Tag Archives: Successful
The Collaboration of Sales and Marketing for a Successful SMB Goal
The sales and marketing departments of an SMB organization are responsible for different parts of the customer journey. Generally speaking, marketing focuses on attracting potential customers, while sales focus on closing the sale.
This means marketing and sales are closely linked since your marketing efforts are futile if you don’t generate sales, while the success of your sales depends on your ability to attract leads. Given that this bond, this indefinable unifying spirit is the very thing that binds two entities together, it seems a rational theory that marketing and sales teams would be naturally and wonderfully linked.
The most successful have marketing and sales teams that view each other as co-partners, each with an important role to play in helping the business grow.
Even though the relationship between sales and marketing teams is closely tied and very interdependent, their perspective towards technology, metrics, and lead assessment can differ greatly and this disparity in approach can sometimes create friction.
So, to mitigate this ‘clash of the Titans’ what can you do? Here are a few tips for healthy synchronicity:
Harmony in coexistence:
Marketing and sales teams often find themselves at loggerheads, perhaps due to a lack of communication or understanding about how each section can and should seamlessly liaise to drive customer growth and help elevate the ROI.
The answer lies in educating both about how their workflows collaborate to create an indispensable synergy for attaining broader organizational objectives. They need to cohabit in the same ecosystem fostering the same objective in mind. Unless the goals aren’t made clear to them, it might be slightly difficult.
Marketing and sales can no longer afford to exist in separate organizational silos. They need to morph into one cohesive team, work in harmony, help and support each other more successfully. And this outcome can be achieved if both parties are on the same page and are communicating constructively and endlessly.
This requires a team approach. This outcome requires a tactical and an organization’s cultural imperative that can only come from the top rung through good leadership and a vision seeped in clarity and definition.
Focused on lead generation:
The disengagement between marketing and sales personnel has a primary kingpin- leads. There are times when marketers become a little upset when it seems like sales aren’t closing the loop on generated leads, while the sales team may feel that those leads fall short of being qualified.
This lack of synchrony leads to a difference in opinions. But when marketing brings sales in, to define a combined lead generation strategy, success becomes attainable. In the interest of refining the lead qualification process, care should be taken to define customers and their journeys.
Creating detailed customer personalities and sharing these with sales will ensure that both sides of the line understand the particulars around what kind of audience is being targeted and why. This activity helps marketing and sales determine how and where to seek leads by developing a thorough understanding of customer beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, including favored set-up, channel, and device.
for Marketing has this option of creating a custom-made customer journey which honestly is a boon for a company where the chances of disparity may rise.
Celebrate collaboration
Unity in an is a pivotal success factor for both organizational happiness and a cracking ROI. In companies wherein there are multiple hierarchies, it is important to build alliances at all levels, not just among the most senior ones.
When marketing and sales teams have united goals and shared projects, they must be encouraged to work comfortably with one another. The key to collaborative success lies in developing a company-wide philosophy where mutual sharing becomes the norm, offering colleagues across portfolios, departments transparency into both information and workflows.
Having an effective cross-functional working relationship between marketing and sales is critically important to companies in almost every sector. This relationship is almost like a jugular vein in business scenarios, where organizations are now operating in increasingly complex and competitive, and dynamic market environments.
To sum up:
The term ‘smarketing’ can be aptly used here. It’s a conjoined form of sales and marketing. Even though there might be differences in strategies, techniques, approaches, one thing has to be understood here, the unified intention of getting the customer’s loyalty is paramount.
Historically, SMBs have been excellent at customer-centricity but how do you stay close to the customer as you grow? And how do you stay close to the customer in this new age? You can’t without the right technology and collaboration of these two frontiers.
Your teams should be working together to make sure that your company achieves success and continues to grow. Unfortunately, if your marketing and sales teams are isolated from one another, this can become difficult to do. Integrating your marketing and sales teams and aligning your marketing and sales strategies can help get everyone on the same page to achieve unified goals.
We understand how much impact collaboration between the sales and marketing teams can have on an SMB. if you want to know more.
