HappSales India

Automate Your Sales Process with CRM: A Comprehensive Guide

In the fast-paced world of sales, efficiency is key. Sales automation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are powerful tools that can streamline your sales process, improve productivity, and boost revenue. In this guide, we’ll explore what sales automation CRM is, its benefits, and how you can implement it in your business.


What is Sales Automation CRM?


Sales automation CRM is a software solution that helps businesses automate their sales processes, from lead generation to closing deals. It combines customer relationship management (CRM) with automation tools to streamline tasks such as lead scoring, email marketing, and pipeline management. By automating these repetitive tasks, sales teams can focus more on building relationships with prospects and closing deals.


Benefits of Sales Automation CRM



Implementing Sales Automation CRM



Conclusion


Sales automation CRM is a powerful tool that can help businesses streamline their sales processes, improve efficiency, and boost revenue. By automating repetitive tasks, such as lead tracking and email marketing, sales teams can focus more on building relationships with prospects and closing deals. Implementing a sales automation CRM requires careful planning and consideration, but the benefits are well worth the effort. With the right CRM in place, your sales team can achieve new levels of success and drive your business forward.


Original Source: Sales Productivity

Revolutionizing Sales: The Power of Sales CRM Mobile Apps

In the fast-paced world of sales, where every minute counts, the ability to manage customer relationships efficiently can make all the difference. Sales CRM (Customer Relationship Management) mobile apps have emerged as indispensable tools for sales professionals, empowering them to streamline their processes, enhance productivity, and ultimately boost sales. Let’s delve into the world of sales CRM mobile apps and explore how they are revolutionizing the sales landscape.

What is a Sales CRM Mobile App?

A Sales CRM mobile app is a software application designed to help sales professionals manage customer relationships, track leads, and streamline the sales process from their mobile devices. These apps typically offer a range of features, including contact management, lead tracking, sales pipeline management, and reporting tools, all accessible from a smartphone or tablet.

Streamlining Customer Relationship Management

One of the key benefits of Sales CRM mobile apps is their ability to streamline customer relationship management. Sales professionals can easily access customer information, communication history, and purchase patterns on-the-go, enabling them to provide personalized service and build stronger relationships with customers.

Improved Lead Management

Sales CRM mobile apps also excel in lead management. Sales reps can capture leads directly from trade shows, meetings, or other interactions, and immediately input them into the app. The app can then track the progress of each lead through the sales pipeline, ensuring that no opportunity falls through the cracks.

Enhanced Sales Pipeline Visibility

Sales CRM mobile apps provide real-time visibility into the sales pipeline, allowing sales professionals to track the status of each deal and identify potential bottlenecks. This visibility enables sales managers to make informed decisions and allocate resources more effectively, ultimately leading to increased sales efficiency.

Increased Productivity

By providing sales professionals with access to key customer information and sales tools on their mobile devices, Sales CRM apps can significantly increase productivity. Sales reps can manage their tasks, schedule meetings, and send follow-up emails from anywhere, eliminating the need for time-consuming administrative tasks.

Reporting and Analytics

Sales CRM mobile apps offer robust reporting and analytics features, allowing sales professionals to track their performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. These insights can help sales teams optimize their strategies and focus their efforts on the most promising leads.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Sales CRM mobile apps are powerful tools that are revolutionizing the way sales professionals manage customer relationships and drive sales. By streamlining customer relationship management, improving lead management, providing enhanced sales pipeline visibility, increasing productivity, and offering robust reporting and analytics, these apps are empowering sales teams to achieve new levels of success. As the sales landscape continues to evolve, Sales CRM mobile apps will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping the future of sales.


Original Source: mobile crm app for sales


The Essential Guide to CRM Key Account Management

In today’s competitive business landscape, maintaining strong relationships with key accounts is essential for long-term success. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems play a crucial role in managing these key accounts efficiently and effectively. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of CRM Key Account Management (KAM) and how businesses can leverage CRM tools to strengthen their relationships with key clients.


What is Key Account Management?


Key Account Management (KAM) is a strategic approach to managing a company’s most important customer accounts. These key accounts typically contribute significantly to the company’s revenue and require a specialized approach to ensure their needs are met and their satisfaction is maintained. KAM focuses on building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with these key clients.


The Role of CRM in Key Account Management


CRM systems are essential tools for implementing and managing KAM strategies. These systems help businesses track and analyze customer interactions, manage customer data, and streamline communication with key accounts. Here are some key features of CRM systems that support KAM:


Centralized Customer Data: CRM systems store all customer information in one central location, making it easy for account managers to access and update customer records. This ensures that all team members have the latest information about key accounts.


Customized Communication: CRM systems allow businesses to personalize communication with key accounts based on their preferences and past interactions. This helps build stronger relationships and improves customer satisfaction.


Sales and Pipeline Management: CRM systems help track sales activities and pipeline progress for key accounts. This enables account managers to identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling and manage the sales process more effectively.


Task and Activity Tracking: CRM systems enable account managers to track tasks and activities related to key accounts, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. This helps improve efficiency and ensures that key account needs are addressed promptly.


Reporting and Analytics: CRM systems provide valuable insights into key account performance, allowing businesses to identify trends, track key metrics, and make data-driven decisions to improve KAM strategies.


Best Practices for CRM Key Account Management


To effectively manage key accounts using CRM systems, businesses should follow these best practices:


Segmentation: Segment key accounts based on their value and needs to tailor the KAM strategy accordingly.


Personalization: Use CRM data to personalize communication and offer customized solutions to key accounts.


Regular Communication: Maintain regular communication with key accounts to stay updated on their needs and address any issues promptly.


Collaboration: Encourage collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer service teams to ensure a coordinated approach to KAM.


Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and analyze KAM strategies using CRM data to identify areas for improvement and optimize performance.


Conclusion


CRM Key Account Management is a critical strategy for businesses looking to build and maintain strong relationships with their most important customers. By leveraging CRM systems to manage key accounts effectively, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, drive revenue growth, and gain a competitive edge in the market.


Original Source: key account management in crm 

What is B2B CRM | Best CRM for B2B to Move the Needle in 2024

What is B2B CRM software?

B2B refers to Business to Business and CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

A B2B CRM software involves systems, technology, processes and strategies to help B2B companies manage their relationship with both existing clients and potential prospects. The right B2B CRM enables you to enhance client relationships and grow your business profitably. It helps you increase your revenue, serve your clients better and improve customer retention. It is also referred to as a CRM for Key Account Management

B2B CRM vs B2C CRM – how is it different?


B2B companies and B2C companies represent two different types of business models with unique characteristics.   In the case of B2B, companies sell their products and services to other companies. While in B2C, companies sell their products and services directly to end-consumers.

A few key differentiators are:-

Sales cycle

B2B companies undergo longer sales cycles compared to B2C companies.

Business relationships

B2B sales involve long-term ongoing relationships. B2C sales are generally transactional and short-term.

Decision makers

B2B transactions involve many decision makers and stakeholders compared to  B2C transactions.

Quantity of leads and lead management time

The leads in B2C sales are generally more in number compared to B2B Sales. And the time spent on B2B leads is  higher compared to B2C leads.

Sales Stages

B2B sales processes involve multiple stages compared to B2C. In B2B, the prospect goes through multiple buying stages which is usually not seen in the case of B2C deals.

Sales methodology

B2B sales involves high-touch engagements and relationship-driven sales. Whereas B2C is more of brand-driven sales with low-touch engagements.

Pipeline management

B2B needs to have a very high level of focus on sales funnel and sales pipeline to drive predictability compared to B2C.

Average deal value

The average deal value in B2B Sales is much higher compared to B2C Sales. It can range from several thousands to millions of dollars depending on the industry, product or service and other factors.

Customer success and post sales operations

Retaining customers is very key and important in B2B sales. Happy customers can open up many up-sell and cross-sell opportunities which is very important in B2B transactions.Hence its important to provide excellent post sales operations.

Why do B2B companies need B2B CRM

Strategic Key Account Management

The main goal of Strategic Account Management is to understand and address the unique needs of your key customers in an efficient and holistic way. 360-degree account management improves customer satisfaction, more repeat sales, and better customer retention.   Implementing the right B2B CRM software for Key Account Management is imperative to manage all these aspects efficiently to grow your business profitably and consistently. 

Long complex sales cycles require comprehensive opportunity management

The process of identifying and managing opportunities is the most important aspect in a  B2B sales process. The entire sales process starting from lead management to deal closure is called opportunity management. A B2B CRM offers a centralized platform to organize and track meticulously the different stages of a deal. It serves as a linchpin for comprehensive opportunity management and improves overall effectiveness of the entire sales process.

Visibility into sales pipeline to run a predictable business

A structured sales pipeline management for better visibility into the pipeline is very important for a successful sales organization. It helps you to enhance your sales forecasting strategies that provide many benefits. A B2B CRM helps you to not only calculate the sales pipeline but also gives a clear visibility into the weighted sales pipeline. Calculating weighted sales pipeline is important for B2B companies as it also considers closure probability of the deals. You can read a detailed article here to understand the difference between total sales pipeline and weighted sales pipeline. Ultimately with a B2B CRM, you will be able to forecast your deal closures with better accuracy.

High costs associated with poor lead management process

Inefficient lead management can result in missing high-value leads, wasted resources, and decreased sales productivity.  A CRM acts as a pivotal tool for lead tracking and nurturing. It not only helps to plug these leakages but also optimizes operational efficiency. It acts as a powerful and cost-effective solution to elevate your sales process.  

Complex order management workflows

Order workflow management is a pivotal component of  a specialized B2B CRM software. It enables businesses to streamline and optimize their order processing stages.  B2B transactions are complex and involve multiple process owners. A seamless order workflow management within a B2B CRM ensures effective collaboration between different departments. It helps to automate routine tasks, reduce errors, and help to have real-time visibility into the order status. This facilitates better allocation of resources and efficient collaboration among different team members.

Long collection cycles require streamlined accounts receivable (AR) process

Efficient accounts receivable operations is very important to run a sustainable business. Many companies face challenges in reducing daily sales outstanding (DSO). A B2B CRM like HappSales has an integrated framework of accounts receivable within CRM system. This enables companies to reduce the DSO helping to stay top with your collections. This leads to healthier cash flow and improved working capital.

Need to automate post-sales service operations

Service teams are constantly under pressure to maximize their service visits and to improve customer satisfaction. It is necessary to document and track all service related information and activities for service compliance. A field service management software app empowers field service professionals with  FSM  software to automate end-to-end field service operations.

Customer success & retention is essential to maximize lifetime value

It is very important to keep our customers satisfied and happy. Happy customers can positively impact your business and increase your brand equity. Therefore you must measure customer satisfaction objectively. HappSales B2B CRM helps you to capture customer feedback at regular intervals and take necessary proactive steps to build customer loyalty.

Most essential features of B2B CRM software

360-degree Account Management

A very important feature of  B2B CRM software is to support deep account management and contact intelligence.  This information serves as a centralized repository providing you with the required information as and when needed. With a B2B CRM like HappSales, you will be able to effortlessly capture details of all stakeholders, company hierarchy, buying process, business plans, employee size, industry segment, sales history of your account etc.. This deep intelligence will always provide you with an edge over your competitors.

Sales Force Automation

Sales force automation (SFA) is an important part of a B2B CRM system.  It enhances sales efficiency and helps streamline the sales process required to foster effective customer engagement.

Comprehensive Lead Management

Many best-in-class organizations leverage the BANT framework to reduce sales cycles and enhance deal win-rates. When used well, it helps your sales reps to pursue the right deals and not go on a wild goose chase. Using effective lead qualification methodologies like BANT, your inside marketing team assigns only qualified leads to the sales team.  This will have a significant impact on your sales efficiency and deal conversion rates.Capturing leads, nurturing them, and scoring them using BANT lead qualification methodology enables you with better lead qualification and prioritization.

Opportunity & Pipeline Management

Opportunity management should follow the customer’s buying journey. The first and foremost task in opportunity management is to define opportunity stages from the time of identification of the opportunity till its closure.  HappSales B2B CRM recommends deal stages that are aligned with the client’s buying process suggested by sales guru Neil Rackham in his sales framework.

Opportunity management and Pipeline management goes hand-in-hand. Sales pipeline captures, measures and analyzes your sales opportunities and their corresponding sales stages. A B2B CRM like HappSales automatically calculates this for four consecutive quarters starting from the current quarter (CQ) and depicts the rolling four quarters pipeline. Using sales pipeline management effectively helps you to make data-driven decisions rather than just intuition and gut.

Document management

B2B transactions involve multiple documents like proposals, contracts, forms, etc. Document management within a B2B CRM ensures that documents are organized in a structured way, easily accessible, and stored securely.

Task management

Client engagements involve many types of tasks and activities to be executed on an everyday basis. Task management refers to the process of planning, monitoring and executing these activities diligently. Systematically organizing and prioritizing these activities will help your team to enhance their performance. It will enable them to meet their objectives without missing any deadlines.

Quotation Management

This is the systematic process of creating, managing, and sharing customer quotations. It is also referred to as proposal management. An efficient quotation management process within a B2B CRM system helps to streamline the company’s sales process helping them close more deals. Sales teams can generate accurate and timely quotes. It also enhances collaboration between sales and other departments by providing a transparent record of all quotations.

Service Management

Service management plays a crucial role in fostering customer satisfaction, loyalty and long term relationships. It helps to maintain all information about your customer installations and service contracts at one place. Service visit plans are well orchestrated and assigned based on priority.  This ensures that service team members will not miss scheduled activities. Easy scheduling and automated reminders of scheduled recurring jobs eliminate the risk of revenue leakage due to missed contracts or visits.

Accounts Receivable management

Automating accounts receivable within a B2B CRM helps to manage client payments as per the agreed payment terms. Accounts Receivable management helps to assign collection activities to respective team members to drive accountability, improve collections and reduce daily sales outstanding.

Reporting and Dashboards

Having intuitive dashboards within your B2B CRM software is of paramount importance. Real-time insights will help you to easily interpret and understand the trends in your business. You will be able to make informed and better decisions.

How to select the right B2B CRM for your business?

Deployment – Cloud vs On-premise CRM

In the case of on-premise CRM software, the required infrastructure, hardware, software and database applications are installed in the company’s data center within your premises. Whereas, cloud CRM software is hosted and managed in the cloud infrastructure.

You may read this article to understand more about the benefits of cloud CRM as compared to that of on-premise CRM software.

Need for Mobile CRM app

A  CRM project’s success hugely depends on how fast your team is able to adopt the application and how easy they find it to use. best mobile crm app make a huge difference to these aspects. You can read this detailed article on the advantages of a mobile CRM strategy.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Total-Cost-of-Ownership is an important criterion while choosing your B2B CRM. While calculating the TCO, it is necessary to take the sum total of all direct and indirect costs. It includes – the cost of B2B CRM software license cost, cost of implementation and training, cost of customization, infrastructure and hardware costs, cost for regular maintenance updates and upgrades, and all other other operating costs including manpower costs to manage the system.

Ease of Use

The CRM you choose should be easy to implement, configure, adopt, and use. Else, it can be a huge drain on your team’s productivity and efficiency. This is one such reason why clients love to use HappSales voice-enabled CRM with a digital assistant. It makes data entry effortless and seamless for your team members.

Scalability

While investing in a B2B CRM software, you should have a futuristic view of your business requirements. The CRM software must be scalable and adaptable to meet your future business needs. Scalability could be either in-terms of additional features and functionalities as well as the need for more users accessing the software. This could also have implications on the performance and response time of the CRM application.

Unlike in the case of on-premise CRM software, it is much easier to scale-up a SaaS CRM software that runs on cloud infrastructure. The elastic servers provided by cloud vendors like AWS and Azure can dynamically accommodate these requirements of scale-up and scale-down.

Integrations

You may use a wide variety of applications to run your business smoothly. It is important to choose a CRM software that can integrate with other softwares as and when required.

Implementation vendor and timeframe

It is suggested that you decide the implementation vendor along with the CRM software provider. You should discuss and evaluate the vendor’s expertise in this field, their industry experience and  track record. You should also discuss the cost of implementation, timelines and milestones.

Vendor Support

Another important factor that needs to be considered is to choose a vendor who offers excellent customer service and support. It is important that the vendor offers an extraordinary customer experience starting from implementation to ongoing support.

Change Management

Do not underestimate the aspects of change management when you are embarking on a new initiative. While selecting the right vendor, consider this parameter and thoroughly evaluate how the vendor can support you to navigate this.

