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9 Ways Customer Data Platforms Offer Invaluable Insights Into Your Customers

Posted on by Pohan Lin

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are pretty self-explanatory in terms of what they’re used for – storing and organizing customer information. Sounds pretty simple, right? You might be wondering what the hubbub about CDPs is and whether this is one of the technologies you should embrace.

Well, first let’s go into a more detailed definition of CDP: A Customer Data Platform is a software tool that collects and organizes customer data from across different sources. It is used by a multitude of tools, including marketing software. 

CDPs take real-time data and structure it into individual customer profiles. Why is this useful? The more dynamic, up-to-date, and replete the information you have on a diversity of customers, the better you can hone in on who your customers are and work towards offering more satisfying customer experiences.

Valuable Insights and Benefits Of Customer Data Platforms

1. High Level Of Detail

At the core of CDP is identity data, which allows users to identify specific customers. Examples of identity data include first and last names, age, and gender, contact details, addresses, social media handles, and job status. Instead of relying solely on cookies to track users, CDP collects more concrete identifiers that provide companies with more opportunities to reach customers.

The high level of detail allows the software to identify individuals, which is helpful in terms of offering highly targeted content to consumers. You can use tools such as Infographic Maker to present this complex data in a more easily digestible format.

2. Data Is Stored As Long As Legally Permitted

Instead of focusing on the benefits of short-term targeted ads, CDP allows sellers to develop a deeper and longer-lasting relationship with the consumer. Data is stored for long periods – often as long as is allowed under local laws, which can be subject to change. 

This allows consumer-seller relationships to be nurtured further than they were before and for more information to be added about the consumer over time, creating a more accurate picture of their interests and who they are. 

3. Processes Real-Time Data

Data is collected directly from the source in real time rather than through third parties which ensures the data is highly accurate. First-party data from social media users, subscribers, site visitors, and customers is collected by CDPs, which is the most up-to-date data available. 

So instead of playing a customer-data version of a phone tag you can just find out all about your customers directly.

4. Data From Multiple Sources

Another thing that makes Customer Data Platforms so accurate and able to avoid duplication of data is the fact that CDPs collect data from multiple sources. This allows the software with integrations such as the PySpark datatype to cross-reference the data and see which of the data belongs to the same customer, thus avoiding replication. 

5. Unified Profiles

CDPs build unified customer profiles which help team members get to know their customers. This system helps with things like behavioral analysis to understand trends in interests and consumption and find patterns in all of the noise. Unified customer profiles are easier to share and discuss meaningfully as well.

6. Easy-To-Share Data

The data is formatted in such a way as to make it very easy to share across different departments. This means that everyone in your company and all of your collaborators can have easy access to the same dataset and work more efficiently as a team toward the goals you set. 

Instead of everybody crowding around Nora’s desk and squinting at her screen in exasperation, you can do that at your own desk, or even more likely these days, possibly from the comfort of your own home!

7. Data Hygiene

Perhaps hygiene is not a word you would typically associate with data, but all it means is that data is regularly, as a matter of course, tidied up and updated. This means you don’t have excess or out-of-date information lingering on your system, threatening to slow you down and render your work less efficient. CDP offers the electronic equivalent to dental floss. A little bit regularly will save you a world of pain in months to come.

8. Not Just Quantitative Data

CDP offers qualitative as well as quantitative data. This means that as well as numbers and figures, you have contextual information which helps you to understand the customer’s personality, values, and interests.

By understanding things like what motivates your customers, you can start to understand them more fully, and not just in terms of their buying habits. You can understand them as complete people and citizens, which is very helpful knowledge to marketers. 

9. Marketing-Friendly Format

The shareability of the data, the high levels of accuracy, and the unified data profiles make it easier for marketers to collaborate and develop campaigns that are both targeted and timely across different platforms. CDP allows accurate customer-driven marketing efforts, with breadth and depth of information, like a well-formed loaf of data bread.

The Takeaway

Customer data platforms offer a depth of information which is specific to the user, as well as breadth of information about every customer, such as what motivates them and what their values are. The data can be held for a long time, which allows us to build and nurture a stronger customer-seller relationship, and get to see how the customer changes over time. 

The information is easily shared across platforms, which makes collaboration easier, and it is sourced from many places and cross-referenced, which helps to avoid duplication. This is a useful software capability for a customer-centered environment. The real-time collection of the data helps keep it accurate and up-to-date, as does the collection of data directly from the source. 

