How Do I Need To Know About For Investment In Custom Software Development

In order to complete in modern world , sooner or later you will be in need of software development solution that can automate the task of your organisation which were earlier done manually for getting it easier and faster .

Let’s take a common example of selection of Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) software as a technology partner . Now the most common question that arises being whether you will be hiring a software development company for developing your custom CRM software tailored for your business need or you will be option a mass vendor solution like SalesForce and consult some SalesForce consultant for its little customisation .

Standard Software

To kick start with , you will more likely to choose some commonly used software like SugarCRM or SalesForce ( as it is obviously the most commonly available CRM in the market ) , and without any questioning and doubts these products are best products who had proven good enough to handle any kind of business situation offering standard solution for common industry , thereby saving your time and money .

By simply setting up these software , you can right away access customer management tool , and apart from it , it offers various plugins to be integrated with third part software with just a single click.

Making some more efforts , hiring a SalesForce or SugarCRM consultant  can help you customise the data that you want to store for easy to go solution .

So The Question Being Why Should I Invest In Custom Software  ?

Custom software development can benefit your business in numerous ways . Some of the conditions in which you can be most benefitted be :

A) You want to stay ahead with your competitor ( Assuming they are using mass vendor solution)

B) You know your business will grow to infinite level that will surely cover the cost of custom software development and will grow as your business grows which is next to impossible in case of choosing mass vendor solution .

Always remember the major drawback of choosing a custom software development solution is , it is more expensive and time consuming in respect of development process than choosing a mass vendor solution which can be installed just a click away – so always be wise while making the choice between the two predicting the return on investment at the same time.

Some Key Aspects To Consider For Custom Software Development :

  • Mass vendor solution is not made according to your type of business as their main focus is on developing a solution that can reach vide variety of business solution . So for the custom needs of your business , fortunately custom made software is the only solution
  • Most of the mass vendor solution provide you rigid solution and won’t allow you to modify its functionality to significant amount . Secondly your mass vendor CRM will also be injected with numerous other features that may be of no use for your particular business situation .
  • Mass vendor solution might also be not able to integrate with the third party solution which plays a important role in business as every business organisation can’t only rely on one solution for all their needs , instead they will necessarily be need to get integrated with other system , whereas on the other hand custom made software can be adopted for doing any kind of job.

When Should You Consider Buying Standard Solution ?

Some of the circumstances in which you can choose the mass vendor solution for your small scale business are :

  • Choosing the mass vendor solution is best choice when you are budget constraint . These solution are much cheaper and that’s not it , you can also subscribe to them on monthly basis which will not create any financial burden on one time a go . Secondly a large scale software will be available just a click away for your business needs .
  • When you are planning to hire your own set of developers , always twice check your team capability and brainpower so that you can get to know whether they will be able to build the product as desired by you . If not then don’t waste your time in taking a bad decision , close your eyes and go ahead with mass vendor solution which has all thing ready .
  • For common business like lead management , warehouse standard softwares are more ready on the go. You can just buy them and start using the same .

How Can Custom Developed Software Can Bring On Benefits For Your Business ?

In present world no business can remain the same , as early as you expand you will be needing an innovative solution to build a strong technological infrastructure for you . Let’s look at some of the examples below :

Increase Productivity

Software will be developed according to your business need and will surely server you well in all areas , thereby helping you to gain speed and efficiency .

Competitive Advantage

When your company is relying on the same software which your competitor is also using , you can no way be ahead of your competitors . By investing in your own custom made software , it is more likely that you can perform extra ordinary and that’s not all . The advantage will increase over time as more and more you invest in your custom solution .

Fast Reaction Time

To develop a good custom software , you will obviously need a good custom software development company who have the capability and efficient team for developing the software as desired by you . Secondly custom made solution also helps you to easily adopt the changing market condition without putting obstacle in your way .

Conclusion

Always remember custom software solution will always act like a ” business family member ” for your business organisation and has the ability to grow as your business grows – particularly in the world when technology is changing every now and then.