Final words

In conclusion, understanding the significance of a B2B CRM is of paramount importance to the success of your business. A B2B CRM serves as a linchpin fostering seamless customer management for you to remain responsive and competitive in the B2B realm. The right B2B CRM software like HappSales can be a game-changer to unlock opportunities for growth, customer retention and data driven decision-making. The way ahead demands strategic usage of B2B CRMs if you want to move the needle in your business.


Original Source: What is B2B CRM | Best CRM for B2B to Move the Needle in 2024

Sales Pipeline Management A Detailed Guide To Grow Your Revenue

INTRODUCTION

As per a recent report by Harvard Business Review, companies with structured sales pipeline management process reported 28% higher revenue growth.

WHAT IS SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT?

Pipeline management in sales is a scientific way to capture, measure and analyze your sales opportunities and their corresponding sales stages. It allows you to make data-driven decisions rather than just intuition and gut. It is also commonly referred to as Funnel Management in sales. It is an integral part of any sales management process.

WHY IS SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT IMPERATIVE FOR STRATEGIC DECISIONS?

For your business to thrive, you will need to make many strategic decisions on a daily basis.

Decision making in sales is most effective when you have answers to questions like –

Efficient pipeline management will allow you to answer these difficult questions and make those critical decisions strategic to your business performance to stay ahead of your competition.

TOP 8 METRICS THAT YOU SHOULD MEASURE IN SALES PIPELINE

Sales Pipeline management should be effectively used to track and measure data points across following aspects of your business –

Number of opportunities pursued by your sales teams

As in any funnel, your inflow of opportunities at the top of the funnel has a direct bearing on the outflow. This inflow at top of the funnel is also referred to as Leads.

Every organization should have a strategy and process to maximize Leads through a lead generation or demand generation process.

One of the most fundamental metrics you need to measure is the number of opportunities that your team is pursuing.

Deal conversion rate

Once a lead is captured in your system, it is the responsibility of your sales team to qualify, mature and convert the opportunity into closure. This is referred to as the conversion rate or win-rate. A higher conversion rate implies more opportunity getting closed by your team.

This metric also gives you a good idea on the quality of leads that are assigned to your sales team.

Deal value of your opportunities

While your sales reps are pursuing many opportunities, it is a good idea to keep a watch on the average deal value across different customer types, segments, period and geographies.

Measuring this would help you identify specific trends to take appropriate decisions on prioritization. You will also be in a better position to replicate what is working and avoid what is not working for your teams.

Deal movement across pipeline stages

This is possibly the most critical aspect of pipeline management. This defines your team’s ability to progress the deals through the funnel towards closure.

To measure this effectively, you must define the different stages of the pipeline and communicate the same with your teams. I am covering below this topic in detail to arrive at the right pipeline stages for your organization.

Sales cycles or closure timelines

Sales cycle is the number of days it takes your team to convert (or win) a sales opportunity. It is also referred to as deal efficiency as shorter sales cycles mean better results in a shorter time.

Sales cycle could vary depending on your sales reps, solution, customer segment, deal value, customer relationship etc. Measuring this metric across these parameters can provide you valuable insights about your business.

There are many ways to achieve shorter sales cycles. These include better deal qualification, deeper client engagement, crafting compelling value propositions, providing incentives to customers for faster closure, etc

Sales Velocity

Sales velocity is the most powerful metric that business leaders should track to accurately measure business traction. It is numerically calculated based on following four variables or business levers:

You should measure this metric consistently every quarter. That will help you objectively analyze all the business levers to consistently improve sales velocity. It will also provide insights for you to stay ahead of your competition.

Rolling Four-Quarters Pipeline

Historical data about your deal size, conversion-rate, sales cycles etc. will give you an insight into the ideal pipeline that you should strive for. This is often referred to as a 3X or 4X pipeline depending on your industry or past trends. For e.g., your probability of achieving a target of 100 is very high only when you have a minimum pipeline of 300 (3X).

This measurement is effective only when you measure it quarter-on-quarter, ideally for consecutive four quarters including your current quarter (CQ). This is what is referred to as the “Rolling four-quarters pipeline” – CQ, CQ+1, CQ+2 and CQ+3.

When measured, this metric can help you answer following questions –

Weighted Pipeline

Weighted pipeline is calculated by considering the likelihood or probability of an opportunity conversion.

Weighted Pipeline is calculated as the weighted average of all your opportunities or deals (opportunity value x probability of deal closure)

The below illustration explains the difference between sales pipelines and weighted pipeline. Total sale pipeline for 10 deals is reflecting as 1300K in this case. However, the weighted pipeline after considering the individual deal probability is amounting to only 800K. This value is more realistic than a simple summation of the total sales funnel.

While arriving at an accurate sales forecast is very tricky in sales, a weighted pipeline is one of the ways to give you a realistic sales forecast. It is a good idea to compare this with the verbal forecast that you get from your sales team to come to an even better assessment.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT STAGES IN A SALES PIPELINE?

Stages in the sales pipeline are a set of step-by-step processes to be followed to win any opportunity or deal.

One of the most critical aspects to succeed in sales is to make sure that your sales process is aligned to the customer’s buying process. So you should consider the customer’s buying process in your industry while arriving at the right stages for your funnel. This forms the basis of a strong Sales Management Framework.

I like to refer to the buying cycle framework recommended by renowned sales consultants and authors – Neil Rackham and Mike Bosworth. As per this, a typical buying process of any customer involves 4 stages – (a) their identification of a latent need (b) analysis of their needs (c) their evaluation of possible solutions (d) their commitment to a specific solution to address the need

Based on the above, I recommend the following stages in a sales pipeline –

While you may consider adding additional stages to this, my personal view is to keep it very objective and easy to measure. These sales stages are well aligned with the customer’s buying process and it also considers your internal milestones.

Lead

Lead is also referred to as “cold prospect”. This stage is more of a placeholder to capture basic details of a prospect like their name, industry, contact details etc. It is an effective way to create a good target database. This database will be used by your sales and marketing teams for their outreach plans and campaigns.

At this stage, you may not have much details about the customer’s needs and priorities. However, as a best practice, it is a good idea to capture as many criteria of a good target customer. That way, you make sure that your campaigns and outreach plan is focused and the probability of conversion is maximized with minimum efforts.

You may want to categorize this further into –

As the name suggests, Warm Leads are slightly more mature than the Cold ones. In this case, companies expect the lead generation or demand generation team to further qualify the Lead before assigning it to the concerned sales rep.

Qualification

Once a Lead is identified and assigned to the sales rep, he or she is expected to qualify the Lead. The most popular framework used for lead qualification is the BANT leads management framework –

This is a very important part of pipeline management where the sales reps are expected to either qualify-in or qualify-out an opportunity.

A good rigorous methodology for lead qualification has the following benefits –

You will witness improvement in your team’s forecasting accuracy

Evaluation

In the Evaluation stage, your team is engaged with the customer on a regular basis helping the customer evaluate options to address their requirements.

Here are some of the activities usually part of this stage –

Negotiation

Once the opportunity matures, the next logical step is the Negotiation stage. This will constitute a detailed discussion with your customer on multiple parameters across –

During the negotiation stage, the objective of your team should be to closely engage with the customer to arrive at a win-win proposition. This is important for a successful long-term mutually rewarding partnership. 

Commit or Forecast

By this stage, your team will have a good assessment of your chances to win the opportunity. By now, the team should have addressed all the questions and concerns raised by the customer. They would also have a good view into the probability of deal closure.

If the probability of opportunity closure is very high, then the team could Commit the deal to the management. This also gets referred to as Sales Forecast.

Sales Forecasting is one of the most critical aspects of opportunity management. It helps organizations to predict their order flows and make necessary plans to fulfill the same. This could include planning across resources, procurement, production, cash-flow etc.

Closure

Closure is the last stage of the funnel. Every opportunity at the closure stage needs to get categorized as one of these –

8 ESSENTIAL BEST PRACTICES IN SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT

Let us now look at some of the best practices for effective pipeline management in sales.

Define sales stages

As discussed above, it is essential for you to define the right sales stages specific to your industry. You should then communicate the same to your sales teams. They should understand the implication and meaning of each of the stages so that they could accurately categorize their opportunities.

Consistent lead generation activities

Lead generation is an important aspect of pipeline management. It is critical for organizations to undertake many initiatives to maximize opportunities at the top of the funnel. Teams need to make consistent efforts quarter-on-quarter to make sure the pipeline does not go dry and has a constant flow of deals for a strong pipeline.

Most organizations, assign this responsibility to the marketing team. They are the ones who plan and execute demand generation activities across multiple channels.

Lead assignment and management

Having a structured process of lead assignment and management goes a long way.

It is essential to keep a close watch on this process to make sure the leads are acted upon within stipulated timelines. If not managed well, there is a possibility of leads slipping out and falling between the cracks weakening the overall pipeline.

Stringent Deal Qualification

It is prudent to have two levels of deal qualification.

An ideal scenario would be to get the marketing team to qualify the leads using proven frameworks like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe) etc. before assigning the same to sales teams. These are often referred to as Marketing-Qualified-Leads (MQL).

Once the leads get assigned, it is the responsibility of the sales team to qualify further and nurture the opportunity towards closure. Health of your pipeline heavily depends on the quality of deal qualification by the sales team. This is referred to as Sales-Qualified-Leads (SQL).

Deal qualification by the sales team is normally achieved by thorough understanding of customer’s needs, urgency, decision criteria and business drivers.

Deal Nurturing

An important aspect of pipeline management is your team’s ability to nurture and quickly progress the deals towards closure. This would vary according to the deal size and solution complexity.

It is always advisable to follow a structured process. The steps involved could range from – working through multiple stakeholders, detailed impact analysis, executing activities like presentations and demos, handling objections, sharing credentials to win client’s confidence, getting access to decision makers, analyzing compelling events etc.

Measure and track metrics

Peter Drucker had said that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. If you need to improve your pipeline metrics, you have to put in place a system to measure and track them regularly. This is why it helps to invest in to CRM software that makes this process very easy and efficient.

Discipline and hygiene in capturing data

This is where the concept of garbage-in-garbage-out (GIGO) becomes relevant. If you need to get relevant insights and intelligence, it is essential that your team captures and updates data periodically.

You will need to put in place a system that helps you to drive this discipline and hygiene among your teams. Easy-to-use intuitive mobile CRM software can play a significant role to achieve this objective. The right CRM tool can help you drive usage among your reps; that directly impacts the quality of information captured by them.

Your team’s endeavor should be to maintain up-to-date information relevant for tracking progress.

Periodic reviews

It is recommended that periodic weekly meetings are scheduled between sales and marketing teams to review pipeline progress. It helps to encourage collaboration and making sure the teams are on the same page always. This is often a neglected practice and can have immense impact on your business performance.

These meetings should be used as an opportunity to understand what works well and what the areas of improvement are. You could also review the status of leads, rate of qualification, deal movement etc. It is a good idea to also discuss your competitor activities and other market trends.

Moreover, you should also periodically analyze the status of dormant leads and inactive opportunities. Periodic updation and data cleanup will help you with a single-version-of-truth at all times.

7 MOST IMPORTANT BENEFITS OF PIPELINE MANAGEMENT

Effective pipeline management in sales offers a plethora of business benefits. Let us analyze some of them.

Improve Business Forecasting

Sales pipeline measurement brings in a lot of predictability in your business. If managed and measured well, you will have good visibility into the opportunities pursued by your team and their chances to win them. This will give you the ability to consistently forecast your business better.

Measure Sales Effectiveness

Funnel management is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your sales teams. You will have a good view of your team’s ability to create new opportunities, engage with customers, and convert deals.

You can also measure efficiency parameters and take the necessary steps to improve their productivity and effectiveness.

Deal Prioritization

It is important for your teams to prioritize their opportunities to get the maximum bang for the buck. With limited resources and time at our disposal, it is vital to pick your battles carefully.

Visibility into your sales pipelines would allow you to quickly assess and prioritize the top opportunities in-terms of opportunity value, stage of the deal, your ability to win, sales cycle and possible steps to deal closure.

If you fail to prioritize, the biggest risk you carry is to spread yourself too thin and end up with sub-optimal results.

Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Opportunities

When you measure and analyze your pipeline across solutions, it will enable you to identify and pursue cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. This in turn will help you to increase your wallet share and solution penetration with each of your customers.

Resource Optimization

A good assessment of your sales funnel would enable you to make intelligent decisions with respect to resource optimization and allocation.

This includes factors like the type of resources, their skill levels, amount of time you want them to invest, depth of engagement and activities etc.

Each of these factors has a direct bearing on your cost of sales and sales efficiency.

Planning for Effective Decisions

A consolidated and detailed view into your sales pipeline will enable you to effectively plan your business ahead and make strategic decisions. As popularly said, failing to plan is planning to fail!

If analyzed well, you can make effective plans and make decisions on –

Sales Hygiene & Compliance

Last but not the least, visibility into your pipeline health gives you a view into the hygiene and discipline followed by your teams to build a healthy pipeline. After all, effective execution and rigor by your teams play a significant role for business success.

ROLE OF CRM FOR EFFECTIVE SALES PIPELINE MANAGEMENT

Selecting the right CRM plays a vital role in effective pipeline management. The tool should allow your teams to easily create and update opportunities across –

Once this basic information is captured in your CRM, the system should help you track the metrics that we discussed.

The biggest challenge that you may face is that your teams may not capture and update these opportunity level details on a regular basis. That happens when they find the CRM tool very cumbersome and difficult to use; and they do not find personal value in using them. As per an analyst research, only 30% of actual information gets captured and updated in CRM.

To avoid this issue, business leaders should select a CRM software that is designed with your end-users in mind. In our experience, we have witnessed that the usage is highest when you select a CRM with a mobile-first strategy.

SUMMARY

Effective pipeline management goes a long way in driving successful predictable business. While sales is most often referred to as an art, pipeline management brings in the scientific aspect. The combination of this is what would help you achieve some method and discipline to the madness in sales management!

If measured, tracked and analyzed well, the seven metrics we discussed, specifically sales velocity, can provide significant competitive advantage for you to outperform competition.

We discussed that intelligent pipeline management offers a plethora of opportunities – both tactical and strategic. However, this is most efficient when you empower your sales reps with the right CRM tool that they will find easy to use and add value to their work. Our recommendation is to select a platform like HappSales; which is possibly the most comprehensive and affordable B2B CRM for Key Account Management that can help you drive frugal sales transformation. It also offers a free mobile CRM app with personal-assistant designed to help your teams easily execute their plans and make them effective.

You and your teams can then manage, measure and track the most critical metrics that matter for your business with ease.


Original Source: Sales Pipeline Management – A Detailed Guide To Grow Your Revenue


Enhancing Business Success with CRM Key Account Management



Introduction:


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has evolved into a strategic tool that goes beyond basic customer interactions. One of its pivotal components is Key Account Management (KAM), a specialized approach aimed at nurturing and maintaining strong relationships with the most valuable clients. In this article, we will delve into the significance of CRM Key Account Management and explore how it can be a game-changer for businesses in fostering long-term success.


Understanding Key Account Management:


Key Account Management is a targeted strategy that focuses on a select group of high-value clients who contribute significantly to a company’s revenue and overall success. These clients, often referred to as key accounts, are strategically important due to their size, profitability, and potential for growth. CRM systems play a crucial role in implementing and optimizing Key Account Management by providing a centralized platform for tracking, analyzing, and managing interactions with these key clients.


Benefits of CRM Key Account Management:


1. Customized Customer Experience: CRM systems enable businesses to collect and analyze vast amounts of data about their key accounts. This data can be leveraged to create personalized and targeted strategies, ensuring that key clients receive a tailored experience that meets their specific needs and preferences.


2. Effective Communication: Communication is the cornerstone of successful key account management in crm tools facilitate seamless communication by providing a centralized hub for all customer-related information. This ensures that all team members involved in managing key accounts have access to the latest information, fostering collaboration and avoiding communication gaps.


3. Strategic Planning and Analysis: With CRM, businesses can analyze key account data to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities. This data-driven approach helps in making informed decisions and formulating strategic plans to maximize the value derived from key accounts. It also aids in identifying areas for improvement and addressing potential challenges proactively.


4. Enhanced Customer Retention: Key Account Management, supported by CRM, goes beyond acquiring new customers. It focuses on building long-term relationships with existing high-value clients. By understanding their needs and consistently delivering value, businesses can enhance customer loyalty and reduce the risk of losing key accounts to competitors.


5. Cross-selling and Upselling Opportunities: CRM systems provide insights into the buying behavior and preferences of key accounts. This information can be utilized to identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities, helping businesses maximize revenue from their existing client base.


6. Efficient Resource Allocation: Not all customers contribute equally to a company’s success. CRM Key Account Management allows businesses to allocate resources strategically, ensuring that the most valuable clients receive the attention and resources they deserve.


