14 Jul Software Development Services That Drive Profits
We’re so entrenched by modern technology, you’d be hard-pressed to find a corner of our world that’s not in way or the other impacted by the mighty computers. And while we aren’t quite at the point of servant robots cleaning our houses and cooking our dinners, the right software packages can make our day-to-day life much easier and more productive.
So, how does this fact help your business?
One word: Integration. According to a study by SiriusDecisions, B2B companies with “tightly aligned” marketing and sales achieved 27% faster profit growth and 24% faster revenue growth over a three year period. A separate study found that the average customer is already halfway through the entire purchase process before they even speak with a vendor. All thanks to, you guessed it, modern technology; more specifically, software development.
Binding Marketing With Sales
Marketing is just as important as sales; without one, it’s nearly impossible to have the other. This is why it is so important to keep the two so closely aligned. Luckily, you can use software development to ensure this is the case from the ground up.
If you can fully integrate the different programs and applications your company uses, your sales and marketing departments will work together with greater ease. After all, enterprise software is designed to get people collaborating. And what better way to harmonize marketing and sales, than by connecting the people in charge?
Of course, there are other ways software development services can help maximize your profits, even by improving on the tried-and-true methods. Chances are, you already analyse your gross profit margins in some form.
You might even have a team dedicated to doing just that. But this isn’t just about a budget or cost control – it’s about painting a more complete picture about how and why your money flows in and out of your business.
Using an integrated software solution will help you keep track of the numbers; moreover, automatically created, easy-to-read charts and graphs will allow you to get a full scope of your current financial reports. Once you get the numbers rolling in, you can clearly see what aspects of your business need to be cut, or what direction requires focus.
A tool keeping track of your inventory also helps you increase profit by cutting on any potential losses. You will be able to identify what is losing you money, and how.
After all, it is much easier to identify financial fraud or even honest mistakes when everything is kept track of in a digital database.
These systems can work in any industry. Just take a look at Forbes’ piece on the Italian cheese company Parmigiano Reggiano. By tagging each wheel of cheese, the company keeps track of exactly which one goes where, which market prefers what, and is even able to cut down on their impostors (apparently there are cheese impostors).
All of these things have lead to their increased profit. This just goes to prove that companies with a fully utilized Customer Relationship Management system (CRMS) can expect to increase their sales by 29%. We’ve already covered how you can keep all of your inventory info in a database – but the same goes for your customer data.
Managing Your Customer Relationships
Instead of leaving a series of notes around their desks, employees can keep all of the pivotal customer information in a designated digital location. This knowledge can include the following: customer/client name, address, who from your company they last talked to, what they talked about, when are they expecting a followup call, who is in charge of the client, how much money is on the line, what their favorite food or colour is.
It doesn’t matter, you can get as creative and detailed with the information that you want stored as you like.
Another brilliant benefit of this system is improved accountability. If the customer claims they didn’t receive a particular service from an employee, all it takes is to look up the records in the system. If your company delivered the product or service, it will be listed, and you will be able to prove it.
If not, well, then you can make it right by amending your mistake and keeping the customer happy.
Getting The Most From Your Employees
The same system also makes it easier to manage your employees. Not only can you see which employee is dealing with which client, but you can also extract a wider range of statistics; like who is closing the highest percentage of deals or who has the most clients, to name just a few.
Besides employee-specific, this data can also be viewed on a company level, including profit margins for the year to date.
To spice things up a bit, why not encourage a little friendly competition among your colleagues and employees, and put an internal contest in place? It might not work for every company, but figuring out exactly where the money is coming from certainly does.