Successful Banks Save Money by Bringing Marketing and Sales Together
When your sales team and your marketing team operate independently, managing leads and customers will be slower and cost more. CRM systems are no longer just for retail or business verticals, banks have the same need to manage customers. Implementing a CRM system for the banking industry is critical to serving your customers at every point in the sales process.
Your bank will save money by giving both marketing and sales a complete snapshot of each customer in a single view so they can spend less time gathering data and more time finding new customers and strengthening existing relationships.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement helps bring sales and marketing together and saves resources by:
- Reducing costs and keeping your teams connected with unified data.
- Prioritizing the most promising high-revenue leads and streamlining complex sign up processes.
- Automating routine tasks, thus giving sales team members more time to spend with clients.
- Responding quickly to customer needs with automated request routing.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 can increase your efficiency and improve your customer relations.
Improve efficiency with a holistic view of your customers
- Unify data from all your departments to attain a single comprehensive view of each customer with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Create rich customer profiles and define segments.
- Export the segments to Dynamics 365 Marketing and execute targeted campaigns.
- Leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to boost your target segments and scoring models to prioritize sales-ready leads.
Generate leads across channels to grow opportunities
- With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, you can send out multichannel personalized campaigns to appeal to your customers and prospects.
- Align your marketing and sales team using shared information and processes to manage leads and events.
Prioritize and nurture your best leads.
- Use custom or out-of-box templates for your promotional emails, emergency communications, and newsletters.
- A/B testing functionality lets you try different email variations and choose the ones that best fit your target audience. Use AI to determine the optimal time for sending emails.
Improve response time with Lead Management
- As the global workforce pivots to virtual and digital models, the necessity arises for new modes of working and improved relationship management.
- With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, you can unify your relationship data across CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, social networks such as LinkedIn, and productivity tools to generate insights. Knowing your customers increases your credibility and relationships with them.
- Empower your employees with guided processes allowing them to respond to customers more effectively.
Foster collaboration with Opportunity Management
- With Dynamics 365 Sales, your entire team has access to the information they need via their preferred application, such as Microsoft Outlook, Dynamics 365, or Teams.
- Today’s sales processes require collaboration between departments. By improving meetings, communication, and ways to share data, Microsoft Teams facilitates collaboration among your sales team.
- Dynamics 365 Sales enables smart selling with actionable insights and contextual AI. Better intelligence allows you to formulate better strategies.
Build relationships that add value
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales integrates with LinkedIn Sales Navigator to give your team embedded inline access to company and personnel details.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing is built on the same powerful platform that your employees who work with Office 365 will find familiar. Nurture demand, personalize buyer experiences, build relationships, and make insight-driven decisions to drive more qualified leads and increase revenue.
Modern banking is a customer-driven world. If your bank can understand and serve the needs of your individual customers better than the competition, you will succeed. If you are still using antiquated systems to keep track of your accounts, other banks will take your place.
Crowe CRM for Banking
A Customer Relationship Management solution built for the banking industry will help you manage customers and better understand their needs in order to provide the right solutions, quickly.
powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 empowers bank staff with the tools and information needed to efficiently deliver high-quality, personalized service – for all interactions across all channels. It gives managers and team members the information they need to be effective.
For more information, contact us at crminfo@crowe.com.
By Ryan Plourde, Crowe, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Partner,
Insider Tips To A Successful CRM Implementation
How do we determine authenticity? From “fake news,” to Nigerian Princes who want to share millions with us, to tv doctors promoting the latest cure-all, how can we know who to trust? Sometimes, it is obvious (chances are nobody is trying to give you a million dollars.)
But what about other everyday decisions we need to make personally and for our business. What criteria do we use in deciding what’s best for us?
Many times we put our trust in the big brand names. Have you ever heard the adage: “nobody ever got fired betting on IBM?”
At one point in time, when IBM was at the top of their game, that adage would have pointed you in the right direction. But times and technology have changed, and IBM didn’t keep up with new technology and customer demands.
So there’s risk involved with relying on big names. Will they be able to continue meeting their commitments and delivering what we need? Do they understand how the world is changing, and will they adjust to stay out front?
When it comes to CRM implementations, it’s sad but true that many things can go wrong and sabotage your organization’s investment.