The market for customer data platforms is rapidly growing with the industry expected to reach a size of over 20 billion dollars by 2027. This shows the value of accurate, up-to-date and thorough customer data. 

Inventory Management Software: Improving the Efficiency of Inventory Management

Posted on by Matt Bernot

Losing customers? Anxious about your company’s longevity? Adopting more efficient management strategies is part of the solution. In today’s business environment, successful companies rely on information systems built upon complex database technology to support management decisions and increase frozen asset turnover. This is due to inventory management software allowing businesses to automate processes that were previously manual and time-consuming, with counting and cataloging inventory being one of the biggest processes.

According to Clara Lu at Quickbooks, since the economy is showing signs of strength again following the pandemic-induced global recession, the need for increased inventory control, flexibility, speed, and more accurate fulfillment is paramount for businesses to thrive in an increasingly competitive global economic environment.. Many experts concur that computerizing inventory control results in more devotion to the B and C items, as to the A’s, in the typical ABC analysis while also expanding the analysis to include the profit margin per item.

The first step in finding the best software match  to manage your business processes is understanding the history of this monumental system and then determining what type of business model a software system caters to.

Inventory Management: Past to Present

Inventory management has been around for centuries, and has historically been based upon principles such as Push and Pull and cycle counting. However, the modern history of the inventory management begins in the 1940s with the creation of the barcode. By the 1980s, with the assistance of more advanced computers and software, the systems of inventory management worked in a cycle, from purchasing, to tracking, and then to monitoring inventory. 

The price of barcodes and readers decreased during this time, and by the early 2000s, inventory management software had transformed so much that businesses no longer needed to input data by hand, and barcode readers could instantly update their databases. Finally, the most modern development in terms of  inventory management systems is in regards to radio-frequency identification technology. RFID technology allows for more information to be contained within a computerized tag  and gives computers the ability to read these tags without being in direct sight. Therefore, inventory management tools are a significant part of a company’s management.

Inventory management tools can be split into two parts: mathematical models/methods of planning, and an information system that provides a continuously documented database of data. Online analytical processing provides sophisticated technologies from data collection, integration, retrieval, analysis, query optimization, and advanced user interfaces.

Inventory Software Set-Up

inventory management software

Inventory management software has grown tremendously in what it can accomplish for businesses, especially in the highly competitive and revolutionary era of the 2020s. However, any software you may be looking into will fail to assist your business if your inventory management system needs serious remedies at the fundamental level, not just the technological level.

The critical elements of an inventory management system are well organized location names, specific location labels, short and unmistakable item numbers, units of measure, and passionate employees who know to follow your strong policies. Once these elements are established, you will realize that using pen and paper or spreadsheets to maintain inventory data is difficult and failure ridden. Using inventory software will allow many users to access it, provide insight to your inventory activity, and assist in keeping an accurate historical record.

Inventory Management is for the Future

Recently, the world has seen a strong shift away from in-house and basic warehouse management software solutions, with 68% of organizations moving to full-featured, cloud-based inventory management systems.

With these new automated processes comes more frequent and less stressful cycle counts, increased inventory visibility, greater fulfillment accuracy, and fewer scenarios where items are out of stock.. Any growing business has a business owner who focuses on profitability and scalability, and while inventory management may not be the most glamorous aspect of business, it can save your business from eating itself alive before your dream can be accomplished.

The Takeaway

Inventory management software can save or greatly expand the power your business wields. Similar to adding a highly technical and sophisticated employee, the right software will be able to help you make important decisions and guide your company in a direction that you previously only dreamed was possible. Deciding on a specific inventory management software to meet your business needs may take time, but establishing the critical elements of an inventory system is crucial before making this move for your company.

4 Ways Data Management Software Helps Small Businesses Realize Their Potential

Posted on by Pohan Lin

Today’s world is absolutely filled to the brim with data of all shapes and sizes, more and more of which is being generated each day. By the start of 2020, people had generated 44 zettabytes of information with their digital activities. That figure is only going to increase in the years ahead.

21st-century businesses need to think about how they manage and use the data they continue to rapidly accumulate. That’s where data management software comes into play. We’ll explain what data management involves and some of the benefits it brings to small businesses.

What Is Data Management Software?