Implementation of CRM Key Account Management:


Implementing CRM Key Account Management involves several key steps:


1. Identifying Key Accounts: Clearly define criteria for identifying key accounts based on factors such as revenue contribution, strategic importance, and growth potential.


2. Data Integration: Ensure that all relevant customer data is integrated into the CRM system. This includes transaction history, communication logs, and any other relevant information.


3. Collaborative Training: Train teams involved in key account management to use the CRM system collaboratively. Emphasize the importance of data accuracy and consistent communication.


4. Personalized Strategies: Develop personalized strategies for each key account based on the insights gained from CRM data. This may include customized marketing campaigns, exclusive offers, or dedicated support services.


5. Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment: Regularly monitor key account performance and adjust strategies as needed. CRM systems allow for real-time tracking, enabling teams to stay agile and responsive to changes in client needs or market conditions.


Conclusion:


In a competitive business landscape, cultivating strong relationships with key clients is essential for sustainable success. CRM Key Account Management empowers businesses to not only identify and prioritize their most valuable clients but also to strategically nurture and grow these relationships. By leveraging the capabilities of CRM systems, organizations can enhance customer experiences, drive revenue growth, and position themselves as trusted partners in the eyes of their key accounts. As businesses continue to recognize the importance of customer-centric strategies, CRM Key Account Management will undoubtedly remain a cornerstone of success in relationship-driven industries.


Original Source: Kam crm

Sales CRM for Activity & Task Management

What is Sales Activity Management? Why is it important?

There is a well-known quote that says “ Without execution, strategy is useless”. Execution is all about the activities and tasks executed to meet your goals and objectives.

Your sales team members perform different kinds of activities on a daily basis to meet their objectives and targets. It can involve tasks like making a phone call, visiting clients, sending proposals, doing demos, emailing, messaging, etc. Sales Activity Management refers to the sales process of planning, monitoring, and executing these sales activities and tasks.

It plays an integral part in execution excellence. Systematically organizing and prioritizing sales activities will help you to maximize your performance and achieve your sales goal. Automating key selling activities and tasks will enable your sales team members to follow up on the tasks without missing any deadlines. Meticulous planning and execution of sales activities will help you boost sales efficiency and productivity significantly.

Why do you need an effective sales activity management?

Easy scheduling of tasks & Activities


Managing different tasks and activities by sales teams is the foundation for a successful sales organization. Sales CRM is a keystone that helps you to achieve this objective without missing deadlines. Using a Sales CRM, you can easily schedule important appointments, next steps, and follow-ups. With a sales crm mobile app like HappSales, users can easily link every activity to a specific account, contact, or opportunity. This makes it very easy for them to quickly fetch, track and manage different activities performed under various sections.

Centralized activity repository


Logging in every activity into the Sales CRM serves as a historical and comprehensive record of all client engagements. It helps you in sales activity tracking of all client interactions and serves as a holistic view of your client’s journey. Analyzing this information will provide very important insights about your clients that can be leveraged to improve client relationships.

Timely reminders and alerts


You can use your Sales CRM app to set timely reminders and alerts for your key selling activities. That way you can be sure that no important tasks or follow-ups get missed. You will be able to execute all your tasks at the right time, thereby making sure that there are no missed opportunities. Setting these activity based alerts based on importance and priority will enable your team to always stay on top of their to-do lists.

Better prioritization and planning


A Sales CRM like HappSales helps you to prioritize your tasks based on its importance. This helps you to track and manage your tasks well enabling you to optimize your day for maximizing productivity.

Reporting and Analytics


The sales activity management dashboard in a sales CRM provides a detailed view of different activities performed by your sales reps including the top performers. It will help you in analyzing the type of activities as well as the corresponding number of activities executed by your team members.

Communication and Collaboration


A sales CRM facilitates collaboration between different team members. It is easy to update and share information about activities performed for all clients so that it helps everyone to be on the same page at all times.

Benefits of using a Sales CRM for Activity Management

Improved efficiency


Logging all your activities and sales activity tracking helps to have complete control of your work schedule. A voice-enabled CRM like HappSales makes data entry very easy and seamless. This helps in reducing manual data entry, streamlining workflows, and saving time. As a result, your sales team can work more efficiently and focus on more revenue-generating activities which in turn helps them achieve their respective sales goal.

Enhanced customer satisfaction


Effective sales activity management will make your team more organized and help you establish a sales process. They will meet their scheduled client commitments at all times. This goes a long way in building client confidence and enhanced customer satisfaction for more repeat business.

Increased revenue


Logging all activities and efficient sales activity tracking enables your sales team to be on top of all follow-ups and appointments. This ensures that no leads slip through. By prioritizing their activities, your sales reps can focus on activities that yield the highest deal conversion rates.

Better decision making


A sales CRM provides activity based automated reports with valuable insights including those of your top performers. These insights will give you a good visibility into the different key selling activities executed by your team. You can analyze your team’s performance trends to make better informed decisions.

On-the-go sales management


Sales CRM like HappSales provides mobile apps to deliver ease-of-use and convenience. They need not be bound to a specific place for updating their CRM. They can easily track and manage their activities on-the-go. Also, they don’t have to solely rely on their memory after a client meeting. They can immediately update the details without losing any vital information.

Better competitive advantage


Systematically recording all tasks and activities in a CRM gives a comprehensive understanding of the different activities carried out for a particular client or an opportunity within the sales process. This helps in crafting tailor-made strategies and choosing the right communication channels based on the clients preferences. Excellence in execution of activities will deliver a tremendous competitive edge to help you win in a competitive market.

Best practices for an effective Sales Activity Management

Define activity types in Sales CRM


This is first step in sales activity management. It is very important to list out the different types of activities that you would like to track in your sales CRM. For e.g., client meetings, demos, sending proposals, follow-up calls, payment collection, service activity etc. This will help your team members to select the right activity every time to manage their tasks and schedule.

Accurate activity tagging


A specific activity can be tagged to an account, a contact, an opportunity, or a combination of these. It is recommended that every activity is accurately tagged to these. This will make it very easy for you to fetch and analyze sales activity tracking details.

Setting up due dates


While creating or editing an activity, it is important to set up a specific date and time for that activity. This helps your sales team to take accountability for the tasks they need to complete. It ensures that prompt action is taken and completed in a timely manner. It will also help you to analyze and monitor the progress for you to take certain preventive measures.

Tasks Prioritization


It is recommended that the tasks be specific and well-defined for them to be actionable. Tasks should be prioritized as high, medium, low, etc. so that you can assign importance and organize your work schedule as per set priorities. It will also help you with proper allocation of resources and track team’s progress accurately.

Assign ownership


Ownership of every activity should be clearly defined. This is important to make sure that there is complete accountability for all activities without any ambiguity. This also helps you accurately track, measure team performance and identify the top performers.

Consistent updation


Regular updation of the scheduled activities is an important practice within the sales process that needs to be followed. This will ensure that the database remains up-to-date reflecting the latest progress and activity status. That way, everybody is always on the same page.

Conclusion

An effective sales activity management is a strategic asset that drives business excellence. It is a must-to-have for any organization seeking to meet their business goals, streamline their operations, establish an effective sales process, maximize productivity, and enhance customer relationships. Seamless sales activity management goes a long way in bridging the gap between strategy and execution.

Analyzing activity trends diligently helps you assess your sales team’s performance and take proactive steps if needed. Following the best practices mentioned in this article serves as a building block for effective sales activity management. In an era where customer-centricity is of greatest importance, a systematic sales activity tracking management stimulates superior customer service. It is a well-known fact that companies with superior execution capabilities will always have a competitive advantage over their competitors to win market-share.

Sales CRMs like HappSales include an AI-powered assistant to make the entire process of activity and task management easy and seamless. Users can simply use voice-commands to get their work done.


Original Source: Sales CRM for Activity & Task Management

6 Key Steps For a Successful Pipeline Management Process

Introduction

A structured pipeline management is the lifeblood of successful sales organizations. It serves as a guide to sales team members in the complex  journey of converting leads into customers. Benefits of having robust pipeline management are manyfold.

This article details the 6 key steps involved in establishing a successful pipeline management system. It also discusses the best practices required for an effective pipeline management in sales.

6 Key Steps in Effective Pipeline Management


Define sales stages


This is the first step in the pipeline management process. It is important to define and identify the different sales stages involved in how a prospect moves through from an initial contact all the way till the lead gets converted into a paying client. Some of the common stages include Lead, Qualified, Demo, Proposal, Negotiation, and Won or Lost. Defining these stages ensures a standardized approach to the sales process. It also helps the sales reps to have an understanding of important actions required to progress the deal through the pipeline.

Categorize sales stages


As a next step, it is a good idea to categorize the sales stages into various groups. This helps your sales and marketing teams to understand the current stage of the prospect and what steps to be taken to nurture the deal further.

Here is an example of the common categories that you may use –

The above categories are also referred to as –

Identify criteria for deal progress through the pipeline


Next important step is to identify the criteria for each stage’s progression. It is important to set clear benchmarks and criteria required for prospects to move from one stage to the other. These criteria could be based on involvement by decision makers, budget approvals, overall account mapping, etc. It is suggested that you provide ample training to your sales reps so that everyone understands when to progress a deal to the next stage.

Assign specific roles and responsibilities for each of the stages


Each stage involves different stakeholders with different sets of sales activities and skill sets. Therefore, it is important to assign roles and responsibilities for every stage. For instance, the marketing team may be responsible for demand generation, sales development representatives manage lead qualification and  account executives are responsible for deal nurturing and closure. Thus, clearly defining their roles and responsibilities will improve collaboration, higher accountability, and a much more efficient sales process.

Implement effective sales forecasting process


One of the most important steps of a robust pipeline management process is better and accurate sales forecasting. Sales forecasting process could be one of the below or a combination of it –

Periodic cadence and review process


This step is very crucial to maintain an agile and adaptive sales process.  Having a cadence mechanism and periodic reviews are very important to streamline your sales process and create a well-oiled sales machine. It helps you to identify different areas of improvement and take proactive steps. This helps businesses to continually improve and optimize their sales efforts and costs.

Best practices for effective pipeline management in sales


In today’s fast-paced competitive environment, we need to follow certain best practices for the sales pipeline management to become successful. Let us discuss some of them.

Define your goals


The first and foremost aspect is to clearly define your objectives with clear and measurable goals. You need to work closely with different stakeholders and team members to establish realistic goals and targets for all of them. It is also important to ensure that these goals are aligned with the company’s overall business goals.

Consistent demand generation


A steady flow of qualified leads is the lifeline for any business to succeed. An established demand generation strategy includes both inbound and outbound tactics. Email campaigns, LinkedIn  campaigns, SEO, content marketing, etc. are all very powerful tools that help generate leads for your business. Consistency in these efforts ensures a steady flow of leads into your pipeline.

Stringent lead qualification through techniques like BANT


Effective lead qualification is like sorting the wheat from the chaff.  It is important to differentiate between good and bad leads using lead qualification techniques like BANT which considers parameters like Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline, Solution Fitment etc. This helps you to identify the right potential prospects so that your sales reps could optimize their efforts on these right leads who are more likely to convert into customers.

Prioritize deals


Prioritization of deals is one of the essential best practices that any company must follow.  This helps you to focus on revenue-generating opportunities to drive sales efficiency and growth . This will help your sales team members to optimize their efforts well and focus on the right deals. You would be able to now allocate your resources wisely while keeping your customer acquisition costs (CAC) low.

Leverage sales automation tools


In a super competitive environment, sales automation tools like CRMs have emerged as a game-changing strategy for companies. Using  a CRM software like HappSales, you can automate all the manual and time consuming tasks allowing businesses to focus on much more productive activities that will help you generate more revenue consistently. By leveraging sales automation tools, you can gain valuable data-driven insights into your pipeline performance and deal progress. Metrics like sales velocity, deal win-rates, sales cycle time, etc. can be easily and accurately measured and improved. Sales tools like a mobile CRM app can significantly improve your sales team’s productivity and efficiency.

Maintain CRM discipline


Maintaining CRM discipline to keep the data up-to-date is a fundamental pillar in the context of best practices for pipeline management in sales.  CRM provides valuable insights into leads, opportunities, sales performance, and customers. Diligently updating the data ensures accuracy and enhances the efficiency of the overall sales pipeline. Using up-to-date information helps sales reps to engage with clients in a more personalized and informed manner. Moreover, only updated current data can give you the right assessment of the health of your sales pipeline. Not updating data regularly leads to missed opportunities, miscommunication and decline in overall sales productivity.

Measure and track metrics consistently


Define clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your team members for every stage of the sales process. Metrics like lead conversion rate, average deal size, average sales cycle, rolling four quarters pipeline, etc. provide valuable insights into sales performance. Regularly analyzing these metrics and identifying areas for improvement will help you mitigate risks early and drive predictable sales performance.

Continuous training


Investing in professional development of the sales reps through continuous training programs is important. Continuous updates on industry trends, product knowledge, negotiation skills and communication techniques are very essential for successful sales. A well-trained sales team adapts better to changes and offers more personalized solutions to potential customers and instills confidence in them.

Conclusion


In summary, in this fast paced sales environment, efficient pipeline management is the cornerstone of success. By leveraging these steps and best practices, you can easily scale up your performance.  Meticulous lead management and gradually nurturing them into qualified opportunities stand as the roots of growth. Enhanced sales activities coupled with active communication and collaboration propel the pipeline to move forward. As your sales pipeline flow gets fine-tuned, it brightens up the path ahead making it much easier for the sales team members to close deals and grow revenue.

Original Source: 6 Key Steps For a Successful Pipeline Management Process

B2B CRM vs B2C CRM – Which is Right for Your Business?

Introduction – B2B and B2C companies

The objective of this document is to help you understand the difference between B2B CRM software (business-to-business customer relationship management) vs B2C CRM software (business-to-consumer customer relationship management) and to assist you to decide the right CRM for your business.


However, before we get into the CRM discussion, it is important that you understand the difference between the two terms B2B and B2C.


Most companies get classified as any one of the two kinds – B2B companies or B2C companies.

B2B companies


Business-to-business or B2B companies sell their products or services to other organizations or companies; usually referred to as legal entities. In this case, the invoices (or bills) are raised in the name of these entities; and these entities make the payment.

Often people get confused when the products or services billed to organizations are used by employees or end-users. These also come under B2B companies as the companies are making the payments; and not their employees.

Some examples of B2B companies include medical equipment companies selling into hospitals and clinics, IT hardware and software companies catering to business requirements, manufacturing companies providing products to OEMs, etc.

B2C companies


Business-to-consumer or B2C companies sell their products or services to individual end-consumers. B2C business is also referred to as retail business.

In the case of B2C companies, the invoices are raised on individuals. These individuals or end-consumers are the ones who make the payments. In other words, every company that gets paid directly by an end-consumer is a B2C company.

Typical examples of B2C companies are educational institutes, insurance products, retail, restaurants, movie halls, Netflix, consumer goods, D2C brands, etc. B2C consumers buy products or services either by visiting a retail store, or from an e-commerce portal, or directly from the company.

Difference between B2B Sales and B2C Sales


Many consider sales as a very generic concept irrespective of whom you are selling to. This is not true.

As sellers, it is important for you to understand the above differences between B2B sales and B2C sales.

The decision-making process and the buying journey of B2B companies is very different from that of end-consumers. B2B businesses generally have multiple buyers and alignment between them is extremely important. This complexity is usually not there in B2C sales.

B2B buyers are generally more rational and cautious due to the high risks involved. Whereas, B2C buyers are mostly impulsive and emotional.

This is mainly because the transaction value and risk associated in b2b sales crm are much higher than that in B2C sales.

Also, in the case of B2B buyers, fulfilment of their needs and requirements usually takes a long time. This is unlike the case of consumers who generally buy for immediate results and gratification.

B2B CRM vs B2C CRM – 15 key parameters to select the right one


Let us now discuss the 15 key parameters to be considered while selecting the right sales CRM.

This understanding will allow you to adopt the right sales process and methodologies for most effective outcomes in your business.

 

B2B CRM

B2C CRM(or Horizontal CRM)

Client Engagements

Supports strategic long-term client engagements

Supports transactional business

Primary Objective

Maximize life-time value (LTV) of the customer

Immediate transactions

Stakeholder Management

Supports many decision-makers and influencers; including hierarchies

Not generally applicable

Sales Methodology

For high-touch engagements; relationship-driven sales

Usually low-touch engagements; brand-driven sales

Sales Cycle

Designed to support long sales cycles and deal stages(months to quarters)

Short sales cycles(minutes to days)

Pipeline Management

Very high focus on sales funnel and pipeline health to drive predictability

Minimal focus

Average Deal Value

Relevant for high deal values

Relevant for low deal values

Buying Process

Supports complex buying process

Not applicable

Quotation & Pricing Management

Offers capabilities to manage quotations, bill-of-material, pricing, approvals, proforma invoices etc.

