This is like many other questions for small and mid-market businesses; when is the "right" time to automate something such as CRM Sales Automation. For Sales automation the answer usually is when one or more of these problems are causing the business to lose sales.
Sales leads are not being followed up properly or at all.Marketing efforts surface a lead, a trade show lead, and sales does not know about it.Sales managers do not and cannot see what the sales funnel has in it, both in unit and dollar projections.A new sales person is hired. No one can find the leads or opportunities that we being worked by the previous sales person.In each case, the company is reliant on local, mostly no shared information in the sales process. Tools deployed are usually low tech, such as Excel spreadsheets, informal notes and personal organizers. These have common traits: a) they cannot be easily shared and updated at the same time, b) data from the company cannot directly flow into these c) the quality of information varies by each person. CRM Sales Automation systems can avoid all these while giving the organization a coordinated view of the sales process. These sales automation processes for the most past so not hinder individual sales people to sel l in the manner they desire. Using a sales automation system can for the company boost revenue, increase profits, retain customers and increase the close ratio of prospects to closed sales.
Typical Sales Automation FeaturesSales Automation gives you the power to close more sales, forecast more accurately, make your sales force more productive, and leverage cross-sell/up-sell opportunities. This help sales management know where to focus and will result in clear, immediate visibility to the sales pipeline.
Capture and assign Sales LeadsThis can be done automatically in most cases with leads coming from multiple company resources: web site, trade shows, marketing campaigns, from referrals, etc. Leads are uploaded into the CRM system many times with leads assigned automatically, based on configurable territory rules. The key is not to lose the lead, capture at point of interest and flow it into the Sales Automation system.
Capture all communications to the leadOnce a lead is captured in the system, every communication to that lead and additional notes are captured. This provides a chronological series of communications between the company and the lead.
A complete Customer viewSales automation is not just for new customers but for existing customers that present you with new opportunities. All account information - address, contacts, notes, activities, quotes, plus, POs/Invoices are typically available in one place for easy reference. Your sales reps can access the complete account history without going to multiple sources.
Better forecasting & Opportunity managementAs sales reps enter in opportunity dollars and likelihood, the sales funnel becomes easier to view and understand. Projections for new customers, revenue, average opportunity size can be easily generated. This help sales management to react to situations faster so that an opportunity is not lost. Additionally this help management understand who and why sales performance in each area of the business.
Better communications between company groupsA good sales automation system will enable different organizations within the company to help in communications between these groups, have sales data readily available for other types of analysis (would it not be great if production could get a sense of product volume being sold.)
Sales Automation systems are not expensiveToday there are products for sales automation that match all budgets and needs. From open source products that only cost to implement, to hosted CRM products where you are paying a monthly charge to full large installations of complex software, one of these will fit your needs and budget. Plus when you factor in the cost of lost sales, lost revenue there is no question that these products will pay off your investment.
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