The growth mindset is about consistently getting a higher return on investment, whether it’s time or money. You know you’re doing something right when the payoff is bigger than what you put in. This is the profitability equation, something every business needs to figure out for itself.
In this article, we’re looking at 5 business processes that benefit from automation. They all serve the purpose of growing ROI on the effort you already put in. That is to say, you don’t need to do anything extra other than make your life easier by automating repetitive tasks. Here’s what we’ll tackle:
- Operations automation
- Marketing automation
- Sales automation
- Customer support automation
- AI
Let’s roll.
1. Operations automation
When growing ROI, operating expenses are often overlooked because they aren’t viewed as an investment the same way as, say, ad spend or a similar varying expense subject to budgeting fluctuations. After all, most operating expenses are fixed costs borne every month regardless of how well the business is doing.
Operating costs are always there, as long as a company is, well, operating. They include the cost of all resources a business needs to deliver products and services, from rent and equipment to payroll and overhead costs.
While some parts of operations are faster to get automated – think process documentation or bookkeeping – others remain predominantly manual processes even though they represent the biggest investments for most businesses. We’re talking about work-hours, i.e. the time purchased from employees every month.
Any business benefits from having better control of its time resource through employee hour tracking. With timesheet automation, this process can be seamless and safe for everybody on the team. Employees don’t have to sacrifice their privacy or waste time setting timers on tasks, while managers can see accurate utilization, automate payroll, and track overtime. For efficient implementation, you can refer to this guide on timesheet automation tactics.
2. Marketing automation
Marketing automation is a field with the clearest view of ROI improvement potential as it’s easy to benchmark marketing budget against revenue generated. Marketing encompasses a great variety of activities and channels, therefore presenting the biggest playfield for automation.
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Lead management
- Digital advertising
- Analytics and reporting
All of these processes benefit from automation with CRM platforms as well as standalone tools covering only a single aspect of marketing, e.g., email. The more automation can be introduced to the marketing process, the higher ROI can be achieved, especially when we think about CRMs offering cross-channel solutions.
3. Sales automation
Sales automation is an extension of marketing automation as it covers the final steps in the lead nurturing process. Depending on how prospective buyers interact with marketing content, they get on the sales radar. Automation makes it possible to score leads and target them with personalized messages the moment they display clear buying intent.
Sales automation tools can also do the opposite, i.e., disqualify leads based on certain criteria, making sure no time or other operational resources are wasted on bad opportunities. When paired with AI, sales automation tools can take action without wasting even 1 minute of the sales team’s time.
According to Salesforce, an overwhelming 70% of sales reps’ time is allocated to repetitive tasks like prospect research, lead prioritization, and inputting information into the CRM. Needless to say, sales automation can free up a lot of time that can be spent on revenue-generating activities such as personalized demos, pitch decks, etc.
4. Customer support automation
Customer interactions are an intricate art of balancing machine-like knowledge and precision with a human touch. As much as we like the idea of real people responding to all our support requests, this is unrealistic and very costly for the majority of businesses.
Luckily, there are multiple customer support automation solutions available. To name a few:
- Self-service portals
- AI chatbots
- Automatic translation
- IVR (interactive voice response) software
All of these make customer support available to people round the clock, while saving businesses a lot of time and money. Not to mention the vast knowledge that’s aggregated and delivered with chatbots, especially with well-formulated requests.
Most businesses are eager to cut costs on the activities that don’t clearly translate into revenue. Customer retention is one of those activities, and it can be safely automated with reliable tools.
5. AI
We touched upon the topic of AI in the previous points but the truth is that artificial intelligence is everywhere. 4 out of 5 companies prioritize AI in their business strategy (Forbes) and it’s no wonder, seeing how automation helps businesses improve ROI by making better use of their resources.
Automation doesn’t equal AI, but AI can amplify any kind of automation. From personalizing marketing and sales communications to detecting fraud, artificial intelligence helps companies maximize ROI while keeping overhead costs the same.
Whether you’re using AI in most of your business processes or just getting started with implementing artificial intelligence, staying curious and experimenting is the only way to go, as long as you’re committed to finding better, smarter tools for profitability management. Not all of the solutions marketed as “AI-powered” will make a massive impact but there’s something to learn from each of them.
Marketing is all about meeting the buyer where they are in their journey. Using automation, businesses can reach buyers quickly with content tailored to their level of awareness. This is what allows companies to win new business and grow revenue.
Wrapping up
Automation is the future and there’s no reason to deny yourself more seamless processes and less manual work with a bigger impact. Growing ROI is a continuous process, and the more aspects you can automate, the easier it is to scale further and improve profitability.
This article is an overview of the 5 most impactful automations for your business processes. Get inspired to make the most of your resources and get rid of the processes that are holding you back.