Not applicable

Sales Order Management & Workflows

Supports post-sales order management and workflows to track fulfilment progress

Not applicable

Account Receivables

Manages long collection cycle to reduce daily sales outstanding (DSO)

Not applicable

Integrated Account Management

Integrated account management framework for selling and serving clients on a regular basis

Not integrated; usually in silos

Product Knowledge

Equips sales teams with access to high product knowledge for high value sales

Not applicable

Customer Success

High focus on measuring and improving customer satisfaction

Lesser focus

Post-Sales Operations

Supports post-sales and service operations

Not applicable

Client Engagements

B2B CRM is designed to support strategic long-term client engagements while B2C CRM is a good fit for transactional businesses.   Strategic client-engagements require a CRM that supports 360-degree account management, in-depth opportunity & pipeline management, post-sales service management, customer success, etc. which are the key characteristics of a B2B CRM.

Primary Objective

The main objective of a B2B CRM is to maximize customer lifetime value (LTV). LTV is the total revenue earned from a client during the entire partnership as long as the account remains a client.  A specialized B2B CRM go a long way in meeting this objective, unlike B2C CRM that is generally focused on executing immediate transactions.

Stakeholder Management

Unlike B2C buying process, B2B buying process involves multiple decision-makers and hierarchies. The buying process is very complex and all the decision-makers may have different perspectives to analyse the product/service offered.  A CRM with the exhaustive capability to manage multiple stakeholders and decision-makers is crucial for an efficient B2B sales process.

Sales Methodology

Often B2C sales are impulsive, desire-driven, or brand driven. It may take place even without an explicit need. There might be zero to minimal engagement or expectation from the seller to educate or support the product. While in B2B, the purchase happens after a thorough detailed engagement between the buyer and the seller. Unlike B2C CRM, B2B CRM supports high-touch engagements with multiple touchpoints over a long period of time. It offers the ability for the sellers to capture and maintain details about every client interaction.

Sales Cycle

B2B sales cycle is more like a marathon whereas B2C is like a 100-meter sprint. B2B CRM is designed to support long and complex sales cycles since typical deal cycles in B2B could range from months to years. A B2C CRM is not designed to take care of these scenarios.

Pipeline Management

B2B sales require very high focus on sales funnel and pipeline health. B2B CRM will help your sales team to accurately manage deal stages and sales pipeline. This will in turn help you run a very predictable and efficient business. B2C CRM is not designed to address these aspects.

Average Deal Value

The average deal value in B2B sales is much higher than in B2C sales ranging from several thousand to millions of dollars depending on the industry, product or service, and other factors. B2B CRM is very relevant to manage these kinds of high-value deals, unlike B2C CRM that is best suited to low-ticket transactional deals.

Buying Process

B2B customers follow a very complex and long buying process. They conduct thorough research and analysis before making any buying decision. This analysis spans the technical and commercial aspects of the offering. This is why, in most cases, there are multiple people involved in the decision-making process. A B2B CRM is required to efficiently manage this end-to-end complex process. B2C CRM is not designed to address these kinds of complexities.

Quotation & Pricing Management

B2B sales process often involves selling a list of products or services to the client. This list of offerings, its corresponding prices and quantities are referred to as bill-of-material (BoM). B2B CRM allows your sales reps to easily create and send quotations to clients with the details of the BoM. B2C CRM does not have to cater to this requirement.
 

Sales Order Management & Workflows

B2B CRM supports post-sales order management and workflows to streamline and track order fulfilment process. It facilitates collaboration between the frontline sales team and backend sales operations team. That way, everyone in the team is updated on the order status with a single-version-of-truth that could be proactively communicated with the client. A B2C CRM does not provide these capabilities.
 

Account Receivables

B2B buyers often negotiate complex purchase terms involving payments in instalments. A B2B CRM is required to manage these long collection cycles. It can help you drive rigor and tight cadence around collections among your team members. When effectively used, a B2B CRM can help you reduce daily sales outstanding (DSO) and improve your working capital. B2C CRM is not built for these scenarios.
 

Integrated Account Management

Effective B2B engagements require in-depth Account Management. This involves customer intelligence, stakeholder management, account mapping, lead management, pipeline management, post-sales service operations, receivables management, customer success etc.  B2B CRM like HappSales is designed to provide this kind of integrated account management framework, which is not provided by a B2C CRM.
 

Product Knowledge

B2B engagements involve dealing with complex products and services. Sales teams are expected to study and be familiar with all the offerings. B2B CRM provides capabilities to equip your sales reps with product literature, whitepapers, product presentations, etc. This way your reps will be able to educate clients better and they become more effective in their jobs. B2C CRM does not have to provide this capability.

Customer Success

B2B sales depends more on long term customer relationships to get more sales. Building strong relationships can open up many upsell and cross-sell opportunities. It can also measure customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measure how likely are the customers to recommend a company’s product. B2B CRM helps in boosting these capabilities many folds. B2C CRM has much lesser scope.

Post-Sales Operations

Retaining customers is the key to run a successful B2B business.

B2B businesses may have a smaller customer base than B2C businesses, but each customer may represent a larger revenue stream. That’s why it becomes very important to provide the best post-sales support and service operations on time consistently. This capability is an integral part of a B2B CRM like HappSales.

Conclusion


CRM software is a necessary software application for all kinds of companies to improve customer management and revenue metrics. It plays a massive role in the way companies execute their strategy around marketing, customer acquisition, sales management, customer retention, repeat purchases, customer loyalty, etc.


The choice between a B2B CRM and a B2C CRM largely depends on your business model, the type of clients you sell to, and your offerings.  B2B CRM differs significantly from B2C CRM mainly due to the difference in the characteristics of client engagements.


B2B CRM like HappSales provide an integrated account management framework with a plethora of capabilities like account intelligence, stakeholder management, managing and tracking deal stages, sales pipeline management, post-sales service operations, account receivables management, customer success management, etc. Whereas, a B2C CRM focuses on capabilities around targeted marketing and consumer loyalty.


Here are a few situations when B2B CRM is highly recommended –



To summarize, B2B CRM software should be selected when a company does B2B sales selling in to other organizations. Sales cycles in these cases are long and complex involving multiple stakeholders. B2B CRM focuses on building long-term relationships and customer lifetime value. B2C CRM should be selected when a company does B2C sales selling to retail consumers. It is best suited for high-volume retail transactions, targeted marketing, and consumer loyalty management.


Original Source: B2B CRM vs B2C CRM – Which is Right for Your Business?

Top Challenges in Implementing Sales CRM: Overcoming The Roadblocks by Mitigating Risks With CRM Failure


Introduction

Making a decision to implement CRM software is possibly one of the most strategic decisions an organisation can take. When implemented and managed well, a CRM initiative can add wings to help organisations soar, grow and prosper.

This decision involves a lot of time, money, and commitment from all stakeholders, particularly from the business leaders. Many analyst reports show how an unbalanced and myopic approach to this initiative can jeopardise the success rates of CRM implementations.

One of the reports from Gartner stated that almost 50% of CRM implementations fail. Similarly, as per Forrester, 49% of CRM projects fail. Some businesses have failed even two to three times after implementing a new CRM. These statistics are the cause for some much-needed risk analysis and mitigating measures.

All these may seem overwhelming. But many companies do succeed with their CRM implementation. The key here is to learn from other’s mistakes and take the right approach as you embark on this strategic journey.

11 Most-common Reasons for CRM Failure


Inadequate management commitment

Many times, business leaders feel that their responsibility ends after selecting a CRM software. The reality is that it does not end there.  On the contrary, leaders play an important role after that.

One of the main reasons for CRM failure is when leaders expect it to automatically generate revenue, and deliver results. Instead, they need to “walk-the-talk” and start using the CRM themselves. Team members need to see how their managers regularly use CRM for managing their work and business objectives. Managers should not review business performance outside the CRM in some excel or google sheets.

It is important for managers and leaders to set an example. They need to  constantly demonstrate and coach their team members on the best practices, and its benefits. Learning through active observation is much more powerful than just someone preaching!

Misplaced CRM philosophy – Micro-management v/s Empowerment

CRM initiative is a very strategic decision that has the power to help organisations grow and drive predictable business results. It is critical that your team understands the project vision and this core purpose from the leaders.

Your team members should understand that the objective of the initiative is to empower them and make them successful. They should not perceive this like yet another process for managers to monitor their activities and micro-manage them. They should get a feeling that the initiative will add value to their individual performance and productivity, and give them more time and ammunition to excel in their work.

It goes a long way to encourage and motivate your team members to use the CRM software effectively to start seeing results. Leaders need to create ample positivity around CRM usage to make it work favourably.

Measuring Wrong Metrics

Peter Drucker said, “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”. This is true in the case of a CRM initiative as well. It goes a long way when you put together a cadence mechanism to measure your team’s KPIs (key performance indicators) using the CRM.

The ideal KPIs that you may want to measure could include revenue growth, deal progress, sales velocity, pipeline and weighted pipeline, deal conversion rates, sales cycle time, etc. That way your team will be able to appreciate the business value that a CRM adds. You will have a better buy-in from them that will also help you drive CRM adoption and usage across the board.

However, if you use your CRM to only measure the number of team activities, customer visits, their attendance, working hours etc., it might dilute the very purpose of the initiative. It could even be detrimental to your team’s morale and overall productivity.

Poor Planning

According to MIT Sloan, CRM failure occurs for those businesses that don’t do prior planning before making the investment. These businesses don’t spend time trying to evaluate their own business needs and  analyse the pain points they wish to solve by using a CRM.

They experience CRM failure not because of the limitations of CRM capabilities but due to their own lack of understanding and planning.

Resistance To Use

Resistance to change is another factor for CRM implementation failure.  People are used to the traditional methods and might be quite reluctant to move to a new way of life. Forcing a new method or software may cause resistance among users to abandon their old familiar methods. Human resistance has a big impact on a system’s effectiveness.

Other reasons for resistance might be due to lack of  training and a clear understanding of the software. This might have an impact on team productivity; eventually leading to frustration among users.

Complexity in Usage

Complexity of the software is another major factor for CRM implementation failure. While your business might  need a  CRM software with a simple interface, there are chances that you might land up  choosing a complex CRM. Because of its wide functionality and features, a CRM system can sometimes be complex to use. Users who are unfamiliar with CRM systems and who prefer to use a simpler interface can get overwhelmed with this complexity. For instance navigating through many screens just for one feature can be time consuming and frustrating.

Cumbersome Data Entry

Another important reason why many CRMs fail is that the end-users find data-entry very cumbersome and laborious. Sales team members are required to update the CRM regularly, which requires them to devote their time and effort. This may not happen if they find the CRM software interface not very seamless and easy to use. Not using the system to the full potential is one of the main issues in implementing CRM.

Lack of Customization

Few CRM systems might provide just basic functionality and may not be flexible enough to accommodate customization to meet specific client needs. In that case, businesses may not be able to align their CRM initiative with their needs and priorities. This will be a huge impediment to achieve your company goals.

Inadequate Training and Support

The efficient usage of CRM software heavily depends on the training and support provided by the CRM vendor. End users may not use it to its full potential if they lack adequate training support. Without proper ongoing training support,  users might face challenges and it can hinder end-users from effectively using all features in the CRM.

Poor  Fitment

One major cause of CRM failure is the insufficient compatibility of CRM software with the unique requirements of the enterprise. This substantial gap between the softwares capabilities and the organisation’s objectives hampers the installation of the CRM to a great extent.

Selection of Wrong Implementation Partner

There are many CRM projects that have failed not because of the software but by selecting the wrong implementation partner. It is important that the implementation partner is well equipped in terms of expertise, domain skills, experience and knowledge required for implementing this software.

Best Practices for CRM Implementation  – Steps To Mitigate Risk of CRM Failure

Now that we have discussed the various challenges in implementing CRM successfully, let us discuss what important steps will help you to mitigate all the risks.

Proper Goal-setting and Planning 

Clearly define your goals and objectives for implementing a CRM software. It is a good idea to make a note of all your pain points that you are planning to solve and the business objectives you want to achieve through this transformation initiative. It is important to have a clear vision of where your company should be after implementing the CRM software. Defining a purpose will serve as a guiding principle to help you at every step during the CRM implementation journey.

Committed Leadership

The commitment from the leadership team plays a pivotal role in making the CRM implementation successful. Shifting from old traditional systems to a modern one needs a lot of commitment and focus. Transitioning to a new CRM will be easy only when everyone in the organisation is committed to it and are encouraged to use it. The leadership team has to clearly pass on the message as to why are you implementing this new software. The Whys and Hows have to be clearly communicated to all the stakeholders across the organisation.

Buy-in From End-users

Gaining buy-in from end users is very important for successful implementation of the CRM. This means that all the stakeholders involved and directly affected by the new process comprehend the need for the change. It is necessary to make them understand the benefits and objectives of the proposed change. It is a good idea to take inputs from the end-users while evaluating the field service management software. This enables  them to feel valued and motivated; and in the process they will willingly participate and cooperate with the new change. This will ensure  increased productivity and overall success of the implementation.

Management Reviews Using CRM

It is very important for managers and leaders to lead by example. Often, they are so used to using Google sheets or excel sheets that they fail to embrace new technologies. It is important that they need to practise and demonstrate the benefits to employees.

The CRM platform should be actively used by managers and leaders for all their reviews and interactions. By doing so, they effectively communicate to their team members that the new system is worthwhile to integrate into their daily workflows.

When managers start actively using the CRM system in team meetings, the team members get inspired and follow suit. They start experiencing the effectiveness of the CRM on how it increases productivity and offers insightful data to help them with their performance.

Consistent Usage Across the Board

Consistent usage across the organisation is one of the important strategies for successful CRM implementation. A CRM can deliver significant benefits only when it is used to its full potential. Therefore it is very important that every stakeholder involved uses it consistently and effectively. It enables cross functional collaboration when individuals from different departments use the CRM to share information.

This helps to a great extent in decision making. With up-to-date information available from all stakeholders, management can use this data to identify trends, track important KPIs and make informed decisions.

Constant Feedback Mechanism

Consistent feedback from the users is one of the best practices for CRM implementation. Getting first-hand information from users in terms of systems usability, softwares ability to meet objectives and its impact on time management etc., helps the management to take proactive steps. This information enables management to make informed decisions before issues escalate.

Consistent feedback helps in improving user experience. Businesses can identify the pain points, usability issues and places where CRM falls short. With this knowledge, they are able to quickly address these issues, improve the system’s usability, and better the user experience as a whole. By addressing these challenges, management demonstrates their commitment and dedication to make the CRM implementation successful and help users have a positive CRM experience.

Progressive Adoption – Start Small and Then Expand

A proven approach for a successful CRM implementation is to start small and gradually expand. You may not want to boil the ocean with all the features in the first phase. It is a good idea to focus only on the necessary must-have features that have the highest impact on your business.

This enables businesses to efficiently manage the deployment process, reduce risks and ensure a smooth transition among users.

You may also consider the CRM roll-out for a specific department, and then expand to other departments. That way the early users can share their success stories, offer insightful advice, and assist in addressing any objections or worries from other users. Their positive experiences and feedback can have an impact on the larger user base and help the CRM deployment gain momentum.

Selecting The Right CRM Software

Choosing the right software will help you resolve most of the issues mentioned above and plays the most important role for succeeding in your CRM implementation journey. Following are  few important points to consider when choosing the right CRM software

● Easy to Use

The success of a CRM largely depends on how much the users adopt and use it. Users love to use the CRM only if they find it easy  and simple to use. A user friendly CRM should have a simple and an inherent interface that enables the users to navigate easily through different functions. The data entry should be seamless.  People with less technical knowledge also should find it easy to use crm. The actions they have to perform should be easy to comprehend without the need of in-depth instructions.

● Customisation

First and foremost, try to choose a software vendor who is flexible enough to align with your business objectives for installing a CRM. The vendor should be ready to offer customization so that you are able to align the CRM with your business needs and priorities. The CRM should have the features to address your pain points and meet your future business goals.

● Adequate Training Support

Make sure your CRM provider has an effective internal support and training team.   This gives your users the chance to learn the system thoroughly while also receiving excellent hands-on training. This is crucial since the success of the CRM depends on how extensively and effectively the users utilise it. They can completely lose interest in using the CRM if their questions are not promptly answered or if they are not properly trained. Their effectiveness and productivity can be greatly increased with the right training and assistance.

