The days of using paper-based and other traditional processes to manage and evaluate the sales operations of your organization are far behind us. Thanks to digitization, today, we have many sales activity tracker software with extensive analysis abilities.
You can effectively handle sales management to ensure that organizations can track, evaluate, improve and maintain the performance of their sales team. Sales tracking has now become easier and more affordable than ever before thanks to these software tools.
Benefits of a Sales Activity Tracker
1. To achieve sales targets
Sales targets are often set to cover the expenses of the business and to bring in a profit at the same time. When sales targets remain the same over a long period it isn’t a good sign that the business can grow and expand.
However, it’s not just the targets that need to be monitored – it’s whether the sales team are hitting those targets in the first place. Different locations or different times of the year can affect the sales of particular products or services, so what might be an achievable target in summer might become impossible in winter.
If you have the figures that can demonstrate this, when the next winter comes around you will be prepared. If not, you could experience a sudden drop in sales and have no idea why.
What would be expected is that your sales figures show improvement this year compared to last year, which demonstrates the potential for growth.
2. To track your leads better
While you want every prospect or lead to ultimately become a customer, it is unlikely that this will ever happen. It can become difficult to understand why leads aren’t converting, but sales activity tracking can give you some ideas.
Every time a customer buys from you, the information will be automatically recorded and added to your CRM database. Your CRM will provide clues as to what makes a lead decide to part with their money, and you’ll be able to trace your way back through their history to find out how they found you and the steps that were taken to convert them.
Attempting to replicate this process with other customers can be a successful strategy, but without tracking the sales activity, you’d never be able to plan this.
Some leads might have been in your sales pipeline for a long time but have never made a purchase. Tracking previous sales activity can give you the clues that you need to solve the problems these leads are experiencing.
3. To plan for the future better
Just like reading a map, a sales tracking system will help you to understand where you are and identify which direction you need to go in to reach your destination.
If you can use the information to identify cycles (as in the example above, where seasonal sales can change) you’ll be ready for any downturn but can also plan for upturns. There might be a time of year that you know you will sell more – what do you do if your stock is low?
With a little forethought and planning, you can prepare for the increase in turnover days, weeks, or even months before it happens, and won’t be caught by surprise. Being prepared in this manner means you’ll gain all the revenue possible, rather than finding someone else is meeting the demand that you couldn’t.
Alternatively, if you are manufacturing a product and know there is likely to be a downturn in sales, you can lower the production rate and raise it again when the time is right.
4. To save time and effort
Your sales tracking system will tie in with your CRM to help you manage your customers and leads more effectively and efficiently, and it can also integrate with your stock control.
Do you have the products in stock to complete a particular order? You’ll know for certain by linking these systems together.
The sales tracking system can also be used to automatically send sales reports to managers which will give them the chance to review the facts and figures, allowing for planning to be tweaked where needed based on real-time figures.
It’s easy for team members to forget to send in reports on time, and automating the process stops this from happening. Knowing exactly where your business is at any given moment is vital for continued success and growth, so automating the process as much as possible will give you a distinct advantage.
This automation saves time for the sales team as they just need to sell (and don’t need to worry about creating reports) and also saves time for managers (who don’t need to chase team members to submit reports).
Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that with the advent of sales tracking applications, the landscape of sales management has been changed forever. Sales tracking is a must-have for any organization. Businesses have a lot of benefits to gain by utilizing sales tracking app and the abovementioned points are just a few of them.
Now the question is no longer “why does my business need a sales tracking app?”, the more important question is “what sales tracking app do I need?” With the wide spectrum of sales tracking software solutions that organizations have to choose from, it is important to ensure that you choose a software that will provide these core benefits to your sales team and by extension, organization.
That said, if you are in need of a sales tracking app for your organization, the LeadSquared Sales Activity Tracker is exactly what you need if you want to retain happy and satisfied customers while driving revenue as well. Why don’t you book a free demo and see for yourself?
