{"id":58292,"date":"2021-04-14T11:27:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T11:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud\/?p=58292"},"modified":"2026-03-08T05:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T10:24:10","slug":"sales-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monday.com\/blog\/crm-and-sales\/sales-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"5 sales automation platforms to help teams close more deals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Forget the image of the fast-talking sales rep firing off cold calls and emails. Now, in addition to building real relationships and closing deals, sales reps are juggling lead generation, follow-ups, internal approvals, pipeline updates, and data analysis.<\/p>\n

To succeed in sales, reps need time and headspace. But when every task is manual, even the best sales teams get stuck in the weeds. Juggling multiple prospects, personalizing outreach, and moving deals forward becomes a constant uphill climb. Thankfully, sales automation is making life easier for sales teams by eliminating mundane tasks so they can focus on moving the needle.<\/p>\n

In this guide, we’ll explore the benefits of sales automation alongside real-world use cases and how top software platforms like monday CRM are helping sales teams work smarter and close more deals.<\/p>\nTry monday CRM<\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n

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What is sales automation?<\/h2>\n

Sales automation uses technology to streamline and automate repetitive tasks like lead scoring, follow-ups, and data entry so sales teams can focus on what matters most: closing deals and building relationships.<\/p>\n

There are several ways sales automation helps teams make their workloads more manageable. Organizations can adopt a customer relationship management (CRM) solution<\/a> to automate tasks like composing sales emails, updating customer data, or automating internal workflows like follow-ups and approvals.<\/p>\n

When paired with artificial intelligence (AI), the opportunities for sales automation are limitless. We\u2019ll look at some more specific examples below, but AI for sales<\/a> can help teams automate smart decision-making to make pipeline management<\/a> easier, while generative AI facilitates automated communication and personalization.<\/p>\n

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What are the benefits of sales automation in CRM software?<\/h2>\n

Sales reps do a lot more than just pitch customers. It takes a lot of work and tedious back-and-forth to generate, qualify, and engage leads, follow up with customers, and complete internal processes to close sales<\/a>. That said, the right tech can make all the difference here. According to a study by monday.com, using the wrong technologies accounts for 42.3% of total work time<\/span><\/a>. Using the right tools, like CRM automation software, can improve time management and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\"tech\n

The key advantages of using sales automation technology like a CRM are that it removes the burden of a lot of manual administrative work and repetitive tasks so that sales reps can spend more time building meaningful relationships with potential clients. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the core benefits of sales automation software.<\/p>\n

Give sales reps more opportunities to do what they do best<\/h3>\n

By automating repetitive sales tasks, your team can spend more time on high-value interactions and conversions. Building meaningful long-term relationships with clients takes a lot of dedication, research, personality, and time, and automation software paves the way for sales reps to spend more time nurturing these relationships.<\/p>\n

Centralize data for deeper analysis<\/h3>\n

Sales data is essential for improving workflows and getting insights into making informed decisions to close more deals. With sales automation to gather data from different sources, not only does it save valuable time on otherwise manual data searches, but it also makes it easier for your team to access the data they need in one central location. Armed with reliable data, your sales agents can also do a better job reaching high-value leads.<\/p>\n

Reduce human error in repetitive workflows<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s easy for a human sales agent to make mistakes when performing repetitive tasks. While occasional small errors here and there may not have a big impact, collectively, they can reduce data accuracy and lead to situations that influence customer satisfaction. Additionally, for sensitive industries that sell in fields like healthcare, small mistakes can have significant legal and compliance ramifications.<\/p>\n\n

Create personalized coaching opportunities<\/h3>\n

Sales managers can get more targeted coaching plans thanks to AI and automations. With detailed reports and insights into what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not in existing workflows, managers can create tailored plans to offer individual sales reps ongoing training that fits the points where they struggle most. The result is a sales team that\u2019s overall happier at work and more skilled at tackling complex deals.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Examples of sales automation workflows and use cases<\/h2>\n

The sales automation your organization implements will depend heavily on your existing sales processes and business goals. Many CRMs can automate tons of tasks, from the smallest reminder notifications to entire workflows from start to finish. To give you a better idea of what sales automation can do, we\u2019ve provided some key examples below.<\/p>\n

