No two Salesforce implementations are the same. Each of our clients has unique processes and requirements and it's our job as Salesforce consultants in Dubai to design and built CRM platforms that reflect those bespoke requirements. The first step in working with Tenacre is to define the scope of work for the Salesforce project.
This process can be difficult for many of our clients, so we've written this article to provide assistance. Remember that your Tenacre consultant will walk you through each of these steps, you won't have to undertake any of these activities by yourself.
A report by the Aberdeen Group tells us that 84% of inquiries that businesses receives will not convert to a sale. These inquiries are usually expensive, you've paid out marketing budget for Google Adwords, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter campaigns.
So what's the problem and how can you fix this?
For companies in Dubai and the GCC region, succeeding in sales and sales management is can be dependent on the tools and technologies that are used. Many of our clients relied on spreadsheets or basic CRM platforms before making the decision to upgrade their CRM to Salesforce with the help of Tenacre consultants.
Once the decision has been made to move to Salesforce, what are the benefits that you can expect?
A Salesforce project can often seem daunting, particularly if you haven't been involved in one before. Depending on the degree of change that Salesforce will bring to your company, the key to getting the CRM up and running is to prepare thoroughly. While each project that we work on is unique, there are common themes that the team at Tenacre has identified that could help you prepare better before the project kicks off.
For companies in Dubai and the GCC region, succeeding in sales and sales management is can be dependent on the tools and technologies that are used. Many of our clients relied on spreadsheets or basic CRM platforms before making the decision to upgrade their CRM to Salesforce with the help of Tenacre consultants.
Once the decision has been made to move to Salesforce, what are the benefits that you can expect?
The only thing that's worse than losing a deal, is losing a deal and not learning anything from it. For sales professionals lost deals are a part of the job, and for the most part, we take it in our stride. From a business perspective, there's still a lot of value in these deals that need to be captured and evaluated. Some of the best sales-orientated companies that we have worked with take a rigorous approach to capturing and categorising each deal that they don't win. When Tenacre implements Salesforce CRM Dubai, we always add a feature that requires the salesperson to add more information to the record when they are closing an Opportunity as 'Closed Lost'. This information isn't to drag the sales staff over the coals, but to ensure that each of our clients are capturing and evaluating this valuable information.
Here's how why you should start evaluating each lost deal, and some tip's on how to start this process off.
I tell a story to all our new clients when we are training them how to generate reports in Salesforce CRM. This story is told to illustrate how to look for trends in Salesforce, and then take corrective action if necessary. The story goes something like this;
We see a lot of our clients that start to use reports from Salesforce to track the source of their leads. In a lot of cases, these reports will show that the main driver of new leads is Google Adwords. The second report that we show them is the source of closed sales, and in this case, it's not uncommon to see that Adwords delivers a far lower percentage of the revenue that would be expected, particularly from a high volume of leads. The point of the story is - what do you do next?
A Salesforce project can often seem daunting, particularly if you haven't been involved in one before. Depending on the degree of change that Salesforce will bring to your company, the key to getting the CRM up and running is to prepare thoroughly. While each project that we work on is unique, there are common themes that the team at Tenacre has identified that could help you prepare better before the project kicks off.
As an owner of an SME, sometimes we don't have the time or headspace to stop and think about how we manage the sales process in our business. Very often we do things because that's the way we've always done it, right?
Take 60 seconds to think about how you manage sales in your business. Here's some ideas to get you thinking.
So you've made a decision to move forward with Salesforce! Congratulations on that, bringing the worlds #1 CRM into your business is a smart step that can lead to great outcomes with your sales, marketing or services. In the early stages of your project your main area of focus will undoubtedly be designing the system with your consultant, and making sure that the CRM is technically built out, bug-free and to your specifications. It's now time to also think about what happens after you go live with Salesforce.
How to you motivate the team to use it correctly over the long term?
Running a small business means that you wear many hats - sales manager, marketing manager, agony aunt and motivator in chief (among many others). While some of these responsibilities can be managed on an ad-hoc basis, sales and revenue is the lifeblood of your company.
We suggest five ways that you can manage the sales process that will keep your sales machine churning out new sales on a monthly basis.
John Wanamaker, the US Department Store tycoon said, 'Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half'.