Depending on which research expert you listen to, forty to seventy percent of CRM projects fail to meet expectations. A lot of time and money is invested in a CRM solution only to have it prove disappointing within a year or so. Money has been lost, time has been wasted, and the business is left with the same problems it sought to solve with the new CRM solution. Maybe your organization can afford wasted money, but who can afford wasted time?
The importance of CRM
As customers become more demanding, more sophisticated, more knowledgeable, a properly chosen and implemented CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution will allow your team to meet their needs and deliver consistent, high-quality customer experiences. Without such positive experiences, you lose all hope of customer loyalty.
Here are a few specific tips:
- Your CRM project is only an asset if it delivers what you need, what your customers need, what your employees need, and adds value to your business.
- Of course, a well-implemented CRM can do many things. But it will only do those things if your team is using the software properly. To get full , you must focus on making it practical, simple, and easy for your team to use.
- It’s not about what features your management team wants. That’s easy. All management teams want the same thing: an efficient, smooth-running system.
- The question should be, “how do we set up CRM to make the lives of our people easier? How do we make them look at CRM as their best friend?” If you accomplish that, your management goals will be met as a natural result of the front-line team adopting the software.
So a robust CRM solution such as is crucial. But how can you find a reliable Partner to perform the implementation?
The Azamba way
At , we take CRM implementations beyond good intentions. One of the fundamental things we do differently is to offer a 100% Money-Back Guarantee on our services.
Clients learn that it’s not just lip service when we talk about customer-focus. We are sincerely dedicated to our customers and their success. If we don’t hit the mark, we put our money where our mouth is and provide a refund. We’re not perfect. But we strive to be.
We focus on working with customers that we feel we can help. We may not be the perfect fit for every firm, and that’s ok. If you are looking for a CRM solution and we know we can help you best, let’s make the magic happen. If not, we’ll recommend a company that might be better suited for you. It’s that simple.
The path forward
We understand what a huge risk there is with moving forward on business investments. For us, the path is clear. We will continue to stand behind our services and offer expert performance and our .
If you are interested in purchasing a CRM solution and want to know more about our Azamba guarantee, our team and let’s talk about how we can help.
By Azamba Consulting Group,
What are the ‘7 Steps to Build a Successful Business Case for MDM Programs’?
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Master data management (MDM) program teams often struggle to build business cases. Part of this struggle stems from simply not having the data to back up the value of MDM. In fact, “90% of companies recently surveyed for the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions lack formal metrics to measure the financial value contributed by an MDM solution” (1).
Without formal metrics, organizations are often left with vendor-led “proof of value” programs as validation of technology rather than demonstrations of how the right technology addresses the requirements and metrics, financial and otherwise, demanded by the stakeholders in your organization. This approach is incomplete as it doesn’t look at the technology as a w9hole and may limit the organization’s success in the long term.
We’d like to address that gap in the enterprise software industry and shift how organizations buy enterprise infrastructure technology by providing clear-eyed, well-documented point-of-views on how technology can meet business requirements while creating financial value.
Gartner’s 7 Steps to Build a Successful Business Case for MDM Programs
We believe educating buyers on the value of technology is a critical first step. So, make sure to check out Gartner’s most recent MDM report, “7 Steps to Build a Successful Business Case for MDM Programs,” written by esteemed analysts and MDM experts: Malcolm Hawker, Simon Walker, and Sally Parker (3). This report provides a seven-step process that data and analytics leaders can use to gain and maintain buy-in for MDM from key business stakeholders. It can help you put together a business case that demonstrates value with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) and outlines a long-term roadmap for MDM as a key part of your analytics strategy.
Informed and active stakeholder support greatly increases the likelihood of an MDM program succeeding. Download this report to learn more about how to gain support and reach your MDM program goals.
Informed and active stakeholder support greatly increases the likelihood of an MDM program succeeding. Click To Tweet
And when you’re ready, we urge you to reach out to our team. Have that deeper discussion, not just on the technology, but also, on all the ways the technology—and TIBCO’s market-leading MDM capabilities—can address your business needs and create unique value for your organization.
(1) 2019 Gartner Vendor Survey for the Magic Quadrant of Master Data Management Solutions
(2) This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document.