Today’s businesses have a lot of data to sort through. This data is generated when customers sign up for services, when they make transactions, or even when they interact with your business more generally – through channels like social media or simply visiting your website, for example. 

The data a business accumulates can be helpful. By understanding the activities of your customers, you can make better business decisions. However, you can’t interpret this data unless it’s been organized properly—which becomes harder when we consider how widely today’s data can be distributed and simply how much of it there is.

That’s where data management comes into play. It collects and organizes data in a way that is useful to you—augmenting things like gut-based guesses—while also protecting it from theft. Data management is typically achieved using a specialized piece of software, which can consolidate data from different sources before analyzing and visualizing it.

Data management is used by a variety of industries, including retail, banking, and manufacturing. It allows businesses to perform particular tasks better, like responding to customer expectations and managing inventory.  It’s also useful for various business sizes—including small ones—and can help you better understand concepts like database ACID.

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What Does Data Management Software Do for Small Businesses?

In some respects, it does the same thing as it does for large businesses. All businesses today (whether large or small) generate data, whether they aim to or not. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to do something with it.

Of course, if you’re looking for practical benefits, there are four major components for small businesses to be aware of:

1.    Increased Productivity

Data management means that all the data flowing into your business is organized. This, in turn, means that we can actually access it. Having this central, practical resource ensures that you and your employees can all use your time more effectively—as you aren’t wasting it in futile pursuit of something you need, like how much of a particular resource you have.

Data management also means you’re able to share information with one another more easily. Since even small businesses rely on teamwork, being able to work together effectively is a must.

2.    Better Security

The terminally-online, vastly interconnected nature of today’s world means a lot of the data we produce is sensitive. You need to make sure that the data your business has can be protected from theft, leakage, or simply irrecoverable loss. If you don’t, your business and customers could suffer financial or reputational harm.

A major part of data security is understanding what, exactly, you need to protect. Data management software provides a comprehensive record of what you need to think about. 

Crucially, however, it also comes with encryption and authentication functionality. This makes it much harder for bad actors to access your data. In the event that data gets lost, good data management software backs it up to avoid any unpleasant situations. 

Make sure to protect all facets of your business by improving front-end security for your websites as well.

3.    Higher Quality Decision-Making 

All business leaders have to make multiple decisions each day, which data management software makes easier. This is because this kind of software can actively improve your data’s quality by standardizing, parsing, and verifying the data you give it. Crucially, it does so automatically – meaning there’s only so much oversight you need to give.

Data management software also aids decision-making by blending different data types together. It allows the software to offer new business insights—and even answer questions you hadn’t considered before. This is another aspect of data management you can automate.

More importantly, data management software helps your employees to trust your decision-making. This is because the way you have come to such a decision is more transparent than it may have been in the past.

Indeed, better decision-making is a particular benefit of data management software for small businesses. A larger business can recover from a flawed business decision more easily than a small business can, as the former (obviously) has more resources to work with

4. Better Use Of Funds

data management software

Indeed, while it may come with some initial costs upfront, data management software can save you money. Demystifying a business’ inner workings prevents situations like data duplication, conducting the same research multiple times, or re-running expensive queries. All these cost your business money, and you could easily avoid them with the right software established.  

Naturally, the improvements to decision-making have an impact here as well. Making an informed decision means you’re more likely to see a return on any investments you make, which you can then re-invest into your business going forward.

The Takeaway

Data management software can seem like an extravagance, especially if your business is on the smaller side. However, it can be a very useful tool for day-to-day business operations. 

Managing your data ensures you can interpret and share it more effectively than before. Crucially, it also helps to keep it safe from theft or accidental loss. All small businesses should consider data management software if they want to maintain their edge.

Sales Forecasting Software: How It Predicts Earnings From Your Next Sale

Posted on by Pohan Lin

If we told you that there was a way to predict future sales that your business is likely to make, how would you react? There’s a good chance you would think that it was some kind of joke, or an elaborate hoax, perhaps. 

Well, the truth is that there are actually ways for business owners to forecast how well – or not so well– their products or services will sell, as well as how much profit they are likely to make in a specific timeframe.

The best-kept secret in the industry? Sales forecasting software. If utilized correctly, this can be a game changer for your business’ sales.

If you are curious to find out more, look no further than our essential guide:

Sales Forecasting Software: What Is It?

To put it simply, sales forecasting can be one of the most crucial aspects of your company’s success. 