For our clients in Dubai and the UAE the issue about advertising effectiveness is also a big concern. Small companies need to advertise, just like the big companies. For most businesses that we work with the SME would have a monthly budget for online advertising that may include some or all of Google Adwords, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Helping our clients to design a Salesforce CRM involves getting into the detail of how the sales teams are organised. The consultant from Tenacre needs to understand how the teams are structured and what the sales reps targets are. This information is a vital input to how we design your CRM. When it comes to optimising Salesforce and your sales plans for growth, one of the fundamental elements should be developing different plans for different target groups.
In an ideal world, your business will have perfect balance and performance right across the board; sales, marketing, finance, HR etc. In reality, most of us that own or manage an SME spend more time that we'd like running from one fire to the next to make sure the business keeps moving forward. We'd like to share how Salesforce CRM can help bring some organisation to the chaos.
Salesforce Dashboards displaying key sales data, closed deals, sales pipeline, and product sales
For many SME businesses, the focus of marketing activity is undertaken to generate new leads and opportunities for the sales team. Inbound marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin, yet many companies evaluate their success independently of each other. As Salesforce consultants in Dubai, we've spent a lot of time with businesses that are changing their culture to be more sales oriented. Here are some behaviours that we've noticed the successful companies adopt.
I’ve been involved with Salesforce now for over 12 years, mainly as a customer but more recently as a partner, consultant and developer. In that time I’ve been involved in setting up dozens of CRM platforms for companies of various sizes (though mainly medium to small here in Dubai). Knowing what I know now, what advice would I give to anybody that’s getting ready to take on a Salesforce project?
I think the following might be useful;
I refresh the 'Opportunity Pipeline' report in my Salesforce system at least twice per day. Like most business owners I am preoccupied with seeing if we're closing enough deals and creating enough new ones. We like to see what business we are winning, and what we need to close to turn a poor month into a good one, or better still, a good month into an excellent one.
A client of ours in Dubai Media City recently closed off their end of a quarter in March. In the final three weeks of the month, they didn't have the numbers to hit the target, and the value of their sales opportunities wasn't going to get them over the line either. This company is a media sales business and has been using Salesforce for the past six months. All the leads that are generated from their website and social profiles are filtered into Salesforce as Leads.
Pulling sales reports from Salesforce CRM to focus on the closing deals
Sales leaders like love having their key sales reports and dashboards displayed on their Salesforce homepage. Seeing their closed sales value, pipeline by stage and sales leader report gives you an instant understanding of the position your business is right now with regards to the revenue generation effort.
A question that we pose to our clients at the beginning of each project is, how do you define your sales opportunity stages? We find that each company is different, and each industry has characteristics that influence the definition of how we break up the key stages of the sales process. We'll take a look at some of the most common formats that we have seen. Remember, one of the reasons that we are concerned about the sales process stages is to enable better sales and revenue forecasting.
Most of us have sales meetings on a regular basis, usually each week or month. Making this time with your sales (and marketing) team effective can result in much better sales performance, so it's worth considering how you are running these meetings and if you can shake things up a little.
Here are seven tips for more efficient sales meetings.
One of the many reasons that Dubai SME's are using Salesforce in increasing numbers is because of the salesforce marketing tools. Small businesses need to market and advertise themselves to attract new clients, we know this for sure. For most of us that run a small business, we need to pick some marketing activities that are effective, cheap (or better, free) and that we can repeat regularly.
Companies that use Salesforce CRM have tools for managing the sales process that massively increase the likelihood of the success. A recent report published by Salesforce examined over 20,000 sales opportunities and highlighted some common characteristics of the deals that close compared to opportunities that don't.
At Tenacre, we like startup businesses, and in Dubai there are thousands of you every month!
Its striking that there are so many startup business that contact us before the company starts trading to get their systems in place. This shows that entrepreneurs recognise the value of starting a business in a way that organises data, gives the sales team the best possible chance of succeeding, and brings the entire team together on a single platform.
So what does a startup business get from Salesforce, and why should they spend precious capital on a CRM?
They say that 'information is power'. When you're a Salesforce client you are going to have the option of creating many, many reports that can show you information on your business. The key to viewing this information is to consider,
a) what you can learn from it, and
b) what you can do with it?
Here are five reports that we recommend all our clients use as standard.