● Intuitive Dashboard

Having a dashboard that shows insights to real time data helps the management to have a quick view of the performance of their team members.  The management should be able to quickly and easily understand the performance of the team members.   Thanks to this real-time visibility, it helps the management team to quickly respond to urgent situations and take proactive steps whenever necessary.

● Pricing

In order to attract customers, few CRM software companies offer a very low Tier 1 pricing with very limited features. As your business grows and when you want to expand the number of users or add more records into the CRM, the pricing might be far more expensive. Choosing a CRM software vendor who offers a comprehensive framework with no hidden costs is a good solution to this.

Choosing The Right Implementation Partner

Choosing the right implementation vendor plays a very important role for a successful CRM journey.  It is advisable to select the right CRM implementation partner along with the CRM software. This will prevent any unexpected surprises and ensure a smooth implementation process. It is also important to evaluate the expertise of the implementation vendor, assess their industry experience and also see if they have a proven track record of successfully implementing CRM systems. Their technical know-how and experience plays an important role for the success of the CRM implementation.

You should also discuss the project timelines, milestones and cost of implementation to arrive at the overall TCO (total-cost–of-ownership). Knowing the overall TCO enables you to ensure that it aligns well within your budget.

Here is a detailed reference guide to help you choose the right CRM software vendor for your business.

Summary

In summary, customer relationship management software enables you to organise and manage client data in a structured way. Businesses can make wise decisions to increase revenue and boost profitability measured using a CRM.  It provides better visibility and a “single-version-of-truth” across the enterprise.

However, a CRM initiative’s success significantly depends on how the project is approached. In order to optimize the benefits of the implementation, careful planning and execution are essential. Organisations can reduce the risks associated with CRM installation by adhering to the best practices mentioned above. Organisations can realise their full potential and increase sales and profitability indicators with a properly implemented CRM system in place.

Original Source: Top Challenges in Implementing Sales CRM: Overcoming The Roadblocks by Mitigating Risks With CRM Failure

Go Beyond BANT Lead Qualification: Embrace The Modern BANTS Framework


Sales is both art and science; possibly more of science in today’s context. And we say that because a scientific process and methodology backed with data has the potential to exponentially improve your sales efficiency.



A critical part of this scientific process is lead qualification.


What is Lead Qualification?


Lead qualification is a process of identifying and qualifying the right prospects who are likely to buy your product or service.


In order to maximize the sales team’s productivity, marketing teams are generally entrusted with the responsibility of lead generation and qualification. They follow certain lead qualification methodologies and filter the right leads before sharing them with their colleagues in the sales department. That way, your sales team members are fed in with a pipeline of qualified prospects for them to completely focus on deal conversions. This also streamlines the sales process to a great extent and the sales team starts to work on qualifying leads instead of wasting time on unqualified leads.


To make the process successful, it is important to make sure your sales and marketing teams are completely aligned and always working in unison towards a common revenue goal.


MQL vs SQL – how are they different?


Marketing and sales teams work together to maximize the chances of a lead getting converted into a long-term customer.


As part of lead qualification, the marketing team is expected to gather a minimum set of information about the prospect, understand their pain points, and conduct a first-level qualification based on a set of qualification criteria. This filtered lead is referred to as a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).


Like in the case of a relay race, Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a baton that gets passed on from the marketing team to the sales team. This normally happens when the prospect is ready to connect and discuss further with your sales team.


This is when your sales team engages with the prospect and the MQL becomes a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). Your sales team is now expected to further nurture the lead and convert the prospect to a paying customer. As you can see, SQLs occur further down in your sales funnel when compared to MQLs.


Every business follows a unique sales cycle. The above criteria for MQL and SQL could vary based on your business. It is a good idea to brainstorm internally along with your sales and marketing team members to jointly arrive at the respective criteria.


What is the BANT lead qualification framework?


The BANT qualification framework is a well-known lead qualification framework that is adopted by many best-in-class sales organizations worldwide. BANT is an acronym for – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline.


It is one of the most effective frameworks leveraged by sales and marketing teams for qualifying prospects. This framework, when adopted well, makes sure your sales teams are pursuing the right kind of prospects without going on a wild goose chase. They can focus their effort and time on the right leads that meet the BANT criteria, thereby maximizing sales conversion in less time.


Let us understand BANT in more detail.


BUDGET:


As part of the BANT lead qualification process, it helps to check if the prospect has some budget in mind or if there is any budget allocated towards the purchase.


It may not be easy to ascertain the Budget early in the sales cycle. However, knowing a ballpark range can help you decide on the next steps required to nurture the prospect. It also gives you some idea of what solution could be proposed and what would be the opportunity size.


Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What is the budget assigned for this initiative or purchase?”

“Is the budget allocated for this financial year or the next?”

“What process do you follow for budget allocation and approvals?”


AUTHORITY:

Authority in the BANT framework defines the decision-making power of the prospect. It helps to ascertain the role your prospect is going to play in the buying process. While some prospects could be the actual decision-makers, some of them might be key influencers. It could also happen that you are talking to someone involved in evaluating options and then submitting their analysis report to the decision-makers.


Knowing this aspect will help you decide on how to engage with the prospect. You will also be in a better position to put together a plan to understand all the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process and the steps to engage with each one of them.


Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What process do you follow to make a decision like this?”

“Who are the stakeholders involved and what role do they play”?

“Who is owning the budget for this initiative and at what stage will the person be involved”?

“As part of the requirement gathering exercise, who else do you think I should talk to?”


NEED:


Need is one of the key factors in the sales process. Prospects generally evaluate solutions when there is a specific need and have certain pain points to address. At a high level, a need can be categorized either as Gain or Pain. They are looking for a solution either to gain something or to fix pain points or problems.


As part of the requirement gathering or need discovery exercise, it is critical to ask the right questions to the prospects. Responses to your questions can help you determine if the need is indeed a genuine one. You can also understand the importance of addressing the need, the possible solutions, the cost of not solving the need or the delay, and if you have the capability to address the need.


Normally higher budgets are allocated by companies for must-to-have solutions compared to good-to-have ones. They generally don’t look for solutions unless they have a pressing need, and a lack of which is causing any major setback in its process in terms of time or revenue. Establishing these facets will help you qualify your prospects much better.


Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What steps have you taken in the past to meet this requirement?”

“Any specific reasons why you are trying to address this need now?”

“Which departments in your company will be impacted if this requirement is not addressed”?

“What is the business outcome you are trying to achieve with this initiative”?

“What would be the impact of not having the solution implemented”?


TIMELINE:


Timeline refers to the estimated time the prospect will take to make a decision. It is also referred to as the time required to convert the prospect into a customer. It is usually measured in terms of days or months, or quarters.


A better understanding of the urgency to address a need can help you ascertain the timeline. You should try and find out the prospect’s timeline and if he has any deadline to meet. Usually, it turns out that the requirement is not urgent when the prospect does not share a timeline or deadline that he is trying to meet. In which case, you may want to once again qualify the need.


Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What is the timeline you have in mind to address this requirement”?

“When would you like to go live and see the impact of the solution”?

“What would be the impact of not having the solution in place soon”?

“May I know what are the other alternatives that you are considering”?


Improving BANT lead qualification framework with BANTS

While BANT Sales framework has been around for a long time, it is a good idea to extend the framework to BANTS by including one more critical parameter – solution fitment (S).

The new BANTS framework is an acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline, and Solution Fitment.


SOLUTION FITMENT

This is probably the most ignored parameter while qualifying a prospect. When prospects are evaluating a purchase decision, they are trying to select the best solution to address their needs. A prospect’s evaluation is also referred to as a cost-benefit analysis; the benefits part is of course derived through the right solution.

So even if the prospect is qualified based on all the four BANT criteria, what happens if you do not have the right optimal solution to address the need.

In these competitive times, your prospects have many options to choose from. Your ability to convert the prospect depends on the degree of solution fitment and the competitive advantage you have when compared to other alternatives.

Budget: Is the prospect’s budget known?

Authority: Are you engaged with the decision-makers?

Need: Do you have all the details about the prospect’s need?

Timeline – Do you know the prospect’s timeline for decision-making?

Solution-Fitment – Do you have the right solution to address the prospect’s need?

Lead Scoring and BANTS: multiplier effect on lead qualification


What is Lead Scoring?


Lead scoring is an effective process of assigning a numerical score to every prospect or lead. The lead scoring methodology helps your sales and marketing teams to identify and prioritize the right prospects. This in turn maximizes your sales team’s ability to quickly convert the prospects into paying customers. It allows you to take the subjectivity out of the lead qualification process and make it much more accurate.


Combining Lead Scoring with BANTS


Lead Scoring when combined with BANTS will have a multiplier effect on your lead qualification process.


During the lead discovery process, your teams should score the various attributes of BANTS. You could arrive at the final lead score based on the weighted average of all the scores across all attributes.


Subsequently, the lead gets classified as either a Hot lead, Warm lead, or Cold lead. This in turn makes it very easy for your sales reps to prioritize and decide on which prospects to go after instead of wasting time on unqualified leads.


Key benefits of lead qualification through BANTS and lead scoring

Superior Lead QualificationA scientific lead qualification process will help you accurately identify the right prospects with a high likelihood of conversion


Improved Deal ConversionsYour sales teams can channelize all their efforts toward the most qualified prospects. This will significantly improve their ability to convert them

Higher Sales ProductivityYour sales team will not spread themselves too thin. Good lead qualification methodologies can help them prioritize and save their time

Increased SalesSales reps will have more time to work on a greater number of deals and opportunities; resulting in higher revenue


Reduced Sales & Marketing CostsYour sales and marketing team’s efforts will be well utilized.

They will be able to achieve their objectives faster and better without the need for higher spends

Tighter Alignment & Collaboration Between TeamsA streamlined process will help your sales and marketing teams to be aligned. It will help them to be on the same page at all times and collaborate effectively


Better Solution-FitmentA better understanding of all qualification criteria will help your sales team to offer the most suitable solution to the prospect. This improves overall problem-solution fitment and your chances of converting the prospect.


Business ExcellenceLast but not least, when done well, the lead qualification process goes a long way in running a predictable and sustainable business with minimum time, energy, and resources.


Role of the right CRM for lead qualification


In today’s competitive business environment, selecting the right CRM for lead qualification can give you the necessary edge to out beat your competition. It is a strategic investment to run a predictable and sustainable business.


We would recommend you to consider a Sales CRM like HappSales that supports the BANTS framework coupled with a scientific lead scoring model. This makes the entire sales process much more accurate and impactful.


At the same time, it is critical to evaluate whether the CRM is a user-friendly and practical one that your teams find easy to deploy and use.


Conclusion


In this blog, we discussed the importance of lead qualification and various frameworks that can be leveraged to make the process accurate and effective.

We saw that lead qualification generally happens at two levels – one by marketing and the other by sales teams. This is generally referred to as Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). It is essential to manage both these parameters efficiently for the best sales results.


We also discussed why it is necessary to extend the BANT lead qualification framework to BANTS. This comprehensive and complete BANTS framework considers all parameters – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline, and Solution-fitment. BANTS make the lead qualification process much more objective and realistic.


When you combine the BANTS framework with a very scientific lead scoring model, you can expect a multiplier effect. It improves the efficiency of the process significantly. It will allow you to accurately measure and classify leads to help your sales reps to prioritize their prospects and improve their deal conversion rates.


Last but not the least, our recommendation is to select the best crm for sales management, like HappSales, that supports the powerful BANTS framework along with a scientific lead scoring model. And one that is easy to deploy and use by your team. That way you can be assured of a very impactful and successful transformation initiative that can significantly improve your marketing and sales performance.


Original Source: Go Beyond BANT Lead Qualification: Embrace The Modern BANTS Framework


What is a Mobile CRM? Advantages of Having A Mobile CRM in 2023

Data and information are at your fingertips in today’s rapidly ever-changing world. This is possible only due to pervasive access to the internet through mobile devices. Mobile phones account for nearly 70% of all web traffic today. This is why a mobile crm solution has become essential to growing your business.


What is a Mobile CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?


Mobile CRM is a software application that helps your client-facing teams to efficiently manage customer relationships and interactions effortlessly using their mobile devices.


Mobile CRM apps can be leveraged by your sales teams, service teams, and other client-facing teams involved in serving your clients. It acts like an assistant available to them at all times. It empowers them to manage their business and meet their business goals with ease. At the same time, makes them very productive and efficient.

It can be used as a standalone app or it can complement a CRM delivered through the web. Most CRM mobile apps support android and iOS versions.


Why do you need a Mobile CRM?


Your client-facing teams are always battling many tasks and client activities. They are expected to manage client expectations efficiently. They also need to consistently meet their key performance indicators (KPIs) and business objectives.

At the same time, conventional CRMs have very high failure rates due to poor adoption and usage by end users. They find CRMs very cumbersome and time-consuming to use. As a result, many companies fail in succeeding in these initiatives. As per Forrester, 49% of CRM projects fail due to these reasons.


This is where a mobile CRM becomes handy to make a huge difference in your business performance.

Using a mobile CRM, your account managers and team members will be empowered to perform better. It becomes the ammunition to help them to do more in less time. They can stay organized, manage client activities efficiently, and meet business goals with ease.


A mobile CRM will also help you significantly improve the adoption of CRM among your reps; which is essential for your technology-led transformation.


What activities and tasks can be performed using a Mobile CRM?


Mobile CRM app for Sales teams


Providing a best mobile crm app to your sales team members can be a game changer for your business. It has the enormous power to transform your sales performance.

This is what your sales reps can accomplish using a mobile CRM for sales –

1. Access and manage data about clients and prospects easily

2. Capture customer information on the fly

3. Track deal progress and update opportunities

4. Create and send quotations and sales order forms

5. Review pipeline and make course corrections

6. Easily create records of contacts using business card scanning

7. Effective stakeholder management and review alignment periodically

8. Qualify and nurture leads for faster conversion

9. Execute tasks and activities without missing timelines

10. Capture meeting notes for future reference

11.Track achievement vs targets

12. Collaborate with colleagues from anywhere, anytime

13. Get a real-time view of the internal order management process

14. Collect and update account receivables/collections

15. Submit attendance and expense reimbursement requests

16. View dashboards and reports for decision making


Mobile CRM app for Service teams


Providing a mobile CRM app to your service team members can help you transform your service operations and drive profitability.


This is what your service reps can accomplish using a mobile CRM for service –

Complete all service tasks and activities on time

Plan and execute scheduled service activities or visits as per the service contract

Attend to unscheduled/ad-hoc service requests by clients

Fill and digitize service forms

Accept customer feedback and signatures directly on the app

Email service-related documents to the clients easily

Capture customer and product details on-the-fly

Collect and update service payments

Set task reminders and notifications to make sure you do not miss client commitments

Submit attendance and expense reimbursement requests


Advantages of using a mobile CRM


In the last few years, mobile CRM has become a strategic tool for organizations to improve their business performance. It is now an essential part of the client-facing team’s arsenal. At the same time, it also benefits the management team and the rest of the departments.

Let us discuss the key benefits of a mobile CRM –


Flexible & convenient


Using a mobile CRM, you will have the flexibility to easily access information from anywhere, anytime while on the move. You need not be tied to a specific location. A mobile app also allows you to navigate screens much easier to find relevant information faster. It is very convenient and more accessible when compared to cumbersome and heavy laptops.


Improved productivity & efficiency


With a mobile CRM, data access and data entry become much easier and faster. You can now do more in less time effortlessly and become very productive. Mobile CRM like HappSales augments this further by providing a voice-enabled app powered by a personal assistant. The digital assistant works like a true co-pilot in assisting the reps in getting their work done faster and helping them focus on the right tasks.


Better decision-making


Mobile CRM is always synced up with the backend database. It will provide up-to-date information at all times. It gives you the power of real-time data at your fingertips that will assist you in making informed decisions. This in turn helps you to excel in your work and perform better.


Accelerated sales performance


Mobile CRM will help you accelerate and improve sales performance. Your team will easily track all their leads, qualify them effectively and convert them faster using this Sales CRM. They will keep a close tab on their overall pipeline and will take all the necessary steps to run a more predictable business. Moreover, accurate information pertaining to the 3 Ps – product, pricing, and promotions, will help you make the right decisions to convert deals faster. When done well, it also increases the deal value as well as reduces the time taken for deal conversions.


Reduced reporting efforts


A mobile CRM will help your reps update their opportunities, tasks, and activities on the go. This will take away the burden from them of regular reporting through excel or google sheets. Managers will get all system-generated reports seamlessly without the need for manual efforts.