(3) Gartner, 7 Steps to Build a Successful Business Case for MDM Programs, Malcolm Hawker, Simon Walker, Sally Parker, 7 April 2020
Best Practices to Get Paid Faster – Building a Successful Recurring/Subscription Business
As Simon Sinek says – “Start with Why”?
Volumes play an important role in a subscription business. This revenue is billed more frequently, in fact monthly- for 1 customer you are generating 12 invoices a year! The invoices are typically smaller in size than one-off sales. If you are reselling products (which is true for most Microsoft CSP Partners), the margins are tight. If customers don’t pay or delay payments, there is an impact on cash-flow.
How to Collect Cash Faster?
Step 0: Sell to who will pay: In order to make sure there is no risk of non-payments you need to establish credit limits, do background checks and ensure that you won’t be left with the proverbial “bag in hand”- this is typically part of your Sales Process.
Step 1: Invoice Accurately. An accurate invoice is correct on all counts.
- Who has the check or credit card? It could be the finance department, the procurement department, and the IT manager or relevant stakeholder who would need to approve your invoice.
- What are exactly are they getting billed for? Are all the services and subscriptions correct, prices, changes in quantities, and refunds clearly shown in the invoice so that there isn’t any confusion?
- When do they need to pay and most importantly receive the invoice? Is the invoice being sent to the customer on the correct date and with the correct due dates? The invoice needs delivery needs to predictable. We see so many cases where customers have cash flow issues but are not able to generate an accurate invoice on the correct date based on the billing frequency.
Step 2: Invoice: Delivery, Persistent, Actionable, Convenient: It’s imperative your invoice is delivered to the right stakeholders in a medium that is acceptable to them (email, mailed physical signed copies). Is the invoice persistent? Can the invoice be easily accessed by the intended audience? A self-service portal that shows their orders and invoices would allow them to access your invoice when they need it. Is the invoice actionable: Does it clearly state how to pay you and how convenient is it to pay you?
“The customer experience is the sum total of all customer moments. The invoice is a defining customer moment. “
What Systems are Involved in Generating an Invoice and Collecting Cash?
The problem with the above situation is that while you’ve got all the pieces together:
- There are multiple logins/identities
- Your brand is diluted and there is no consistency is not there because of the different looks and feels.
- Data is the new oil – and it’s messy to have oil all over the place
- Access to these systems is limited and to a few people. The lack of access to this data creates problems like selling to customers you don’t want to, inability to create an accurate invoice.
What is Required for a Successful Billing Automation Solution to Generate Accurate Invoices and Collect Cash?
- Customer data in one system
- Single Identity
- Single Portal for everything: what they’ve bought from you, when they bought is from you, agreements, invoices.
Cash Collection is a business function:
- Credit Limit should be associated with Aging Data and affect new Sales
- The customer Payment information should be in the customer system
- Automate Collections using Payment Gateways
- Don’t reward bad behavior – Credit Holds so that provisioning is stopped
offers a Billing and Subscription application that helps cloud companies archive the necessary requirements and processes to grow your revenue.
A Successful Remote Workforce with Microsoft 365 CRM
Set Your Remote Workforce Up for Success with Cloud-Based CRM Tools from Microsoft
Until recently, only a handful of organizations had transitioned the better part of their workforce to working remotely. The idea of setting up virtually every employee to work from home was out of the question.
Now, suddenly, organizations throughout the country have had to do just that. A fully remote workforce is no longer optional: it’s become completely essential if businesses want to continue to operate in the face of COVID-19.
But transitioning to a remote workforce isn’t easy. You need the right suite of digital tools to make it happen: tools that can facilitate online meetings, give employees remote access to the documents they need, and enable collaboration across departments — all within a secure and fully compliant online environment.
Fortunately, Microsoft offers a complete cloud-based CRM software suite that can empower your organization’s employees to work from home efficiently and effectively. Below, we’ll take a look at what a successful remote workforce might look like and how an individual employee can access the tools they need, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
How an Employee Starts Their Day When Working Remotely
When your employees are coming into a physical office space on a daily basis, they’ll likely be receiving some portion of daily updates, news, and tasks face-to-face from their supervisor and fellow team members. But with a fully remote workforce, none of this can be taken for granted. That’s why it’s important to provide employees with an online interface that both ensures wide adoption of the cloud-based tools you want them to use and also makes it clear what tasks they need to focus on.
