If you have ever lead a dedicated, professional sales team then you’ll know that sales people are focused predominately on one thing… Sales! You’ll also know that as hunters, sales professionals can leave behind a lot of collateral damage in their wake and are notorious for not completing paperwork or sales processes.

But, you’ve employed them to do what they do best and that is to sell and often when you look at your process you have to ask the question is all that paperwork necessary? In some cases yes and in others the answer could be, well maybe not… One thing that does make sense is to look at your sales process, in fact; look at all of your processes and ask yourself the question. How much of this can be automated?

You may have heard me say before that in today’s business environment it is no longer a question of big vs small, but of fast vs slow. Workflow automation linked to a CRM system can greatly increase productivity and efficiency within your organisation. A direct spin off of this level of automation is that it also provides the business with a KPI measurement tool.

Workflow automation is the breaking down your internal processes (a typical road to sale) into their major components and sub-components along with their assigned areas of responsibilities. Including any way-points, bench-marks or tasks that are mandatory before progressing to the next step. A simple example for a telesales operator would be:

Step 1 – Read and understand sales brief for current call assignment

Step 2 – Capture leads from database and load into CRM

Step 3 – Make X number of calls per hour noting call detail

Obviously an over simplified example but I’m sure you get the point. Within each step could be a number of sub-steps or check points. This teaches users to go with the process and because workflow automation is a push button type system it also means less chasing up for paperwork etc because if done well the CRM will automatically load the next step for the user. You can use a workflow to produce a check list of items, a stepped “road to sale” workflow, a task driven process (e.g. engineering or manufacturing process) and much more.

By automating the workflow process, training cycles become shorter, the learning curve is generally not as steep and staff become more productive. Did you realise that staff on average work at less than 50% of their productivity potential… Actually it’s way less than 50% but I really don’t want to give you an aneurism when you work out what that would equate to in lost earnings.

Workflow automation when integrated with a CRM has many benefits for both the business and its staff. A well designed workflow increases productivity, reduces time wastage and increases profit potential.

Check out how Live CRM’s workflow automation tool can help you achieve more for less effort.

In today’s market, referral and word of mouth mean more than slick adverting campaigns and promotional gimmicks. And although we are not advocating that you stop your marketing efforts, we are saying that it makes great sense and logic to reinvest in that one area of your business that has perhaps gone untapped for some time – Your past customers.

It may surprise you just how many businesses never go back to their past customers with offers and promotions. Bizarre when you stop to consider how much you spent to acquire these customers to begin with.

An essential tool in managing your current customer base is a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System. A good CRM allows you to do far more than just store contact information and customer notes, it will allow you to manage sales campaigns whether they be part of your acquisition marketing strategy or your re-engagement strategy.

Once you have secured a customer you need to develop a long-term strategy to re-engage with them. This requires that you take off your ‘drive instant revenue’ hat and put on the ‘how to add value to my customers’ hat. Remember that your customers brought from you for a reason, now turn that reason into a compelling proposition for them to continue purchasing from you.

A good CRM can help you in this process by integration with your POS system – customer purchase histories can be stored and used for specific campaigns directed at adding value to that specific customer. Oh’ but what about privacy I hear you say… Let’s get real about that issue, if you are using the information you have gained responsibly you have nothing to worry about. I know that I would rather get offers for things I am specifically interested in than the copious amount of junk mail both electronic and paper based that I currently receive.

In line with email marketing you can always give your customer the option to opt out and in sending personalised standard mail you can also give them the same option.

By tying together your marketing efforts with a CRM application you are able to collect vital information that will help your business to not only focus your marketing even further but at the same time streamline your sales processes. Make customer interaction with your business that much easier to manage because each customer’s history is in one place. This gives you the capability to offer superior customer service. This is essential in service based industries where centralisation of information is now critical.

I recently had cause to contact a particular service provider on what I thought would be a straight forward matter… after explaining my situation repeatedly and being transferred through a number of departments, my straight forward matter turned into a half day marathon… why? Because my records were spread over 4 separate systems… 4!! They no longer have my business.

That’s the thing we need to realise, with today’s technology integration with a central CRM can help your business to perform at more productive levels. Oh… and in many cases the cost is not as blotted as it was just a few years ago.

Web2.0 technology especially is having a major impact on business applications that can be accessed via the internet making it much easier for companies to integrate systems and access live business intelligence without the need for it to be exported from segmented systems, recompiled in an Excel spreadsheet then analysed and turned into a report that’s already now out of date. After which you discover that the competition jumped in ahead of you with slick visualisations and current data.

This is the power of CRM as a central component of business, giving you the tools to manage both new and existing customers on their terms, which allows you to maintain lasting relationships. Through integration of data sources your business is able to draw live measurement data for use either operationally or within the sales cycles.

The next few years are going to be tough; it’s my belief that the businesses that implement streamlining technologies and build strong customer relationships will be winners. Moreover I think they will be the blue chip companies of a very different looking commercial landscape as this financial winter turns into spring.