How to Future-Proof Your Sales Enablement Strategy with Automation: Expert Tips

Sales automation is no longer just a nice-to-have — it’s quickly becoming a must-have for companies looking to scale efficiently and stay ahead of the competition. It can boost productivity, eliminate repetitive tasks, and free up your sales team to focus on what really matters—building relationships and closing deals. 

The question is: how do you implement it without losing the human touch? And more importantly, how do you future-proof your sales enablement strategy so it adapts as the landscape continues to evolve?

We’ve tapped into the expertise of industry leaders to bring you practical, forward-thinking insights. From overcoming common challenges to staying ahead of automation trends, these experts share how automation is reshaping sales and what it means for your team’s success.

What are the most common pain points in sales that process automation can address?

Automation in sales is no longer a futuristic idea — it’s here and already addressing some of the most pressing challenges sales teams face. We asked a few experts to highlight key pain points that automation can solve, making it essential to a future-proof sales enablement strategy.

1. Automating lead qualification and data entry

Erman Ergun, Head of Sales Enablement at Jotform, emphasizes how automation can streamline critical processes like lead qualification and CRM data entry. 

Manually sorting through potential leads and updating information can consume significant time, pulling reps away from their core responsibility — selling. Automating these tasks not only improves efficiency but also ensures that reps are focusing on high-value prospects and closing more deals.

2. Scaling personalized outreach

Another area where automation shines is personalized outreach, according to Erman. While buyer journey personalization is key to engaging prospects, it often becomes tedious and time-consuming: “Personalized outreach can also be scaled efficiently, so you can send tailored messages without the hassle.”

Automation enables sales teams to send personalized emails or messages in bulk without losing that individual touch, allowing them to maintain strong connections with prospects while reducing manual effort.

3. Streamlining onboarding and contract management

Erman also highlights less obvious areas where automation can be a game-changer, such as onboarding and contract management. 

“Onboarding and contract management are ripe for automation too. Automated training keeps your team improving without the need for constant check-ins, and automating document workflows speeds up the entire sales cycle.”

By automating these processes, sales teams can close deals faster and ensure that new hires are up to speed more quickly, reducing the typical bottlenecks that slow down productivity.

4. Building value before the sale

Charles Muhlbauer, Sales Enablement Manager at AlphaSense and the founder of DiscoveryCoach, offers a different perspective, focusing on how automation can be used not just for selling but for providing value upfront. 

Automation allows businesses to deliver helpful content to prospects—building trust and rapport before even making a sales pitch. By automating value-driven email campaigns, sales teams can engage potential buyers and establish a relationship based on helpfulness, making prospects more likely to respond positively when it’s time to close a deal.

5. Enhancing operational efficiency

Susan Savona, VP Revenue Enablement at Edmentum, also highlights how creating templates for recurring tasks and presentations can drastically improve efficiency and productivity. 

By automating the creation and use of these templates, sales teams can ensure consistency in their messaging and presentations, saving time on repetitive tasks. This allows reps to focus on personalizing their pitch where it matters most while maintaining a professional and consistent approach. Additionally, having pre-built email cadences means reps can execute outreach campaigns faster, improving overall responsiveness and customer engagement.

What challenges might organizations face when adopting automation, and how can they overcome these obstacles?

While automation offers numerous benefits, its implementation isn’t without challenges. Organizations must be prepared to navigate potential obstacles to fully realize the advantages of automated systems. Here’s what our experts have to say about overcoming the most common hurdles in automation adoption, starting with Steffaney Zohrabyan, Sales Enablement Insights & Innovation at Cisco.

Steffaney mentioned the following challenges her sales organization faces with automation:

• Loss of personal touch: Automation can make interactions feel impersonal, potentially affecting client relationships. Her tip here would be to “balance automation with personalization.” 

“Automation should be used to help sellers automate mundane tasks, but not the critical conversations they should be having with their account teams and buyers.”

• Over-reliance on tools: Sales teams may become too dependent on automation, leading to a drop in proactive selling and critical thinking. Steffaney suggests encouraging a blended approach, where automation supports but doesn’t replace the need for human judgment and creativity in the sales process.

• Data quality issues: Automation is only as good as the data it relies on. Poor data quality can lead to inefficiencies and misinformed decisions. Garbage in — garbage out and there are so many orgs that have issues with their data hygiene. Her advice is to implement data governance practices and regular audits to ensure that your CRM and sales automation tools are working with accurate, up-to-date information.

Nicole Carpenter, Sales Enablement Manager at Ziflow, identifies another challenge: Teams may struggle to smoothly integrate automation into their existing workflows. 

“If it’s not clear how automation fits into their workflow, there’s a chance they might start relying on it too much, using it as a crutch instead of a tool to make things better.”

To overcome this, Nicole emphasizes the importance of thorough training and setting clear expectations from the start. 

This ensures teams understand how automation complements their work, making it a tool for improvement rather than a replacement for thoughtful sales activities.

How do you see the role of automation in sales evolve over the next few years?

As automation continues to reshape the sales landscape, our experts foresee significant changes in how it will be integrated into sales processes, with a strong emphasis on personalized and strategic applications. Here’s what they have to say about the future of automation in sales.

