessed is that a lot of the stakeholders will get involved with an RFP or do all the evaluation of a sales automation software all the way up to contract being signed where in reality, you need to make sure that you’re including the appropriate stakeholders and I’m not saying all of your stakeholders.

But when you’re looking at C-level suite people, is it your Chief Finance Officer? Is it your CEO? Whoever it is, it’s how are we making sure that they’re getting transparency into this deal and not just being brought into a contract and/or email that might have your proposal in place because what those C-level individuals want to see is they want to see quantitative data that this helps and they want to understand timeline and ROI.

So, typically, if you can involve any sort of stakeholder like that in a second and third call, once you’ve better identified your pain points, your processes, you’ve gathered initial data, maybe you’ve shortened down to one or two finalists, you’re including those right stakeholders in the deal and you’re making sure that your C-level team is understanding here’s the quantitative data of how this can help us. Here’s this cost involved but here’s the timeline and the ROI that we’ll realize if we implement.

And then ideally, if you can work with other stakeholders in your team and provide projections of how this will help your company in the long run, it makes the software look impressive and it makes you look impressive and prepared that you have put together a full proposal and frankly not wasted time and/or not included your C-level people early enough to make them feel like they’re valued in this decision as well.

Mike Boyle:

And it makes you look like a hero too. Right?

Brad Brochocki:

Exactly. That’s what we tell lots of people. When we’re selling in sales automation software, a lot of times you’re talking to a director of sales and/or whoever does that first touch interaction. And it’s really on the job of both sides of the sales automation software, as well as the customer, to bring in those right stakeholders to have the right conversation. And everyone wants to feel valued because in the end you look like the hero if you’ve brought in the right people, you found on the right software and you’re better in your company. You’ve done your due diligence. It’s now up to the software which we’ve shown does its job. Everyone’s happy.

Mike Boyle:

Brad Brochocki from Conga. Thank you for joining us today. I know we’re all going to walk away from this with a much deeper understanding about how to utilize sales automation to accelerate the sales cycle. I’d like to invite you to come back. We can certainly take this discussion to another level at some point and I hope you will consider coming back some time.

Brad Brochocki:

Absolutely. I would be back in a heartbeat. Thanks so much Mike.

Mike Boyle:

Thank you Brad. And for the audience, if you’d like to learn a little bit more about today’s topic, I’m going to be putting some helpful links in this show’s episode notes including some information about Brad and about Conga and some other things too. So there’ll be those resources for you. Look for them.

Hey. Is this the first time you’re listening to our podcast? If so, hey, thank you. But do make sure you follow us. You can find us anywhere. Whatever podcast channel you like, we’re there. I promise you. Get all our past episodes, future episodes. Just hit that follow button and everything will come right to you and we’d appreciate you telling your friends and colleagues about us as well.

I’m Mike Boyle from Ad Vic. Thank you for joining us for our latest Salesforce Simplified podcast. As always, our next episode is just around the corner.