Terms

Workflow Automation

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation is the use of software to complete tasks and activities without the need for human input, making work faster, easier, and more consistent. By automating workflows, companies reduce manual work and repetitive tasks, leading to increased efficiency and allowing employees to focus on value-adding activities. It can be applied to various tasks, such as email and form processing, calendar event creation, workload distribution, and work item assignment.

Benefits of Workflow Automation

  • Higher productivity: Workflow automation allows employees to focus on strategizing, problem-solving, and generating value for the company.
  • Cost savings: Efficient workflows consume less time, resources, and workforce energy, resulting in cost savings for the organization.
  • Increased efficiency: Fewer resources are wasted on repetitive, time-consuming tasks, leading to improved efficiency.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Automation creates a cohesive collaboration model, allowing team members from different departments to view, contribute to, and comment on work items.
  • Improved accuracy: Automation reduces opportunities for errors by eliminating unnecessary inputs and updating records as new information is captured.
  • Speed: Work items move along more quickly without waiting for human input, reducing workflow cycles.
  • Improved communication: Gaps in communication are minimized when emails, feedback requests, notifications, and alerts are automated.
  • Accountability: Responsibility for each step in the workflow can be automatically assigned to specific users, improving accountability.
  • Visibility: Managers can track the progress of specific tasks in the workflow, see who is involved, and stay ahead of deadlines.
  • Employee experience: Automation helps prevent burnout by relieving employees from repetitive and redundant tasks that keep them from more meaningful work.
  • Streamlined processes: Workflow automation reduces paperwork, simplifies document management, delegates repetitive tasks to the system, simplifies list building, and assigns tickets and escalations to available team members.
  • Scalability: Cloud-based workflow automation tools offer easy accessibility, reliable security, and data scalability.
  • Easier monitoring and tracking: Workflow automation software tools offer in-built reporting to examine lags, monitor tasks, and make improvements.
  • Greater flexibility: Workflow automation software should be customizable to handle complex cases like conditional steps and multiple branches.

Implementing Workflow Automation

Implementing workflow automation begins with identifying processes that are good candidates for automation, such as those that are inefficient and prone to human error. Next, map out the process and design the workflow, define the business goals, and research, choose, and implement the appropriate workflow automation software. Ensure the software is user-friendly and cost-effective.

Train employees to use the software and establish key performance indicator (KPI) metrics to measure success. Continuously improve the workflow by gathering employee feedback, reviewing KPI metrics, and adjusting workflows as needed. Embrace future trends in workflow automation, such as the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud-based tools, to further enhance efficiency and scalability.

Common Workflow Automation Tools

  • List of Common Tools: Common workflow automation tools include Pipefy, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Marketo, Shopify, ADP, Docusign, Zenefits, Workday, SAP, Oracle E-Business, Quickbooks, Sage Intacct, Slack, Zoom, SMS, Google Drive, Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These tools are integral in streamlining various business processes.
  • Features Offered: These tools offer features such as low-code platforms, forms and portals, integrations, templates, and rules and conditional logic. These features are designed to simplify complex processes and enhance functionality.
  • Benefits of Using Automation Tools: The benefits of using these tools are numerous, including higher productivity, cost savings, increased efficiency, improved collaboration, enhanced accuracy, speed, better communication, accountability, visibility, and improved employee experience.

Measuring Success with Automation

Measuring success with automation involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the impact of automation on your organization. Some important KPIs to consider include productivity, cost savings, efficiency, collaboration, accuracy, speed, communication, accountability, visibility, and employee experience. To ensure successful implementation, identify the right processes to automate, define clear goals, train your team on the new automated processes, design the workflow in the automation tool, and measure KPIs and Return on Investment (ROI).

Overcoming challenges in automation implementation involves choosing a repetitive process that can benefit from automation, articulating team expectations, communicating the benefits to stakeholders, building the process in the workflow management tool, and regularly reviewing the process using reports and data analytics to measure success. By closely monitoring these factors, organizations can optimize their automation efforts and maximize the benefits of workflow automation.

Other terms

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Outbound Sales

Learn about outbound sales, including strategies for effective outbound sales, key metrics in outbound sales, outbound vs. inbound sales..

