Running a successful business is difficult at most times. Even more so if you don’t have a good system in place for tracking your sales. It’s not just about keeping track of how many items you sell and for how much. There is so much more involved in managing a good sales tracking system.
You’ll want to know who your customers are, and have easy access to their data. You’ll want to know which products are performing well compared to others, and which ones are bringing in the best revenue or ROI (return of investment).
Business and the way it is managed and conducted has really moved on over the past two decades, and with the power and performance that we have today from computers, smart phones and fast internet, it’s never been more vital to the successful running of a business that there is a comprehensive sales system in place.
Why is sales tracking so important?
The sales process is usually one with many points and isn’t something that moves from point A to point B. There is a lot of interaction between the various points, and with a good sales tracking system in place, it becomes so much easier to understand the influence of each point, and whether or not they are helping or hindering your business.
It doesn’t matter what size your business is, a sales tracking system is going to help you in terms of optimizing your sales process, leading to an increase in business, and ultimately, revenue. Sales tracking can also help save you money with regards to providing you with a detailed analysis of the process, and highlighting where you may run into problems.
With all of the data available at the click of your mouse, you can make effective and data backed decisions about where and how to take your business to the next level.
Analysing the metrics
Data is what helps businesses make educated decisions, and it provides you with all the information that you will need if you want to forecast potential growth, look at where your business is losing money, and what can be improved to make your sales process more effective.
There is lots of data that a good sales tracking system will provide such as your year on year growth, revenue from existing and new clients, commerce sales tracking, revenue lost to your competition, details about your qualified leads and much more. If you are not tracking your sales properly, you are missing out on all of this useful information and data.
Types of sales tracking systems
There are a wide choice of marketing tools that you can use to track your sales. Some small companies may only require a CRM (customer relationship management) system, which provides a business with the ability to track their existing clients and improve on the current relationship with them. You can use the CRM to keep track of all of your sales and marketing campaigns, and determine which ones are providing you with the best rate of return.
You can also use the CRM to automate various duties that you might otherwise need to do manually. These include communication with your clients as well as automated billing. Your time is precious, and if there are things that you can set up to run automatically, it’s in your best interest to do so.
Larger or multinational businesses will most likely be using a wide range of tools, including a CRM, but will probably use one that they have had built in house and completely customized to their specific requirements by their IT departments. Businesses with offices around the world and who work in multiple markets will use other systems and tools such as sales intelligence and prospecting tools, which can be developed to understand the behaviour of potential clients and understand their mindset.
Other Tools
Some of the other tools that can be used would include things such as customer service software, which is vital in the modern world where clients will want to have any queries or problems dealt with as quickly as possible.
There are also various types of accounting software that most companies will use. Again, the larger companies will most likely be using something that has been custom developed, whereas a smaller company may be using “off the shelf”. software, or a SaaS which runs online.
Another popular software that can help with sales is video conferencing software. A prime example of how important this software is can be seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, where businesses all over the world were forced to send employees to work from home, but who also needed to be in constant communication with individuals and also entire departments.