It’s a sophisticated process that allows you to uncover invaluable information on how your products or services are performing, as well as how much your company will likely earn from them. And it doesn’t just offer information about how much you will earn by selling a specific product – it can also suggest best practices for when and how to sell that product. 

You might be wondering, if sales forecasting is so important, then why is it estimated that by 2025, up to 90% of B2B companies will still be relying on intuitive methods instead of analytics to predict their sales?

Intuitive methods are less accurate, and conducting the sales forecasting process using a less accurate or even obsolete method can have a massively harmful impact. Faulty sales forecasting can induce a negative domino-like effect that trickles down through your entire corporation.

It is also worth mentioning that sales forecasting is not the same as setting sales targets. With sales targets, you are looking at what your company hopes or wants to achieve in terms of sales at a specific point in time, but without utilizing the same type of analytical forecasting models that the best sales forecasting software can conjure up.

sales forecasting software
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The Benefits of Sales Forecasting

Let’s have a closer look at the benefits that your organization can achieve through sales forecasting.

1.    Optimizing Your Operations

If you run an ecommerce website, being able to predict the sales of specific items can be immensely valuable. It can, for instance, help you optimize your logistics, inventory, and supply chain operations, making sure that you always stock a good amount of your best-selling products.

But there’s more that sales forecasting can help you with. Departments like HR, accounting, and marketing all rely on accurate sales forecasting. Therefore, it’s vital that your company takes a modern, future-ready approach to forecasting.

2.    Helping with Sales Pipeline Management

Managing your sales pipeline is another aspect of your business that is heavily dependent on top-notch sales forecasting. This is because it will enable you to provide your sales reps and sales manager with up-to-date, precise, and trusted information on your products or services, which in turn allows them to close deals faster and more effectively.

3.    Keeping Your Customers Happy

You can and should consider sales forecasting from the perspective of your customers, too. 

For example, you are forecasting for a specific product to sell exceptionally well during a particular time of the year, you will need to tweak your stock accordingly to ensure that there are enough items to satisfy your growing customers’ demand.

As a result, if your customers are able to purchase your business’ product without any complications or delays, then they are much more likely to come back to you next time they need to make the same purchase. They might even buy something else entirely. The ability to create a high level of customer retention is a valuable asset that your business should be taking full advantage of.

How Does Sales Forecasting Software Work?

If you have decided to take a more analytical stance towards sales forecasting, then a sales forecasting software platform can help. By using one of these, you will be able to condense and centralize some of the main sales forecasting tasks, which include:

  • Historical data: Sales forecasting software collects past sales data on specific products to provide an accurate prediction of how much that product is likely to sell in the future.
  • Sales funnel: The way your sales funnel looks at this moment in time can be considered a good predictor of future sales. The majority of sales forecasting software has in-built sales funnel capabilities that let you enter all the relevant data about your sales funnel and provide you with a prediction based on that.
  • Pipeline forecasting: This method helps you create sales predictions based on your current sales pipeline. It achieves this by combining a wide range of elements, including average sales cycle length, individual sales rep performance, deal health, historical data, marketing funnel, and more.

What’s great about working with a sales forecasting software tool is that you can automate, integrate, and centralize all the above tasks – and many more – instead of relying on manual work that is prone to inaccuracies, delays, and human error. Some sales forecasting software platforms can be considered akin to resilient distributed datasets, which means that they can easily deal with and interpret vast amounts of unstructured data.

Unlock the Potential of Sales Forecasting for Your Business

In a world where data remains king, using that data to help you predict how your products will sell and when you should sell them is a no-brainer. This is what sales forecasting allows you to achieve – enabling, in turn, to raise your customer satisfaction, increase your sales, and optimize your overall operations.

Taking an intuitive approach to sales forecasting is not only obsolete, but can cause serious damage to your business, leaving you more exposed to competitors and market fluctuations. On the other hand, a solid, analytics-driven line is what your business needs to thrive in the digital era – and beyond. 

Still Doing Sales Reports in Excel? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t.

Posted on by Axelle Dervaux

Excel may have been around for over 30 years and is a well-established staple for many businesses, but like most pieces of archaic technology and data management methods, it may be time to put it behind you. 

Excel is still relevant, which is why so many companies rely on it, but it’s better for use with developing spreadsheets as opposed to in-depth sales reports and other more complex applications. 