How To Regularise Sales Process Through SalesForce

salesforce consultant winklix

None of the product can find their own customers until and unless it has been promoted well . With technology becoming more and more smarter and customers are becoming sophisticated , business should also take technological advantage of the recent innovations .This article is all about how a CRM implementation in the organisation can organise the sales process in organised manner using Salesforce Sales Cloud drawing salesforce consulting experience .

Lead Qualification And Assessment

When it comes to lead qualification , it plays an important part in lead conversion process . Gathering customer data and taking regular follows ups play a important role in lead conversation . In this regard the importance of CRM tool is very hard to overestimate .

  • Salesforce sales cloud helps creating customer data , tracking of important customer together with regular follow ups . Their artificial intelligence report will help you better understand which customer conversion rate is higher and you can start dealing with more effectiveness . As the same time , it saves the sales reps time as all data is present in centralised database and saves time which may gets consumed in copying and pasting from different documents or searching for different data which are stored in silos .
  • Data gathering and analysing from social media aids sales reps to focus on the most important leads rather than wasting time on the leads which will never gets converted as per their social records . As the same time sales reps will get to know the prospectus and desired expectation of the leads thus helping them to understand their customer in more effective way .
  • Einstein lead scoring is a tool for prioritising leads on the basis of sales readiness . This is calculated on the basis of the interest a lead shown in your business . It uses the tool of machine learning and data science to discover lead conversion pattern and priories the leads to be focused on first .

Also Read : SalesForce Einstein Api Tutorial

Proposal

Making a proposal for your customer without having a Depp knowledge of their requirement is like running in a dark . It is the most common mistake that any business does is absence of customer data , customer might be in need os some other product , and business give other things as not required by customer leading to failure .

  • SalesForce Sales Cloud functionality has an inbuilt functionality for creation of proposal as well . A sales reps can make customise quotation as salesforce keeps the data right from beginning and will help you determine which product suits best for that particular lead , thus contributing to positive customer experience .
  • Salesforce allows quotes from opportunity and its product and then each opportunity can have end number of quotes in relation to synced with opportunity . In SalesForce , your sales reps can create different quotes offering different combination of products , quantities and discounts on the basis of which customer can take effective decision .
  • Creating opportunity team in Salesforce Sales Cloud will help the marketing department to tailored the needs of complex proposal making by consulting with the engineering department , thus making the complex proposal easier to make .
  • Cross questioning of customer at the time of making the proposal for customer is also facilitated by SalesForce .

Handling Objections

No sales can go on a straight peak line . In reality the majority of sales go hand in hand with objection . Some of the common types of problem and the variety of solution offered by Salesforce is discussed below :

  • Need :Umm … It might be the case that a customer may not be in need of your product , which can be true in various aspects but at that time your sales reps can come down by communicating pros of solutions they offer and how it can actually benefit them by adopting the same  . SalesForce also provides for showcase of products together with its benefits and capabilities .
  • Budget : When it comes to budget of the lead , it is one of the hardest decision which must be taken care of . Is this respect a sales representative can provide the prospectus budget with best features offering . A SalesForce always proven as a  helping hand by giving you a 360 view of the customer gaining a better understanding of their preferences .
  • Time : A hard and fast rule of ” Buy now or you will regret the offer ” always proven to be effective . The best way to convert the leads is to be in contact with them at regular intervals . SalesForce allows to fix a schedule to make a contact with the leads as and when stated thereby reminding the sales rep to contact one account to another .

Follow-Up

Having your sales lead closed does not mean having a job done . In fact it is just the beginning of new fruitful relationship with customer which will be gained on the basis of trust , provided you manage to maintain thew healthy relationship with clients .

Salesforce cloud facilitates the add on functionality of taking follow up with the clients on the due dates and making friendly reminder if client has not been contacted yet . At the same time sales reps can schedule meeting and see responses of meeting on Salesforce classic and SalesForce mobile app. SalesForce shows events and reminders on a single reminder window and can be personalised as per the needs .

In SalesForce it does not matter when the lead is converted into deal or not , if it is converted then it will take the regular follow up , but even if it is not converted into deal , it keep the track record of the lead and keep sending them promotion offers and mails in order to continuously engage with the lead , with a hope that it might be converted into deal later on .

