Automate, But Don't Eliminate: We Still Need A Human Touch

Let's face it: for the business world, automation is like the flashy new $5,000 Weber barbecue you saw in your neighbor's yard last summer.

You bought it because it seemed like the 'thing to do', but when it arrived at your doorstep, you realized – I've got no freaking idea how to use this thing. 

So, you did what most people do: threw some meat on there and hoped for the best. And look, the meat was edible. It just wasn't as good as it could have been. (And it definitely wasn’t medium-rare). 

I feel like so many of us have started using these automated tools without knowing how to truly utilize their potential.

For a lot of businesses, the result has been an over-implementation and over-reliance on these tools, to the point where they've become completely counter-productive to our goals. 

So the question is, how can we strike a balance between automating our sales process and still maintaining that all-important human touch? In my opinion, we simply need more guidance. I brought Shawn Finder onto the show to help us all out. 

Ever heard of a friendly platform called Autoklose? It's an AI-powered sales engagement platform that helps sales reps take the repetitive, mundane tasks out of their day-to-day so they can focus on selling, building relationships – and ultimately – closing more deals.

Shawn is the definition of an intelligent seller. I interviewed him on the Success Story podcast last year (you can listen to it here) and all throughout our conversation, he emphasized the importance of personalization. That's pretty rare for an automation guru, believe it or not.

At just 24, Shawn stepped into the entrepreneurial world and never looked back. He started out importing packaging from the Orient and selling it to top retailers in North America.

With sales being his passion, Shawn founded the list-building company ExchangeLeads in 2013; the platform helped salespeople build quality prospect lists in far less time. 

In early 2018, Shawn parlayed ExchangeLeads into his second startup called Autoklose, which is a new, revolutionary sales automation platform used by thousands of sales professionals around the world to help them save both their time and money.

He scaled Autoklose to 50+ people and sold it to Vanillasoft a Soft in 2020.

This is exactly why I brought Shawn onto the show; he's lived and breathed sales since he was a young entrepreneur. And now, he's using his experience to build an incredible company that's changing the sales landscape as we know it.

But we'll circle back to him soon.

I just found out that over half of companies are using automation somewhere along their marketing pipeline. Some have even automated the whole darn thing. 

Why? Because without sounding cringeworthy, automation really is the future. We're not living in the days of Henry Ford's factory anymore; his moving assembly line has gone digital, and the sales tasks we used to dread can now be completed with the click of a button. 

But here's the thing: even though sales automation has come a long way, it's not a stand-in for your human sales team.

It can't empathize, it can't automatically add our 'human' touches like social personalization, and it can't build relationships (unless you're Joaquin Phoenix in the movie Her. But even then I'm not convinced). 

Over-reliance on automation is a real problem for sales teams. It was great at first, but now everyone kind of sounds... well, we sound exactly the same. Our cold customers can smell an automated email from a mile off. 

Keep in mind that there are only a few reasons why someone will shell out their hard-earned money – and disingenuous sales pitches are not one of them. 

Think about the sales emails you actually open when they pop into your inbox. I'm willing to bet it's the ones that sound different or the ones that seem to eerily know lots of information about you.

In other words, the ones that sound like they were written by a real person – for you, and you alone.

So, what's the deal here? Do we ditch automated emails altogether, or is there a balance we can strike?

Now, I'm well aware that the term 'automation' covers so much more than a sales email campaign. In the interest of today's topic, though, I'm specifically talking about sales marketing automation; think campaigns, funnels, cold emails, and the like. 

Shawn and I talked about so many things in our interview, but we devoted a fair chunk to discussing his top tips for automating sales emails without eliminating the human touch. 

“I think the biggest mistake people make with automation is they keep everything long and depersonalized. You can write an automated email and make it feel like it's a one-to-one email – and you can make it very short.” 

I absolutely love this tip because it taps into something we've all forgotten since automation took the reins, which is this: just because emails take less time to write and send these days does not mean they should be any less value-packed. 