Outbound Sales

Touches

Learn about touches, including optimizing touch strategies, tactics for effective touch points, & comparing touches with impressions.

Touches

Signaling

Learn about signaling, including key principles of effective signaling, understanding signaling in sales contexts, strategies for improving your signaling t.

Signaling

Mobile Compatibility

Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.

Mobile Compatibility

Buyer’s Remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.

Buyer’s Remorse

Sales Cycle

Learn about sales cycle, including key phases of a sales cycle, steps to shorten your sales cycle, & sales cycle vs. sales funnel.

Sales Cycle

Sales Playbook

Learn about sales playbook, including crafting an effective sales playbook, & components of a comprehensive sales playbook.

Sales Playbook

Competitive Landscape

A competitive landscape is an analysis of your direct and indirect competitors, revealing their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning.

Competitive Landscape

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation uses software to automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns.

Marketing Automation

Service Level Agreement

Learn about service level agreement, including crafting an effective service level agreement, & key components of a service level agreement.

Service Level Agreement

Deal Closing

Deal closing is the final step in a sales cycle. It's when a prospect signs a contract and officially converts into a paying customer.

Deal Closing

Inside Sales Metrics

Inside sales metrics are quantifiable measures used to track the performance, activities, and effectiveness of an internal sales team.

Inside Sales Metrics

No Cold Calls

Learn about no cold calls, including alternatives to cold calling, strategies for warm outreach, & enhancing customer relationships without cold calls.

No Cold Calls

Always Be Closing

“Always Be Closing” (ABC) is a sales mantra meaning every action a salesperson takes should be with the ultimate goal of closing the sale.

Always Be Closing

Customer Retention Rate

Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is the metric that measures the percentage of customers a company has kept over a specific period of time.

Customer Retention Rate

Load Testing

Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how a system behaves under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.

Load Testing

Performance Monitoring

Learn about performance monitoring, including benefits of performance monitoring, key metrics to track, common challenges, & best practices.

Performance Monitoring

Load Balancing

Load balancing is the practice of distributing incoming network traffic across a group of backend servers, ensuring no single server is overworked.

Load Balancing

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands and other factors.

Dynamic Pricing

Escalations

Escalations are the process of moving a customer issue or sales opportunity to a more senior or specialized team member for resolution.

Escalations

SEO

Learn about SEO, including how it works, benefits, strategies, measuring success, and tips to optimize your website for search engines.

SEO

Programmatic Display Campaign

Learn about programmatic display campaign, including how programmatic display campaigns work, & benefits of programmatic display advertising.

Programmatic Display Campaign

Video Selling

Learn about video selling, including benefits of video selling, effective video selling strategies, & video selling vs. traditional selling.

Video Selling

Email Personalization

Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.

Email Personalization

CRM Integration

CRM integration connects your CRM software with other tools, creating a unified system for all your customer data and business processes.

CRM Integration

Microservices

Microservices is an architecture where apps are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate with each other over APIs.

Microservices

Buying Process

The buying process is the journey a customer takes from first realizing a need to making a final purchase decision and evaluating it afterward.

Buying Process

User Testing

Learn about user testing, including how user testing works, benefits of user testing, common user testing methods, & user testing best practices.

User Testing

Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service that offers essential compute, storage, and networking resources on-demand.

Infrastructure as a Service

Segmentation Analysis

Learn about segmentation analysis, including understanding the benefits, steps to conduct segmentation analysis, & types of segmentation methods.

Segmentation Analysis

Value Gap

Learn about value gap, including identifying the value gap, closing the value gap effectively, & value gap vs. price gap.

Value Gap

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Dark Social

Dark social is the sharing of content through private channels like messaging apps or email. This traffic is hard to track as it lacks referral data.

Dark Social

Awareness Buying Stage

The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.

Awareness Buying Stage

D2C

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is a sales strategy where a brand sells its products directly to end customers, bypassing any third-party retailers.

D2C

Analytics Platforms

Analytics platforms are tools that collect and analyze data from various sources, helping businesses track key metrics and make informed decisions.

Analytics Platforms

Decision Buying Stage

The decision stage is where a well-researched buyer chooses a vendor. They compare specific products and pricing before making their final purchase.

