Why Always Saying “Yes” is Killing Your Business

Why Always Saying “Yes” is Killing Your Business

Thought Leadership

Why Always Saying “Yes” is Killing Your Business

Selling is tough.

You’re faced with the constant pressure of winning deals in a world saturated with competition. So, the idea of disqualifying a lead probably makes you apprehensive.

A lead is a lead, right? Whether it brings in R50k or R300k?

We disagree.

And it’s a lesson we learnt the hard way.

The time we made this mistake

Sales mistake
In our early days, a lead came in that grabbed our interest.

We took it through our qualification process and a red flag was raised. The typical deal size for our business is R750k. But this prospective customer had a budget of just R100k.

Instead of disqualifying the deal based on our own tried and tested qualification process, we decided to take on the new customer. Saying to ourselves, “Surely we can make a plan?” – How many times have you heard a salesperson say those words?

A week into the new project, our biggest customer came to us with an urgent requirement worth five times the budget of this new customer. The problem was, we couldn’t fulfil on this requirement because our consultants’ time was now consumed by the smaller deal.

The realisation: We’d spent all our time and energy on a field mouse. And it meant that we missed the antelope.

What we learnt from this mistake

Learning
Qualify OUT as well as in!

In our last sales article, we emphasised the importance of having a structured sales process and the need for defined gates. And the first gate in any sales process must be Qualification.

Our mistake made us reassess our qualification process (we use B.A.N.T). We asked ourselves some hard questions and looked at what went wrong. What we discovered was: we faltered when it came to qualifying OUT (just like all businesses). And it wasn’t because we didn’t follow B.A.N.T.

On the contrary, the prospective customer ticked all the B.A.N.T boxes. What we didn’t do was look beyond Budget, Access to Power, Need, and Time. We didn’t follow our instincts. We knew this prospective customer wasn’t the best fit but we decided to say “yes”… because it’s hard to disqualify a lead.

BANT
So, now when we’re faced with the hard choice, we remind ourselves of an analogy used by entrepreneur, Tim Ferriss.

In his book, Tools of Titans, he talks about “hunting field mice vs antelope”:

“A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So, a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. … So, ask yourself at the end of the day, ‘Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?'”

Mouse vs antelope
Your business can’t survive on field mice.

The resources needed to complete a job for a field mouse, are the same needed for an antelope. A field mouse might tick all the B.A.N.T boxes. But it doesn’t mean it’s going to be good for your business. So, you must extend your qualification process, and trust in your instincts as a salesperson.

Next time you need to qualify a lead, stop and ask yourself…

  • Is this engagement worth tying up the resource?
  • Is this project right for our business?
  • Is the prospective business a good fit?
  • How will this deal affect our ability to fulfil on future deals?

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Discover More Stories

Read Our Blog

Dynamics 365 – Is there substance to the hype?

Dynamics 365 – Is there substance to the hype?

Dynamics and Power Platform

Dynamics 365 – Is there substance to the hype?

There’s been a lot of buzz around Dynamics 365. At their recent world conference, it was Microsoft’s big announcement. And it marks their latest move towards cloud-only computing. Is it just good marketing? Or is it something substantial? Let’s look at this in detail.

Use of the ‘365’ Brand

Five years ago saw Microsoft launch their cloud version of Office, Office 365. Reportedly, Office 365 is their ‘fasted growing business’ in their history.[1] Given this success, It’s not surprising that Microsoft are applying the ‘365’ to their new, cloud-only, version of their Dynamics suite. But are they just leveraging the 365, or is it a good comparison?

For those not familiar with Dynamics, Dynamics is currently the overarching name that Microsoft use to refer to their various ERP products (AX, Nav, GP, SL etc) but also includes their CRM suite. We heard a rumour that CRM was going to be separated from the Dynamics brand, but it looks like something much bigger is on the cards. If Dynamics 365 is as good a product as Office 365 then we are in for something truly great.

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/21/microsoft_windows_azure_uptake_claim/

A true single source of truth – company-wide.

Dynamics 365 is certainly a bold declaration. Not only are Microsoft promising to bring together ERP and CRM together under a common data model, they are promising this will be the same data model that Office 365 uses. So, your data that currently sits across Office 365 will easily sync with your ERP and CRM systems – if you upgrade to Dynamics 365 of course. This is huge for Microsoft, and should be a big concern for many of its competitors.