Score and nurture leads in an instant<\/h3>\n

Whether you\u2019re a small team or a large enterprise, sales automation can help streamline your lead management workflows. Set up custom CRM automations to score incoming leads based on captured data, such as demographics, financial details, engagement history, and AI-driven sentiment analysis.<\/p>\n

By analyzing this information, automations can instantly assign a score to each prospect, helping your sales team focus on the most qualified leads. For example, a software company might build automations that assign a higher score to enterprise-level prospects who engage with pricing pages and schedule demos so that sales reps can prioritize outreach.<\/p>\n

Personalize customer interactions and experiences<\/h3>\n

In sales, adding a personal touch to experiences and communications is critical to landing big clients. Customers want businesses see them as real people with real needs and challenges \u2014 not as another number in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

When Levi\u2019s Brazil leveraged customer data to personalize interactions across email, digital ads, and SMS, the company saw over 30% of online revenue coming from automation<\/span><\/a> within just 6 months. By automating welcome, abandoned cart, and price drop campaigns, Levi\u2019s boosted repurchase rates and engagement with minimal marketing effort, showing how effective data-driven personalization can be.<\/p>\n

Automations can trigger personalized emails based on segmentation, give reps instant access to a lead\u2019s history and preferences, and even recommend relevant products or services based on past behavior. For instance, an e-commerce business might send custom product recommendation emails to returning customers based on their past purchases and browsing history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speed up deal closures with workflow automations<\/h3>\n

Depending on your business\u2019s existing processes, sales closing<\/a> can take days, weeks, or even months for more complex sales. There are endless manual tasks and procedures involved in closing deals, such as approvals, reviews, financial checks, contract drafting, and more.<\/p>\n

With AI-led sales automation<\/a>, you can save your team time by putting the repetitive back-and-forth on autopilot with smart notifications, instant follow-ups, and deadline reminders. In the monday.com state of sales technology 2025 report, 82% of respondents reported using AI<\/span><\/a> as a productivity booster to make them more efficient.<\/p>\n

With fewer repetitive tasks to focus on, sales teams can close deals quickly while mitigating unnecessary delays. In practice, workflow automations can help B2B SaaS providers automate contract approval routing and set auto-reminders for finance checks, reducing a typical weeks-long cycle to just a few days.<\/p>\n

Gather the right data to analyze and predict deals<\/h3>\n

Using a CRM solution, organizations can create sales automation to generate regular reports, pull insights from existing data, and forecast future sales against current performance. With more accurate and targeted data, it\u2019s a lot easier for sales teams to narrow down their strategies and focus on closing the highest-value deals at the right time.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say a deal hasn\u2019t moved in two weeks. Your CRM can flag it automatically and prompt the rep with a next-best action or escalation strategy to re-engage the buyer. Additionally, AI-powered forecasting empowers sales managers to redirect resources when necessary to keep up with predicted sales.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Types of sales automation<\/h2>\n

Sales automation is a broad term that encompasses automating different types of workflows. There are a lot of different ways automations can improve manual sales tasks, whether it\u2019s in pipeline management, marketing campaigns, or B2B sales procedures. Here\u2019s a brief look at different types of sales automation with examples of how they\u2019re applied with systems like CRMs.<\/p>\n

Sales pipeline automation<\/h3>\n

Streamline lead tracking, deal progression, and follow-ups across the sales funnel with custom rules or AI-based automations. Pipeline workflow automations can help teams instantly assign leads, move and update sales stages, or trigger reminders.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> A sales rep gets an update from a CRM to follow up with a lead that hasn\u2019t responded in 5 days, and the system automatically changes the deal stage or category.<\/p>\n

Sales order processing automation<\/h3>\n

Automate order entry, invoicing, and fulfillment to reduce errors and speed up transactions. This type of automation makes it simple to connect different order systems, such as sales, inventory, and finance.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> When an order at an e-commerce company is marked as closed or done, the CRM generates an order and sends it to the warehouse team and the customer receives an invoice, all without any human involvement.<\/p>\n