Decision Buying Stage

Remote Sales

Learn about remote sales, including challenges of remote sales, strategies for effective remote sales, & remote sales vs. traditional sales.

Remote Sales

Sales Compensation

Learn about sales compensation, including types of sales compensation plans, key components of effective compensation, & sales compensation vs. base salary.

Sales Compensation

Buying Committee

A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.

Buying Committee

Sales Territory

Learn about sales territory, including how to design an effective sales territory, & examples of successful sales territories.

Sales Territory

Business Development Representative

Learn about business development representative, including skills and qualifications for BDRs, & roles and responsibilities of a BDR.

Business Development Representative

Digital Contracts

Digital contracts are legally binding agreements created, signed, and stored electronically, offering a faster, more secure alternative to paper.

Digital Contracts

Buyer

Learn about buyer, including identifying your ideal buyer, understanding buyer's journey, & evaluating buyer decision processes.

Buyer

Ramp Up Time

Learn about ramp up time, including reducing ramp up time, factors impacting ramp up duration, & strategies for effective ramp up.

Ramp Up Time

Channel Sales

Channel sales is an indirect sales model where a company leverages third-party partners, such as resellers or affiliates, to sell its products.

Channel Sales

Target Buying Stage

Learn about target buying stage, including identifying your target buying stage, & key metrics for buying stage analysis.

Target Buying Stage

Stakeholder

Learn about stakeholder, including identifying stakeholders, roles & responsibilities of stakeholders, & stakeholder engagement strategies.

Stakeholder

User-generated Content

Learn about user-generated content, including how to leverage user-generated content, & benefits of user-generated content.

User-generated Content

Tokenization

Learn about tokenization, including how tokenization works, benefits of tokenization, types of tokenization, & tokenization best practices.

Tokenization

Lead Velocity Rate

Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) is the growth rate of your qualified leads, measured month-over-month. It's a key indicator of future revenue.

Lead Velocity Rate

Weighted Sales Pipeline

Learn about weighted sales pipeline, including calculating your pipeline's weight, & key metrics in weighted sales pipelines.

Weighted Sales Pipeline

Unit Economics

Learn about unit economics, including calculating unit economics: step-by-step, key metrics in unit economics, & unit economics vs. overall profitability.

Unit Economics

Cold Call

Cold calling is a sales technique where reps contact potential customers who have had no prior interaction with their company or product.

Cold Call

Customer Buying Signals

Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.

Customer Buying Signals

Data Mining

Data mining is the process of discovering patterns, trends, and useful information from large datasets to make better business decisions.

Data Mining

B2B Demand Generation Strategy

Learn about B2B demand generation strategy, including key elements of demand generation, & crafting your demand generation plan.

B2B Demand Generation Strategy

Return on Investment (ROI)

Learn about return on investment, including calculating ROI: key steps, factors influencing ROI, and ROI vs ROA.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Sales Demonstration

Learn about sales demonstration, including preparing for a successful sales demo, crafting an engaging sales pitch, sales demo vs. sales presentation.

Sales Demonstration

Sales Territory Planning

Learn about sales territory planning, including strategies for successful territory planning, & key components of territory planning.

Sales Territory Planning

Enterprise

An enterprise is a large-scale organization, often a corporation, defined by its complex structure and substantial number of employees.

Enterprise

Inside Sales Rep

An inside sales rep sells products or services remotely from an office, using digital tools like phone and email to connect with customers.

Inside Sales Rep

Salesforce Object Query Language

Learn about salesforce object query language (SOQL), including its definition, key features, syntax, best practices, and examples of querying data in salesforce.

Salesforce Object Query Language

Sales Pitch

Learn about sales pitch, including crafting an effective sales pitch, essential components of a sales pitch, sales pitch vs. sales presentation.

Sales Pitch

Warm Outreach

Learn about warm outreach, including strategies for effective warm outreach, key benefits of warm outreach, & warm outreach vs. cold outreach.

Warm Outreach

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is a customer’s devotion to a brand, shown by their repeat purchases and engagement, driven by positive experiences and trust.

Customer Loyalty

Account Management

Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.

Account Management

Trigger Marketing

Learn about trigger marketing, including implementing trigger marketing strategies, benefits of trigger marketing, trigger marketing vs. traditional marketing.

