How Our SDRs Cut 50% of Time Spent on Core SFDC Processes

There has to be a better way.

This is the common lament of sales development representatives. While modern CRMs enable high-level organization and reporting, SDRs know far too well how tedious and confusing data input can be (and Sales Op teams know just how challenging it is to ensure data integrity).

When qualifying leads, SDRs are challenged to manage a high volume of prospects in the most efficient way possible. At the same time, they must be extremely thorough as they assess each one, and meticulous in the way they record important information.

The consequences of mistakes during this process add up to lost time and opportunities.

Incorrect data input not only causes bottlenecks for sales, it prevents account executives from adequately preparing the optimal demo for the prospect. On top of that, mistakes compromise standardization and demand extra time for fixing errors.

At WalkMe, we’re all about making enterprise technology easier and more efficient to use. But even our own SDRs were feeling the pain. That’s why we decided to test run our new automation tool, the WalkMe ActionBot. The results have exceeded even our own expectations.

Life before the ActionBot

Prior to implementing the ActionBot, our SDRs would open up a lead form on Salesforce, then use a checklist of qualification questions to direct the conversation and see if the lead was relevant.

Throughout the call, they would go back and forth between the lead form and the qualification checklist while writing notes based on the lead’s answers and coming up with thoughtful follow-up questions.

If all of the criteria on the checklist were met and the lead passed the qualification, the SDR would open a new Intro Call form, and input each answer one by one based on their notes. This means that by the end of the process, they wrote down all of the necessary twice. The last step was assigning the lead to an account executive.

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Inefficiencies were taking a toll

The process was extremely inefficient, time-consuming, and prone to errors and confusion — both for new hires and seasoned employees.

“As you can imagine, for a group of people performing the same task over and over again, it gets boring, monotonous, and tedious to complete these tasks correctly each time,” says Max Kohn, Digital Adoption Manager at WalkMe. “Throughout the day, and also the lifecycle of the SDR employee, it was common for the quality of the reporting to go down over time as these intro calls were scheduled.”

Moreover, the lack of standardization impacted their ability to run reports accurately.

Instead of a smooth handoff to the account executives, the qualification process was slowing things down. It was ripe for optimization.

Here’s how it works

WalkMe’s ActionBot has proved to be the cure.

Here’s how it works:

1. During a qualifying call with a lead, the SDR initiates the ActionBot
2. As they run through their checklist of qualification questions, the SDR simultaneously types the answers into the chatbot.
3. When they are finished, the ActionBot instantly populates each field on the Intro Call form based on what the SDR wrote.

Instead of wasting time taking notes and then rewriting all of the information in the Intro Call Salesforce form, the ActionBot makes it easy and fast by taking the data input process out of their hands.

On one hand, it eliminates the double work, saving them valuable time. On the other, the interface is far simpler. Instead of needing to parse through a long Salesforce form, the SDR simply writes to a chatbot.

See the ActionBot in action!

The power of automation: Hours saved, headaches avoided

In a short amount of time, the ActionBot has had a profound effect on the efficiency and overall experience of the SDRs.

According to our analysis, an SDR saves roughly five minutes each time he or she uses the ActionBot — about half of the time it takes to complete the Intro Call form manually. Multiply that by the ~400 leads they qualify a month, and in the two months since we’ve activated it, the team has already saved a total of 33.3 hours of work!

That’s literally 3.7 days saved per month. Not only does that mean less time spent on rote processes, but more time available for qualifying more leads.

“When I see this success, I think about all of the other tedious processes our sales reps have to do,” says Max. “I start to think, there has to be a better way.”

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Productivity (and quality) is on the rise

Beyond the benefits of greater efficiency and less frustration for SDRs, the overall quality of their work has also improved.

Achieving standardization when recording lead information has led to more accurate reporting and coordination with the account executives which yields better MQL to SQL rates and more pipeline created from any given number of intro calls.

“The ActionBot has been helpful in simplifying processes for the team which makes them happier and more productive,” says Ben Stepansky, who leads WalkMe’s sales development team in Tel Aviv. “When it comes to inputting our call notes into the Intro Form for the account executive, it helps simplify the flow in real time and ensures consistency at the highest level.”

These benefits have become invaluable to the entire team, but they are instrumental in onboarding new hires.

New SDRs typically have a long ramp-up time before they can complete this process error-free. With the ActionBot, they are confident that they are scheduling intro calls and inputting the information correctly.

Scaling up for the future

The initial success of the ActionBot demonstrates how powerful automation can be in the right context. After identifying one of the biggest bottlenecks to productivity and value creation in the qualification process, an automation tool proved to be the most effective solution.

The ActionBot saves employees valuable time, dramatically boosts efficiency, and increases accuracy. The overall process is smoother and simpler.

According to Max, “Now we are working on utilizing the bot to standardize and automate tons of processes for our sales reps, from creating and updating opportunities and adding contacts into Salesforce, and so much more.”

With the ActionBot in our arsenal, the sky is the limit.

Discover more applications for the ActionBot in this video.