Frankenstacks and Automation

I live in Southern California so there’s always this thinking that robots will be created by mankind only to find ourselves staring down the barrel of destruction sown by our own blindness to the dangers of killer artificial intelligence. Who knows if that’s going to be true or not, but let’s talk about something that’s a whole lot less scary. Shall we? Automation! It’s the big bingo buzzy buzzword floating around the technosphere. Read any software vendor’s marketing and sales collateral and you are sure to come across all the usual suspects. Let’s find out who our contestants are!

Automation!

Productivity gains!

Artificial intelligence!

Machine learning!

Monte carlo analysis!

Okay that’s five. We’re starting a basketball team. Let’s move on.

Let the sellers sell is what you’ll often hear! It’s a rallying cry of unshackling overly burdened and processed obsessive overlords. They just want to be free. Free, free, free from the mundane inundation of filling out Next Steps and Close Dates… am I right?

#FreeTheSalesRep

One topic that continues to pop up in the revenue tech space is increasing automation within the business. But what does that really mean? And what benefit does it bring?

For the good folks in revenue operations “automation” has become this silver bullet panacea. But in reality it’s the combination of tools and processes which results in the relative or absolute reduction of human related intervention

There are three key benefits that RevOps should pound on to justify bringing in automation into the business. If it doesn’t meet the bar set below; don’t automate.

Here’s the bar:

1. Displacement and Compensation Effect > Cost and Effort to Implement and Maintain
2. Benefit from Error Reduction > Management Oversight
3. Shifting up the Operating Stack

Let’s dive in.

Displacement and Compensation Effect > Cost and Effort to Implement and Maintain

The first is what’s called the Displacement and Compensation Effect. By introducing automation, presumably previously time consuming / manual work would be wasted. And it’s often said that time is the most precious resource of all. Father Time is undefeated after all. So by carving back that time it allows the business to feel like moving unused furniture out of the house. Wow look at that space! I didn’t realize how big our place was. The same is true with your time. Automation frees up your team in both high and low roles to reallocate to higher and better uses.

What time was spent on curating call lists is now carved out on coaching your reps. Or doubling down on your playbook based on industry or persona. Or how about something as simple as preparing for your next demo. Amazing what a little background research can do to spice up that second meeting conversion. 

We said this earlier… but let the sellers sell! Meaning, squeezing in a few more calls. Squeezing in a little extra time to put a bowtie on that proposal deck. A little time to eat a poptart in between calls. I mean… whoever thought that selling on an empty stomach was a good thing must be some sort of tyrant.

Benefit from Error Reduction > Management Oversight

The second benefit is a massive drop in errors. I can’t tell you how many times my work has suffered cancerous mutations by not performing the task perfectly each and every time. We’re human. We make mistakes on rote, repeatable tasks.

So you can either make humans perfect with high calorie oversight or you can do the reasonable thing and bring in automation. Error rates should decrease. Trust should increase.

A few use cases… imagine having your ops team having to ping your reps every time a close date was off. You’d have to have the Eye of Sauron on your operation team to make sure that every single opportunity meets the standard. That’s not realistic and honestly not a very fun career choice. Imagine including in your job description… “hey you’re going to nag sales reps about filling out close dates correctly and next steps well until they hate you”. Oh well look at that, 1,000 candidates applied.

Imagine call lists developed automatigically. Imagine close date recommendations based on deal velocity and engagement intensity. I’m just riffing here but that’s some beautiful operational jazz.

Shifting Up the Operating Stack

The last benefit is shifting up the strategic operating stack. What do I mean by that? In the world of software engineering the concept of a tech stack is a known one. Once upon a time coding was done at the machine level. An operating system was built atop the machine so that the next wave of engineers didn’t have to write machine language. They moved up. Leveled up a layer if you will. Older languages were wrapped around and simplified with new languages to decrease the barrier to entry. There are more software developers than ever before.

The same can be said of the CRO. In the early days, the business had to worry about their data model. How their leads were going to route. Which accounts belonged to which reps. How to treat new business vs renewals and have that reflected in their systems. But with automation it allows you to push those previous challenges “down the stack”. Meaning you’ve also moved up. You’re now able to focus on “seeing around corners”. Putting a formal strategy of what the business could look like in 3 to 5 years. You’re able to develop playbooks to head off rolling competition.

To conclude

So as you’re going through the journey of why automation is important to your business. Think of those three pillars.

1.    Carving time back in the form of productivity savings

2.    Significant drop in errors

3.    Expanding the activity and strategy pie

Now before I go. Think about what it costs to set up and maintain said automation. It’s a shiny service you purchased or built, but it’s also quite mechanical in some ways. You need to watch out for breakdowns in output. Automation is only as good as you train it to be. Hence why AI/ML layered on top of automation is such a powerful aphrodisiac.

Here's a simple mental model around the overall cost of setting up and optimizing automation: avoid automation just because you can. Don’t go overboard. Automate because it’s a no brainer, accretive exercise. You also have the bench strength or the willingness to pay to keep it up. One simple equation is the Total Cost of Ownership is greater than the expenditure to maintain it.

So go forward and automate. The killer robot revolution has been waiting for you.

Hasta la vista. I’ll be back.

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