Don’t count on it to serve as the main database for all of your data, especially if you’re gathering too much data for it to handle.

While Excel may still be useful for basic calculations, scheduling, setting budgets, charting, and planning, it’s not as ideal for analyzing or visualizing data, keeping your reports updated, or sharing information with colleagues or clients. 

excel document

If your business is still dependent on Excel to develop a weekly or monthly sales report, there are several reasons why you’re better off turning to a more efficient solution.

Kicking the Habit of Using Excel

Excel is like many other bad habits.

It begins innocently until it becomes a problem and the person becomes dependent on it. For example, that one-cup-of-coffee-a-day habit can develop into multiple cups, until even missing a single cup on schedule can result in a headache.

Bad habits can quickly go from beneficial to downright hazardous before you know it, oftentimes after the damage has been done.

The same goes for Excel, which may have begun with a single employee using the platform to create a comprehensive initial spreadsheet. 

That spreadsheet, or several of them, may have been invaluable in managing many pieces of data to help develop sales reports. 

However, over time, that advantage may have developed into a disadvantage as those spreadsheets collected more and more data, and various errors may be overlooked until they become a hindrance.

If you find that you’re still depending on Excel for financial management and completing sales reports, this software may be hurting your business in ways you’re not even aware of, much like other bad habits.

There are several reasons why Excel is potentially more of a detriment to your business than a help.

Excel Doesn’t Function as a Reliable Database

Spreadsheets can be helpful in keeping data organized in the short-term and in smaller quantities, but they’re no substitute for an accessible and secure database. 

It’s best to avoid using Excel spreadsheets to manage large amounts of data, as the platform is basic at best and potentially dangerous to use at worst. 

Excel is capable of handling many entries, but you’re likely to start experiencing performance issues with your operating systems if you don’t have the hardware to handle substantial amounts of spreadsheet data. 

In fact, the more formulas you use in your spreadsheets, the sooner you’re going to suffer from sluggish PC performance and crashes, which can seriously hurt your business.

There are multiple problems you can experience with Excel that make it less than ideal for use as a database.

Data Errors Can Put Your Business at Risk

One of the biggest problems with relying on Excel spreadsheets is the potential for various errors. 

cascading error messages

Unfortunately, Excel is error-prone and far from the ideal software for building and maintaining a complete and accurate database. In fact, MarketWatch found that even the most exhaustively checked and tested spreadsheets contain errors in one percent of all formula cells. 

The larger the spreadsheet and the more numerous the formulas, the more likely your sheets are to have multiple errors. 

As a result of these errors, large businesses have lost billions. 

Even perceivably tiny errors such as a faulty copy-paste have culminated in millions lost for some of the largest corporations. 

If big, well-established companies can make mistakes with their spreadsheets, so can you.

It’s important to keep in mind that human error is always a factor when people are counted on to manually enter and manage data. 

You could be the most thorough person with an eye for the smallest details, but you just might miss that one typo or miscalculation that could significantly harm your business. 

If you do become aware of the error, it can also take a lot of extra time and effort to identify and address it, which you could otherwise avoid with a more reliable system.

If your sales reports are more likely to contain errors, you’re also less likely to be confident in the data you’re collecting and presenting. 

That uncertainty could also cost you if you can’t pinpoint the best direction to take based on your reports.

You Can’t Trust Formulas to Maintain Accuracy of Data

The nice thing about Excel is that it comes packed with many formulas and functions that you can use to help automate spreadsheets.

However, the caveat is that the accuracy of data calculated with these formulas is only as accurate as the individual entering the initial data points.

Many of the calculations used in Excel are very complicated, with the need to manually enter various figures or program them, through the use of multiple spreadsheets and cascading formulas. 

In the process, you’re probably going to make a mistake at some point.

If you’re great with numbers and have years of experience in Excel, and you know precisely how to set up and manage the myriad functions and formulas, you might avoid most errors. 

Unless this is the case, it’s usually more work and trouble than it’s worth.

Insecure Sharing Can Leave Data in the Wrong Hands

When working with a data-driven sales team, it’s important to be able to cohesively collaborate. 

One of the most important elements of effective collaboration is data sharing, including the ability for entire teams to easily access trends, metrics, financial data, and key performance indicators, among other insightful and actionable data points. 

The ability to quickly and easily share crucial performance data is integral to a healthy, functional sales team, along with teams in other departments. 

