9 Creative Ways to Automate Sales Engagement in 2024

Think about all the tedious tasks your sales reps must perform daily, from sending countless emails to scheduling appointments and following up with leads. 

These tasks are draining and take away valuable time and energy your sales reps need to build trustworthy relationships to sell more.

So, how can you lower the workload of your sales team to ensure they have enough time to handle high-value tasks? With sales engagement automation which is a game-changer for modern sales teams. 

Sales engagement automation takes these tasks off of the plate of sales reps, allowing them to focus on what they do best: closing deals. 

With that said, this article will explain creative methods to automate your sales engagement process so you don’t have to worry about repeating activities. Before we dive into these ways, let’s take a look at what sales engagement automation is.

What is sales engagement automation?

Sales engagement automation refers to using the right sales automation tools and technology to automate and streamline the process of engaging with prospects and customers throughout the sales cycle.

Ways to automate your sales engagement operations

As technology advances, businesses are embracing automation to be better positioned to compete and win in their markets. By automating tasks like lead scoring and prioritization, email outreach, and meeting scheduling, you can enhance sales time management and efficiency.

Having said that, here are some ways to automate your sales engagement:

Automate lead generation

Before you can start the engagement process, you would need sales qualified leads in your pipeline. 

But what if I tell you that you can automate this step as well? Yes, that’s right. You can automate your lead generation using AI-powered forms. 

One of the ways to generate and share forms is via Zixflow, a comprehensive tool for managing sales pipeline. Forms lets you effectively collect your leads’ details and save it automatically into the CRM. 

Not just that. You can map each form to a custom list so you can segment leads and build highly qualified lead lists at the same time. 

Once you’re done capturing leads’ information and building a lead list, you can begin with the lead nurturing to engage them appropriately. 

Automate lead nurturing

“Automation is cost-cutting by tightening the corners and not cutting them.” — Haresh Sippy

Lead nurturing tools can help automate your lead nurturing by triggering personalized emails and other marketing materials based on a lead's score or behavior. 

For example, a lead who scores high on engagement but hasn't yet requested a demo could receive a personalized email inviting them to schedule a call.

Automate outreach email campaigns

Email, the most commonly used engagement channel, is still one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience. But, sending generic emails to everyone on your list is no longer enough. 

Segmenting and automating your engagement emails allows you to send personalized emails based on user behavior. This way, you can increase open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

There are various types of emails you can automatically send to your audience to increase engagement. Some common ones include:

Welcome emails

As the name implies, this involves sending a series of personalized emails to new subscribers or newsletter signups, introducing them to your brand, and guiding them toward the next stage of the sales pipeline. 

For example, you can send an initial welcome email with a special offer or incentive, followed by a series of emails that highlight different features or products, giving them free trials of your product, and finally encouraging them to make a purchase.

Abandoned cart emails

When a customer adds items to their cart but doesn't complete the purchase, an automated email can be triggered reminding them of the items left in their cart and offering a discount or other incentive to complete the purchase. 

This can help minimize cart abandonment rates and improve conversion rates. For instance, Ajio and Bigbasket have done an excellent job crafting the perfect abandoned cart email.

Lead nurturing emails

Lead nurturing emails keep prospects engaged and move them further down the sales funnel. This can be done using a sequence of personalized emails that offer educational content, product demos, case studies, and customer success stories. 

By tracking the recipient's engagement with these emails, businesses can identify which leads are most interested and ready for a sales call.

99acres, a real estate company, has chosen a fantastic way to nurture leads. Rather than overloading them with property ads, they've launched an email series, "Insights by 99acres," to share realty market blogs.

With sales engagement platforms like Zixflow, you can nurture your leads through automated and streamlined campaigns across channels of your choice.

Re-engagement emails

Re-engagement emails are a way to win back customers who haven't interacted with your brand for a while. 

This can be done through a drip campaign to boost sales engagement, where you send a series of emails reminding the recipient of your brand and offering a special incentive to come back. 

For example, you can offer a discount or a free trial to encourage them to engage with your brand again. Nykaa, an online fashion store, uses eye-catching re-engagement emails that are a class apart.