Understanding Competition

Understanding what your competitors are offering and how you can actually take advance by offering your customer a eye catchy offer can act as a helping hand in maintaining competitive edge and always be a step ahead of your competitor . Some of the ways in which you can see a eye on your competitors are :
  • Reviewing how your competitors are reaching customer
  • Quickly checking out of competitor website .
  • Offering better pricing and offer than competitor .
  • Buying and enquiring of product directly from competitor .
  • Following competitor on social media .
SalesForce has a competitor module which helps you to track competitors by listing the name of the competitors . Creating a pick list of competitors and keeping a strong eye on the same can benefit you in numerous of ways . This will help sales reps to get the overview of the pricing offered by competitors to customer and sales reps can deal with customer accordingly by offer them great offer on the same product . At the same time sales reps can also get to know about advantage , weakness and other things of competitor.

In A Nutshell

Boosting your sales requires investing in right tool and smart technology . SalesForce cloud has the full potential to manage the whole sales process till the closure of the deal . In case you are looking for customised solution for your different sales stages , you may hire a salesforce consultant to customise the salesforce as per your need so that you can take the full benefit of the same .

ERP VS CRM Software

Enterprise Resource Planning. (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are business driven software that helps in increasing business efficiency and reducing cost for an organisation . Using CRM and ERP helps to effectively manage customer interaction .

ERP may help you to effectively measure sales and marketing department performance but will fail to measure the performance of customer which is often measured by a CRM software . Let’s discuss some merits and uses .

CRM

CRM is a software helps to manage company’s customer interaction in organised manner . CRM compromises of all the features like sales and support , customer interaction and engagement , prospectus and business partner .

Traditionally CRM was the software used by only sales department to maintain client and prospectus . But when it comes to reality CRM is used by different department for multiple purposes .  For instance a CRM can be used by sales department to take regular follow ups , sales projection can also be predicted by CRM , and at the same time support and complain department may use CRM to raise a support ticket and assign the executive for solving the complain / support to customer . Modern CRM also has marketing automation system thus enabling marketing department to send mass email to all customer at once regarding any kind of promotion or offers thereof .

When is specially comes to the used of the CRM , there is no limit of its usability . It is just like sea which has no end point .

ERP

While at the coins one side CRM focuses on front side office management , ERP system on the other side focuses on business at large . ERP facilitates sharing of information with the rest of the company , thereby facilitating improvement of overall efficiency . ERP has been customised for each of the industry individually as per their demands and supply like manufacturing , product or finance department ERP system automates many of the organisation process thus enabling company to make better strategic decision .

In other words , ERP is back office application as it is no way related to customer management .

CRM And ERP

Look why the title of this section is not ” CRM or ERP ” .  Both software servers completely different task which is yet a very important task of the organisation . CRM helps in building a deeper relationship with the livelihood of any business organisation ” Customer” thereby making a profitable enterprise , whereas on the other hand ERP allows internal management of the organisation as it may encounter from time to time .

Having both solution for business namely ERP and CRM software solution is always proven beneficial for any company thus increasing profit , saving time and increasing staff efficiency .

Usually a growing business organisation will first adopt a CRM solution to establish a stronger customer relationship and several support department . In small business organisation there is a small room and teams are just a few feet away , then obviously there is no need of using the ERP system .

Thereby a CRM system will help in marketing automation together with maintaining healthy relationship with clients by sales force automation , thereby creating new business opportunities thus helping business grow to the point when ERP system becomes the necessity of the organisation .

Integrating ERP And CRM

Once your business system has stepped into ERP system together with CRM its time to start thinking about the integration process of CRM and ERP .

Lack of integration gap may increase the information gap within the company . For instance a manufacturer might keep the stock record on the ERP system which may later be crossed checked by sales department before processing any of the orders , thereby confirming stock availability and also automating the task of stock update , which may result in some error in case of manual entry . On the same time a sales representative may check the customer credit history and can give them stock as per the existing credit history only .

So before purchasing or handing over your software development requirement , business organisation should evaluate their specific needs and requirement to the software development company. Here at Winklix , every business organisation must adopt a basic CRM for their organisation , but if later on their working are getting complex day by day , then they may move to ERP system integration .