Unless you're managing a well-established monopoly company, to succeed in the 21st-century, selling is not an easy task. First, you have to recruit qualified individuals. After assembling an effective sales team, you might have to train them in areas where knowledge is lacking. Once done, the next step is to set realistic targets. All the above is easy when you have the right sales tools or technology to help your staff meet their targets and even outperform competitors. That's said, here are three sales tools you can't go without in today's business world.
The Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) sales software is not a new solution in the business world. However, recent innovation has optimized the software to help companies improve their sales processes. A CPQ tool can potentially help companies generate quotes quickly when customers make orders.
All quotes generated with CPQ software are usually automated. So you can rest knowing that the pricing is error-free. What's more, the software will account for preprogrammed instructions such as quantities, customers' desire to customize, existing discounts you're offering, etc.
No doubt, software like this can also help to ease administrative tasks associated with sales. Research shows that only about 35% of sales reps working time is spent on selling. The remaining more significant 65% of their time goes to non-selling activities like quote-generating, initiating proposition, and gaining customers' approval. Therefore, with a perfectly implemented enterprise CPQ solution, your sales team can achieve a faster turnaround time with quote generation and sales approval.
Perhaps, you're not sure if you need CPQ software? If so, to help you understand, here are a few questions to ask yourself about your sales process;
Is your sales process altogether slow?
Is your team still using legacy quote configurations?
Is the growth of revenue outpacing your operating ability and efficiency?
Are your prospects receiving incorrect sales quotes from your team?
Do you have a dedicated salesperson to review all your company's sales quotes manually?
If you answered yes to most of these, you likely need a good CPQ solution.
Customer relationship management software (CRM) helps to manage the relationship between your business and customers. With CRM, you'll easily keep track of your existing customers, improve customer experience and retention, and of course, enhance relationships. For most companies that understand how important customer relationship management is, obtaining CRM software is usually the first investment stop.
Thanks to the advancement in technology, the sales process of many businesses have been optimized to deliver more. Additionally, many of today's CRM software now function on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. If you want to adopt CRM, the good thing is that you'll have instant access to your customer data as and when you want.
Remember, you have to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of your country when managing customer data. If your sales setup happens to include a contact center operation, you'll do well to protect your contact center by adopting software that's compliant with GDPR. Also, note that the larger your sales team/ users, the more fees you have to pay with such a service.
The truth is, time is money. No one wants to waste time crawling the web for information. We also don't want to spend time trying to understand our customer's needs. This is when sales intelligence and artificial intelligence come in. Sales intelligence involves using software and data collection to improve lead generation. You can quickly find out what customers are searching for online, their interests, and what social media platforms they use the most.
1. CPQ Software
All quotes generated with CPQ software are usually automated. So you can rest knowing that the pricing is error-free. What's more, the software will account for preprogrammed instructions such as quantities, customers' desire to customize, existing discounts you're offering, etc.
No doubt, software like this can also help to ease administrative tasks associated with sales. Research shows that only about 35% of sales reps working time is spent on selling. The remaining more significant 65% of their time goes to non-selling activities like quote-generating, initiating proposition, and gaining customers' approval. Therefore, with a perfectly implemented enterprise CPQ solution, your sales team can achieve a faster turnaround time with quote generation and sales approval.
Perhaps, you're not sure if you need CPQ software? If so, to help you understand, here are a few questions to ask yourself about your sales process;
Is your sales process altogether slow?
Is your team still using legacy quote configurations?
Is the growth of revenue outpacing your operating ability and efficiency?
Are your prospects receiving incorrect sales quotes from your team?
Do you have a dedicated salesperson to review all your company's sales quotes manually?
If you answered yes to most of these, you likely need a good CPQ solution.
2. CRM Software
Thanks to the advancement in technology, the sales process of many businesses have been optimized to deliver more. Additionally, many of today's CRM software now function on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. If you want to adopt CRM, the good thing is that you'll have instant access to your customer data as and when you want.
Remember, you have to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of your country when managing customer data. If your sales setup happens to include a contact center operation, you'll do well to protect your contact center by adopting software that's compliant with GDPR. Also, note that the larger your sales team/ users, the more fees you have to pay with such a service.
3. Sales Intelligence Software
