Success in the online marketplace isn’t always about bringing in the most revenue possible, but rather, minimizing financial waste. Money that is spent foolishly on services and analytics that do not give your company a competitive advantage are a tremendous source of waste. Your sales process management team is the tip of the spear as your company looks to maximize profits from online activities. If you take the time to explain money-saving tactics to your sales process team, you can boost your profits.
Cutting Down the Hidden Costs
Many companies rely on a crack staff of sales specialists that excel at closing deals and sweeping clients off their feet. How much time do those specialists actually spend working with your clients to close a deal? A CMO Council study found that almost 40% of a sales reps’ day is spent on activities other than interacting with clients and closing deals. These activities include the creation of presentations, customization of messages, and the preparation of pitches.
Time that your specialists spend doing things other than interacting with your customers can be considered a waste of money. These individuals are paid for their prowess as sales specialists, not for their ability to put together a Power Point presentation or write specialized messages. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there are four ways you can use CRM and other tactics to cut down hidden costs in your business:
1. Embrace Automation
The best thing you can give your sales staff are the advanced tools required to boost their productivity, cut costs, and increase profits. CRM software programs can help your salespeople grow the company’s customer database, target high-value leads, and better manage the overall interaction between the business and customers.
2. Link Marketing and Sales
Your family unit doesn’t coexist smoothly when mom and dad nurture children with opposing styles, or when one child receives more attention than the other. Your business should operate as smoothly as a family. Sales and marketing teams need to do a better job of working together to foster and nurture client leads. When effective marketing methods are used, the leads that salespeople receive are more likely to be converted to sales. Profits can jump and expenses shrink when both sides work together.
3. Avoid Traditional Processes
Customers do not look for products, services, and businesses the way they once did. So why should your business identify customers through the traditional methods that once worked? Consumers are more informed today and aware of the tricks or “lines” salespeople will use. Your business needs to adjust and provide the sales team with the skills and approach necessary to avoid wasting their time or the customers.
4. Never Give Up on Analytics
PREACT is one of a number of companies that offers dynamic CRM software solutions that can help your company accurately analyze all the data related to expenses and your customer relationships. Quality CRM software in the hands of your sales team can help it improve its understanding of metrics that are worth watching, and which ones should be ignored.
Changing the Company Culture
The other prong in your sales process management approach is a change of culture. Entrepreneur Magazine points out how changes in the sales model and other processes can help your business increase its profit margins. The first idea put forth is to change the current sales model. Many companies sell their products and services to clients based upon the technical specs. While this has its benefits, it comes across as cold and mechanical.
Shifting the sales focus to highlight the value of a product or service to the client’s business is more effective. When you can show a client how a product delivers value or boosts productivity (for example), you create better engagement with them. Additionally, the process of meeting with a client becomes warmer and the potential for a long-term relationship increases.
In other circumstances, a simple rearrangement of the company can help reduce expenses and boost profits. Sometimes the right people are employed by a company, but utilized in the wrong positions. Take the time to look for team members already in house that have the right mindset and skills for sales and ensure they have prominent roles in the sales team. If someone is in sales but does better with analytics, move them into a position where they don’t interact with customers as much, but can combine their knowledge of customers and data to improve sales tactics.
Lastly, don’t ask too much of your individual employees. Shrink the territories of sales professionals and provide them with tasks that are reasonable in size and scope. Removing the burden of a large sales area can boost productivity and efficiency, allowing individual sales professionals to bring in more clients and increase profits.