Upsell or cross-sell emails

Automated upsell and cross-sell emails can be triggered based on the customer's previous purchase history. 

For example, if a customer purchases a product or service, an automated email can be triggered offering related products or services that complement their purchase. This can help increase revenue and customer loyalty.

Myntra is an online ecommerce store that has an absolutely amazing system that tracks customers’ purchase/wishlist history and shares email newsletters with similar/complementary products:

Automate your customer onboarding 

Personalized emails can be used to welcome new customers and guide them through your platform.

For example, a software company can send emails to a new customer signing up for a free trial and introduce them to the platform, demonstrating how to use key features and offering tips for getting the most out of the product. 

This can help increase customer retention for paid plans and reduce churn. You don't need to send an email manually every time a customer comes on board. 

Instead, you can set up automated sales cadences and workflows on sales engagement platforms such as Zixfow.

Integration with CRM

It’s important to know how a sales engagement platform differs from a CRM software. Sales engagement platform helps you in managing interaction with your customers whereas a CRM software helps you in storing and managing your customer data. Many sales engagement tools, such as Zixflow, integrate your existing CRM platforms to streamline the lead scoring and prioritization process. 

This allows sales reps to see all of a lead's interactions in one place and easily track their progress through the sales funnel.

Implement sales workflow automation

Automating sales engagement should not just be limited to reaching out to your leads. You can also automate your internal sales operations with workflow automation.

With workflow automation, you can say goodbye to your repetitive sales tasks and mundane activities to free up time for your sales team. 

To automate your workflows, you would need a sales engagement platform that has deep connections with its other functionalities to completely put your workflows on autopilot. 

Zixflow is one such software that allows you to set up workflow automation with conditional triggers. These triggers execute certain actions when specific conditions are met. 

For example, when a lead fills out a form, you can set up workflow automation to assign that lead to one of your sales reps and send a welcome email to the lead simultaneously. 

Automate sales performance management

By tracking sales performance against the sales forecast, your sales managers can identify areas where additional coaching or training is needed and recognize top-performing sales reps. 

This information can also help your sales managers adjust their sales goals and incentives to align with the team's actual performance.

The top sales engagement platforms enable you to create customized reports and dashboards for tracking your sales engagement activities.

Automate social content marketing

Social media has become a staple medium to engage your customers and build valuable relationships. 

So, posting meaningful or promotional content on social media platforms is a must if you want to boost awareness or drive leads. 

To do that, you can utilize a social media content automation platform that will post your created content on relevant social media channels at a predetermined time. All you have to do is create content, specify when it should be posted, and the platform. 

An example of one such tool is Buffer. Buffer is a social media content management tool that allows you to curate social media content and schedule it to post automatically.

Automating appointment scheduling

Automating meeting scheduling in sales engagement can save sales reps a lot of time and effort, enabling them to focus on more important tasks such as lead nurturing and closing deals.

Demo scheduling tools

Online booking tools allow prospects and customers to book appointments directly through a company's website. These tools can integrate with a company's calendar and send automated confirmation emails to both the customer and sales rep. 

Email scheduling

Some sales engagement platforms, such as Zixflow, offer email scheduling tools that allow your sales reps to schedule appointments directly from their email. 

This eliminates the need for back-and-forth communication to find a mutually convenient time and simplifies the scheduling process.

SMS appointment reminders

SMS appointment reminders can be sent automatically to remind customers of upcoming appointments. These reminders can reduce no-shows and improve the customer experience. 

Knock your sales automation out of the park with these innovative methods

The benefits of sales engagement automation are clear: increased efficiency, improved effectiveness, and, ultimately, higher revenue growth. 

If you're a sales rep or sales leader, it's time to begin thinking about how you can incorporate sales engagement automation into your processes. 

Don't be afraid to experiment with new tools and technologies. Keep an eye out for emerging sales engagement trends in sales engagement automation.

By leveraging automation, you'll be well on your way to success in 2024 and beyond. Want to know more about how Zixflow can boost your sales engagement efforts? Book a personalized demo right now!