It's tempting to say, 'Great! Emails take 90 percent less time now, so I'll pack in as much extra information as possible.' But the reality is that no one wants to read a 2,000-word email, no matter how good your copy is or how consistently you send them. 

“I actually wrote 30 of the top sales podcasts an email; it was very personalized. All 30 replied and said, ‘Yeah, I'd love to have you on the show.’ Everyone thought it was a one-on-one email. So it all depends on if you're being salesy, or genuine and personable.” 

Yes, I was one of the people Shawn reached out to – and I said yes, so it evidently worked! Hah. 

“People just rely on the automation, and they write long emails selling their product – ’My name is Shawn, I'm a company that does ABC, I can help you with a, b and c’– it doesn't work," Shawn explained. 

To explain this in a bit more detail, imagine you received an email from me. There's a big difference between this:

Hi [recipient], 

Welcome to the newsletter! Here at Scott D Clary, we talk about all things sales and marketing. If you are in the market for some helpful resources, be sure to check out our blog. 

Our company started in 2010 and we have been in the industry for even longer than that. With a driven team of experts, we are confident that we can provide you with the best resources and advice possible.

...and this: 

Hey Scott, 

Just wanted to drop you a quick note and say thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. I know you're busy hustling and doing your thing, so I'll get right to it: if you're ever in need of a helpful resource on sales or marketing, be sure to check out my blog.

You seem like just the kind of person who'd be interested!

See the difference? The first email is full of impersonal fluff, while the second is direct, personal, and to the point. Even if you sent that one email to 500 people, they would all feel like you were writing just to them. 

This is a bit of an extension on the previous tip; Shawn told me about one of his own automation efforts that is absolutely genius.

“I had a webinar of 540 people, but we had 26 people that were named Michael. And I made a video saying, ‘Hey, Michael, I just want to thank you for coming to the webinar yesterday, and for your input.’ And Michael received it thinking it was one-to-one, but it was sent to 26.”

How sneaky and strategic is that? People love to see and hear their own name – it's a psychological trigger that gets us to pay attention.

By spending a little extra time to group people with similar names, Shawn basically had his cake and ate it, too; he saved time through automation, but still gave each person that important feeling of being seen and heard. 

“The key is personalization; you need to make that prospect feel like it's a one-to-one, even if it's not.”

And for our final tip of the day, I'm sharing this term Shawn introduced to me during our interview: intangible touches.

Basically, this is anything you can do to make a prospect feel special without it being a huge time suck. Shawn uses them at the company he's currently running. 

“We email, we add them as a connection on LinkedIn, we send them a message, and then we do another email; the then we'll what I like to call ‘intangible touches’, which could be to comment on Scott's podcast and give feedback as a comment.”

It's the perfect sandwich of engagement – a little personalization, a little human connection, and then more content to keep them coming back for more.

The main thing is to make sure your prospects are seeing your name pop up everywhere they look. 

For instance: if I had a list of ten high-value potential clients that I really, really wanted to land, I could send them an automated email sequence.

But I could also make sure to drop a personal comment on one of their LinkedIn posts that same week – and then follow up with an email referencing that comment, if I had the time, or even just another automated email that looks and sounds personalized. 

The key is to make sure that your prospects are seeing your name in multiple places. When they get a sales pitch from you, they'll think, "I know that name.

He commented on my post last week. He's been emailing me helpful information." And that, my friends, is the recipe for a sale.

If you're in the world of sales, my interview with Shawn is one you really can't afford to miss. He's sitting on a wealth of knowledge and experience; we talked about his serial entrepreneurship, how to scale, pivoting from company to startup, and so much more. 

I hope the four tips I shared with you today help get your creative juices flowing about how you can use automation in your sales process.

Just remember: don't eliminate the human element, be strategic, and use intangible touches to make your prospects feel special.

Automation is a wonderful tool, but no automation is an island. Pair it with a healthy dose of personalization, human connection, and good old-fashioned elbow grease, and you'll be closing deals in no time.