Trigger Marketing

Customer Relationship Marketing

Customer relationship marketing is a strategy for building lasting connections with customers to foster long-term loyalty and engagement.

Customer Relationship Marketing

High Availability

High availability (HA) describes a system's capacity to function continuously with minimal downtime, ensuring consistent operational performance.

High Availability

CRM Data

CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.

CRM Data

Responsive Design

Learn about responsive design, including how responsive design works, benefits of responsive design, & common mistakes in responsive design.

Responsive Design

DMP

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a tech platform used to collect and manage data, mainly for digital marketing and advertising campaigns.

DMP

Nurture Campaign

Learn about nurture campaign, including key elements of a nurture campaign, & steps to launching a successful nurture campaign.

Nurture Campaign

On Target Earnings

Learn about on target earnings, including calculating on target earnings, factors influencing on target earnings, & on target earnings vs. base salary.

On Target Earnings

Lead Qualification Process

The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.

Lead Qualification Process

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

Learn about SOAP API, including benefits of SOAP API, how SOAP API works, SOAP API vs. REST API, and common use cases for SOAP API.

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

Branded Keywords

Learn about branded keywords, including identifying your branded keywords, & strategies for optimizing branded keywords.

Branded Keywords

Data-Driven Marketing

Data-driven marketing uses customer data to inform marketing decisions, optimize campaigns, and deliver personalized experiences to consumers.

Data-Driven Marketing

Funnel Optimization

Funnel optimization is the process of improving each stage of the customer journey to maximize conversions and drive revenue growth.

Funnel Optimization

Compliance Testing

Compliance testing ensures a product or system adheres to specific regulations, standards, or policies set by governing bodies or organizations.

Compliance Testing

Sales Pipeline Reporting

Learn about sales pipeline reporting, including essentials of sales pipeline reporting, key metrics to track, & sales pipeline vs. sales forecasting.

Sales Pipeline Reporting

Kanban

Kanban is a visual project management method that uses a board to visualize workflow, limit work-in-progress, and maximize team efficiency.

Kanban

Hard Sell

A hard sell is an aggressive sales technique that uses high-pressure tactics to push a customer into making an immediate purchase decision.

Hard Sell

HubSpot

HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with tools for marketing, sales, and service, all aimed at helping businesses grow.

HubSpot

B2B Data Solutions

Learn about B2B data solutions, including unlocking the power of B2B data, & key components of effective B2B data solutions.

B2B Data Solutions

Business Intelligence In Marketing

Learn about business intelligence in marketing, including the role of data in marketing BI, key components of marketing BI, & marketing BI vs. market research.

Business Intelligence In Marketing

LPI

LPI, or Lead Per Inquiry, is a key metric that measures how many leads are generated from each inquiry in a marketing campaign.

LPI

B2B Data Platform

Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.

B2B Data Platform

Touchpoints

Learn about touchpoints, including maximizing touchpoint efficacy, types of sales touchpoints, & optimizing customer journey through touchpoints.

Touchpoints

Product Champion

Learn about product champion, including identifying potential product champions, & cultivating a product champion mindset.

Product Champion

Challenger Sales

The Challenger Sales model is a methodology where reps teach prospects, tailor their pitch, and take control of the sales conversation.

Challenger Sales

Objection Handling

Learn about objection handling, including strategies for effective objection handling, & common objections in sales and responses.

Objection Handling

Data Management Platform

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a software that collects and organizes audience data from various sources for targeted marketing efforts.

Data Management Platform

B2B Marketing Attribution

Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.

B2B Marketing Attribution

Video Hosting

Learn about video hosting, including benefits of video hosting, choosing the right video hosting platform, & video hosting vs. traditional web hosting.

Video Hosting

Customer Centricity

Customer centricity is a business approach that puts the customer at the heart of every decision, aiming to build loyalty and long-term value.

Customer Centricity

Application Performance Management

Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.

Application Performance Management

Channel Partners

Channel partners are third-party firms that help market and sell a company's products or services, acting as an indirect sales force.

Channel Partners

User Experience

Learn about user experience, including principles of user experience design, & enhancing user experience: best practices.

User Experience