It could be surprising to know, but there are actually businesses that don’t make use of any automated tools to handle the different processes of their enterprise. For them, they can be costly and may be difficult or complicated to handle. What’s more, they have to invest in training their sales agents on how to use them.
If this is your manner of thinking, it’s time to for you to correct that. One of the foremost reasons why you may have to use these marketing automation systems—such as CRM solutions, as well as sales force and workflow management applications—is because they can help in organizing the processes of your business. They can also introduce consistency in all levels. Most of all, they can help sales agents save time. Thus, they can focus more of their efforts not on record keeping, sales reporting, or invoicing, but on closing deals and finding more customers for your business.
The Benefits of Having a Centralized System for all Front-end Sales Data
1. You can have the information on-demand. You can access all your much-needed information, perhaps the different touch points of your leads, whenever you want to. A lot of these systems today are now web-based; so wherever you are in the world, as long as you have Internet connection, you can get hold of the information that you need. You can even synchronize your marketing automation tools with your mobile phone and your Microsoft Outlook calendar, for example.
2. Information will be more accurate. What happens if you have different systems handling a wide variety of information? There will be a time when these data will overlap. Worse, it will be very difficult for you to determine which of this information are already outdated and which ones are constantly updated. With a more centralized system, there will only be one database that will be constantly updated. You can minimize having two entries of names. You will also get an idea which of the customers may have already been billed and which ones have already paid.
3. There’s more effective workflow management. Workflow management refers to the process of passing documents from one machine to another, or from one person to another. When you have just one system to think of, you can easily spot where the possible errors may have occurred. What’s more, you can eliminate processes that are no longer necessary. You can also make your sales agents more accountable to their actions and performance since you can already make their responsibilities very clear. The process from lead generation to processing of orders will be shortened. Anyone can also monitor the processes involved. The data that can be generated from this workflow management can be utilized to evaluate the performance of sales agents.
However, any business should learn to pair this centralized automated solution with excellent customer service skills. When your sales agents are pleasant, can entertain your customers’ questions and objections, and can provide the right kind of service, they will be happy to come back for more.