Imagine an employee sits down to start their workday from home and launches Microsoft Edge. By providing your employees with a customized company intranet homepage, you can ensure that they have quick access to the tools they need. Within Microsoft Edge, all it takes is a single click to display a menu of all the essential Microsoft 365 Apps, including important customer management tools like Dynamics 365 CRM. By customizing your company’s intranet navigation, you can ensure that employees find what they need without having to click through multiple pages and menus.
Effective Collaboration with Microsoft 365
— all while collaborating effectively.
From your company’s intranet page, employees can quickly navigate directly to their department’s secure SharePoint page. Here, they’ll have access to the latest department news, their team’s essential documents, team calendar, and more. Team members can share documents via SharePoint, too. This feature makes it easier for employees to find important files for ongoing projects, eliminating the need to search through their Outlook inbox for a file attached to an archived email.
Employees can navigate to relevant Microsoft 365 apps directly from SharePoint, including apps like Dynamics 365 CRM and Microsoft Teams. Thanks to the robust feature set of Teams, collaboration has never been easier. Team members can send and receive messages, take part in video meetings, access shared documents, and more — all from the Teams interface.
Your Guide to a Successful Remote Workforce
JourneyTEAM has created a detailed webinar demonstrating some of Microsoft 365’s powerful features for CRM and more. In addition to showing you how employees can work remotely with Microsoft’s cloud-based software solutions, the webinar discusses best use cases, strategies for maximizing employee adoption, and more.
Watch the Webinar, “What A Successful Workforce Should Look Like”:
Get Started Working Remotely with Microsoft 365
Are you looking to transition your workforce to work remotely? Need help getting set up with the Microsoft 365 enterprise-level suite of software? JourneyTEAM is here to help. During this challenging time, we can give your organization
Article by: Dave Bollard – Head of Marketing | 801-436-6636
JourneyTEAM is an award-winning consulting firm with proven technology and measurable results. They take Microsoft products; Dynamics 365, SharePoint intranet, Office 365, Azure, CRM, GP, NAV, SL, AX, and modify them to work for you. The team has expert level, Microsoft Gold certified consultants that dive deep into the dynamics of your organization and solve complex issues. They have solutions for sales, marketing, productivity, collaboration, analytics, accounting, security and more.
4 Things You Need to Know for Successful Enterprise CRM Integration
The enterprise IT environment is complex. Many systems, technologies and practices that were developed at various times coexist in the same world. With expectations for technological advancements at their peak, we’re tasked with enabling these systems to work together harmoniously to support the continuous sharing of information.
Systems and data must connect to allow full use of capabilities as if all information were native to each. There also must be many ways to present information to end users, though data is evolving on a constant basis. Given this complexity, it’s not surprising that an intelligent CRM system in an enterprise environment requires specialized insight and know-how to ensure a seamless integration that’s both relevant and current.
What does an enterprise intelligent CRM solution look like? Any smart solution first and foremost must be designed as an enterprise-first application: one that is flexible, scalable, upgradable and ultimately easily deployable.
To a great extent, success in the enterprise environment depends on the use of “enterprise literate technology,” as opposed to reliance on “technology literate enterprise” concepts that were common in the past.
Enterprise literate technology understands an organization’s business needs and is built with the standards of what the company needs to accomplish in mind. It can help predict outcomes, better facilitate operations, and even automate day-to-day tasks. With today’s functional and technical complexity, heterogeneous integration requirements, and need for scale and security, CRM integration success depends on an enterprise literate technology approach.
From an enterprise management standpoint, the first task is to find a platform designed for this purpose. The following four considerations are critical when sourcing intelligent CRM software for enterprise systems.
1. Flexibility and Context Matter
Enterprise CRM solutions should be tailored to meet business specific needs. The primary goal for any CRM solution should be a seamless user experience, delivered through a fully integrated single application that is responsive across all devices and platforms.
