Closing more deals in less time is what most sales reps aim for. But how many make it happen? Not many.
The reason is that a significant percentage of salespeople still depend on manual sales processes. What do they need to do? They have to copy and paste prospect data manually, often missing some details, while also keeping track of follow-up dates and information.
Why go through all this and risk missing necessary steps when they can use automated workflows that boost efficiency and save a lot of time?
Most professional sales representatives and sales managers recognize that a sales workflow is essential for both their income and the company's revenue. A structured and automated workflow sequence not only helps close more deals but also ensures sales stability and future growth.
What is a Sales Workflow?
A sales workflow is seen as a series of repeatable actions that sales reps perform to engage and nurture leads, ultimately converting them into paying customers. It illustrates the company’s sales cycle, outlining the tasks and activities needed to close a deal.
The processes usually vary for companies, products, customer bases, and internal operations. However, establishing the right sales workflows helps reduce the sales cycle and improve sales operations' overall efficiency.
When Is a Sales Workflow Effective?
A sales workflow is not a one-size-fits-all process; it involves strategic and tailored steps to reach specific sales goals, such as turning prospects into leads, converting leads into customers, closing deals, and similar objectives.
- However, certain criteria and elements define effective sales workflows. These elements are:
- Standardization and a detailed action plan. An effective sales workflow should be based on standardization, meaning every sales representative follows the same processes and ensures consistency across actions.
- Automation. Manual, repetitive tasks such as data entry and follow-ups take up a lot of time and are prone to human error. Automation makes workflows smoother, saves time and resources.
- Customer-centrism. Every step of the sales workflow should aim to simplify and improve the buyer’s journey.
- Measurability. An effective sales workflow should rely on clear metrics to track performance and find areas for improvement.
Having all these elements in place will help your sales team become more proactive and close more deals.
Benefits of an Effective Sales Workflow
A standardized and automated sales workflow maximizes your sales processes, saving time and resources on repetitive and mundane tasks. Here are some benefits of an effective sales workflow:
More Deals Closed
Often, companies lose deals and customers due to ineffective sales workflows. For example, human errors like forgetting to follow up on a lead can result in missed opportunities. You can prevent this simply by automating workflows.
Unautomated workflows often confuse new sales representatives, preventing them from closing deals because of misunderstandings.
Implementing a structured and automated workflow helps address these issues, providing sales representatives with the knowledge and guidance needed to engage with clients at various stages of the sales cycle.
Retain Customers
Closing a deal is the middle stage of the sales funnel, but the real challenge is keeping the customers.
An effective sales workflow enables smooth communication between different departments, making customer onboarding more efficient and personalized.
When all departments are informed and connected, customers enjoy a consistent experience, which encourages them to stay with the company.
Interpret Buying Habits
Understanding buying habits is crucial in the sales process, that is, how and why customers make purchases. A structured and automated sales workflow enables tracking and analyzing these patterns, which helps shape future sales strategies.
Recognizing the customer's needs and wants enables the creation of more personalized experiences and enhances sales approach processes.
3 Sales Workflows That Increase Productivity
Here are 3 sales workflows that sales reps should automate first to make their sales processes smoother and more effective.
1. Lead Capture and Assignment Workflow
A serious challenge in sales is to make sure no lead slips through the system. With an automated lead capture workflow, you can ensure that every inquiry from your website, ads, or social media is logged in your CRM and automatically assigned to the right salesperson.
The key benefits of the automated lead capture include:
- Instant responses to leads. Studies show that 35-50% of sales go to those who respond first.
- Consistent allocation of prospects.
- Neat and structured data.
You can create a Make account and use this automation tool to connect your lead generation forms (like Typeform, Facebook Ads, or your website) directly to your CRM system.
When a new lead is captured, it can immediately generate a contact, assign the lead to a sales representative, and even send an introduction email. All these steps can be done without any manual effort.
2. Follow-Up and Nurturing Workflow
Recent studies show that it often takes 5–7 follow-ups before a prospect converts.
Unfortunately, sales representatives may forget to follow up or waste time sending repetitive emails. A follow-up workflow ensures that leads receive consistent, personalized communication over time.
Benefits of an automated follow-up workflow include:
- Establishes credibility and keeps your company as the first consideration.
- Reduces and eliminates manual follow-ups for sales representatives.
- Increases conversion rates.
Make automation software can connect your CRM with an email platform (like Gmail or Outlook) and your calendar. When a lead moves to a specific stage, Make can automatically send a pre-written follow-up email, schedule a reminder for a rep, or trigger a nurturing sequence.
3. Proposal and Contract Workflow
In the final stages of the deal, paperwork may slow down the progress. An automated proposal and contract workflow can significantly streamline the process and help close more deals.
Benefits of an automated proposal and contract workflow include:
- Quicker proposal turnout.
- Human error elimination in documents.
- Transparency is maintained at the contract stage during the approval process.
Make can link your CRM to document tools like Google Docs, PandaDoc, or DocuSign. When a deal reaches the “Proposal” stage, it can automatically generate a contract with client details filled in, send it to the client for e-signature, and notify the sales rep once it’s signed.
Why Use Make for Sales Workflows?
Unlike traditional automation platforms that require coding knowledge, Make.com offers a visual, drag-and-drop interface. That means sales teams and managers don’t need to be technical experts to automate key workflows.
Key advantages of using Make:
- Flexibility: It connects with thousands of apps, including CRMs, email tools, and document platforms.
- Scalability: Start small with a simple workflow and expand as your processes mature.
- Time savings: Automations run in the background, freeing up sales reps to focus on building relationships.
You can integrate Make with a CRM system like Pipedrive and use the full potential of automation, having all the processes automated right inside your CRM. No more switching between tabs and different software.
Final Thoughts
Sales productivity is no longer about being only faster: it’s more about being smarter.
Designing and implementing automated workflows enables sales teams to work smarter and more efficiently, eliminating human errors and saving significant time on mundane tasks.
The best part? These workflows aren’t overly technical. With just a little setup, your team can gain hours back every week and spend more time doing what they do best: selling.
