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Sales Process Improvement

The beginning of the sales process has traditionally been considered the most important part. But now that most sales representatives know how to get a prospective customer's attention, businesses are shifting their attention to the end of the process.

How you treat your customers after a sale is the most important factor of customer loyalty. If they get the feeling that you just wanted them for their business, then they'll have no motivation to come back again.

Showing gratitude to customers and keeping in touch with them is the best way to build customer loyalty. According to a recent Small Business Trends article, a nice gesture after a sale can help you keep the customer forever:

"No one owes you business. Be sure to thank your customers for their business. Showing gratitude with a personal call or note of thanks can go a log way. Over deliver if you can. Surprise a customer with an early delivery of their products. If you build a relationship and constantly add value to the relationship you will have customer for life."

Customer loyalty is a common thread among successful businesses. It's not a sustainable strategy to keep looking for new customers and letting them go after one transaction. You'll eventually run out of leads and your sales process will dry up.

If your customers keep coming back, on the other hand, then you won't need to constantly search for new leads. As a bonus, doing business with returning customers is considerably cheaper than recruiting new ones. All in all, fostering customer loyalty is a top priority for all businesses.

The beginning of the sales process is important, but most sales representatives know what they're doing in that regard. It's more efficient to focus on the end of the sales process and build customer loyalty. For more information about sales process improvements, or anything else, contact us today.

Relationships between sales representatives and customers are crucial for businesses. While it's more of an old-fashioned strategy, some companies still rely on these relationships for future sales.

It's okay if companies have this strategy, but they have to invest in order to fortify it. Placing the entire weight of a business' sales on the shoulders of sales representatives just isn't fair. You can't expect them to memorize each little detail about clients and close every sale.

You can, however, support sales representatives to lighten their burden. Sales tools, such as ACT!, Hubspot, or Salesforce (CRM software), make it easier for sales representatives to stay organized. This way, they can look back on information about the past sales of a client and utilize it in future negotiations.

A recent Small Biz Trends article talks about the benefits of CRM software. The article explains how the software can help keep representatives organized by creating a contact list and making information easily retrievable:

“When dealing with hundreds or even thousands of customers, it’s easy to become disorganized and overwhelmed. Fortunately, the right CRM software makes it simple and intuitive to keep customer information organized and retrievable. By maintaining a contact list, it gives you quick access to a wealth of information like customer email, telephone, buying history and birthday.”

CRM software takes some of the weight off of sales representatives' shoulders. They no longer have to memorize and record each sale or order. The information is organized and presented in a way that's easy to interpret and understand.

Companies can still rely on their representatives for sales. An investment in CRM software simply hedges this bet. Sales representatives are better equipped to do their job, which should translate to more sales for the company.

If you are interested in CRM software or would like to keep your sales representatives organized, contact us.