TheArrowOfApollo profile picture
TheArrowOfApollo profile picture

TheArrowOfApollo

Digital BDR

Tycoon
Big Shot
Opinionated
+8

Sales Automation

I started using sales automation at the beginning of the year.
And it turned me into the #1 sales person on the team, while significantly decreasing my work hours.
I'm curious as to how many of you leverage similar tools.



Do you use any sales automation, if so, what do you use it for?

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
💻 Automation
👨‍💻 LinkedIn
🤷‍♂ Poll
35

60 comments

Sort by:
LordOfWar
Tycoon
10
Blow it up
If I used automation I'd be blacklisted so fast. Gov't servers are not friendly with those tools.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
2
Digital BDR
There is a way to do it where this isn’t an issue. I only target emails where it is extremely likely to not bounce, and I keep everything compliant with current email laws.
LordOfWar
Tycoon
2
Blow it up
Still won't work, I'm going to get spam-blocked if I reach out to people who I know are not working on something I can help with. Our cycle is also between 3-12 months so even a quarterly check-in is often too much for most buyers.

Automation does not work in every sale setting.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
Of course, who said it would work for every type of sales? I'm saying that there is a specific way to make it work.
Boardertech
3
Founder and CEO
I've helped multiple companies that sell into state and federal government integrate email automation into their sales process and they have their emails getting through to the decision makers.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Oops, Is this true..?
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
Is that because it's illegal to use it?
LordOfWar
Tycoon
1
Blow it up
Gov't is in the process of a serious overall to its cyber security, including spam/phishing filters and other protocols. IMO it is extreme and a huge burden, and it is becoming easier and easier to end up on an email blacklist. I make sure everything I send is targeted and relevant.

Not that I ever thought shotgunning emails was a good way of selling before, but even more so am against it now.

It does make me happy to see some still think it works though, it will just mean less competition in the prospect's inbox in the next 6-12 months lol
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
0
Digital BDR
I hear ya, but it depends on how you use it.<br><br>What if an AI program could write your personalizations better than you?<br><br>What if you could send 1000 emails per day to your universe of leads, with incredibly personalized and realistic messaging?<br><br>You can still do your manual, buts it’s like having a personal assistant 10X your reach.<br><br>There’s a lot more to take into account, to not be spammy
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
I see, thanks for sharing.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
6
🦊
No I do not. I research and personalize.
Pachacuti
Politicker
4
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
What you sell must be highly transactional. For what I sell, and the length of the sales cycle, most SA tools wouldn’t help me.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
3
Digital BDR
It’s actually quite the opposite. It’s highly relational and it’s a long term service that the customer uses almost daily with us. My sales automations, simply get my message out to my ideal customers, books meetings for me and I take it from there.
Boardertech
3
Founder and CEO
The longer the sales process the more sales automation can help you. if the sales is transactional and the cycle is short their isn't enough time for automation to have any impact on the buyer.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
I know our BDR team uses automation to run some campaign cycles, but I personally do not. I have a long sales cycle, and outreach from me is tailored.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
My sales cycle is maybe about a month or two. What is yours?
notcorporatebro
Good Citizen
2
Account Executive
That’s a short sales cycle. Most deals are 6 months+ for Enterprise Deals. Seen reps chase deals for multiple years if your targeting something in the upper 7 figures or higher in deal size
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
0
Digital BDR
Interesting, thanks!
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Many years now, I hope you'll get used to the career soon.
jefe
Arsonist
4
🍁
Only some email automation for sequencing.
mrman313
Contributor
3
AE (Account Executive)
I think for shorter sales cycles than 3 months where your messaging doesn’t have to be entirely tailored, SA is great. Otherwise i don’t see how it’s effective.
Boardertech
2
Founder and CEO
the clients I work with are all complex sales with multiple departments included in the sales call and on average we see a decrease in cycle time of about 20% and a closing rate increase of about 15% after we build out a sales automation tool that supports the sales process.
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
3
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
I have used email automation and I am the biggest enemy of it. I'd alwaysssss advocate against these tools. There's some sweet returns from emails drafted with personalisation, research and innovation. I would never trade that with email automation.

My current org too wants me to use it, I have somehow convinced my way out of it.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
I would not disagree with you! I still think Manuel is the best, especially for warm leads. I primarily use Automation for the universe of leads.( aka the hundreds of thousands of companies that I don’t have the time to personalize for) and even then you can get pretty customize and personalized with a generic email template via variables
SaasSlingin
Politicker
2
Sr AE
imo it makes us more efficient and get to focus on revenue generating tasks but a heavy tech stack can also slow us down.. ime not that big of a game changer
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
I ran into the same problem. Managing the system was taking more than 30 minutes a week. The solution was using Zapier to automate my automations. Now it's just a full value add that I leave alone, and it just books meetings for me. Kind of like working with a lead gen agency, but not having to pay tens of thousands of dollars.
SaasSlingin
Politicker
1
Sr AE
Interesting… would u be open to posting a big ol breakdown in here? Seems like u have some kind of formula down between the 7+ programs. Big ups if you can help the WR community & tell us more
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
I honestly don’t think that I could.

