What is Sales Funnel Automation? How to Close More Deals in Less Time

Sales funnel automation uses software to move potential customers from the awareness stage to becoming customers without the usual manual work required. This commonly involves automated emails, SMS, and website actions (such as pop-ups or chatbots) to guide leads through the buying process.

Automating a sales funnel eliminates the need for routine check-ins, allowing sales teams to focus on high-value interactions. These include nurturing strong leads, handling objections, and closing deals at the most critical points in the buyer’s journey.

If your team is still sending manual check-in emails, this article is for you. We’ll walk you through sales funnel automation, how it works, who it’s best for, and a step-by-step process for setting up your first automated workflow.

Automation can be helpful for sales teams of all sizes. Single salespeople can employ automation support to keep on top of all their prospects. With larger teams, automation helps to keep the busywork off desks, allowing the team to focus their time on the work that converts deals.

Sales funnel automation can be especially beneficial for the following businesses:

• B2B companies: The sales cycle in B2B is often slower than in B2C, so having ongoing automation to move deals along is particularly beneficial. For example, a B2B construction company selling materials to contractors may use automation to nurture leads with case studies, follow-up reminders, and personalised quotes over time.
• E-commerce businesses: In B2C, automation can be powerful for recovering abandoned carts and sending personalised promotions.
• Small businesses and startups: Save time and scale before you invest in a large sales team.
• Agencies and professional services: Keep your agency at the forefront of your clients' minds without constant manual outreach.

Leading businesses use automated sales funnels to shorten their sales cycles, increase conversion rates, and scale their businesses. Here’s how.

The Mix is Thermomix's exclusive distributor in Australia. Instead of selling directly to customers, it uses a consultant-based sales model, where its consultants demonstrate and sell products on its behalf.

In 2019, they implemented Salesforce’s Sales Cloud, Experience Cloud, and CRM Analytics to automate and streamline consultant engagement and onboarding.

When potential consultants express interest, they receive automated onboarding via GetFeedback. This onboarding then syncs all their details instantly across Salesforce and Shopify.

Since this change, automation has boosted consultant engagement, reduced onboarding from four days to a few hours, and helped The Mix scale its business more efficiently.

Legend Corporation is a leading supplier of industrial and electrical products across Australia and New Zealand.

In 2020, they decided to scale their operations and implemented Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Revenue Cloud, and MuleSoft to automate their sales funnel and manage orders. They began to automate customer orders, pricing, and approvals instead of having their sales team do it, reducing manual processes and improving their response times.

Since then, automation has cut order processing time by 90% and enabled 24/7, self-service ordering. This smooth sales automation process has supported Legend’s rapid growth while keeping its renowned customer experience at scale.

Sutton Tools is a global manufacturer of cutting tools, supplying industries across Australia and beyond.

In 2023, they implemented Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Commerce Cloud to automate sales, service, and marketing while improving customer self-service. They launched an AI-powered platform to handle common customer inquiries and shifted more sales online through a new e-commerce site.

Since then, inbound calls have dropped by 70%, online orders have quadrupled in less than 12 months, and they have saved hundreds of monthly employee hours.

Most customer prospects you’ll encounter will require some convincing before diving in and buying your product. That’s simply the nature of sales and marketing. However, if you’ve ever worked in a sales team, you begin to realise how often you send out similar emails to your prospects.

These routine outreaches to move people through the sales funnel are a prime example of what you could begin to automate, saving your team time.

Let’s start by looking at a basic sales funnel for a SaaS company and identify where, along the journey, automation could support moving prospects towards conversion.

Cold outreach is coming back into style after a long hiatus of being replaced by only inbound marketing. Automation can support your team by sending out personalised mass outreach emails that make the first few contacts with your leads before cold calling them. Remember, it typically takes eight or more touchpoints before a lead is ready to convert.

Tools like Salesforce use AI to analyse the data from historical sales and your interactions with each lead to assign them a lead qualification score. Automated lead scoring can rank prospects based on criteria like budget, company size, or engagement level.

This score can then help direct your team towards the most high-value deals — an approach that aligns well with account-based marketing (ABM), where sales and marketing teams focus on nurturing specific, high-value accounts.

Automation can help prospects book a pitch or demo, meet with the right salesperson (in their time zone or an expert in their industry, for example), or receive relevant pre-reading materials to help prepare them for the meeting.

You can then automate the next touchpoint, which might include recapping the session, asking if they have any unanswered questions, finding out if there is a key decision-maker you should contact, and gently nudging them towards the next step. For example, if a prospect clicks on a proposal link but doesn’t respond, an automation can trigger a follow-up from a salesperson.

Automation can send contract reminders, track proposal views, and handle payment processing. If a deal closes, it can trigger a welcome email and support customer onboarding.

There are two main types of automation for your business: time-based and behaviour-based. Time-based automation runs on a schedule, sending a promotional email at 3 pm in each prospect’s time zone, for example, or sending a reminder message two days after the first email. Behaviour-based automation triggers actions based on a prospect's actions, such as clicking a link in an email or booking a demo.

The above examples can be implemented using CRM (customer relationship management) software. CRM is the hub where you can track contact information, log interactions, and send out mass or automated follow-ups based on your customisable workflows.

Sales funnel automation handles the repetitive work so your sales team can focus on the high-impact tasks that close deals. Instead of manually following up, logging data, or keeping track of the hundreds of people they called last week, automation ensures that sales teams send every prospect the right message at the right stage of the funnel. It works behind the scenes to keep leads warm and prevent opportunities from slipping through the cracks, helping your team to swoop in when needed.

