Every industry is competitive. If you happen to be in a new industry with little competition, get ready. The competition will come soon enough! As an early entrant in the market you may well have the benefit of recognition, but you will have to work hard to keep that reputation.
The professional services industry is particularly competitive these days. The barrier to entry is so minimal that anyone can call themselves a consultant and start working. Large firms compete with smaller firms with low or no overhead. Small firms compete with larger firms who have larger marketing budgets and greater market influence.
When a lot of competition exists, products and services become a commodity and commodities are sold on price. This is very challenging for professional service firms who are providing valuable services to clients and yet are forced to compete on price. As a result, many firms lower their standard rates or quickly offer discounts in order to secure the client project.
How can we maintain or even increase our rates in a competitive market?
The leaders of successful companies today know that managing the customer relationship process is a key factor to the growth of their business. Reducing the cost of marketing and sales while improving its effectiveness drives sales growth and firm profitability.
To accomplish this, automating the sales process is critical. It not only reduces costs by making sales teams more productive, it increases revenue by ensuring that all potential sales opportunities are fully managed to completion.
Why Should I Automate My Sales Process?
In our previous article we discussed some of the benefits of sales automation which include:
- It provides sales managers with a complete view of the sales opportunities in the organization allowing them to better plan and manage the sales operation
- The sales team has all prospect and customer related data in one place providing higher productivity and better close percentages
- Qualified sales leads stay in the sales cycle until they are properly dispatched as either won, lost, or nurture which reduces lead fallout and improves sales revenue
10 Critical Sales Functions to Automate
So what functions of the sales process should you automate? Here we discuss the 10 most critical areas to focus on:
Today’s leaders know that the relationships they have with their customers will drive the growth of their business. This relationship begins at the very first point of contact with the customer when they are a prospect who is just introduced to the firm. Sales force automation maximizes your customer relationships right from the start.
This relationship is made stronger by establishing an efficient and definitive sales process that provides the ability to pay attention to the customer’s needs. Your goal in the sales cycle is to move the prospect from a lead to a customer while the customer’s goal is to determine if doing business with you is right for them. Aligning these goals will result in a win for both you and the customer.
Why Should I Automate My Sales Process?
Sales force automation allows you to respond quicker to your customer, provide them with the information they need to make a buying decision, and then service them better after they become a customer. While there are many reasons to automate your sales process, here are three primary ones that everyone should consider.
The easiest and fastest way to instantly transform your business results is to change the strategy you follow. ~ Jay Abraham
Small business owners very often take exception to giving titles to employees. They don’t see the value in it. Since the firm cannot afford to hire multiple people for different jobs and each job many not require a full time person anyway, everyone must wear many hats. So how can we assign a title to anybody? It seems pointless.
Unfortunately, everyone wants a title. So the owner gives a very high title like Chief Marketing Officer or Chief Technology Officer. That way they cover all the related responsibilities in the employee’s area of focus. It feels better to the employee (he has an important title) and it gives the outside world an impression that the firm is bigger than it is.
The problem with this approach is that the structure of the organization is actually being undermined and there is no plan for the future growth of the firm. How do you know if an employee is really qualified to be a Chief Whatever Officer? What happens when you do grow and need to put a real senior manager in place and need to “demote” the employee by putting someone above him? It creates all kinds of employee and culture challenges.
Practice Good Business Practices
When investors and buyers look at your business they will ask for forward looking financial statements. The future profitability and growth prospects of your business have a direct impact on its value.
If you have a historically proven process for creating forecasts and a method for achieving them you can more appropriately justify your projections. This will hold more weight in the eyes of the buyer.
If you don’t have a forecasting and planning process in place the buyer will create his own based on his knowledge of your industry and his fears related to his lack of knowledge of your business. This will most certainly be more conservative than your projection and, as a result, will negatively impact value.
Business exit planning is a form of strategic planning. Just as you would plan business growth and the structure of your business that supports that growth, exit planning provides a look at the end game so that you have a clear direction as to where you are headed and by when.
Running a business means dealing with and planning for the prevention of many different issues on a regular basis. Exit planning deals with these same issues, but takes a longer view point. The objectives of the exit plan are to address these issues:
I’d like you to write down on a piece of paper the number of years from now that you would like to retire. Now, if you’re a business owner, think about what your company will look like at that time. How big will it be? How much in sales will it have? What will its profits be? How much does it need to be worth in order for you to retire in the style of living you want?
And lastly, what is your plan to create the business you just imagined and can you do it in the number of years you wrote down on that paper?
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is that they don’t create a strategy to exit their business at the time they start their business and then never get around to creating one at all.
Why is it so important to have a business exit strategy? Let me illustrate with a quick story.
Implement an achievable plan. The future growth prospects of your business have a direct impact on its value. ~Martin Begley