While Excel can enable you to share data in a presentable format that’s easy to understand, it’s not the best method to use for data sharing. 

Relying on Excel for sharing sales and other data can lead to lost and forgotten emails, misfiling issues, and in worst-case scenarios, data falling into the hands of people who should never see it. 

Using Excel, you can easily lose track of who has access to your data and what they’re doing with it.

You may also run into other issues when sharing your data. For instance, some recipients of data may experience slowed performance or inaccessibility due to varying operating systems and weaker hardware. 

In other cases, sharing the same spreadsheet can result in overwriting and multiple data entry errors that are harder to catch.

Excel Can’t Effectively Visualize Data

In addition to being an unreliable database, another problem with Excel is that it’s just not useful for visualizing your sales data. 

If you’re considering using Excel spreadsheets to help build a sales dashboard or another type of business intelligence dashboard, consider looking for another option. 

Excel may allow you to visualize data with pie charts, graphs, and other visuals, but it will be difficult to share them with your sales team. 

Too many inconsistencies can arise as people look at multiple versions of an Excel dashboard, and errors are practically inevitable.

Instead, consider opting for business intelligence software to function as a dashboard that offers consistent results.

The Advantages of Using Business Intelligence Software

business intelligence

Through the use of dependable business intelligence (BI) software, you can experience several benefits that you won’t find when solely using Excel for sales reports. 

BI software can effectively serve as a hub for all of your sales data and reports using a centralized platform. 

Instead of working with multiple programs and data sets that you need to balance and manage separately, keep it all together in the same platform with a comprehensive BI solution.

The following are some specific benefits that you’ll get with the right BI software behind your sales teams.

Reduce or Even Eliminate the Risk of Human Error

Good BI software will allow you to connect it to all of your current data, which can help minimize the risk of errors, including issues with improper copy-paste and typos. 

To access and consolidate all data, the right BI software solution will be able to integrate with programs like CRMs, Google Ads, and many other platforms.

Benefit from a Sleek and Intuitive Design

Today’s BI software features better designs than simple spreadsheets, keeping your dashboard and reports visually engaging as well as accurate and accessible. 

Features such as filters, sorting, and zooming can make it easy to navigate your sales reports and visualize them in any way you want. 

You won’t need to worry about getting lost in massive and potentially confusing spreadsheets that are likely to give you a headache. 

Data visualizations can also be far more appealing than what you would get with charts and graphs on Excel and other basic platforms. 

Securely Update and Share Your Database

data security glowing

Using a safe BI solution, you can send sales dashboard data securely through the use of formats like live links, PowerPoint presentations, or PDFs. 

You may also be able to integrate your dashboard with another platform used for collaboration among internal teams. 

You can even schedule report updates to ensure everyone regularly receives the latest sales report.

Stay Consistently Up-to-Date

One potential source of inconsistency among sales teams is using outdated spreadsheet data, as you often need to refresh the sheet once you make any changes to data points. 

You don’t need to worry about constant manual refreshing with the latest BI software. 

As soon as you make any changes, your sales dashboard can automatically update to the latest version, which everyone on your team will see. 

Subsequently, you’ll never inadvertently work with outdated dashboards and reports. 

Perform More Accurate Calculations with Formulas

You don’t need to be a math or economics whiz to work with formulas thanks to today’s BI capabilities. 

The right software will also be able to provide you with the modules and tools you need to make accurate calculations with the right formulas. 

You no longer need to balance all of those functions and formulas in your head when they’re at the tip of your fingers.

Review Analytics Remotely

Regardless of where you and your team are located, you can make sure you have access to the sales dashboard from any access point. 

remote cloud access

Using secure mobile devices, your sales team can use an equally secure app to access the dashboard and make any changes or view real-time data. 

At the same time, everyone will be able to see the same sets of data, as the dashboard automatically updates with the latest information if your team makes any changes. 

Have Complete Control Over Accessibility

Apart from being able to safely and securely share data internally or with remote access, you can also make sure the wrong people never access your dashboards and reports. 

BI software can help ensure that only those with explicit permission to view your data will be able to see it, and you can optimize security by controlling individual access to dashboards, reports, or pieces of data. 

You can even make sure that specific groups of people have access to specific relevant data sets. This eliminates the need to create separate dashboards for different users, saving you even more time and effort.