A good choice will offer a comprehensive customer view by integrating enterprise and third-party data sources through a customized, context-aware system. Systems like this automatically manage all communication and context passing between the CRM system and other third-party portlets needed to ensure everything works together as a single integrated system.
What’s more, enterprise intelligent CRM with built-in artificial intelligence has the ability to incorporate additional data sources to allow users to leverage available information effectively in order to better service customers.
From automating workflows to eliminating burdensome administrative tasks, the flexibility of an intelligent enterprise solution provides a deeper understanding of the customer, which helps with decision-making processes and simplifies day-to-day operations.
2. Is It Scalable?
CRM is more than just a software. It’s an essential strategic growth tool that all enterprises need. One of the main motivators for any enterprise CRM provider should be to equip an organization with the simple tools needed in the early stages of a business, as well as the capabilities to scale up as the business expands and grows.
Implementing a reliable, fully scalable CRM system in the beginning as part of an overarching business strategy ensures seamless growth down the road. After all, a good foundation — which includes a company’s ability to scale up to meet the demands of growth and challenges as they arise — is fundamental to any organization’s success.
With an enterprise-first approach to CRM, organizations can rest assured that the simple coordination of all the different customer touchpoints in a business — from ales and marketing to face-to-face interactions with customers — will be facilitated effectively through one centralized platform as the business grows.
This is what makes ongoing collaboration, information sharing and task management simple and efficient. Keep in mind all of this must be done with a robust and complex security system, too. A truly scalable solution allows organizations to configure security to protect their customers and match their requirements as the business expands, while allowing information to be shared across the company dependably.
3. What are the Integration Capabilities? Is It Upgradable?
When CRM integration is an afterthought, failure is inevitable. Instead, the technology must allow for integration with a wide variety of client platforms, data sources and applications, since every organization has different needs.
Without integration for items such as social media and news feeds, for instance, it is next to impossible to take customer management and experience to the next level. For organizations and CRM solutions alike, a comprehensive understanding based on the client’s complete relationship with the company is essential for customers to receive the expected level of personalized, continuously evolving service.
Look for and integrate a system that understands the nature and concerns of enterprise operations — including its ability to upgrade as needed. Technical and functional challenges are to be expected, but a well-integrated system supports upgradability from the beginning.
Among other things, it is important to not force unnecessary data replication or compromises on data security, visibility and residency. Instead, organizations should deploy an enterprise-first way of thinking that provides configurable, world-class functionality along with the business controls needed to take operations to the next level.
4. Deployment Should Be Simple
A purpose-built enterprise CRM software system should make deployment simple. It should be compatible with a variety of open source and common software platforms. An intelligent platform takes the “how”out of the equation by translating processes easily. It should be easy to tailor it to specific business needs.
The user’s job should be simply to dictate what the system should do, not how it will be done. Both the functional and technical complexity should be handled by the software itself, which should be sophisticated enough to render information-sharing appropriately across all common Web applications and technology devices.
Easy deployment insulates a software investment from the shifting underlying technology landscape, and ultimately makes the development and maintenance of a CRM solution more manageable over time.
There is unmatchable value in deploying an enterprise CRM system that can be customized for an organization’s specific business needs to give the ROI and improved customer experience companies seek.
Integrating an enterprise intelligent CRM system can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Every business has a unique set of needs, and selecting robust software that allows for thoughtful integration of data and applications can improve operations and help businesses expand and grow, while making the transition seamless and mitigating unnecessary stress.
Adam Edmonds is VP of products at
NexJ Systems, which specialiazes in CRM products for global financial services institutions. With almost two decades of experience developing customer management solutions in financial services and insurance, Edmonds is responsible for establishing overall product vision and designing easy-to-use solutions that solve financial advisors’ problems.
Best Practices to Get Paid Faster – Building a Successful Recurring/Subscription Business
As Simon Sinek says – “Start with Why”?
Volumes play an important role in a subscription business. This revenue is billed more frequently, in fact monthly- for 1 customer you are generating 12 invoices a year! The invoices are typically smaller in size than one-off sales. If you are reselling products (which is true for most Microsoft CSP Partners), the margins are tight. If customers don’t pay or delay payments, there is an impact on cash-flow.
