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Why Do SMBs Need Sales Software?

Time to read: 7 MINUTES

What does sales software do?

Sales software is a digital application designed to help businesses improve and streamline the sales process from start to finish. Depending on the application, your sales software may automate workflows, track effective strategies, keep on top of your inventory, send invoices, and help salespeople better connect with customers.

Features of sales software include:

Workflow and collaboration tools: Sales software makes it easier for sales, customer service, and marketing teams to work hand in hand by automating workflows, assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and improving project management.
Lead scoring: Sales teams are more effective when they understand how likely a lead is to convert. Sales software scores leads using artificial intelligence or parameters set manually by users so salespeople can focus on the leads who are more likely to convert.
Proposal, contract, invoicing, and payment management: Your sales software should facilitate the entire process of bringing a client on board.
Data analysis and tracking: Sales software provides businesses with information about overall revenue, sales team performance, conversion rates, and the length of the sales funnel. This data can provide insights into the overall health of the business.
Sales forecasting: With data and artificial intelligence, companies can rely on sales software to provide more accurate sales forecasting.

Dedicated sales platforms have far more features than the five listed above, all of which work together to help sales teams work more productively.

Some sales software systems work as a hybrid CRM (customer relationship management) tool and sales software. For example, Salesforce is known as a CRM system, which we call Customer 360. It provides multiple, specific platforms for different departments that are created to work together to provide everyone at a company with a single, complete view of a customer. Salesforce’s Sales Cloud platform is specifically for sales teams. Sales Cloud has features that include customizable sales reports, operations automation, email inbox tools, and collaboration tools.

How does sales software use artificial intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence uses “smart” algorithms that learn from patterns in data and make decisions in real time. In sales software, AI is used to automate repetitive tasks in the sales process and process data faster. Sales software with built-in AI is now the norm, not an additional feature.

Your sales software should have AI that will help you:

Provide more accurate sales forecasting based on data
Fill and manage your sales pipeline
Send high-value leads to the most relevant sales team or representative
Score leads so sales teams can work more efficiently
Route emails and requests to the appropriate team or representative
Automate customer contacts and messaging based on triggered actions

For example, Salesforce Einstein uses AI, and the benefits for teams include: make decisions faster, increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. It does this by analyzing data to predict the most valuable sales leads, personalize customer interactions, and anticipate customer actions based on past behaviour.

Why do small businesses need sales software?

Many small businesses compete with larger brands despite smaller budgets, teams, and market shares. Sales software assists smaller teams by helping them work more efficiently, improve customer service, and better predict future sales trends. Most sales solutions are cloud-based and offered as a monthly subscription, making them more accessible to small businesses than sales software systems of the past.

While sales software features vary based on the solution and provider, sales software can help by:

Providing collaboration tools so sales and marketing work in sync
Giving access to critical data that allow sales managers to make critical business decisions faster
Providing insight into trends, customer behaviour, and the sales cycle
Driving sales by locating leads who may have been overlooked and keeping track of every lead and their location in the sales funnel
Automating tedious tasks so your team can focus on revenue-generating tasks

Salesforce's small business solution helps small businesses find open opportunities, sort contacts, track tasks, and generate reports to facilitate sales, marketing, and customer service collaboration.

What are the benefits of sales software for small businesses?

A small business may have a smaller budget than their competitors, but they often have several advantages, including lower overhead, fewer regulations, and less red tape. Sales software helps small businesses make the most of those advantages. Here are a few sales software benefits for small businesses.

Improve Customer Service

Sales software can help small businesses keep customer and prospect details organized. With sales software, anyone can quickly see when a prospect was last contacted, their preferences, and even details about their actions on your website and interactions with your company.

Close More Sales

The right sales software solution can help fill your pipeline with leads and highlight the most valuable leads with lead scoring. This can help your sales team prioritize, stay focused on the most valuable prospects, and close more sales. Sales software can also improve collaboration and streamline workflows so your team can get more done, faster.

Get Detailed Insights into Performance, Trends, and the Future

Sales software provides access to critical data and insights to make sure your decisions are in the company's best interests. The platform takes data and collates, organizes, and analyzes it both with algorithms and AI. This means small businesses can make critical decisions fast, and shift gears quickly.

Make the Most of the Resources You Already Have

Small businesses often work on small margins. Sales software can do the heavy lifting for you by improving collaboration, automating reporting, and helping you better understand the needs of current and future customers. As a result, your team can stay laser-focused on helping your customers, rather than wasting time on time-intensive tasks that can be automated.

What features are important when considering sales software for a small business?

Choosing the right sales software for a small business is a challenge. There are dozens of options, but not all are right for your unique small business. The cost to implement a new solution can be high in terms of both budget and time investments, so you want to ensure you choose well the first time.

When comparing sales software solutions, look for the following:

Support: Does the software vendor offer onboarding and support? Is their support open during your business hours? Look for reviews from current customers to get a true idea of the quality of support you will receive.
Training: Learning to navigate a complex software system can be time-consuming, particularly while juggling the challenges of owning or running a small business. Make sure your sales solution provider offers training such as webinars, live chat, and a knowledge base. For example, Salesforce offers a robust resource centre with podcasts, blogs, reports, training modules, and playbooks.
Reporting: Reporting tools, especially those enhanced by AI, provide critical insights that help your business map out effective marketing strategies, improve sales processes, and identify your ideal customer base. Data is the core of making sound business decisions, so a comprehensive sales software must include robust reporting capabilities.
Collaboration Tools: When information is siloed, teams cannot work effectively. Collaboration tools help teams work together, and enable departments — such as sales, marketing, and customer service — to work together and create a stronger business.
Integration: A sales software solution should work with the tools your business uses for marketing, billing, and customer relationship management. Combining this data is essential to creating an effective, streamlined sales process. One of the biggest benefits of sales software is how it integrates with other tools to create a more comprehensive view of your customers.

How does sales software work?

Sales software helps small businesses manage every aspect of the sales cycle and sales process. This includes finding leads, helping sales teams nurture those leads, creating orders, managing invoices and payments, and smoothing workflows for salespeople and teams.

Sales software works by storing a vast amount of data — from both internal and external resources — and providing users with access to comprehensive, data-based reports and other tools that help the sales team work more efficiently. Some sales software solutions leverage automation by using AI to streamline tasks and improve collaboration.

What types of software can a CRM work with?

A CRM (customer relationship management) platform integrates with a wide range of other digital business software, apps, and tools. For example, Salesforce platforms can work with contact management tools, IT management, email marketing software, calendar apps, and customer service tools, just to name a few.

Other types of software a CRM may work with include:

Document storage
Workflow management tools
Email platforms, such as Outlook or Gmail
Marketing tools, including email marketing tools and SEO platforms
Calendars
Business management tools
Accounting management
Website analytic tools
Sales software

Can a CRM help with sales automation?

Yes, a CRM can facilitate sales automation. Your CRM platform should integrate with your sales software and provide automation features. For example, Salesforce makes it easy to build and manage automated workflows, send dynamic content, automate lead nurturing, and allow your business to set up your own automation rules.