Sales Force Automation – Explained!
Perry Blanc is Times Square’s most celebrated florist and people from all walks of life flock to his door throughout the day. She even takes orders online to make someone’s day special. Perry’s employees are as fresh as their flowers and complete each order with pinpoint perfection. However, lately it has been getting too many orders and things have gotten a bit wonky. There have been two consistent erroneous submissions in a week, in addition to submission delays and an inappropriate message that was placed on a crown (!). There was also a case where one of their employees lost a receipt that had contact details on it. Perry’s reputation is on the line and he just wants his business back on track. Perry talks to his friend Mark, who is a CRM consultant. After hearing about Perry’s struggles, it’s clear to Mark that sales force automation is what Perry’s flower business sorely needs.
Problem 1: Customer data is lost
During peak seasons, quite a few orders were lost. Sometimes the busy staff on the phone didn’t write down the customer’s phone number or delivery address!
Mark’s prompt action:
It pained Mark to see orders being lost just because customer details weren’t recorded! Perry urgently needed a solution to manage contact data for his clients. Mark set up a simple CRM system for Perry that would allow his staff to record customer details just once so that the next time a particular customer calls, Perry’s staff would automatically pull their records by simply looking up the name or phone number. contact phone.
Problem 2: Loss of order details and lack of communication
For custom made special orders, many times the overworked staff would forget to pass the details to the guy who did the special flower arrangements, sometimes even ending up sending the wrong details.
With the new CRM system, when a customer placed regular orders for orchid bouquets, the system would have all the records (color, size, and arrangement) in the order history along with contact details. Perry’s staff now only need to pick from the order list when the next requirement arrives. Once an order is taken, an email and SMS are automatically sent to the guy making the bouquet. So no more worries about lost orders!
Problem 3: Missing billing and therefore missing payments
Philips & Co. places regular orders for flower bouquets, the expiration date of which is settled monthly. His CEO had ordered a few extra bouquets this month during his deputy’s visit, but Perry’s staff didn’t include them in her monthly bill.
Now, every time an order is placed, Perry’s staff logs it into the system and it automatically syncs with billing software that would have an invoice ready to send to the customer. Perry’s staff now also know which of their customers need special attention by looking at the payments they make: fast, high-value, high-frequency customers now get extra special treatment no matter what time they call.
Problem 4: Not knowing which team member needs help with training
Perry had hired two new switchboard operators by the time she heard about the opening of the competitor’s fancy bouquet shop just down the street. In addition, he also has a sales team that deals only with large corporate orders. However, things have not improved and she now needs to know which of her team members need additional training and attention to receive orders.
With the new system in place, Perry can now easily structure sales commissions from the sales activity details recorded for each executive. Prepared reports also help to compare the performance of team members. Through the same CRM platform, Perry now occasionally shares training materials, discount ideas and customer success stories that help his executives perform better on the job.
Problem 5: Forecast sales and have enough inventory
One of the biggest problems affecting the business was the lack of stock. Just as a promising customer walked in, there were no more orchids left. Perry would sometimes overstock to avoid such situations, but depending on how hot the summer was, the flowers would end up wilting after a few hours.
Perry now predicts how much stock he would need by looking at graphs that show daily, weekly, and monthly order history. She even knows how much stock she would need per type of bouquet/flower/color/; she can now easily identify and plan for off-season and off-season times.
Problem 6: Lack of follow-up on queries
Corporate orders are a big prize for Perry. Organized conference orders at the nearby community room would give him enough sales to cover an entire quarter’s expenses. The only problem she would lose would be following up on inquiries that would result in orders after 2-3 months.
The ROI of the CRM system came from this unique ability to remind sales executives when they needed to follow up on an inquiry at a later date. Huge corporate reserves (and huge profits) were now easily closed and handed over. Perry’s sales and marketing teams now even buy lists for email campaigns run from the CRM system.
Having seen how Perry is employing Sales Force Automation, let’s summarize the main components:
- Customer and Contact Management: Contact details need to be entered only once.
- Order management: automatic email and SMS on each order.
- Invoice management and payment tracking: CRM system synchronized with billing software and vice versa
- Sales team performance evaluation: sales commissions and training sessions structured in sales activity reports
- Sales Forecasting and Inventory Management – Detailed daily/weekly/monthly order history charts
- Lead Management – Email campaigns and reminders about follow-up required
So, that’s the story of Perry the Florist. Now, getting down to business with him…
Can you see the correlation between Perry’s problems and your own business? And how can Sales Force Automation help you? Well, then think about it, while I come up with a suite of CRM tools you may want to consider, in my next post!
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