Sales automation in marketing<\/h3>\n

Align marketing and sales through marketing automations<\/span><\/a> like lead nurturing, email campaigns, and scoring. With sales automation in marketing, teams can generate and qualify leads to improve conversion rates.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> A lead lands on your company website and fills out a form to download a free ebook, entering your company\u2019s mailing list, where they\u2019ll be continuously engaged and eventually scored by an AI-powered system like monday CRM before getting assigned to a sales rep.<\/p>\n

Sales document automation<\/h3>\n

Simplify the creation and management of quotes, proposals, and contracts. This type of automation accelerates deal cycles by making it quicker to complete essential documentation while maintaining consistency from one deal to the next.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> When a deal in your pipeline reaches a specific stage, your CRM uses AI to generate a proposal using customer data and conversations like emails and call summaries before sending it to the client for approval and a signature.<\/p>\n

Sales enablement automation<\/h3>\n

Deliver relevant content, training, and tools to reps based on deal stage or customer profile. Sales enablement automation ensures that your sales reps always have access to the content they need to make the most of every potential deal.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> When a deal moves to the negotiation phase in your pipeline, the assigned sales rep will receive a link to your company\u2019s negotiation guidelines as well as a summary of relevant client data.<\/p>\n

AI sales automation<\/h3>\n

Use AI sales automation<\/a> to predict outcomes, recommend next steps, and personalize interactions. AI can also make it easier to score leads, detect potential risks that could prevent deal closures, and summarize emails and call notes.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> The AI assistant in monday CRM sends a real-time report to sales managers based on sales predictions, highlighting specific deals that are at risk of falling through based on engagement trends, offering suggestions on how to re-engage customers to win the sale.<\/p>\n

B2B sales automation<\/h3>\n

Enhance complex sales cycles with sales tools that manage account-based selling, approvals, and integrations with CRMs and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. B2B sales automation supports long-term relationship building so that teams can reach their sales goals and continuously nurture leads.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/b> A B2B CRM<\/span><\/a> automatically sends a proposal to legal and finance teams for approval before sending it to the client, speeding up time to close on every deal.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Top 5 sales automation software and CRMs<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no shortage of CRMs on the market, the challenge is choosing the right one for your organization. Although most CRMs include automation features<\/a>, certain solutions make it easier to create custom automations that really impact your team\u2019s productivity. The table below gives you a quick look at the top AI-powered CRMs<\/a> we recommend for sales automation. For a more detailed overview, keep reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Platform <\/th>Best for <\/th>Pricing (annual) <\/th>Free trial <\/th>User rating <\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
monday CRM<\/strong><\/td>Teams looking for a highly customizable and visual CRM with robust sales automation<\/td>$12\/seat\/month<\/td>14 days<\/td>4.6\/5 (G2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Salesforce<\/strong><\/td>Large sales teams and enterprises seeking advanced automation and AI-driven insights<\/td>$25\/user\/month<\/td>30 days<\/td>4.4\/5 (G2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hubspot Smart CRM<\/strong><\/td>Growing businesses and startups looking for user-friendly automation with built-in marketing features<\/td>$15\/user\/month<\/td>Free plan available<\/td>4.4\/5 (G2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pipedrive<\/strong> <\/td>Small to mid-sized teams that want a simple, automation-friendly sales CRM<\/td>$14\/seat\/month<\/td>14 days<\/td>4.3\/5 (G2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zoho CRM<\/strong> <\/td>Organizations looking for an AI-powered sales automation CRM at a competitive price<\/td>$14\/user\/month<\/td>15 days<\/td>4.1\/5 (G2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

1. monday CRM<\/h3>\n

Best for:<\/b> Teams looking for a highly customizable and visual CRM with robust sales automation<\/p>\n\n\"CRM\n

Simplify pipeline management and sales workflows with monday CRM<\/a>\u2019s powerful automation recipes that reduce manual work. Users can create custom no-code automations in seconds for repetitive tasks like lead assignment, status updates, and email follow-ups. Built-in advanced AI tools also provide opportunities for detailed reporting, forecasting, and more intelligent automations.<\/p>\n

Key features<\/h4>\n