You have a great product or service, you know what makes your product or service unique and you have big dreams for the future of your business. So now you just need to go out and sell it right?
Making sales without having the right systems and people to process those sales and deliver to your customer leads to poor customer service and inaccurate information to make the right business decisions. You must get the base right before ramping up the growth of the company chasing additional sales.
What is included in the term ‘Systems’?
Systems can be either manual or some form of software system. It includes (but is not limited to):
- CRM – how do you record your leads, follow up prospects and keep in touch with your customers
- Accounting – good accounting software is a huge timesaver. Subscription services such as Xero and MYOB are cost effective and a good place to start
- Job / Project management – where you are managing jobs and projects there are several good programs that will help you with quoting, managing, scheduling and costing your jobs and projects. Find one that links directly with your Accounting software
- Payroll – with rules constantly changing, you want something that is going to speed up your pay runs and keep you compliant
- HR – for the larger businesses
- Inventory management – retail and manufacturing requires additional functionality outside your standard accounting systems. Find one that links directly with your Accounting software
- Payments – how easy is it for your customers to pay you? Online, credit card, cash?
How do I choose the right system?
There are lots of systems available in the market, and there is no best solution that fits every business.
Start by making a list of what outcomes you want each system to achieve. From this you can work out what functionality you want from a system. Divide the list into what you must have, and what you would like to have. From there you can compare your list to the functionality provided by each system.
Researching systems is time consuming. Talk to your business consultant or other trusted advisor who has experience in selecting systems for implementation.
Remember that you do not need to go online for all these systems straight away. Let your technology footprint grow as your business does. However you must have at least a manual system in place to give your business a solid base from which to grow.
Don’t forget the people
Having the right people in your business is critical to business success. Involve them in the process of designing and creating the processes. Make sure that all systems and processes are documented so that you are all following the same methods. For all new system implementations involve your staff to get their buy in to the change, and ensure that there is sufficient training for everyone affected.
So before you start spending up on sale and marketing to get extra sales, stop and think if you have the systems in place for you to manage those sales and best serve your customers.