BI Software Can Give You Everything You Need from Your Database

Excel hasn’t completely outlived its usefulness, but it’s not meant to be an all-in-one solution for sales reporting and data management. 

As your business grows and you need a system that can handle the accumulating data, you will need to adapt by implementing a more reliable solution. 

While Excel can help you get started, consider using business intelligence software to maintain the integrity of your data, eliminate errors, improve security and shareability, and keep your data consistently accurate. 

Using a complete BI platform, your sales teams will be fully equipped to measure performance and meet your business goals.

6 (Extremely Effective) Ways You Can Increase Sales

Posted on by Scott Hammer

Ask any business owner about their top concerns and you’re bound to hear it– more sales. Sales give a company the financial means to continue growing. According to HubSpot, “75% of companies say closing more deals is their top sales priority.” 

CRM

So how can you increase sales and support your team in the process? 

Invest in a CRM software system.

Multiple studies have proven the benefits of having a CRM system in place at your company. According to Capterra, “47% [of CRM users] said their CRM had significantly improved their customer retention rates and customer satisfaction rates.” 

But those kinds of results don’t happen by accident. It takes leveraging the information given to you by your CRM software, and putting that information to work, in order to increase sales.

What is CRM Software?

A Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) is a business management tool that can help you keep track of all of your company relationships. This could be relationships with both your existing customers and your prospective customers.

CRM Software→   Built for Increased Sales

When used to its fullest extent, a CRM system can help you maintain or improve customer loyalty and simplify sales procedures. 

Here are 6 ways to increase your company’s sales with CRM software:

Capture Quality Leads

One of the best ways to increase sales for your business is to capture quality leads. Capturing leads is a no-brainer for any business, but the quality of those leads can play a major factor in whether the sale ultimately goes through. Thus, if you always use great-quality images, you will notice an improvement in your lead generation and marketing.

By implementing a CRM software system, you can use tools such as form integration on your website to capture a prospect’s information. Once that information is in your CRM system, your sales team can access customer data with ease.

Arming your sales team with this information before they follow-up with the prospect gives them the best chance to make the sale.

Target and Sell to Specific Customers

Once you’ve used your CRM system to collect information from potential customers, it’s time to put that data to good use! With your CRM software, you can sort your customers by parameters like demographics, stage of sale, or location, and then target your sales efforts using that information. 

By having the ability to sort and qualify your leads, you can enhance your marketing and sales strategies, thus creating a likelihood that your business will increase sales.

Streamline Your Sales Process

crm software using an erp

When you reduce the number of steps in your sales process, you increase the efficiency and accountability of your sales team. A CRM system can help you do just that. When you have CRM software in place, you can easily keep track of your sales team’s progress, as well as monitor all of your customers through every step of the sales process. 

Monitoring this information closely helps you identify which practices work (and don’t work) for your sales team– and make the necessary changes to improve sales.

Reduce Admin Tasks and Boost Productivity

How much of the workday do members of your sales team spend manually inputting sales data into spreadsheets? Wouldn’t their time and efforts be better spent working towards making sales? With a CRM system, that’s what they can do. 

All of your customer and sales data entry can be automated in your CRM. This not only decreases the possibility of mistakes that comes with manual data entry, but also gives your sales team more time to focus on creating opportunities to increase sales.

Keep Customers Coming Back

According to Small Business Trends, “It costs 5% more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep a current one.” 

It literally pays to invest in customer retention. 

By having a centralized storage hub for all of your existing customer data, you can figure out the best ways to market and sell to those customers. 

For example, if you know a customer purchases the same product every three months, reach out to them early and try to upsell them on an additional service. By showing your customers that you are invested in their past, present, and future experiences with your company, they will feel more inclined to stay (and continue buying) from you.

Get Accurate Sales Reporting

In order to make improvements to your company’s sales tactics, you first need to know what your current company sales landscape looks like. By having a CRM software system in place, you can easily generate customer reports using any parameters that you define. These reports can help you better assess what is (and is not) working for your company and what changes to make in order to improve sales.

Conclusion

crm software on erp system

Implementing a Customer Relationship Management system at your company is a great way to streamline several of your business practices. 

Storing all of your customer (and potential customer) data in one location gives your entire organization access to this vital information. If used to its fullest potential, the data provided from your CRM software can enhance customer relationships, increase company productivity, and ultimately, improve sales for your business.