1. I had my coworkers asked me to teach them, so I started a business coaching sales people on how to build these types of systems for themselves.

2. The system is fairly in depth, and there’s not really a superficial way to go about it. So it’s either I talk about all of it, or none of it. Anything less than that would be an effective and not helpful to you all.

3. I’m not here to sell

Put all of those things together and my hands kind of feel tied
SaasSlingin
Politicker
1
Sr AE
I hear ya & understand
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
1
Officer of ♥️
Plz post anyway
Killebrew
Valued Contributor
0
VP
But what to you use to automate the automations that Zapier automates?
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Good one, thanks for sharing.
ER0173
Opinionated
2
Sr. Business Development Manager
I use SFDC.
ER0173
Opinionated
2
Sr. Business Development Manager
I use it for lead generation and nurturing.
Donutpanda
Executive
1
Enterprise Account Executive
If your going to ask a question and then not put anything out here to help what the fuck are you doing?
LordOfWar
Tycoon
1
Blow it up
They sell sales automation according to their profile...take a guess what the point of the post is....
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
0
Digital BDR
Lol and hence why I'm not sharing the specific information. Not here to sell bromigo
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/linkedin-critical-tool-or-relic-of-a-bygone-era

Sales Automation and LinkedIn have been working wonders for me this year, soI was surprised when I read the above post. So I made my post to see how many people actually use sales automation. Was genuinely curious.

Also, I have partnerships with all of my tools. So I would have a conflict of interest by listing out all of the tools, since I am not here to sell.
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
I think automation is a buzzword and there’s many layers to it. Using something for email cadences and personalization being a key component is powerful. Sending spam messages to hit numbers is weak.
JustGonnaSendIt
Politicker
1
Burn Towns, Get Money
I saw a lot of success with SA when I was in a fast-paced, high volume position.

Think deal timelines of 1 Week - 6 Months, deal size of $5K - $150K.

For other roles I've had, where deal cycles are 9 - 18 Months, and deal sizes $500K - $5M... the volume of communication is too low to make the juice worth the squeeze. And much of it is focused on highly-tailored responses to esoteric circumstances that are mostly unique customer-to-customer.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
Those are some good points that I had not considered!
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
It depends for me. If you are in high velocity environment, automation would give great results.
Snowey
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I’m a big fan, a lot of non-touch point tasks can be automated. Research, intent triggers, technographic information etc.
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
100%!
danbad
Good Citizen
0
BDR
What programs are you using to automate?
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
I could tell you, but it honestly, it would not be that helpful. It is not so much about the programs that I use, but more so about the sequence in which I use about a half dozen programs to get all of this done for me.
Kind of like if you asked me what ingredients go into a cake, but you knew nothing about baking. What order to put them together with and I what temperature to set the oven and how long.
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
3
Officer of ♥️
Tell us all of it if it’s works well for you
danbad
Good Citizen
0
BDR
I understand - I'm a big baker and love me some cake. That being said is there a rough framework you can disclose?
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
1
Digital BDR
Sure, I use services that can find my ideal customer based on filtered critia - Target
Then I use services that will find all of theirGDPR compliantcontact information for me - Refine
Then I automate my outreach and copy to the 100K+ plus leads I can generate each month. - Automate

Automating my calendar booking then allows my qualified prospects to show up in my calendar "on their own"
Rallier
Politicker
0
SDR Manager and Consultant
The only thing automation can really be good for is list building. But unfortunately LinkedIn picks up on automation and will block you.

Email and LinkedIn automation always just looks like spam, no matter what "AI" you're using
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
0
Digital BDR
Depends on how you use it.
Been using it for 10 months now, and LinkedIn still hasn't blocked me. Nor will they ever. Since, I do not use it in any sort of spammy way.
There is definitely a way to do it well, and a way not to. Like most things
0PercentCloseRate
Politicker
0
Oh boy
I'm sure most of us have used some sort of automation. What do you use? Don't be scared....you can spill the beansss.........
TheArrowOfApollo
Tycoon
0
Digital BDR
Its a combination of about 7+ different programs
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
0
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Have not used it at all.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Me neither.
finboi
Notorious Answer
0
Fi-nance
How do you use automation for lead gen?
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
Exactly, Is there an illustrative video to show how to use it..?
chomaianh
Executive
0
BDR
What kind of automation tools are you using?
YoursTruly
Politicker
0
Account Executive (SaaS)
Anyone who thinks sales automation is for transactional selling doesn’t understand what sales automation platforms actually do.

There isn’t a single tech company on the forbes100 list who doesn’t power their sales teams with outreach, salesloft, or groove. And one of those three has over 70% of F100 companies using their platform today.

CadenceCombat
Tycoon
0
Account Executive
I have some automation in outreach tools but thats it

Related posts

8

Which sales automation tool do you use?

Question
☁️
💻
5
Pick below
42 people voted
12

What's the best outbound sales automation tool?

Question
☁️
📳
💻
19
Best Sales Outbound Automation Tool
54% Outreach
27% SalesLoft
19% Other (in comments)
148 people voted
Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.
Apple Store logo
Products
The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U
Company
About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty
Contact
Press Careers
© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs
If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.