High empowerment & morale among team members


When the reps use a mobile CRM diligently to manage their work, managers will not require to micro-manage their team members. Mobile CRM also makes it very convenient to use as and when required. This results in very high morale among your reps and they feel empowered. These factors have a huge positive impact on business performance and efficiency across the board.


Better team collaboration


Built-in features like Chat will help your team members collaborate easily. They could create specific groups to discuss and collaborate on deals, clients, projects, etc. Better team collaboration builds a strong company culture and camaraderie among the members that will pay huge dividends in the long run.


Higher customer satisfaction


It is known that higher customer satisfaction and retention significantly improve profitability. Mobile CRM equips you with the right data points required to address client concerns and requirements proactively. This leads to improved satisfaction levels, more loyalty, and more importantly more business opportunities through client referrals.


Superior competitive advantage


In today’s competitive environment, the accuracy of the information and the speed of execution is possibly the two most critical factors required to win. A mobile CRM is one such tool that will give you the competitive advantage required to outperform and help you gain market share.


High CRM adoption


Historically, the adoption of traditional CRMs has been a huge challenge in the industry with a very poor adoption and success rate. All the above factors that we discussed result in very high adoption of technology among the reps. This in turn improves the success rate of CRM projects and delivers a quick return on your investment.


Off-line capability


Mobile CRMs like HappSales also support offline capability. This will allow you to use the app even in locations with poor or no network coverage. As soon as you get connected to a network, all the previous data that you entered will automatically sync up with the server without you losing any of those.


Cost-effective & easy to deploy


In the last few years, the cost of mobile devices has significantly come down when compared to that of desktops or laptops. This makes it very cost-effective and easy for companies to roll out mobile CRM apps. At the same time, mobile apps are designed to be very intuitive and user-friendly. This drastically reduces the costs associated with training. Many companies have also adopted the BYOD (bring your own device) policy to further reduce their capex costs.


Mobile CRM Cost v/s Investment


The above section clearly justifies the need for companies to invest in a mobile CRM strategy.

It enables you to transform your business by leveraging cutting-edge technologies to improve your top line and bottom line. Instead of treating it as a cost, you should consider this as an investment for your future growth.


As per Forrester, companies that use mobile CRM experience an average RoI (return on investment) of 271%. This RoI is driven by a combination of increased productivity, higher revenues, and superior customer engagement.


The ROI of CRM is arrived at based on the total accrued benefits from the CRM project and the total cost of ownership (TCO) incurred. This detailed article will help you understand how to calculate the ROI of CRM initiative.


To summarize, a mobile CRM strategy will give you the competitive edge to build a sustainable high-performance company. Investing in the right mobile CRM tool will have a tremendous impact on your company’s revenue growth, bottom line, operational costs, and customer engagements.


Original Source: What is a Mobile CRM? Advantages of Having A Mobile CRM in 2023

What is Key Account Management (KAM)?

Customers are the lifelines for business.  Among these, a specific category of clients or accounts consistently bring significant recurring business over the years. These high-worth clients are addressed as key accounts.

Key Account Management aka KAM is a framework to build meaningful engagements with your key accounts to help you drive They are highly crucial for a company’s consistent profitable growth. It helps you maximize customer lifetime value, also referred to as LTV.

Importance of Key Account Management in Sales

Consistent growth in sales revenue is imperative for a business to succeed and function smoothly. This requires an effective sales strategy with a key account management methodology at the core.

This sales process will help your sales team to monitor and develop long-lasting relationships with your key clients. When executed well, you will witness tremendous improvement in your sales as well as profitability.

Why do you need a CRM for Key Account Management?

Adopting the right CRM software for Key Account Management is an important decision to manage your KAM process efficiently. The CRM will empower your teams with necessary information required to build meaningful customer relationships, maximize customer retention, and meet your business goals.

Let us discuss some of these key benefits in detail below.

Business Benefits of Using a CRM for Key Account Management

Maximize Repeat Sales

A CRM system provides your account managers with a complete 360-degree view of your clients. They get visibility into the client’s past purchases, all client interactions, key stakeholders and decision-makers, their business priorities, etc. with ease. This in turn will help your sales team to identify new cross-sell and up-sell opportunities to grow revenue from existing clients. This sales motion is referred to as account farming or mining.

Customer Retention

The role of your sales team and account managers is not just to acquire new clients, but also to retain them and build loyalty for the company’s future growth. High customer turnover can have negative consequences for your company. Here, CRM plays a vital role in determining risks and enabling your teams to take proactive steps to address client issues will in time.

Acquire New Clients

The robust sales methodology built into the KAM framework will help your sales team to acquire new clients. This is referred to as hunting. Following the right sales process will help them improve their deal conversion rates and meet their sales targets.

Improved Profitability

CRM software will help you significantly lower your marketing and customer acquisition costs (CAC). It will also help you reduce the cost of sales operations through streamlined operations and better collaboration between departments. These factors will directly contribute to improving your profitability and margins.

Higher Team Productivity

CRM plays an important role in helping teams to get their jobs done faster. It can help automate some of the time-taking repetitive and mundane tasks. It enables them to achieve more in less time through effective collaboration.

Better Decision Making

CRM software will give you visibility into all your sales operations, customer information, client interactions, sales activities, etc. This 360-degree view will help you make informed decisions for your business. This could be a combination of both tactical as well as strategic decisions for long-term business consequences.

Healthy Sales Pipeline

CRM is an effective tool for your sales team to identify new opportunities and build a healthy sales pipeline. This is a critical factor in enabling them to meet their sales targets consistently. Adopting the right sales process will help them effectively nurture their deals and improve deal conversions.

Accurate Sales Forecasting

Running a predictable business is fundamental to any business. The right CRM will help you improve your sales forecasts to meet this objective. This is achieved through deep client engagements, improved customer relationships, a strong sales pipeline, and high win rates.

Automated Reports

For any business operation, one must be able to evaluate past performance to plan strategically for the future. Sales CRM generates automated sales reports that can help you make critical decisions to optimize business performance. It significantly reduces manual efforts, time, and operational costs incurred to meet this objective. At the same time, it eliminates human errors that could creep in while preparing these reports.

Summary of How KAM Relates To CRM?

CRM for Key Account management provides B2B companies with a comprehensive and scientific methodology to successfully manage their key accounts. It is a strategic tool that is required to build a competitive advantage to build customer loyalty and build consistent growth. It is a must-have tool in your arsenal to run a sustainable and predictable business.

Original Source: What is Key Account Management (KAM)?

The Ultimate Reference Guide to Help Choose the Right CRM

Introduction

Every business is unique in many ways, and so is the industry it operates in. 

Choosing the right CRM for your business can be a daunting task. There are many different types of CRMs in the market designed to solve specific challenges. It is very important for you to prioritize your needs and then objectively look at all the parameters before you decide the right CRM for you and your team. 

This guide is put together to explain the various types of CRMs that exist in the market, what do they specifically solve, which CRMs you should evaluate for your business, and finally what are the parameters you should consider while choosing the right CRM software for your business.

Before we get there, let us first understand why companies need a CRM software and what they could accomplish through it. 

Why Do Companies Need CRM Software?

CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) investment is one of the most strategic decisions a company makes. The right CRM can deliver a huge competitive advantage to help companies outgrow competition and gain market-share. 

A CRM system helps automate sales, marketing and service operations. These departments need to manage a lot of data and information pertaining to their leads, client details, deal information, tasks and activities, etc. 

Most companies in their initial days generally track all this information in various spreadsheets, word docs and sticky notes. Over a period of time, this unstructured and unorganized data breeds business inefficiencies and hinders business growth. 

Lack of CRM prevents organizations be proactive in their client engagements; thereby hampering client relationships and revenue growth. Companies also end up losing a lot of critical information about their clients and deals; which could have delivered them a competitive edge. Last but not the least, the lack of the right information pulls down your team’s productivity and their ability to efficiently meet client expectations. 

It is extremely important for companies to plug these holes in their business operations and lay the foundation for future growth. Most studies have proven that the right CRM can give a boost of up to 50% in your growth.

What Are The Different Types of CRM software?

To be able to choose the right CRM, it is important to understand the various types of CRM software available in the market. 

Deployment: On-Premise CRM v/s Cloud CRM

Generally, CRM systems are of two types depending on the type of deployment – On-Premise CRM and Cloud CRM software

On-Premise CRM software:

As the name suggests, on-premise CRM software systems get deployed within the company premises. The necessary infrastructure, hardware, application software, and database application are installed in the company’s data-center. 

On-premise software involves huge capital investments and costs. The costs include infrastructure, hardware, networking, application software, and database costs. 

You also need to consider the cost to hire and retain a dedicated IT team that can manage your IT infrastructure and business applications. In most cases, these companies solely depend of their own IT staff for supporting its users and change requests that come up from time to time.

The other challenge with on-premise CRM applications is that you will need to constantly plan for updates and upgrades of your systems. Only then you will be able to avail the latest capabilities and features. Also, these updates are extremely critical to remove security vulnerabilities that could come up from time to time. 

These upgrades are applicable to your hardware systems, CRM applications, and database software. At that point in time, one needs to also keep in mind the compatibility and interoperability aspects between these systems. 

If not planned well, on-premise CRM applications can lead to a lot of downtime and outages; thereby adversely impacting your cost of business operations. 

While making your decision, it is important that you consider all these parameters and then arrive at the Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TCO). It is not a good idea to blindly look at only the costs shared by the software vendor. I am sure you would like to avoid future surprises after you embark on a project like this. 

Many traditional companies still use on-premise CRM systems. Companies in Banking & Financial Services (BFSI) and Government entities generally prefer on-premise software to comply with data regulations and data privacy norms. 

Cloud CRM software:

Unlike On-Premise CRM, the Cloud CRM application is not deployed within your premises. They are hosted and managed in the cloud infrastructure. 

In this case, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is much lower than that of On-Premise software. You need not commit any upfront capital cost for in-house infrastructure or software applications. Cloud CRM applications are available on subscription based on pay per use model. Also, this model will allow you to scale-up or scale-down easily depending on your business needs. 

You need not spend a lot of money on software upgrades and updates that is generally witnessed with On-Premise CRM. You also avoid any downtime-related costs due to these upgrade projects. The Cloud CRM vendors will seamlessly push these updates making sure you are always on the latest version. 

Category: B2B CRM v/s B2C CRM

One of the important criteria to decide on the right best CRM for B2B sales is to consider the type of clients you work with. The way to analyse this is to look at who pays for your products or services. At a very high level, these get categorized in to two – 

B2B clients: you raise your invoices on companies or legal entities; they are the ones who pay you

B2C clients: you raise your invoices on individuals; end-consumers make the payments to you

The needs of B2B clients and B2C clients are very different. It is important that you select your CRM on this basis to make sure you get the best out of your CRM initiative. 

B2B CRMs are designed and built to enable long-term client relationships to maximize customer lifetime value (LTV); unlike B2C CRMs that’s designed to support high volume transactional businesses. B2B buyers are very rational and cautious due to higher perceived risks. Whereas, B2C buyers are impulsive and emotional. 

B2B CRMs allow you to manage multiple stake-holders, influencers and decision-makers at the client’s place. This may not be a priority for B2C clients. 

B2B CRMs support very high-touch complex sales engagements with long sales cycles unlike transactional short sales-cycles in B2C. 

Last but not the least, B2B CRMs help you to automate your Accounts Receivables (AR), Quotation Management, Order Management, and post-sales Service operations which are not supported by B2C CRMs. 

Department: Marketing vs Sales vs Service

Based on its operational use, CRMs are designed for various LoBs (line-of-business) and departments like Marketing, Sales, Service, Customer Success etc. 

The needs of these departments are quite different and it is important that you select your CRM keeping their objectives in mind. 

Marketing CRM: is designed for helping with large-scale marketing campaigns. The main objective of a Marketing CRM is lead generation, also called demand generation.

Sales CRM: is designed to accelerate end-to-end sales operations all the way from lead management to deal closure coupled with order management process. Main objectives of a Sales CRM are to improve deal conversions, sales productivity and sales efficiency. It also helps with sales activities and tasks.

Service CRM: is used by clients to automate post-sales and service operations. It is useful to manage service tickets, AMC management and timely service visits. 

Few CRMs like HappSales support a combination of these. It supports other departments like Accounts Receivables (AR) and Customer Success also through its unique integrated Account Management CRM framework

Industry: vertical-specific

As mentioned before, different industry verticals have their own unique needs. For example, a company operating in the Hotel industry would want support with guest loyalty and guest onboarding. Educational institutions would want to improve student engagements and acquisition. Hospitals focus on patient management and patient loyalty. 

So, it becomes important for you to make a list of your objectives that might be specific to your industry and then make a decision based on the solution fitment. 

Usage: Web-based CRM vs Mobile CRM

As per HBR, conventional CRMs have a very high failure rate. The main reason for this is due to poor adoption by the end-users who find these very boring, cumbersome and time-consuming. 

Mobile CRMs can help address these challenges, especially given the fact that an average person spends over four hours per day on their smartphones nowadays. 

Moreover, Mobile CRMs can engage the users better, and help them to capture and fetch information with ease. It is a great way to empower your reps with a productivity tool that can give them the flexibility and freedom to manage their business efficiently. 

HappSales is the only voice-enabled Mobile CRM that leverages Machine Learning and NLP technologies to help improve productivity by leaps and bounds. This is made possible through a unique personal-assistant called Ami. 

Mobile CRM apps also offer other capabilities like business-card scanning, easy attendance management, GPS support, etc. which are very useful for on-the-move reps.

Original Source: Choose the Right CRM

How To Build Long-term B2B Relationships Using B2B CRM


What is B2B CRM?

B2B CRM stands for business-to-business customer relationship management. B2B CRM system provides a strategic approach to meet your customer needs and build trust along the way.  This will help you close more deals with lower marketing costs. These systems offer contact management, lead management, opportunities and pipeline management, tasks tracking, and customer support modules.  The right B2B CRM can help you grow your business profitably and drastically improve client retention. 

Why is B2B different from B2C?

B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) are two different types of business models. In B2B, a business sells products and services to other businesses. While in B2C, a business sells its products or services directly to end consumers. Some of the key differences are:

• B2B sales involve longer sales cycles when compared to B2C sales.

• B2B transactions involve many decision-makers unlike B2C transactions 

• B2B sales are ongoing and long-term, while B2C sales are transactional and short-term.

• Unlike in the case of B2C, B2B strategies go beyond just sales transactions and are focused on building trust and long-term partnerships.

Therefore, B2B and B2C companies need to follow different approaches for customer relationship building. 

Why is CRM required for B2B Business?

B2B businesses are unique and complex. They need a CRM system to automate and transform their end-to-end client operations. These include operations across sales, lead management, order management, quotation management, service operations, customer support, account receivables, customer success, workflows, etc. 

CRM is very helpful in analysing organization-wide efforts and monitoring combined progress across departments. This helps in revising strategy from time to time and improving one-on-one customer interactions.

Specialized B2B CRM systems can be an important tool to nurture business relationships which can in turn help B2B businesses grow and succeed in the marketplace.

B2B Relationships & Life Time Value of a Customer

The lifetime value of a customer (LTV) is a measure of the total value that a customer can bring over the course of their relationship with the company. It is an important metric for assessing the potential value of a relationship with a customer.

Calculating LTV can involve multiple factors like the value of the initial sale, the potential for repeat business, the potential of upselling and cross-selling, and the potential for referrals. Some businesses may also consider the cost of acquiring the customer and the cost of servicing their account in their calculation of LTV. LTV can help prioritize efforts in business development and customer relationship management. 

It is advisable for companies to segment their prospects and clients based on the LTV. They can then have a differentiated focus on these segments for better results. 

How will B2B CRM capabilities help you

B2B CRM (customer relationship management) systems provide a plethora of features and capabilities to help businesses grow profitably through long-term client relationships. Some of the ways that B2B CRM can help in building long-term client relationships include – 

Account and Contact Management

In a B2B CRM system, users can manage and organize client information, contact information of all stakeholders, communication history, details about them and their roles, and notes on past interactions. By doing this, businesses can remain organized and easily access the information they need to maintain and strengthen client relationships. 

Opportunity & Pipeline Management

B2B CRM will help your sales teams to manage all the details about the deals and opportunities in one place. Visibility into their sales funnel or sales pipeline will help them stay focused on their key objectives and deal progress. 

A good B2B sales CRM will help them manage deal values, closure dates, closure probability, sales stages, etc., accurately in one structured place for further action. This helps in accelerating sales velocity with the ability to measure and improve critical sales KPIs like average deal value, sales cycle, win rate etc. Expected opportunities from existing customers, can be easily converted into sale in a proactive way when you have strong customer relationships.

