For any business, marketing and sales can be scary, and yet the cost of sales is such an important aspect of any business. Every sales business knows that the sales force drives revenue.
Even small changes can have big consequences, and a sales company must know how to reduce expenses while still maintaining those resources needed to protect revenue and future growth. We look at ways to reduce the cost of sales.
Making CRM simpler
Customer relationship management (CRM) can be a big expense. It manages and analyses a business's interactions with customers. Through email, live chat, marketing materials and social media, a business learns more about their target audience and how to cater to their needs.
There was a time when using CRM required a degree in IT. These days, however, cloud-based CRM systems simplify things and can help salespeople turn leads into paying customers quicker and at less expense.
A good CRM system allows a business to store information online, automates admin tasks, keeps everyone in the loop of the sales rep's achievements, and speeds up sales cycles by using user-friendly software.
No delays in orders
When you're in the business of sales, you can't afford to have orders delayed. With Empire Promos, much of their product manufacturing is done at home in the US and China, cutting down on manufacturing costs.
They offer a wide selection of corporate- and promotional products for businesses. Also, where orders took weeks to produce with branding, now with goods being produced locally, everything is quicker and more cost-effective. Their New York-based account managers will give you a quote on the goods you want and determine the variables that will affect your total price.
Empire Promos sell all the products you need during COVID-19, from masks to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), sanitizers, and much more. The website is rigged up to handle any filter options you might need for products and they can even print your company logo on the products you want.
Automation frees up time
Sales automation has the means to reduce the cost of sales by freeing up a lot of time spent on administration. Sales organizations may need to adjust their ways of working and ensure that sales reps and automation work hand in hand.
Automation makes sales and direct marketing more efficient because repetitive support tasks such as product literature and answering requests, for instance, are automated. This reduces the time salespeople spend on tasks not really related to selling.
Those organizations already adopting automation rave about higher customer satisfaction as well as improvements in efficiency. It makes sense because, for each job that you can replace with a machine, the cost of goods sold can decrease.
This is because machines don't go on strike and they're always available to work. The truth is, by a company postponing automation while their competitors aren't could well be a costly mistake.
Look after every customer
There is no logic in only going after new customers and, in doing so, neglecting the customers you have. Understanding all customers allows a company to focus on sales resources precisely where they are needed. For some companies, a less costly strategy is to be looking at the customers they already have and building on them.
Then again, there are business owners who tend to tell their sales reps to be constantly acquiring new accounts. A business needs to work out how much to spend on acquiring new customers. Setting a budget for sales and acquiring customers starts with working out the actual cost to acquire a customer and working out the average customer lifetime value.
Knowing more or less the cost to acquire a customer is important to set an acquisition budget that ensures a strong ROI on sales expenditures.