In a world where Microsoft CRM and Dynamics AX/NAV/GP… etc competes against some big players, offering a common data sync with Office 365 is something that should get everyone else very nervous. Which company doesn’t use at least one of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook? Not many.

At The CRM Team, we already relish being able to say to companies how easily CRM Online links up with their O365 but sharing a common data model is a whole new level of love. Built on Microsoft’s ever developing Azure network, it means easy access to powerful machine learning, and the exciting new development of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) – think automated monitoring and servicing of devices or machinery.

The end to software bundling.

Another big change with Dynamics 365 is the ability for companies to pick what applications they want instead of having to buy everything.

Do you remember the era of having to buy whole music albums to get the one song you wanted? It sucked. But then iTunes came along, and people could buy just single songs. It was great. That’s what’s happening with Dynamics 365.

Instead of buying CRM you can just purchase their sales module, or just the marketing one – you can mix and match according to your needs. Have a contact centre? Then purchase that module for your contact centre staff. Have a field service team, or project team, then buy those modules. ERP comes in a module called ‘operations’ and a new module is introduced called financials. Simply buy licenses for the modules you want.

Additionally, Microsoft have also introduced different licenses for different types of staff. Some admin staff may just need to have limited access to data in modules but not need the full functionality of each module – they get a cheaper licences, under what’s called a ‘team view’. They can see the data, and do simple tasks but are restricted to certain functionality. Staff who need the functionality can get an app licence. For example, the marketing team can get a licence for just the marketing app. Staff who need greater access across many apps can get tailored plans. We think our customers will love this new flexible way of licensing.

The Evolution of XRM

Another big announcement is Microsoft’s app store, ‘AppSource’. Built on the success of Google’s Play and Apple’s App Store, AppSource is a place for Microsoft Partners and Developers to offer useful add-ons, simply and quickly. Customers can still commission custom adaptions and add-ons (XRM to the initiated) but now there is an option to see if somebody has already developed what you need. This is a great development for partners and customers alike. AppSource is live now so you can check what’s already available.

Dynamics 365 is a bold, exciting move. Something we believe will not only live up to all the hype – but be even better.

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Discover More Stories

Read Our Blog

Dynamics 365 is here

Dynamics 365 is here

Dynamics and Power Platform

Dynamics 365 is here

And it’s arrived just in time.

‘We now live in a digitally transformed world.’

 

Customers are becoming more demanding. In the 70s/80s, great product was the differentiator. But in the 90s, as processes improved, services became more important. Today we expect great experience. If the experience is not slick and quick – we’ll move on.

When we book taxis, we don’t put up with being misheard anymore. Instead, we bypass call centres and order via an app. “Approximate” arrival times are no good. Instead, we want to track the taxi’s every movement until it gets to us. Wasting time waiting in the rain doesn’t cut it anymore… No wonder the taxi industry has been disrupted across the world.

Coming to an industry near you

This disruption is not just localised to certain industries. In the last 15 years, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared. Just last year, more than half of the Fortune 500 lost money. And to top that, company life expectancy is getting shorter.

Average Company Life Expectancy

  • 1959 = 58 years
  • 2015 = 15 years
  • 2020 (predicted) = 12 years.

Ray Wang, Founder and Principal Analyst of Constellation Research Inc. put it this way:

“There’s no time to wait… We’re talking about a 3x to 4x compression in terms of age of a company since the 50s and 60s. So, if you’re not making the shift—if you’re not even moving in that direction—you’re probably going to be merged, be acquired, or go bankrupt.”

For the companies that adapt, there is huge opportunity for growth. Look at what Rolls-Royce has done:

 

Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce is the world’s second largest airline engine manufacturer. They have been in existence for over 100 years but had to adapt to changing customer expectations. Instead of selling aeroplane engines they now provide engines as a service (EaaS?) Airlines rent engines from Rolls Royce and Rolls Royce get paid according to the duration of engine uptime. With their engines powering 50,000 flights per month worldwide, it’s essential that Rolls-Royce receives real-time data so that they can spot costly problems before they happen. Through doing this successfully, their customers get a much better experience and this has had a knock-on effect on their order book. Over the last ten years, their orders per year have quadrupled and they have grown to a market capitalisation of GBP 13.7bn.

