Ask A NetSuite Consultant: Why Should I Automate My Sales Force in the Cloud
Posted by Rick Russo on Fri, Apr 27, 2012 @ 10:32 AM
Maybe you have wanted to ask a NetSuite Consultant the same thing, why automate your sales force in the cloud? Making your sales force more efficient is a key factor to growing a business in today’s market. Providing your sales representatives with tools to automate their sales process allows them to focus more on selling and less on administration, ultimately leading to more dollars directly to the company’s bottom line.
Tools Recommended by a NetSuite Consultant
One tool that we recommend to our clients who are in need of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is NetSuite – a complete and scalable online business management suite that covers your entire business. NetSuite is a very unique enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution because it not only has robust financial and e-commerce functionality, but it also has an extremely powerful out-of-the-box CRM solution. Today, I want to spend some time exploring NetSuite’s CRM functionality and the benefits of automating your sales force in the cloud.
One of the main differentiators of NetSuite CRM is that it resides in the cloud which is instantly accessible to anyone who has an Internet connection. This means that your sales force no longer has to be tied to a central location in order to manage their accounts, contacts, opportunities, or pipeline. Once logged in, the sales person has a unique dashboard view where they can customize, prioritize, and manage their sales functions. For example, they can create an opportunities window to manage opportunities as either individual records or aggregated lists. They also have the ability to track multiple leads within the same company, upsell, cross-sell, and even drive renewals.
In addition, NetSuite CRM provides a 360-degree view of customer and prospect information that is accessible even through mobile devices such as iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile, meaning your sales team will have CRM access even in the field.
NetSuite CRM also allows sales reps to easily generate quotes, convert them to sales orders, and schedule tasks for post-sales follow up. Native to the application is the ability to analyze customer purchase history by mining the customer record to see buying trends and patterns. Sales reps also have access to a document management system within NetSuite CRM which provides users with a central repository for document publication and storage.
Another great sales tool available within NetSuite CRM is the sales forecasting capability. Users have the ability to create a sales forecast dashboard to easily gain visibility into their sales efforts with real time forecasting and drill down capabilities for more detail. Since order management is integrated into forecasting, sales personnel can see actual sales, as well as projections, of recurring revenue. Sales data can also be presented in easy-to-read, real-time, interactive graphs. Executives and managers can also log in to gain better overall visibility and control with real-time dashboards that allow them to monitor sales effectiveness and individual performance.
NetSuite Consultant Highlights Key Benefits
As you can see, NetSuite has truly redefined what is to be expected from a CRM solution. To recap, the key benefits that the solution provides include:
- Clear visibility into sales, service and marketing performance.
- Streamlined quote-to-order processes.
- Elevated productivity with a 360-degree view of your customers.
- Improved sales performance through forecasting, upselling and commission management.
- Ability to drive collaboration with partners.
- Increase customer service productivity and reduce case resolution times.
Whether you’re a wholesale distributor, professional services provider, or specialize in other areas, NetSuite’s robust CRM capabilities provide accurate, up-to-the-minute information to meet customer needs. What’s more, NetSuite CRM can integrate with your existing ERP investments, providing you with a cloud CRM system woven into your broader business processes, or you can grow into the rest of NetSuite’s broader suite by adding seamlessly integrated ERP, eCommerce, professional services automation (PSA), or global business management capabilities when the time is right for your business.
Want to learn more about the robust capabilities of NetSuite? We invite you to take this free NetSuite product tour and see for yourself or check out our ERP Software Shootout webinar recording now. Have a question you want to ask a NetSuite consultant? Let us know and it might be selected for a future article!