1. Automation will expand, but human connection remains key

Christian Palmer, Senior Manager Global Sales Enablement at Justt, envisions automation becoming a larger part of the sales process, but he also emphasizes that human interaction will still play a crucial role. 

While automation will streamline many aspects, such as email automation, power dialers, and task management, Christian argues that automation is still far from replacing the emotional intelligence needed in sales, especially during key interactions like Discovery.

He predicts that newer sales professionals, more comfortable with technology, will find innovative ways to integrate automation into their workflow, while more experienced salespeople may continue relying on traditional methods. “SDRs may have less outreach over the phone and more through text/video on socials/email,” he adds, highlighting a potential shift in communication channels driven by automation.

2. Smarter, personalized automation tailored to reps’ needs

Céciline Stadelmann, Sales Enablement Manager at 360Learning, predicts that automation will become more intelligent and adaptable to individual salespeople’s workflows. 

"Automation will get smarter and more adapted to salespeople’s way of working. AI helps not only automating for everyone, but in a personalized way."

In the future, automation won’t just be about efficiency; it will be about maximizing impact. 

This shift will empower sales teams to harness automation in ways that align with their personal selling style and business needs, making it a tool for strategic growth.

3. Automation will elevate sales enablement to a strategic level

Stephanie White, Senior Director of Sales Enablement at Medallia, envisions a future where automation frees up salespeople’s time to focus on strategic, high-impact tasks. 

"Automation of the most repetitive tasks with technology, means elevation of the most important programs with people. Hours saved kicking off workflows, request intakes, automatically assign and evaluate training efforts through AI role play (and so much more), means less hours wasted - more hours elevated.”

By automating workflows, request intakes, training evaluations, and more, automation can save hours, allowing sales teams to invest their time in human-centric tasks that drive real value.

Stephanie also sees this shift in automation as a key factor in elevating sales enablement’s role within organizations. By leveraging automation, organizations can streamline processes and focus their human resources on creativity, relationship building, and high-level strategy—ultimately positioning sales enablement as a critical function in driving revenue and organizational growth.

All in all, experts agree that the future of sales automation will be shaped by smarter, more personalized tools that free up sales teams to focus on what really matters—building relationships, making informed decisions, and working strategically. While automation will handle the repetitive and time-consuming tasks, human skills will continue to be at the heart of successful sales efforts, ensuring that the human touch remains a vital component of the sales process.

What advice would you give to companies looking to future-proof their sales enablement strategies with new technologies?

As sales teams increasingly rely on technology to drive results, future-proofing sales enablement strategies with new tools and automation requires a thoughtful approach. Here’s the expert advice on how to make that happen.

Nick Lawrence, Global Sales Enablement Manager at Databricks advises companies to shift their focus from competencies to competence. 

According to Nick, competencies can be unpredictable and are always evolving. On the other hand, competence focuses on the concrete outputs and accomplishments required to meet business goals, and these criteria change far less frequently. 

"Enablement teams can future-proof their strategies by focusing on and anchoring their interventions to whatever defines competence at their organization." 

This approach helps organizations build more stable and predictive enablement frameworks.

Trifon Tsvetkov, Sales Enablement & RevOps at InsCipher, emphasizes the importance of relevancy in outreach. Traditional methods like personalized emails, calls, and ads can often fall short, he notes:

"What does move the needle is relevancy—even if you execute everything perfectly, you're still likely to get ignored if your message isn't relevant right now."

To overcome this, Trifon advises companies to focus on uncovering relevancy signals—signs that a prospect is experiencing a problem your product can solve. 

Automation plays a crucial role here, particularly in data collection. Tools like Clearbit, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Apollo can help generate fresh data on prospects, enabling sales teams to identify anchor points for outreach. "You will soon cultivate a steady stream of conversations with interested prospects and have a mechanism to control workload for yourself or your team," he adds.

Kimberly Pencille Collins, VP, Strategy + Enablement at #samsales Consulting, warns against over-prioritizing internal efficiency at the expense of the buyer experience. While automation and technology can streamline processes internally, she highlights the importance of ensuring that these advancements enhance, rather than detract from, the sales team’s ability to connect with buyers.

The goal should be to create a seamless experience where technology supports the human element, allowing for more meaningful and relevant interactions with customers.

The key takeaway here? Future-proofing sales enablement isn’t just about adopting the latest tools — it’s about ensuring those tools enhance competence, relevancy, and the buyer experience. By focusing on these core elements, companies can build a solid foundation for sustainable success in an evolving sales landscape.

Next steps

To truly future-proof your sales enablement strategy, automation needs to go beyond just saving time — it should drive meaningful impact. That’s where Flowla AutoPilot comes in. 

With our latest feature, you can handle timely and accurate project execution, follow up with clients seamlessly, sync everything effortlessly to your CRM, and even receive weekly AI-generated summaries to keep your team on track. Flowla AutoPilot does the heavy lifting, so your sales team can focus on building relationships and closing more deals.

Ready to see the future of sales automation in action? Try Flowla AutoPilot today and watch your productivity soar.