Thriving in the new digital economy

If you are able to provide the experience customers are demanding, you’ll thrive in this new economy.

Enter Dynamics 365

It’s a suite of cloud business apps that gives you complete control of your customer’s experience with you – wherever they connect: marketing, sales, operations or service.

Built for you

Because of the urgency, Dynamics 365 is designed to get you started really quickly. Choose the area of the business you need to improve and purchase that app. For example, if you just need the sales app. you just buy that.

But Dynamics 365’s power comes when you join a number of apps together – implementing business processes across traditional silos.

Track Prospect to Cash

By choosing both the Sales and Financials/Operations apps you can track a prospect right through to receiving their cash. Track the lead through to an opportunity, to quoting, to receiving the sales order, to delivering the goods or service, to invoicing and payment. A complete digital paper trail that can be analysed for insight, and monitored to ensure you give a consistent experience.

Because its built on the same data model as Office 365, you can do much of the process without leaving Outlook. Take a look at how incredible it is!

Increase Your Productivity

Transform customer engagements by giving your workforce accurate customer data, wherever they are. Dynamics 365 apps are available on iOS, Android, Windows, and the Web. You can work on or offline and everything will be synced in a way that avoids duplicates.

With products such as Power Apps and Flow embedded in Dynamics 365, you can even build your own apps to suit your business processes – without having to know code. Just drag and drop actions into a PowerPoint-style builder. Microsoft Flow allows you to automate processes between apps so that you have more time to do the things that matter.

Access Built-In Intelligence

Use digital intelligence to reimagine what’s possible for your business. The data in the world is growing at a phenomenal rate, but it only is useful is you can make sense of it. Dynamics 365 comes with data vizualisation and Business Intelligence features in every app. You can quickly analyse your data stored in across Office 365 and Dynamics 365 and get intelligent insight, customised to you.

Also embedded into Dynamics 365 is the Cortana Intelligence Suite, so you can make use of the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve your business processes.

For example, McDonalds are using its natural language function to capture orders at their drive-thrus. The system learns as it goes, so it gets better and better, saving staff and customers time.

Relationship Insights gives users the ability to monitor sentiment. For example, it will track sales emails and highlight which opportunities need to be focused on according to deal size and sentiment.

Adapt to Your Business

As well integrating with existing systems, you can tailor Dynamics 365 with any number of pre-built add-ons in AppSource. So instead of extra functionality built you can check if somebody has already done it and quickly add it on to your solution.

So why not make sure your company adapts quickly in these changing times?

Adopt Dynamics 365. It might be the best decision you ever make.

PS. Do you know what solution Rolls-Royce chose to monitor their 13,000 engines? – I think you can guess.

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Discover More Stories

Read Our Blog

The CRM Academy South Africa was a success!

The CRM Academy South Africa was a success!

Dynamics and Power Platform

The CRM Academy South Africa was a success!

The CRM Team ran the inaugural Microsoft South Africa CRM Academy in 2016. Microsoft runs academies like this one all over the world, with the aim of equipping young people with the skills needed to become IT professional.The South African Academy had 345 successful applicants. These were given access to Microsoft’s online Dynamics Learning Portal. They had a week to complete the online training and take the online exam.

The top 110 candidates from the online exam, were invited to attend the CRM Application course at Microsoft’s South African Headquarters, in Johannesburg. This was a week long intensive course. At the end of the week, those that passed the two-hour exam became Microsoft Certified Professionals. This qualification is recognised worldwide.

The top 35 candidates were invited on to a further two weeks training, again held at Microsoft. Here they studied for exams in CRM Deployment and CRM Configuration. The pictures from the graduation ceremony are shown above. Many of these graduates went on to get jobs locally.

With Microsoft recently forming a partnership with the City of Joburg to train 1 million disadvantaged residents in digital literacy, we are looking forward to doing our part in 2107 with the next CRM Academy.

Congratulations to all who took part!

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

 

No Results Found

The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.

Discover More Stories

Read Our Blog