Activity & Task Management

Efficiency in managing all tasks and activities go a long way in improving your team’s efficiency and productivity. 

Aspects like notifications, reminders for follow-ups, activity assignments and tracking are very essential to improve a company’s ability to execute their sales strategies. When internal processes are streamlined, customers get a better experience at every touchpoint. They feel happier about your company and recommend it more.

Account Receivables (AR) Management

Account Receivables management is an important capability required to help you manage timely collections and daily sales outstanding. 

You can automate the schedule of payment cycles as per the payment terms agreed with customers. Your finance team can then assign collection activities to owners and drive accountability for collections. This leads to easier cash flow and reduced outstanding.

Workflows for Team Collaboration

B2B CRMs also provides a workflow framework to help teams collaborate better. It can be effectively used for managing processes like sales order fulfilment that would require collaboration between multiple departments viz. sales, finance, logistics, finance etc. Streamlining all processes leads to timely execution which builds trust and confidence. This builds customer loyalty towards your company and brand.

Automate Service Operations

B2B CRMs go beyond just pre-sales operations and can help you to automate your post-sales service operations as well. It requires a lot of coordination for services and breakdown operations to provide timely service. Providing prompt services can lead to better customer relationships.

 They offer capabilities like – 

• Installed-Base Management to maintain details about your installations, equipment, service expectations etc.

• Service Visit Scheduling & Assignment to make sure your service teams attend to client service requests on time.

• Service Activity Management & Reporting to automate tasks around daily activity reporting and visit closure reports. 

• Configurable Forms & Service Templates to make it easy for reps to capture all information as per required formats 

Customer Success

Customer success capability will help you measure and improve customer satisfaction levels periodically. This lets you to proactively make the right decisions to build long-lasting relationships. You can measure end customer rating and  learn from their feedback This also helps in identifying newer opportunities.

Mobile App

A mobile app will allow your teams to manage day-to-day activities, customer follow-ups, and reminders effortlessly. This in turn provides better visibility for superior execution.

Mobile CRM also offers additional capabilities like easy attendance management, visit tracking, business-card scanning, expense management, offline support, etc. This article details the benefits of having a mobile CRM strategy.

B2B CRMs like HappSales also provide an intelligent assistant along with their mobile CRM. The voice-enabled personal assistant makes the app super-easy for your reps to use the CRM. This in turn helps you improve your CRM usage and adoption. You can read about this more here.

Original Source: How To Build Long-term B2B Relationships Using B2B CRM


ROI of CRM: Accurately Measure How Your CRM Investment Pays You Back

Introduction

Gartner valued the CRM market at USD $36.5 Bn. worldwide in 2017 which increased to USD $63.91 Bn. in 2022. While you may be overwhelmed by all the hype around it, you would want to accurately measure the ROI of CRM and understand how much will your investment pay back.

ROI (Return on Investment) measures the efficiency of your investment.  It is the ratio of the total income earned to the total cost invested for the CRM project.

As per Nucleus Research, a company’s average earning is $8.71 for every dollar spent on a CRM project.

Another article from HBR mentions the success of an aircraft parts distributor that tripled their number of daily sales calls and grew their customer base by 33% within just four months of rolling out their CRM system.

A CRM initiative is a very strategic one with long-term implications for your business. It requires both time and cost commitment at an organization level to get the desired results.

This article will help you to take a calculated and informed decision before you embark on your CRM journey.

CRM ROI Calculation – Total Benefits v/s Total Cost

ROI of CRM is a measure of the total return or benefits that you will accrue against the total cost that you incur towards the CRM project. It quantifies the true value or gains that you can expect from the CRM initiative.

So, when you are evaluating a CRM software, you have to measure the two most important factors –

You should not evaluate the worth or value of the project by considering only one of these parameters in isolation; which would be a very myopic view. It is very important to look at all parameters in a very holistic way.

Total Benefits from CRM – what metrics can you improve?

CRM is not just a tool. It is a very strategic and transformational initiative that can have very long-term implications for the success of your company. It has the power to transform the way you conduct your business, and manage your team performance and clients.

The value or impact of a CRM project depends on the way your CRM software gets deployed, adopted, and used by the users. You will get significant benefits from your initiative when it is optimized for all these aspects.

Let us discuss some of the benefits and metrics that you should measure.

Boost in Sales Revenue

A key indicator of a good CRM initiative is an increase in sales revenue. You can calculate how your revenue has increased over a period of time.

This is a factor of how effective is your b2b sales CRM team engaged with your prospective clients

It is important that you frequently measure this metric and take all the necessary steps to help your team grow this metric.

More Leads

A good lead management system makes sure that all the leads get captured accurately in one place. You can have a very structured and organized way of managing your leads.

This will significantly reduce the possibility of any revenue leakage and has a direct impact on your business growth.

Increased Qualified Opportunities

A scientific and proven lead management system will help your marketing team qualify for the right opportunities and assign them to your sales team without any delay.

This will increase your sales team’s focus on the right kind of deals and they will not spread themselves too thin.

Better Deal Conversion Rate or Closure Win Rate

A good CRM when used efficiently can hugely boost sales closure. Reps have a clear picture of where the customer is in his buying journey and can engage accordingly. CRM can help them better qualify their deals and help them decide the right kind of deals to work on.

It can have a positive impact on the way your opportunities get managed and converted to deals. With a higher and faster closure rate, the number of deals closed in a given time period also increases. Higher closure rates increase sales revenue and the return on your CRM investment.

Faster Sales Cycle

A good CRM implementation helps everyone to work toward a common goal. Your marketing team qualifies leads better and your sales team members are completely focused on deal conversions.

Using the CRM, your sales team can efficiently manage the deal stages and the overall pipeline they are working on. With better visibility into the deal’s progress, your management can also intervene at the right time to support the reps with deal closures.

This well-oiled machine has a direct impact on reducing your sales cycle, which is defined as the number of days it takes to convert a deal.

Higher Sales Productivity

An intelligent mobile app, like the one from HappSales, will allow your sales team to easily manage mundane operational activities with ease. Their valuable time can be spent more on revenue-generating activities.

Higher sales productivity will also improve your CRM adoption and usage. You can expect a lot of customer intelligence to get captured; which in turn can be used for better insights for improved decision-making.

Faster time-to-productivity of new reps

Attrition among the sales team is generally very high. You will expect a dip in your sales revenue when your reps leave. Many of the deals that they were previously working on do not materialize due to a lack of follow-ups. Sometimes they join your competitors and pursue the same deals.

However, with the right CRM, your reps can have easy access to all the client information and the history of all interactions. Armed with this intelligence, you can expect faster time-to-productivity for your new reps.

Improved Customer Loyalty & Repeat Business

A CRM system is essential to provide a scalable, consistent, and differentiated customer experience. A good CRM, like HappSales, provides you with a customer success module to manage and improve customer satisfaction.

Your entire team works in sync to improve this important parameter. Your happy and loyal clients will give you more repeat business. They will also recommend your product or service among their connections and help you generate referral business.

Decrease in Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Many of the above factors contribute immensely to reducing your cost of acquiring new clients.  It is also referred to as cost per lead.

Aligning sales and marketing teams through a common platform helps in better communication between both departments. This will improve deal conversions and minimize revenue leakages; thereby reducing the overall cost per lead. You will also be able to further optimize your cost in terms of effort, time, and resources.

Acquiring new clients becomes easier, cheaper, and faster.

Improved Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting is the foundation for running a predictable business. CRM can help you with an efficient methodology and process for sales forecasting.

Improved sales forecasting has many benefits. It can help to optimize your inventory cost, improve your budgeting & planning process, and increase your operational efficiencies.

Reduced Daily Sales Outstanding and Improved Cash-Flow

A few CRMs, like HappSales, offer the capability to efficiently manage your Accounts Receivable operations.  It can help you streamline and run a tight cadence around this function to expedite your collections.

This will improve your cash-flow position and provide you with better working capital to run your business.

Higher Service Revenue through Efficient Service Operations

An integrated Service Management capability in your CRM can have a huge impact on your service revenue as well as service profitability.

Efficient service operations improve customer loyalty, repeat business, and lower operational costs.

Higher Profitability

Many factors discussed now can, directly and indirectly, improve your bottom line with the use of the right CRM.

Some of the direct factors include – lower cost of customer acquisition, reduced cost of sales, better sales forecasting, higher repeat business with lesser efforts, better operational efficiencies and team productivity, optimized inventory through better predictability, increase in service revenue, faster time-to-productivity of new reps, lower sales outstanding (DSO), etc.

Improved Decision-Making & Reporting through Actionable Data

We all know that data is the new oil. Reliable and structured data has the power to give you an unparalleled advantage.

A CRM software can help you manage multiple types of data. These include data pertaining to your clients, leads, opportunities and pipeline, sales activities, key stakeholders, sales forecast, etc.

With all this data in one place, a CRM can help you in making the right decisions for your business.

Also, you will no longer have data scattered across multiple spreadsheets. Your team can easily fetch the required reports and you can reduce the cost of operations involved in preparing complex excel sheets.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – what cost elements to consider?

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of a CRM is the sum total of all investments required to be made to procure, use and maintain the software.

While considering the investment cost, people often do the mistake of considering only the software cost and ignore many other aspects. TCO being the denominator in the ROI calculation, a mistake here could lead to wrong analysis and judgment.

For the right decision, it is imperative to consider all the below elements when arriving at the total cost of ownership of a CRM –

ROI of SaaS CRM (Cloud CRM)

The TCO calculation of Cloud CRM (or SaaS CRM) is very different from that of on-premise CRM software.

As mentioned in the article, the TCO in the case of a SaaS CRM is drastically lower than that of on-premise software.

As a result, given that the benefits are nearly the same in both cases, the ROI in the case of SaaS CRM will be much higher compared to that of the on-premise CRM software.

HappSales CRM, one of the leading providers of SaaS CRM software, helps its clients quantify the ROI based on a powerful metric called Sales Velocity. Sales Velocity is a single number that considers the four most critical factors – No. of Opportunities, Average Deal Value, Deal Conversion Rate, and Length of Sales Cycle.

Summary

When you are planning a CRM investment, it is important you set your eyes on the expected business impact of the investment. It will help you set up some benchmarks for you to measure the success of the initiative and optimize its performance based on expected results.

At the same time, while comparing the cost of different CRM vendors, you should consider all the cost elements listed in this article to arrive at the correct total cost of ownership before arriving at the return on investment.

For a sales team member, companies generally budget for assets like laptops, mobile phones, communication expenses, infrastructure costs, stationaries, etc. A CRM is a much more strategic one with long-term business impact, and definitely deserves a bigger budget than these operational expenses!

At the end of the day, growing your business and having happy and satisfied clients (and of course reps!) is all that matters. So choose a CRM partner wisely based on their understanding of your business and their ability to closely work with your team to make the initiative a success.

Once you have the right CRM software in place supported by the right vendor, there will be no stopping henceforth!

Original Source: ROI of CRM: Accurately Measure How Your CRM Investment Pays You Back


Cloud CRM vs On-Premise CRM

Introduction

There is always a debate when it comes to choosing between an on-premise CRM and a cloud CRM. The parameters that you should consider when choosing between the two make all the difference.

Before we discuss on-premise CRM or on-cloud CRM, you should try to answer the following questions that will help you analyze what suits you better:

What is the budget you have set aside for the CRM project? This should include all costs like software, hardware, implementation, customization, training costs, etc. to arrive at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

On-Premise CRM Software

On-premise CRM software, also referred to as shrink-wrap software, was invented first for corporate-wide software deployment within the premises of the company. It is a big project on its own and will need huge up-front financial commitment. Read along to understand it in detail.

Cloud CRM Software (or SaaS CRM)

Cloud-based CRM system, also referred to as Cloud CRM software or SaaS CRM software (Software-as-a-Service), is the most modern approach to CRM deployment. It evolved in the 2000s as broadband gained popularity.

Increasingly more and more companies are adapting to cloud CRM. In 2022, 94% of enterprises are using cloud services. In the international market, even large banks like Lloyds Banking Group, UK, etc. are shifting to cloud computing.

Let us understand what might be the reason for the growing popularity of Cloud CRM in detail along with the advantages and disadvantages of both On-Premise CRM and Cloud CRM.

Differences between On-Premise CRM and Cloud CRM

The main difference between the on-premise CRM and cloud CRM is the location where they are hosted. This parameter has many implications.

Infrastructure for Hosting

On-premise CRM software is installed on servers within the premises of the organization. These include application servers, database servers, backup servers, and storage. It is generally deployed in-house and also maintained by the internal IT department.

On the other hand, Cloud CRM is deployed on the Cloud and not within the premises. You can imagine it as a virtual CRM available on-demand across the world. Cloud CRM software is hosted on the infrastructure provided by cloud service providers. The leading cloud vendors are Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. These cloud service providers follow very stringent global security standards.

Implementation Methodology

On-premise CRM software implementation methodology involves the setting up and configuration of CRM application servers and database servers. As a good practice, you will also require to set up separate instances for the test and production environments.

Traditional on-premise CRM is a huge project in itself. It can turn out to be a colossal task for the organization. The implementation team constitutes multiple technical teams for the implementation project. These generally include hardware specialists for installing the application and database servers, application specialists for installing and configuring the CRM software, a database specialist, functional consultants, and a project manager. You may also want to involve infrastructure and application security experts to build strong security governance.

All this requires multiple teams collaborating to make your project successful. However, in the case of Cloud CRM implementation, the hardware resources are provided and maintained by the cloud service providers. Your main focus and efforts will be to take care of the CRM application installed on these virtual servers.

In the case of SaaS CRM software (software-as-a-service), a large part of the setup and configuration of the CRM application is already done by the CRM vendor. It just needs to be customized a little depending on your specific business requirements. It is like a pre-built system available to you on demand.

Implementation Vendor

In the case of traditional CRM software vendors, you will need to hire a third-party organization to implement and configure your CRM application. This is over and above the vendor from whom you buy the CRM software licenses. Many CRM projects fail whenever you have a dependency on multiple vendors with them blaming each other.

But with a few new-age SaaS CRM vendors, like HappSales Account Management CRM, the software license and the implementation partner are the same. The vendor takes complete ownership of the software, its implementation, configuration, and training requirements. In this case, the success of the project completely lies with this one vendor.

Financing – Capex vs Opex

On-premise CRM software projects will require you to make a huge upfront capital investment. This capital expenditure includes application servers, database servers, storage, and sales CRM software licenses. In many cases, you will also need to provision for the real estate and the human resources involved in the implementation and ongoing maintenance.

In the case of SaaS CRM vendors, you need not block your capital upfront. You can avail a subscription fee charged by the vendor and treat it as an operational expense. It is like a pay-as-you-go subscription fee similar to your Gmail, Netflix, or Mobile bill subscription.

The subscription fee generally depends on factors like the number of users, features, storage, number of data records, etc.

In the case of HappSales Account Management CRM, the subscription fee calculation is the simplest. It only depends on the number of users with all features included and no limit on storage and the number of data records. That way there are no hidden charges and no surprises coming your way. You also get the flexibility to start small and increase your budget only when you grow your business and add more users.

Software Maintenance – Upgrades & Updates

Like any other technology, CRM software also needs to be always maintained. CRM vendors keep coming up with regular enhancements and improvements that get released in the form of software upgrades and updates. Here are some of the reasons for the same –

In the case of traditional on-premise CRM software, these enhancements and upgrades are like any other software implementation project depending on the type of upgrade. You will need to engage a team of technical and functional consultants to execute this upgrade project exclusively for you.

On-premise CRM upgrades will also require occasional system downtime. In many cases, you will also need to invest into hardware upgrades as well. All these investments make upgrades a costly affair. Also, missing these updates on time may lead to some business risks in-view of the constant security vulnerabilities.

But in the case of SaaS CRM software like HappSales.com, all these enhancements and upgrades are performed at the backend without disturbing your live instance. These updates get seamlessly pushed to every client. This ensures that all clients are always on the latest versions without the need for additional investments.

Scalability

Scalability refers to the ability of the software application to cater to growing business needs. It is not limited to only the number of users accessing the application. It also has many other implications like the load on the backend infrastructure, performance and response speed of the application, seamless access to the data residing in the database, hardware configuration, storage requirements, network support etc.

In the case of on-premise software, all the above-mentioned factors have to be considered as your business and requirements grow. You will need to provision additional investments regularly. In this case, you also carry a risk on your investment if at all you may have to scale-down due to unforeseen business downturns, like the recent one we witnessed during the pandemic. Companies ended up with excess licenses and capacity with vendors not willing to do any buy-back.