Related post –
How to Collect Cash Faster?
Step 0: Sell to who will pay: In order to make sure there is no risk of non-payments you need to establish credit limits, do background checks and ensure that you won’t be left with the proverbial “bag in hand”- this is typically part of your Sales Process.
Step 1: Invoice Accurately. An accurate invoice is correct on all counts.
- Who has the check or credit card? It could be the finance department, the procurement department, and the IT manager or relevant stakeholder who would need to approve your invoice.
- What are exactly are they getting billed for? Are all the services and subscriptions correct, prices, changes in quantities and refunds clearly shown in the invoice so that there isn’t any confusion?
- When do they need to pay and most importantly receive the invoice? Is the invoice being sent to the customer on the correct date and with the correct due dates? The invoice needs delivery needs to predictable. We see so many cases where customers have cash flow issues but are not able to generate an accurate invoice on the correct date based on the billing frequency.
Step 2: Invoice: Delivery, Persistent, Actionable, Convenient: It’s imperative your invoice is delivered to the right stakeholders in a medium that is acceptable to them (email, mailed physical signed copies). Is the invoice persistent? Can the invoice be easily accessed by the intended audience? A self-service portal that shows their orders and invoices would allow them to access your invoice when they need it. Is the invoice actionable: Does it clearly state how to pay you and how convenient is it to pay you?
“The customer experience is the sum total of all customer moments. The invoice is a defining customer moment. “
What Systems are Involved in Generating an Invoice and Collecting Cash?
The problem with the above situation is that while you’ve got all the pieces together:
- There are multiple logins/identities
- Your brand is diluted and there is no consistency is not there because of the different looks and feels.
- Data is the new oil – and it’s messy to have oil all over the place
- Access to these systems is limited and to a few people. The lack of access to this data creates problems like selling to customers you don’t want to, inability to create an accurate invoice.
What is Required for a Successful Billing Automation Solution to Generate Accurate Invoices and Collect Cash?
- Customer data in one system
- Single Identity
- Single Portal for everything: what they’ve bought from you, when they bought is from you, agreements, invoices
Cash Collection is a business function:
- Credit Limit should be associated with Aging Data and affect new Sales
- The customer Payment information should be in the customer system
- Automate Collections using Payment Gateways
- Don’t reward bad behavior – Credit Holds so that provisioning is stopped
Work 365 offers a Billing and Subscription application that helps cloud companies archive the necessary requirements and processes to grow your revenue. Learn more .
The need for Collecting Cash Fast to build a Successful Recurring Business
Accounts Receivables processes can take up valuable time and energy in any organization. This is why “Collecting Cash fast” is one of the key metrics for building a successful recurring business. Very often the longer it takes to collect cash the higher the risk of collecting that cash correctly. You need to ensure that you are collecting the payment as quickly as possible.
Work 365 supports the typical billing frequencies – Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual billing. Some of the data we see with users of the application and the billing frequencies:
More than 70% of the invoicing is on a monthly basis. Monthly billing is the most common way of billing CSP and cloud services. Annual billing tends to be used by ISV’s and other solution providers that bundle their products or package their solutions through CSP.
Collecting cash through automated systems lowers the risk of non-payment, and reduces your DSO (Days of Sale Outstanding).mUsing manual processes like check payments is not practical for monthly payments. Typically, you want to keep your DSO to 30 days and lower than 7 days for monthly billing contracts.
, maintains the schedules for your billing relationships and using the integrated payment solutions can provide a convenient way to collect cash either through credit cards or direct debit solutions through Global leaders in payment solutions like Stripe, Authorize.net, and GoCardless.
The video above demonstrates how you can leverage these integrated payment providers directly into Work 365.
So, what’s your DSO? Let us know your thoughts to discuss these options.
Growth Innovations from Some of Australia’s Most Successful Businesses
.jpg "Growth Innovations from Some of Australia’s Most Successful Businesses")
Posted by Jason Toshack, General Manager ANZ at Oracle NetSuite
We’ve all heard founders refer to their business as their ‘baby,’ and there really are similarities between raising children and growing a business.