Sales teams find that automated follow-ups, lead scoring, and CRM integration speed up the sales cycle, improve prospect engagement, and free up time for real conversations that drive revenue.

Now that you know what you can achieve with sales automation, let’s get into the practical steps you can take to start building your sales funnel today.

You can’t start automating your sales funnel without the right software. Using a CRM, you can store your leads, capture your interactions with them, and send automated emails or SMS. Look for an AI-powered platform to help you send even more personalised sales communications at scale.

Now, you need a solid pool of qualified leads. Collect inbound contact details through contact forms or with a ‘book a call’ button. You can also get creative with capturing leads by offering discounts, webinars, templates, or by hosting or attending a conference.

Depending on how you run your sales operations, you may also want to use sales intelligence software that helps you identify companies in your ideal customer profile (ICP) and sync their contact data into your CRM to do cold outreach.

Instead of manually chasing leads, send an automated email once someone fills out a form. The email could include a welcome message, a link to book a call, or helpful information about your product.

Here’s an example of an initial automated email you can populate with your data and personalise.

Subject: [First Name], a quick idea for [Their Company Name]

Hi [First Name],

I noticed you [action they took, e.g., downloaded our guide, attended our webinar, visited our pricing page], and I wanted to reach out. Companies like [Their Company Name] often deal with [specific challenge], and we’ve helped teams solve it with [Product/Service Name].

If you’re looking to [key benefit, e.g., speed up your sales process, automate follow-ups, or improve conversion rates], I’d love to share how we’ve done this for teams like yours. Would you be available for a quick chat this week?

Feel free to book a time here: [Scheduling Link], or let me know a time that works for you.

Best,

[Sales Rep's Name]
[Your Company]
[Email or Phone]

It’s great to set up your first email, but now you’ll want to create a complete sequence to nurture the prospect toward conversion. Set up a workflow automatically sending follow-up emails over the next week or two to keep them engaged. Your CRM can track who opens and clicks, so you know who and what interests them.

At this stage, you can refine your outreach by automatically moving prospects into tailored workflows based on their actions. For example, if a lead consistently clicks on content about buying a house with a specific real estate firm, automation can shift them into a homebuyer-specific workflow. This ensures they receive targeted advice, relevant resources, and clear CTAs that guide them toward reaching out for customer support.

Once your first automation is live, check its performance. Are leads opening emails or booking calls? This might be where you begin to A/B test your emails and experiment with your messaging. You should always monitor the performance of your emails and refine the ones with lower engagement to get the best results.

Throughout this process, you’ll need the right CRM to support you in building deeply personalised and effective automation. Let’s review how you can choose the platform that best suits your sales team.

When looking for a CRM, the right one should fit your way of working, be easy to use, and help your team close more deals. Here are some key things to consider:

• Core features: Does it have lead tracking, pipeline management, and AI tools to support your sales process?
• Ease of use: CRM software is only useful if your team is able to use it. A simple, intuitive platform will save your team time and frustration.
• How does it use AI? Quality AI integration should go beyond providing essential insights. It should rank leads, automate follow-ups, predict revenue, and more.
• Does it integrate with your tools? The CRM should work seamlessly with your email, marketing, and communication platforms.
• Is support reliable? Fast, 24/7 support can make all the difference when issues arise.
• Does the price match the value? Some CRMs hide key features behind expensive plans or costly add-ons. Remember to compare the costs against the benefits.
• What do other businesses say? Read reviews on popular software review platforms like G2 to see real user experiences.

Salesforce CRM is an all-in-one solution that includes all the above features. It is the leader in automation and AI.

If you’re still wondering whether AI is worth the hype, let’s discuss how it can automate and optimise your sales funnel to drive more conversions.

AI-powered automation doesn’t just take over repetitive tasks — it makes your funnel smarter. Instead of sending generic, scheduled follow-ups, AI reacts to real-time prospect behaviour, triggering personalised messages, automated reminders, and sales alerts at the perfect moment. It can also score leads automatically, prioritise high-intent prospects, and update CRM records without manual input.

For sales teams, this means less time chasing cold leads and more time closing deals. AI helps ensure no opportunity slips through the cracks, making every stage of your sales funnel more efficient, personalised, and scalable.

Sales funnel automation takes the manual work out of moving prospects into customers. It helps teams follow up more quickly and efficiently, stay organised, and close more deals. Whether you're managing a growing sales team, automation makes it easier to scale without sacrificing a personal touch.

Ready to put all you’ve learnt about sales funnel automation into practice? Start your free Salesforce trial and see how automation can help you close more deals.

An A/B test is when you produce two versions of content with one thing changed to test which performs better. You must change only one element to keep your experiment accurate. (If you change multiple things, you won’t know what made the difference.) For example, in your sales funnel, you might test the email subject lines across all your workflow emails to determine which subject lines get the best email open rate.

The awareness stage is the first step in getting people to take notice of your brand. You can use automation to send welcome emails when someone signs up for a free resource or trigger pop-ups based on past user behaviour. This helps you introduce your brand, share valuable content, and build trust without reaching out to every new visitor.

Yes, you can absolutely set up automation to support your team's upselling. Using CRM intelligence, you can see what your customers have bought and engaged with and set up personalised emails and SMS offers to help upsell them on the right products or services at the right time.

Automation is particularly useful in B2B marketing because the sales cycle is often slower than in B2C. Ongoing automation helps move deals along by keeping leads engaged, following up consistently, and ensuring no opportunity is forgotten while your sales team focuses on high-value conversations.