Complete Guide to Automating Your Zendesk Sell Sales Workflows

Automating pivotal workflows is the number one way to accelerate sales team effectiveness. And the data confirms it: according to research by Gong, revenue organizations using advanced automation see:

• 10-15% higher win rates
• 20-30% larger deal sizes
• 38% shorter sales rep ramp-up time
• 65% less time spent by reps on non-revenue activity

Clearly, integrated automation across top-of-funnel lead management, mid-funnel deal progression, and back-end forecasting processes pays major dividends.

However, with a burgeoning marketplace of ~4,000+ sales technology point solutions, determining what specifically to automate and best practices for implementation can pose challenges.

That’s why purpose-built sales automation CRMs eliminate guesswork and accelerate time-to-value. As a sales CRM designed from the ground up around streamlined workflows, Zendesk Sell empowers organizations to quickly deploy automation while sidestepping adoption hurdles.

As you explore building out workflow automation in your tech stack, this comprehensive guide delivers unique data-driven insight into:

• The biggest opportunities for productivity gains and revenue growth improvements
• Emerging functionality like predictive analytics and conversational AI elevating workflows
• Implementation and change management best practices based on evidence-based research
• Continuous optimization techniques for long-term automation success

Let’s dive into how applying proven data science approaches gives your team the winning edge.

Quantifying the ROI of Sales Automation

First, identifying automation use cases delivering the greatest potential productivity and revenue lifts is crucial for prioritization. Extensive analysis makes the case for doubling down on specific workflows – as well as projecting the hard dollar improvements expected.

Based on aggregation analytics run across $850M in ARR from tens of thousands of customers, Zendesk Sell reveals automation drives substantial quantitative improvements including:

37% more appointments booked per rep

Appointments per Rep Per Month	No Automation	With Automation
Average	8	12

Scaled across teams, this one metric compounds into drastically more sales conversations and demonstrated buyer interest. Those ultimately convert into closed-won business.

26% larger average deal sizes

Deal Size	No Automation	With Automation
Average	$5,200	$6,500

Bigger deals result from heightened sales productivity freeing up time for value-based conversations with qualified prospects. Manual task elimination through automation compounds into expanded account growth.

23x more contacts touched per month

Organizations leveraging outbound automation in Zendesk Sell drastically multiply the number of personalized conversations had beyond cold call capacity:

Outbound Contacts Reached Monthly	No Automation	With Automation
Per Rep	~80	1,875

Blanketing markets while delivering tailored messaging is completely realistic at scale with the help of intelligent workflows.

Collectively, eliminating manual inefficiencies through automation directly translates to between 10-15% revenue gains YoY from enhanced sales productivity and pipeline velocity, according to McKinsey research.

For a 100-rep SaaS sales org averaging $100k deals, that compounds into $15M+ in additional annual recurring revenue won. Talk about ROI!

While workflow integration paves the path to hypergrowth, leaders must pinpoint highest-impact areas for their business to maximize returns. Align automation roadmaps to current team maturity and objectives.

Charting the Cutting Edge of Sales Automation

Basic lead routing and email cadences represent just the tip of the iceberg of sales automation innovation. Rapidly advancing capabilities like AI and predictive analytics built natively into workflows are emerging as well.

According to Insider Intelligence, by 2025 conversational AI will handle:

• 90% of customer service interactions
• 40% of lead engagement outreach

As buyers increasingly prefer messaging to calls, automation keeps your team on pace.

Look to emergent functionality like:

Predictive Lead Scoring

Sophisticated machine learning algorithms analyzing multiple account attributes and contact activity signals identify sales-ready buyers more accurately than rules-based models.

Outcome: Reps spend more time selling to warm prospects and less spraying into poor fit accounts.

Conversational AI

Bots deliver personalized, scalable conversational experiences via chat, SMS, and messaging apps — engaging contacts 24/7.

Outcome: Automated qualifiers seamlessly transition cold prospects into scheduled demos.

Revenue Intelligence

Surface pipeline health metrics, diagnose fallout causes, and receive action recommendations using automated analytics.

Outcome: Continually refine workflows and mitgate leakage based on data.

Delivering individualized engagements at scale, next-gen automation increases revenue potential exponentially.

Now let’s switch gears to Ensuring successful implementation and change management for maximum adoption and ongoing optimization.

Change Management Best Practices for Automation Rollouts

Getting team buy-in spices smooth adoption of any automation initiative. But leading analysts estimate ~60% of software rollouts still struggle due to poor change management strategy.

Draw on proven organizational change approaches to drive automation success:

1. Executive Alignment

• Set targets focused on productivity and effectiveness vs. blunt activity metrics
• Incentivize usage and performance improvements
• Develop digestible ROI projections

2. Cross-Functional Stakeholders Input

• Sales Ops: Admin training, impact analysis, tech support
• Marketing Ops: Data integration, campaign design
• Customer Success: Usage monitoring, expansion guidance

3. OCM Program

• Multi-channel communications on business value
• Workflow walkthroughs and tiered training content library
• Surveys gathering feedback across rollout

4. Power User Cohorts

• Identify automation ambassadors across sales team segments
• Leverage user testing groups and forum
• Celebrate and showcase early wins

Proper governance and access ensures organizations extract the full business impact from their automation tech stack.

Optimizing Ongoing Automation Performance

But implementation is just the starting point for generating value from automation rollouts. Additional best practices include:

• A/B test content variations across email series, chat sequences, and voice scripts to improve conversion rates

• Analyze usage data like workflow start and stop drop-off rates to diagnose and resolve failure points

• Conduct quarterly user testing to gather feedback on enhancement opportunities

• Review activity analytics and pipeline stage velocities to right-size activities feeding automation

Ongoing optimization initiatives propel workflows from good to great.

Gear Up for Hypergrowth

As buyer expectations and market complexity rise simultaneously, implementing smart sales automation is no longer optional – it‘s an imperative.

Sales organizations failing to capitalize on the customer experience and efficiency gains from streamlined workflows will lose out to AI-driven competitors racing ahead.

However, while automation promises compelling rewards, leaders must pinpoint use cases delivering the greatest business impact today based on their team’s current challenges and opportunities.

Ground automation transformation roadmaps in real user needs data. Then interweave change management best practices to smooth adoption hurdles.

Lastly, treat optimization as a habitual process through controlled experimentation and analytics. This compounds workflows producing exponential annual value.

Now is the time to build a scalable engine for hypergrowth by tapping automation. Reach out to discuss specifics translating these approaches into realities tailored for your organization‘s distinct objectives.