A sales software is a digital application that helps businesses to streamline, optimize and speed up the entire lifecycle of selling their products. It helps ensure that sales representatives have access to tools and features that help them achieve their key performance sales indices.
As in the case of the application, a sales software can be analogous to a tool helping increase the chances of acquiring paying customers. As we all know, the fact that you have the best or prettiest product does not guarantee popularity or exposure. Sales representatives know that generating leads is not enough, as it is imperative to identify the most promising of those leads. This will help with the efficient use of sales resource and increase the chances of conversion to paying customers.
What is the difference between Sales Software and CRM?
There are often misinterpretations between sales software and customer relationship management software, and we will clear this misconception here.
CRM software is a digital tool used to manage interaction with customers right from their initial contact with the firm up until after the sale is made. CRM infuses marketing to generate leads and interact with potential customers. CRM also includes following up on these prospects until they reach the sales cycle bit. This is where Sales software comes in.
Sales software helps businesses manage every aspect of the sales cycle from inquiries and orders, all the way to invoicing and payment. After sales, CRM continues interaction with customers via promotions and regular communication.
Essentially, CRM can be thought of as software that helps with interaction pre-sale and post-sale.
8 Key features of sales software
We will explore some of the most important features to look out for in a sale software below:
1. Data Analytics: Data is fast becoming a very critical part of every process in business. This is no different in sales. Data from sales prospects need to be analyzed in order to understand their intent and score them. Such analysis can also be used to gain insight into prospects and identify new possible opportunities.
2. Sales Activity Report: Previous sales activity reports should be easily accessible on a sales software. This will help the business and sales representatives to keep track of past sales and easily reconcile accounts.
3. Order to Payment: Sales software should be able to manage every interaction with customers’ right from when they place an order or inquire about your service till when they make a payment for the service.
4. Inventory management: Another very important feature of sales software is the ability to manage and update inventory as they are being sold. This will help sales representatives stay ahead of customers and reduce shortage costs.
5. 360-view of prospects: You need a sales software that gives a broad and narrow view of prospects. This will help you create personalize sales approaches towards these prospects, thus increasing chances of conversion. Sales representatives want to understand prospects in an in-depth manner, and good sales software helps them achieve this. In addition to these, one should also be able to filter prospects according to different options like geography, age, and other demographic data.
6. Integration with other software: Sales software do not work alone as they need data from various other departments of a company. This is why you need a sales software that can be integrated with your other software – marketing, contact management, social media, and so on.
7. Security: Security is another very important feature of sales software. You would be dealing with a lot of sensitive customer and business data, so the last thing you want is a leak of such sensitive information.
8. Ease of Use: It is imperative that the sales software is very easy to use. You do not want sales representatives spending months learning how to use a new software as that will reduce productivity and increase the chances of mistakes.
Importance of investing in sales software
1. Organization: Using sales software ensures that all your prospects and customer information are in one place. This organization helps reduce data duplication and helps to create a unified approach to sales management.
2. Improved sales efficiency: The efficiency of sales operations are improved with the use of sales software. The unification, streamlining and optimization of the sales process with this digital application makes everything more efficient.
3. Improved Collaboration within the company: Sales software interacts with almost every process and department in the company, so it will help foster collaboration and interaction amongst staff.
4. Enhanced understanding of customers: The amount of prospect and customer data is more than enough for one to understand the needs of these customers and discover hidden opportunities for more products or services.
5. Satisfaction of sales representatives and customers: When sales representatives are productive, their satisfaction and happiness go up. The same can be said of prospects and customers when they are served well. Sales software enhances the satisfaction of both parties.
6. More accurate sales forecast: With good sales software, businesses can easily forecast sales and other business metrics based on their activities. The best part about these forecasts is that they are more accurate than those without sales software.
Conclusion
As you can see, the importance of a sales software cannot be overemphasized. There are several features to consider when looking to decide on a sales software, all of which have been explored in this article. Also, the benefits accruing from the use of this software are also outlined and meticulously explained. Whether you need to put yourself out there or handle the numerous requests you are receiving from prospects, sales software can help you.
