Conversions are the bottom line of business – the end goal.
Granted, there are no shortcuts. You have to produce well-structured quotes and tenders that provide compelling reasons to choose your company, and you have to do it consistently over the long haul.
But no matter how well prepared your quotes and tenders are, they never hit the mark 100% of the time, so there’s always room for improvement. There’s also the issue of prospects taking their time to sign on the dotted line and make your proposal less than a pressing priority.
So, how do you strike the right balance, and increase the conversion of quotes into sales? Here are five tips to boost your trustworthiness and your conversions.
1. USE CRM
A good knowledge of your prospects enables you to develop quotes that target their specific need, but where do you get, store and sort information about your contacts? A customer relationship management system can be a powerful tool in your quote-to-sale armoury.
MYOB EXO CRM Module and other similar solutions can offer you complete visibility and let you record your prospect’s quote likes and dislikes, their location, their spending patterns, age and gender, tastes, needs and buying habits. This will give you a detailed picture of their spending power, giving you the opportunity to modify your quotes and devise them according to their liking.
2. LEVERAGE CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS TO ADDRESS LEADS EARLY
An article published in The Harvard Business Review pointed out that leads addressed within the first sixty minutes are seven times more likely to develop into meaningful conversions. Prospects may have questions about quotes, product features, the stock available, etc. These need to be addressed quickly if you want to see an uptick in conversions.
Doing all this requires a unique customer management solution, such as the one found in EXO finance. Companies can use it to manage all the customer contact details to manage quotes, invoices, orders, stock, inventory and more, along with sales and marketing activities. Such solutions can help you comprehensively understand your customers and manage your companies and quote contracts; the sales staff will love the real-time stock updates as it will enable efficient addressing of prospect queries.
3. IMPROVE QUOTES BY USING OLD PROJECT JOBS AS A TEMPLATE
You can manage the profitability of your projects and jobs in real time by providing direct visibility of all your process, input and time costs, including labour hours, materials, equipment hours and consulting hours.
This is possible through job and project costing solutions that enable you to identify any variances and make appropriate quotes. And by reviewing previous jobs in areas like job resources, cost types, cost groups, job types, job resources and, most importantly, quote terms, you can save time on complex projects.
4. INTEGRATE SALES MESSAGES
Integrate marketing and sales messages into your proposal. Since quotes are a part of the sales process, you need to reinforce the reasons to choose your company versus one of the competitors.
If you don’t provide them a reason to choose you, you could end up being a textbook example of a poorly handled sales proposition. So ensure that your prospects don’t simply base their decision on the quoted price.
5. INVOLVE THE KEY DECISION MAKERS
Once you identify who key decision makers are, talk to them and involve them in the sales process in order to expedite the quote for the prospect. This also lets you handle any avenues for buying objection with the prospect involved.
Once there is an agreement, send the quote document promptly in a professional manner. Talk it through with the person who is responsible for the ultimate decision. While it’s not always possible to do this, it doesn’t hurt to try getting input of key decision makers.
As a business owner, two of your main goals will be to improve communication with your customers and to streamline your business practices. If you want to succeed in business, then you need to be able to contact your customers quickly and effectively, while at the same time making your business more efficient.
Luckily, there is a new technology that helps you to do both. Its name? Mobile customer relationships management software – or mobile CRM for short.
Mobile CRM takes advantage of the fact that clients are now on smartphones or tables, and wish to communicate quickly immediately with suppliers – they want to know the status of their order or your stock levels there and then – mid-meeting, not once you’ve travelled back to the office to check it out.
If you’re looking to grow your business or to improve your customer communications, then you need to consider mobile CRM, and here’s why:
Increase your revenue quickly
As a first benefit, you can quickly increase your revenue and bottom line. With mobile CRM you can give customers the answers they require quickly – finalise projects and deals before you even leave a meeting.
You can access the information straight away, rather than waiting to get back to the office. The faster you can communicate with customers, the faster deals get done. Simple!
Faster response times for clients
Fast response times to clients equals good customer service. Mobile CRM means that no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you can respond to a client. What’s more you can also solve urgent or important matters instantly.
Clients don’t like waiting for you to get back to them. If they have a problem and you don’t respond, it’s often not long before they consider taking their business elsewhere.
Don’t lose clients because of avoidable delays. Embrace mobile CRM and start providing outstanding customer services that your clients will rave about.
Stronger relationships with clients
Fast response times by themselves are not enough if you don’t have the right answers. When you respond you need to have all relevant information about the client at your fingertips. This way you can go into detail about their account, and also discuss current issues or projects that they have.
It’s customer service 101 – when you provide these two elements together you show your customers that you care about their business – you’re up-to-speed on their account and your business processes are tight and controlled.
Mobile CRM allows you to do this by giving you quick access to your client’s full account history right there on your mobile or tablet app! You could be at a trade fair in Perth CBD and your colleague could be on the road making a sales visit in Bunbury. No matter where they are, all staff will have access to customer account info.
Improved organisational skills
The beauty of mobile CRM is that you don’t actually have to be that organised to use it!
Not only does it help your clients via excellent customer service, it also helps you run your company, and improve and integrate your procedures.
Mobile CRM options – such as our mobile CRM plugin for MYOB Business Process Software – allow you to integrate your existing accounting practices and business practices with mobile CRM.
If you have staff in multiple offices or staff out in the field they can undertake their accounting, stocks and ordering while on the road. This improves effectiveness and efficiency of your business dramatically.
Improves your sales force effectiveness
If you have sales managers who are constantly on the road, you can see amazing benefits from mobile CRM.
Rather than coming back into the office to process sales, they can do them automatically from location. This means faster processing times for clients, and more time for your sales staff to be out their making sales. Win-win!
In short, every business is constantly looking for ways to improve business practices, customer service, and increase sales. With mobile CRM you can do all three!
Contact us today, to learn more about what our mobile CRM solution – Exo-on-the-go – can do for your business.
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