Process Mapping With ClearWork

Sales Transformation - Optimizing Sales Operations: Addressing Traditional Process Inefficiencies with Automated Process Discovery and AI Solutions

Avery Brooks
June 15, 2025

The Challenge: Hidden Bottlenecks Are Slowing Your Sales Team Down

Today’s sales environment is more complex and demanding than ever. Buyers are informed, empowered, and expect a seamless, value-driven experience at every interaction. But too often, sales teams are held back by outdated processes, manual tasks, and disconnected tools.

📉 60% or more of sales reps’ time is spent on non-selling activities — admin work, prospect research, data entry.
📉 Pipelines are clogged with poorly qualified leads, wasting time and lowering win rates.
📉 Sales cycles stretch out, forecasting becomes unreliable, and revenue becomes harder to predict.

These aren’t just operational issues — they’re growth blockers that limit your ability to scale and compete.

The Solution: Automated Process Discovery (APD) & Transformation Planning

What is Automated Process Discovery?

Automated Process Discovery (APD) is the essential first step to understanding what’s really happening in your sales operations. It uses advanced technology to track, map, and visualize how work gets done in reality — not how people think it happens.

Rather than relying on assumptions, interviews, or static process maps, APD provides an objective, data-driven view of your actual workflows, highlighting:
✅ Hidden bottlenecks and delays in your sales cycle
✅ Manual steps and “shadow processes” that waste time
✅ Rework, duplicated efforts, and compliance risks
✅ Variations in how different reps approach the same tasks

How Automated Process Discovery Diagnoses Sales Bottlenecks

APD surfaces the inefficiencies that hurt your performance:

  • Manual admin tasks (e.g., duplicate data entry between CRM and CPQ) that drain productivity
  • Delays in lead qualification where reps waste effort on unqualified prospects
  • Inconsistent use of CRM or CPQ tools leading to poor data quality and reporting gaps
  • Handoffs between sales, marketing, and product that break down, causing deals to stall

💡 Example: APD might reveal that reps spend excessive time manually transferring pricing info from CPQ to proposals — a task ripe for automation or better tool integration.

With this data, sales leaders can see the root causes of long sales cycles, low win rates, and unpredictable revenue, enabling precise, high-impact interventions.

From Diagnosis to Action: Automated Process as the Foundation for Transformation

Once you have this clear, unbiased view of your current sales processes, you can make smart, targeted decisions about how to improve — whether you’re implementing new technology or optimizing what you already have.

1️⃣ If You’re Implementing New Technology (CRM, CPQ, etc.)

APD provides the fact base for transformation planning. Instead of designing your future state on assumptions:

✅ ClearWork automatically builds requirements based on actual user behavior and workflow needs
✅ You identify where tools like CRM or CPQ need to fit — not where you hope they will
✅ You ensure that automations and integrations target the real pain points
✅ You reduce risk of rework and increase alignment across sales, marketing, and operations

💡 Result: A smoother rollout, faster time to value, and technology that truly supports how your team sells.

2️⃣ If You’re Driving Continuous Improvement Without New Tech

APD highlights where you can tune and streamline existing processes for immediate gains:

✅ Remove unnecessary manual steps
✅ Tighten handoffs and communication between teams
✅ Standardize best practices across reps
✅ Prioritize automation opportunities where they’ll have the biggest impact

💡 Result: Shorter sales cycles, better win rates, and improved morale — without a major technology investment.

Driving End-User Adoption: How Our AI Co-Pilot Empowers Your Team

Even the best-designed processes and tools won’t deliver results if your people don’t adopt them. That’s why ClearWork pairs APD with our AI Co-Pilot to drive real change where it counts — in daily work.

How It Works

🧠 Contextual, in-browser guidance: The Co-Pilot helps reps navigate tasks in real time — within the systems they already use (CRM, CPQ, proposal tools).

📊 Grounded in process data: The guidance is tailored to your actual workflows — not generic tips. It helps users follow best practices that match how your business works.

🚀 Reduces friction, speeds adoption: When reps hit friction points (e.g., configuring a complex quote, logging deal details correctly), the Co-Pilot helps them through it — no need to guess or go looking for help.

The Result

✅ Faster adoption of new tools and processes
✅ Higher data quality because reps enter the right info at the right time
✅ Reduced reliance on after-the-fact training or helpdesk support
✅ A more confident, productive sales force

The Path to Sustainable Growth

💡 Why this matters:
When you combine APD-driven insights, smart transformation planning, and embedded user enablement, you create a sales organization that is:

  • More efficient
  • More predictable
  • More scalable

Read through the 5-step Sales Transformation use case to see how the use of an automated process discovery tool like ClearWork removes barriers, safeguards transformation, and provides better results.

Your team spends less time on manual admin, more time closing deals — and your growth becomes sustainable, not sporadic.

Ready to Get Started?

👉 Request a demo of ClearWork to see how APD and our AI Co-Pilot can help your sales team unlock its full potential.

👉 Let’s build a roadmap that fits your reality — and helps your team win more, faster.

image of team collaborating on a project

Transform Your Sales Processes And Continue To Drive Revenue Growth

Sales transformation isn't just about refining your value prop and go to market - it's about how to remove all barriers, internal and external so your team can focus on driving additional revenue. Let's chat to see how we can help you unearth your bottlenecks and drive continuous improvement.

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