For one – any decisions or actions made during the formative years could have an outsized impact on long-term success.
So what did successful businesses do in the early years that allowed them to scale to greater heights today? NetSuite spoke with 14 fast-growing businesses and franchises that have expanded or continue to expand across Australia and the world and uncovered several eye-opening insights along the way.
These insights have been distilled into three broad categories: Purpose, People and Processes. Beyond just profits, the businesses we spoke to paid special attention to at least one or two of these categories early on, gradually building them into the foundation supporting their growth and expansion.
Ambitious businesses should consider how they can incorporate these insights into their operations – if they haven’t already – to further fuel growth for years to come.
Purpose is Crucial to Driving Growth
While profitability is the underlying motivator for most businesses, it shouldn’t be the only reason they exist. Growth-minded businesses hold a very clear sense of purpose: this purpose drives everything from business values to product development, to interaction with customers. Clothing manufacturer Mons Royale is a prime example. Its founder, Hamish Acland, ensures that the business consistently uses the most durable material and designs for its adventure sports offerings – a conviction he holds from his years as a professional skier. Aligning this vision to a purpose provides Mons Royale with a clear direction and objective.
To support their purpose, successful businesses also emphasise the need to establish core values and principles from the get-go. These values or principles commonly centre around collective beliefs, ethical business practices or methodologies. Well-defined values don’t just resonate well with customers – who are increasingly choosing to buy from those that share their beliefs – it also helps keep the business together as it undergoes the pressures of growth or expansion. It fosters loyalty and relevance, not just with customers, but also with employees, whom Acland states are “engaged and stoked to come to work.”
People Will Sustain Your Momentum
Without the buy-in from its people, a business may struggle to survive. Employees ultimately service customers and propel the business. It’s no surprise then, that our growth-minded businesses place tremendous trust and confidence in their people. It helps, of course, if they give employees the in-depth data and visibility required to form and justify their decisions. This ultimately frees the headspace of founders and entrepreneurs, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities.
This approach also means that successful businesses are careful in their hiring. Founders stress the importance of hiring individuals that aren’t just proficient and skilful, but can also click with the core values of the business. As they grow, all businesses realise that they need to streamline time-consuming hiring processes so that interviewers have the right HR data to vet, match and evaluate potential employees. Doing so also allows the business to focus on retaining quality candidates with the right character and skills, such as candidates that are “problem-solvers, open-minded and ready to try new things,” according to Brett Ketelbey from online wine merchant, Different Drop.
Processes Keep Growth Afloat
Besides hiring, these businesses also make sure that they adopt other business-critical systems and processes early on. Establishing efficient processes on cloud-based ERP solutions like NetSuite allowed ELMO, an integrated cloud HR, payroll, rostering and time and attendance solution, to optimise accounting from the get-go, while Poolwerx, a pool maintenance and supplier franchise business, has been able to maintain visibility of more than 575 service vans and 160 retail stores over 355 territories across Australia, New Zealand and America.
Kicking off with the right processes in place early has given most successful businesses greater agility and flexibility, as their employees can easily obtain data for immediate decision making.
Having tried and tested processes in place also allows businesses to better dictate the velocity and cadence of their growth. Businesses like Speedmaster, which sells, assembles and manufactures high performance engine parts, managed to expand its core businesses to also build custom vehicles.
Other businesses, like Canva, a simplified graphic-design tool website, took the opportunity to adopt a sustainable growth plan that has boosted collaboration and productivity across the business. Several other businesses, like juice brand Emma & Toms, tap into NetSuite solutions to enable more fluid product development, while others use collected data to perform ‘alignment checks’ every six months to ensure their business remains aligned with their purpose.
The path to achieving business goals doesn’t just lie in profitability; more than ever, less intuitive factors like purpose, people and processes have come into play. With the right mindset – and the right technological solutions – businesses will be in a good position to address the factors most relevant to them, paving the way to sustainable growth, quality offerings and happier customers.
Access all six curated insights from NetSuite’s interview of Australia’s 14 most successful businesses and franchises by downloading the whitepaper Fundamental Paths To Success.
by NetSuite filed under