Ops teams have a vital role to play in any business, and the markets are as saturated ever. The year might not be over quite yet, but you’re likely to already be looking ahead, and planning how to hit the ground running next year. If you’re an operations specialist looking for ways to get ahead of the game in 2023, then you’re in the right place – here are our 3 key areas for you to focus on in order to kickstart the new year…
- Formalising and optimising sales processes
In 2014, less than half (45.7%) of the sales ops teams surveyed had formal or dynamic sales processes – by 2019, that had risen to 64.2%, but many organisations still lack a documented sales process for sales teams to follow. Having a more formal sales process can lead to a stronger sales performance – with a more defined step-by-step process for team members to follow, you could avoid the chance of any deals falling by the wayside, or leads slipping through the cracks. A survey in 2019 showed that 82% of the executives surveyed didn’t review internal processes within their organisations, which led to them rushing head-first new strategies without thinking about how they could be more efficient or productive.
A key goal for companies should be to reduce the number of clicks it takes to complete tasks, streamlining processes and making it easier for ops teams and customers alike. If a certain process takes 20 clicks, for example, teams should look at improving it by 10, 20, or even 30%, helping them to complete tasks quicker and giving them more time for more important jobs. Another way for businesses to be as efficient as possible is by coming up with roles and responsibilities for each member of the team, and ensuring everyone’s on the same page. Team members won’t spend any time on unnecessary tasks – they’ll simply move on to the next step. A formalised process also gives you a better understanding of how your team is doing, and more data for KPIs, so you can predict your sales and future growth with even more accuracy.
Our tips:
- Salesforce’s tools can help you to refine your sales process, whether it’s by creating customer personas with analytics tools like Sales Cloud, or using Einstein Relationship Insights to track down new leads and potential customers.
- Communication is a key part of the process – whether with customers or other members of the team. Cloud communications tools can enable users to use real-time data, delivering their customers a more personalised experience. Messaging tools like Slack, meanwhile, can help your employees stay in touch and share files from anywhere, at any time.
- Keep abreast of new technology
As you’ll probably already be well aware, new technology is constantly being developed, and new tools are launched all the time. They might all be designed to make things easier for you, and save you both time and money, but it can be difficult to keep up with the market. Ops teams are being forced to constantly re-evaluate their strategies and update the software and tools they use to stay ahead of, or keep up with the game. There are so many tools out there that it can be hard to keep track of all of them – research by MuleSoft found that organisations are using 976 individual applications on average.
Not all companies are spending time investing in new technology, but it’s worth considering that all technology will become obsolete eventually. New software and solutions are meant to help you rather than hinder you, and by adapting to the changing trends, you can help your business to stay relevant and keep pace with the competition. Solutions like Salesforce Genie (which was only released earlier this year) allow you to integrate various apps and products, so that they can be viewed and accessed all in one platform. The real-time data on display in Salesforce Genie allows companies to keep up-to-date and respond to the market instantly, adding new applications when they need them.
Our tips:
- Integrating tools with Salesforce Genie can help organisations create more personalised experiences for their customers, automating workflows and making predictions based on real-time data.
- Using a single connected platform like Salesforce Genie also makes it far easier for users to make sense of all their data. As it’s all in one place, they can see it gathered together – they don’t have to keep track of different passwords and constantly switch between various tools.
- Adopt AI tools
Earlier this year, Salesforce research revealed that 84% of marketers used AI somewhere in their acquisition and retention engines – a figure that’s almost three times larger than just two years ago. In 2023, AI looks to become even more indispensable to businesses of all sizes – according to a report by IDC, worldwide spending in the AI market is set to grow breaching the $500 billion mark by next year.
AI isn’t just for making robots smarter. While multinationals like Google and Amazon have all been using AI for years now, AI tools are available on the cloud, and innovations have made it possible for all kinds of organisations to integrate the technology into their day-to-day routines. In 2020, McKinsey reported that 50% of companies surveyed had adopted AI in at least one of their business functions. There are now far more AI tools on offer than just a few years ago. Ops teams can use machine learning tools and AI to automate emails, analyse customer data, distribute and manage content, and forecast revenue growth with more accuracy – and with tools like Salesforce’s Einstein (available out of the box), anyone can integrate AI services into any app.
Our tips:
- Einstein Analytics brings powerful AI technologies together, helping users create customised, AI-powered apps that can save both time and money.
- Using Salesforce’s tools, ops teams can also create AI bots to interact with customers, freeing up sales and service teams to concentrate on more impactful projects, and with AI models to analyse data, they can predict business outcomes.
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If you want to find out more about how to help your teams perform to their full potential over the next 12 months, we can help.
Ops is the lifeline of many businesses, and has a tangible impact on driving sales performance, but they can’t live up to their full potential unless you tackle some of the challenges we’ve outlined above – and by doing that, you can start off 2023 on the right foot. Here at Trigg Digital, we want to help your business meet its goals. Contact us today for a free health check, and we can tell you the best ways to improve productivity and efficiency throughout your business
Get in touch to find out more…
+44 203 239 8492
hello@triggdigital.com
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