In the case of SaaS CRM software, both scale-up and scale-down both are easy to perform. The elastic and flexible severs and infrastructure provided by the cloud vendors can dynamically accommodate these changes without any limitations. You pay-as-you-go depending on your business requirements without any risk to your investments.

Data Security

Traditionally, there is a general feeling that your data is more secure when your data is within your premises, as in the case of on-premise CRM software compared to when the data resides in the cloud. However, lately, companies have realized this myth and there has been a huge shift in the trend with many companies, including some banks migrating to cloud services.

You need to remember that data security is solely your responsibility in the case of on-premise CRM software. You will have to take stringent end-to-end IT security measures across all components to protect your company from any threat to your valuable data. These include your infrastructure, application software, database, data-center, network infrastructure, your physical premises, and people policies accessing all these components. You will also need to plan and invest in to backup, business continuity plan (BCP), and disaster recovery (DR) strategies to safeguard your business at the time of disruptions like cyber-attacks and natural disasters.

During the recent lockdown due to the pandemic, many companies struggled to access their in-house servers with no resources available to restore or maintain them.

On the other hand, SaaS CRM software significantly minimizes many of the above-mentioned risks and investments. Cloud service vendors like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have the most stringent data security practices in place.

Your data backup is always available to address all the risks and disruptions. These factors significantly reduce your investment in IT security. It offers you complete peace of mind allowing you to focus on your core business without worrying about the upkeep of the CRM.

Human Resources & Skills

The human resources needs and associated skills required in both cases are very different.

On-premise CRM software will need you to plan for expert technical consultants. You need to also invest in network administrators, system administrators, database administrators, security staff, and systems to guard your server rooms 24*7. You will need to either recruit them to be part of your in-house IT team or rely on your outsourced IT partner. The resource costs in both these cases are very high. You will need to budget similar resources and costs even for the ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

In the case of SaaS CRM software, this dependency and costs are reduced to a very large extent. The Cloud vendor takes responsibility for most of the above-mentioned points. Moreover, their subscription fee includes all these costs. There are no hidden costs and you do not have to worry about any surprises.

Original Source:  Cloud CRM vs On-Premise CRM


How Can Sales CRM Software Help Increase Sales

What is the Need for CRM software?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a tool for managing all current and prospective customer interactions and their data in one place. This enables businesses to build strong customer relationships and leverage the data to help them make important decisions.

CRM software has been in existence for a long time now. It is widely categorized as Sales CRM, Marketing CRM, and Service CRM.

This blog is specifically focused on how Sales CRM software can help your business increase sales revenue.

What is Sales CRM? 

Sales CRM is a software application to help organizations automate their end-to-end sales process.

A comprehensive Sales CRM framework is required to help sales teams capture leads, nurture them into qualified opportunities and then convert the deals. It also organizes all customer data in one place which makes it easy for your team to access information with ease. That way, every member of your team has access to the same information across the enterprise.

By automating multiple tasks such as data entry, administrative tasks, contact management, etc., a large part of the sales process can be accelerated. Consequently, data organization and administrative tasks become easier to manage. Therefore, reps are able to focus on building relationships rather than wasting time on boring and time-consuming administrative work.

How is Sales CRM different from a Marketing CRM?

Before we understand this, let us discuss the primary objective of the Sales and Marketing departments.

We know that Sales and Marketing functions are deeply interconnected. Both these departments have a common end objective of helping organizations accomplish their revenue goals, and this is achieved through close collaboration between the two functions.

Having said that, there are remarkable differences between them.

Marketing focuses on creating awareness about the company and the brand. Their primary objective is to attract interest among prospective buyers and help create leads.

Whereas the Sales department’s primary focus is to engage with these prospects and convert them into paying customers.

This is precisely why different CRMs are available to cater to their specific needs.

Marketing CRM 

Marketing CRM will help you run structured marketing campaigns to help you generate leads and awareness among your target audience.

Using marketing best b2b CRM software, you will be able to execute specific campaigns based on different parameters. The most common parameters used are based on industry, company revenue, number of employees, location, decision maker, etc. 

You will also be able to run channel-specific campaigns like email marketing, social media marketing, inbound marketing, content marketing, tele-calling, etc. 

Marketing automation CRM includes features such as contact segmentation, email marketing, event management, social media integrations, etc. Some of them also provide ready-made templates to make the execution easy and faster.

Sales CRM

Best Sales CRM software will help you automate and manage your entire sales process. It is designed to help your sales reps and sales management teams in meeting their revenue targets. At the same time, it supports the backend sales operations team to collaborate with your frontline members to serve your clients better. 

A good Sales CRM system includes features such as contact management, lead management, sales management, pipeline management, opportunity management, activities and tasks, quotes and proposals, sales forecasting, and integrations with other business systems.

Using the Sales CRM, sales team members can effectively nurture their leads, track their progress and convert them into customers. At the same time, sales managers and leadership teams can have complete visibility into their team performance and provide the right guidance to support their teams.

Strategic imperatives of a Sales CRM software

The main objective of a Sales CRM initiative is to help clients transform their sales operations and build a strong foundation for growth.

A sales transformation initiative is a very strategic decision that leaders make. It should not be viewed as just a simple software project.

Successful CRM implementation projects take into account all four core components of business –

Business Strategy 

It is critical for leaders to define their business goals and objectives desired from this initiative. That way, everyone in the company is aligned completely and works towards a common objective.

Process 

A good practice is to document the current as-is sales process and the desired to-be sales process. This document will act as a blueprint for a successful project rollout. 

People 

The people component is one of the most important yet neglected aspects. It takes into account various factors like change management, technology adoption, training, organizational structure, incentives, etc. 

Technology

Last but not least is the selection and implementation of the right technology to support all of the above. This will include multiple aspects like selecting the right software vendor, the technology infrastructure like cloud services, implementation partner with the right domain expertise, data governance policies, etc. 

How to select the right Sales CRM

Selecting the right Sales CRM is one of the most strategic decisions you need to make. This decision lays the foundation for your growth in the years to come. 

No matter what your company size is, the right Sales CRM can help you be organized from the very beginning. The earlier you start the better.

Here are some of the aspects to be considered while selecting the right Sales CRM for your enterprise –

Original Source: How Can Sales CRM Software Help Increase Sales


Do You Know Why “Sales Velocity” Is The Most Powerful Metric For Sales Transformation?


Many sales leaders find it quite overwhelming to keep track of multiple KPIs while managing their pipeline. Some of the obvious ones are booking, pipeline, forecast, deal size, transaction volume, etc.

What if you had the time to track only one? Which one of these is the most important?

While engaging with customers, we found that many business leaders were not familiar with the numerical calculation and the implication of measuring “Sales Velocity”. However, most refer to the term “sales traction” in their discussions. They know that it is an important characteristic that defines world-class sales organizations.

The concept of sales velocity removes the subjectivity in this term’s traction. It offers an accurate metric that is numerically derived to help you improve the business parameters that matter the most.

If measured and improved diligently, this one metric has the power to transform your organization; and help you win over your competition.

Why should you measure Sales Velocity?

Management guru Peter Drucker said that – “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”. This is the philosophy of any transformation initiative that relies on measuring certain parameters and then improving them based on specific actions.

Sales velocity is probably the most powerful metric that reveals the most about time and money! It determines sales traction in terms of the effectiveness and health of the business.

So if you as a business leader need to improve traction, it is imperative that you measure sales velocity regularly and then arrive at the steps to improve.

What is Sales Velocity?

We know that velocity is a measure of how quickly an object moves over a period of time.

Similarly, in this context, the simplest definition of sales velocity is how quickly deals move through the pipeline or funnel. In a way, it measures the average revenue that gets generated by a company in a day.

How can one measure Sales Velocity?

Velocity in the context of the speed of a cyclist depends on factors like gradient, weight, wind speed, etc. Similarly, sales velocity (SV) is determined by the following four variables or factors: number of qualified opportunities (O), average deal value (V), win-rate percentage (R), and length of the sales cycle in days (L). It is a good idea to have a CRM that tracks these factors while your teams are updating their opportunities and pipeline.

Sales Velocity = Number of Opportunities x Deal Value x Win Rate / Length of Sales Cycle

SV = O x V x R / L

Let’s say your business has 20 qualified opportunities, an average deal value of $ 100,000 USD, and a win rate of 25% with a sales cycle of 60 days. So the calculation would be:

Sales Velocity = (20 x 100,000 x 25%) / 60 = $ 8333.34 USD per day

This means that your business is generating roughly $ 8333.34 USD each day. Now, your endeavor should be to increase this by either increasing the variables in the numerator or by reducing the denominator – or both if possible.

What are the factors that determine Sales Velocity?

By now, hope you agree that measuring sales velocity is pivotal to assessing the overall health of your business. A higher sales velocity means you are generating more revenue in less time. Measuring sales velocity over time will also help you benchmark b2b sales CRM performance and compare sales team effectiveness.

However, the metric alone could appear very random. Along with this numerical calculation, it is recommended that you analyze all the factors responsible for it in a comprehensive way and study how the changes could impact this calculation.

For some reason, most sales teams focus only on getting more opportunities and they tend to ignore the rest. Instead, you should encourage your team to optimize all levers to maximize the return from their opportunities.

Conclusion

You should ideally track sales velocity consistently every quarter to see if the number is increasing or decreasing; just like a business health score. We suggest you measure this separately for each of your market segments considering their unique nuances.

The true value comes from evaluating the impact on the metric by analyzing what you are doing with the rest of the factors. It gives you an opportunity to approach each of the four levers strategically and optimize them for the best outcome.

For e.g. while applying the equation, let us say the number of opportunities does not change. However, one is able to increase the average deal size and win rate by 10%, and reduce the length of the sales cycle by 10%. You would see that your sales velocity would still improve by 34%!

It is advisable to invest in a powerful Account Management CRM, like HappSales, to automatically track these metrics based on opportunity updates. A dashboard view will help you to easily identify the trends so that you could take the necessary steps and make the strategic decisions required to achieve desired results.

A complete and objective evaluation, if applied consistently, will equip you with significant insights to stay ahead of your competition. It would eventually set you to lead a best-in-class sales organization with unmatched performance.

Original Source: Do You Know Why “Sales Velocity” Is The Most Powerful Metric For Sales Transformation?

Go Beyond BANT Lead Qualification: Embrace the Modern BANTS Framework in 2022


Sales are both art and science; even more science in today’s world. And we say that because a scientific process and methodology backed with data has the capacity to exponentially increase your sales effectiveness.

A critical part of this scientific process is lead qualification.

What’s Lead Qualification?

Lead qualification is a process of identifying and qualifying the right prospects who are likely to buy your product or service.

In order to maximize the sales team’s productivity, marketing teams are generally entrusted with the responsibility of lead generation and qualification. They filter the right leads and share them with their associates in the sales department. That way, your sales team members are fed in with a channel of good prospects for them to fully concentrate on deal conversions.

To make the process successful, it’s important to make sure your sales and marketing teams are fully aligned and always working together towards a common goal.

MQL vs SQL – how are they different?

The marketing and sales team work together to maximize the chances of a lead getting converted into a long-term client.

As part of lead qualification, the marketing team is anticipated to gather a minimum set of information about the prospect and conduct a first-level qualification grounded on a set of qualification criteria. This filtered lead is referred to as a Marketing Qualified Lead( MQL).

Like in the case of a relay race, a Marketing Qualified Lead( MQL) is a stick that gets passed on from the marketing team to the sales team. This typically happens when the prospect is ready to connect and talk further with your sales team.

This is when your sales team engages with the prospect and the MQL becomes a Sales Qualified Lead( SQL). Your sales team is now anticipated to further nurture the lead and convert the prospect to a paying client. As you can see, SQLs do further down in your sales channel when compared to MQLs.

Every business follows a unique sales cycle. The criteria for MQL and SQL mentioned above could vary grounded on your business. It’s a good idea to think about it internally along with your sales and marketing team members to arrive together at the separate criteria.

What’s the BANT lead qualification frame?

The BANT frame is a well-known lead management qualification frame that’s taken in by numerous best-in-class sales organizations worldwide. BANT is an acronym for – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline.

It’s one of the most effective framewokr leveraged by sales and marketing teams for qualifying prospects. This frame, when embracing well, makes sure your sales team is pursuing the right kind of prospects without going on a wild goose chase. They can concentrate their effort and time on the right leads that meet the BANT criteria, thereby maximizing sales conversion in a lower time.

Let us understand BANT in further detail.

BUDGET:

As part of the BANT lead qualification process, it helps to check if the prospect has some budget in mind or if there’s any budget allocated towards the purchase.

It may not be easy to ascertain the Budget beforehand in the sales cycle. Still, knowing a ballpark range can help you decide on the other things needed to nurture the prospect. It also gives you some idea of what result could be proposed and what would be the opportunity size.

Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What’s the budget assigned for this action or purchase? ”

“Is the budget allocated for this fiscal time or the coming? ”

“What process do you follow for budget allocation and blessings? ”

AUTHORITY:

Authority in the BANT framework defines the decision-making power of the prospect. It helps to ascertain the part your prospect is going to play in the buying process. While some prospects could be real decision-makers, some of them might be crucial influencers. It could also be that you’re talking to someone involved in assessing options and also submitting their analysis report to the decision-makers.

Knowing this aspect will help you decide on how to engage with the prospect. You’ll also be in a better position to put together a plan to understand all the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process and the way to engage with each one of them.

Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What process do you follow to make a decision like this? ”

“Who are the stakeholders involved and what part do they play ”?

“Who’s retaining the budget for this action and at what stage will the person be involved ”?

“As part of the demand gathering exercise, who differently do you suppose I should talk to? ”

NEED:

Need is one of the crucial factors in the sales cycle. Prospects generally estimate results when there’s a specific need. At a high position, a need can be distributed either as Gain or Pain. They’re looking for a result either to gain anything or to fix pain or problem.

As part of the demand, gathering, or need discovery exercise, it’s critical to ask the right questions to the prospects. Responses to your questions can help you determine if the need is indeed a genuine one. You can also understand the significance of addressing the need, the possible results, the cost of not solving the need or the postponement, and if you have the capability to address the need.

Typically advanced budgets are allocated by companies for must-have-to-have results compared to good-to-have ones. They generally don’t look for results unless they have a pressing need, and a lack of which is causing any major complication in its process in terms of time or profit. Establishing these things will help you qualify your prospects much more.

Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What way have you taken in the history to meet this demand? ”

“Any specific reasons why you’re trying to address this need now? ”

“Which departments in your company will be impacted if this demand isn’t addressed ”?

“What’s the business outgrowth you’re trying to achieve with this action ”?

“What would be the impact of not having the result enforced ”?

TIMELINE:

Timeline refers to the estimated time the prospect will take to make a decision. It also means the time needed to convert the prospect into a client. It’s generally measured in terms of days or months, or quarters.

A better understanding of the urgency to address a need can help you ascertain the timeline. You should try and find out if the prospect has any deadline to meet. Generally, it turns out that the demand isn’t critical when the prospect doesn’t share a timeline or deadline that he’s trying to meet. In that case, you may want to formerly again qualify the need.

Questions that you may ask your prospects:

“What’s the timeline you have in mind to address this demand ”?

“When would you like to go live and see the impact of the result ”?

“What would be the impact of not having the result in place soon ”?

“May I know what are the other druthers that you’re considering ”?

Improving BANT lead qualification framework with BANTS

While the BANT lead qualification process has been around for a long time, it’s a good idea to extend the frame to BANTS by including one further critical parameter – solution fitment( S).

The new BANTS frame is an acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline, and Solution Fitment.

Solution FITMENT

This is presumably the most ignored parameter while qualifying a prospect. When prospects are assessing a purchase decision, they’re trying to select the finest solution to address their requirements. A prospect’s evaluation is also referred to as a cost-benefit analysis; the benefits part is of course taken through the right result.

So the prospect is well grounded on all the four BANT criteria, but what happens if you don’t have the right optimal solution to address the need?

In these competitive times, your prospects have numerous options to choose from. Your capability to convert the prospect depends on the degree of solution fitment and the competitive advantage you have when compared to other substitutes.

Role of the right CRM for lead qualification

In nowadays competitive business terrain, opting for the right sales CRM for lead qualification can give you the necessary edge to out beat your competition. It’s a strategic investment to run a predictable and sustainable business.

We’d recommend you consider a CRM like HappSales that supports the BANTS frame coupled with a scientific lead scoring model. This makes the entire process much more accurate and effective.

At the same time, it’s critical to estimate whether the CRM is a customer-friendly and practical one that your team finds easy to bring into action and use.

Original Source: Go beyond BANT lead qualification: Embrace the modern BANTS framework in 2022