Ice Storm: two words that can have a big impact on a small business sales team that isn’t automated. Here in Indianapolis a decent ice storm can bring any and all businesses to a halt for at least a few hours, maybe a few days. A small business sales team working with little or no automation has to scramble to make up for time lost when business gets back to normal.
If you are tired of having your cash flow jerked around by weather events consider for a moment how automating your sales team might help.
A small business that automates its sales process experiences fewer, less intense highs and lows year round. It does not come to a halt because an ice storm keeps the business closed. Automation keeps the business going when face-to-face is not possible.
Orders managed on paper are subject to many bottlenecks and if the business has to close everyone returns to a stack of paper orders that are now late.
Cash flow cannot continue at the same rate if buyers can only pay by check and only when they receive an invoice in the mail.
Automation can accept orders, send invoices, accept payment, communicate with fulfillment, thank the buyer and suggest an upsell, all without caring if there is an ice storm outside. Even expired credit cards updates and overdue reminders can be managed.
But what if a new prospect calls and no one is there to answer the phone? If your phone system is automated a voice message can be turned into an email and sent to a sales rep. The email can be parsed to create a contact in your database and the sales rep can retrieve the message, return the call, and update the record. As long as the ice storm does not affect cell phone service, business can go on and commissions can be earned.
If everyone is working with the same centralized automated system and adding information as they work, each person can track their own progress and you as the owner can see everything. Kind of different from waiting till the ice is cleared and everybody gets back to the office and you can figure out where things are. Kind of better too. If you would like to see what an automated small business is capable of take five minutes and watch this demo.