10 minute read
SBT Ask the Expert
from SBT issue 453
SBT
ASK THE EXPERT
BY PLUS ACCOUNTING
DON’T THROW PEOPLE AT YOUR SALES PROBLEMS
BY BEN BENNETT, SECOND VOICE
SBT ASK THE EXPERT SPONSORED BY:
One of the leading accountancy firms on the South Coast, Plus Accounting, reveals adoption of new business automation systems are saving hundreds of non-billable hours.
Designed and launched in April 2021, the new system automates their new business process and client onboarding processes. Prior to the new system being implemented, manual time was spent chasing lead information, setting up meetings and sending proposals. The accountants on the Business Services team now save on average 30 hours per month on admin and repetitive tasks. In addition, the time it takes to convert leads has dropped from 10 days to five.
What did we do?
Plus Accounting worked closely with their CRM and automation agency, Bright Dials, to create the strategy to save time and money, increase transparency, and speed up their client registration process. Once the design was complete, Bright Dials built out the system using a combination of tools including ActiveCampaign, Calendly, Pandadocs, and Gsuite with Integromat connecting it all together.
This revolutionary new process starts Ask the Expert by gathering digital lead information, ensuring quality and accuracy. It is immediately entered into the CRM for tracking and providing reporting transparency . Leads are encouraged to sign up for an appointment using Calendly, and the team is encouraged to follow up as quickly as possible. A Deal is automatically created and once the conversation has taken place, with the click of a button, a proposal is
automatically generated and sent out to the client for signature.
On signing, the client enters a registration process which creates a bespoke tracking document enabling the Client Onboarding Manager to register the client quickly and efficiently.
What are the benefits?
• Improved data accuracy to speed up lead conversion process • Transparency on new business to enable better marketing and planning • Overall reduction in lead conversion time in turn improving the overall leads won • Smoother client onboarding creating a better experience • Consistent communication with professional proposals sent every time • Huge time saving in admin time with it spent on billable hours instead
For more information, please read our case study on the link here. range of tax and accounting services. So, whether you are just starting out or thinking about selling your business, we can provide you with the support and guidance that you need to keep control of your finances and plan your affairs for maximum efficiency.
What makes us stand out from the crowd is our genuine interest in you and your business. We take time to understand what is important to you and then tailor our services to your requirements.
Paul Feist, Managing Director of Plus Accounting, said: “Since completing the work with Bright Dials, we save hundreds of hours every month using ActiveCampaign. The team embraces it because it increases the number of inquiries and we take more advantage of opportunities that might otherwise slip past. This new system has proved to be great value for money.”
Lindsey Pickles, Founder of Bright Dials, said: “We invested significant time in automating key processes for our client and I’m delighted with the results. The team saves time on the mundane, which is now spent elsewhere. The improved efficiency means making more money too, a real win for everyone.”
Who are we? Plus Accounting:
Plus Accounting offers a comprehensive
www.plusaccounting.co.uk 01273 701200
Bright Dials is an independent agency that specialises in helping businesses get the most out of their CRM and automation. Taking your current data sources as a starting point they identify where responsive, data-generated processes attract the hottest leads to your business and accelerate the sales cycle.
www.brightdials.com
Don’t throw people at your
sales problems
Have you ever found yourself in the position where you think to yourself “If only I had an extra pair of hands”?
Many of us find ourselves in that situation as business leaders, sales leaders and salespeople, all of the time! An extra pair of hands is actually very appealing when you find yourself at maximum capacity, unable to handle any more new sales opportunities. What I am about to share with you, is one of the most powerful growth metrics that is used internationally in scaling technology companies. If you’re not in a tech company, don’t worry, the same logic applies. We are going to discuss Sales Velocity. This is a story about mathematics and logic, not one of technique and skill. If you have access to your sales data, then this is a great topic to be exploring. In this article, you will learn what to look for in your sales data in order to potentially double, triple and sometimes even quadruple your sales, without the need to hire more people to achieve these lofty goals. Understanding the levers that we can pull to influence the outcomes of sales revenue is fundamental for a few reasons. First of all, we can establish whether the time and effort spent are in the appropriate place, and secondly, we can also recognise that we don’t always need
to ‘throw’ more people at a problem in Ask the order to get the desired outcomes. Expert Let’s explore this situation in a bit more detail:
• You sell contracts for a product or service that costs on average, £1,000. • You can manage 10 new prospective customers per month. • For every qualified lead that you are working with, you convert 20% to customers. • On average it takes you three months to close a new deal.
£1,000 contract value x 10 prospects x 0.2 (20% success rate)) = £2,000 Divide the £2,000 by three-month
sales cycle, and you get a Sales Velocity of £666.67 Sales Velocity = (Contract Value x Prospects x Success Rate)/Sales Cycle Legth
In any normal situation, some seasoned sales leaders would see their team reaching capacity under the workload. Also noticing that (depending on the data for your own business) each salesperson is paying for themselves through the new business revenue that they are securing.
A business case gets made to hire more salespeople, and then scale the sales team, which in turn will grow revenue - and the cycle continues.
Well, what if there was another way?
If I was looking at your sales data, before making any recommendation to hire a new team member (which may also be a viable solution by the way), I would explore all of the components of the Sales Velocity calculation…
Ask yourself the following…
“Can I reduce the length of the sales cycle?”
If you can reduce it to just 2 months, your Sales Velocity will increase by 50% to £1,000.
Ben Bennett
The practical outcome of having a shorter sales cycle means that your sales team can handle more prospective opportunities. This one is slightly more subjective, but by ensuring your sales and marketing efforts are aligned with each other, and that anyone working on lead generation is delivering quality, then this can be factored in.
I’ll let you do the calculations on this one.
There is so much money being ploughed into tech companies that their sales reporting and forecasting need to be bulletproof, and we can all learn from some of the best analysis out there. This is just one way to take more control of your own revenue generation.
Ben Bennett is Managing Partner of Second Voice (secondvoice.co.uk) a Brighton-based consultancy focused on enabling B2B companies to accelerate growth through sales and operations. Ben is also a business growth mentor for the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator and Partner at Plus X.
If you’re looking to grow your own company and want impartial advice or support, please reach out to Ben at
sbt@secondvoice.co.uk
“Can I increase my success rates to 30%?”
If you can do this through upskilling and coaching, as well as shorten your sales cycle, your Sales Velocity increases by a further 50% to £1,500.
The practical outcome is less time spent nurturing more prospects through to a higher rate of conversion. Which sales leader wouldn’t want that?
“Can I increase my contract value?”
Pricing is a whole other topic that we can spend time on, but for the purpose of this illustration, let’s just increase prices by 10% and our Sales Velocity is now £1,650. That is a 147% total increase on your original Sales Velocity figure.
To put that in context, doubling your sales team and taking no action on improving the other variables would have netted you a theoretical 100% uplift in revenue, plus all of the other overheads that come with that increase.
“Can I get more qualified prospects?”
A good news story from Hisbee
Rebel Supermarket HISBE opened their Worthing store during the pandemic and it’s already generated over £300,000 for the local economy. So, as people emerge from Covid, HISBE calls for shoppers to ‘Go Back To Better’ and shop small, independent, and local.
HISBE Food is a social enterprise supermarket with shops in Brighton and Worthing and a focus on local suppliers, packaging-free food, values-led brands, and sustainable shopping options. In January 2020 HISBE raised funds to open their store on Portland Road in Worthing town centre. The pandemic hit just weeks after signing the lease on the premises. But against all odds, the local supermarket still managed to open its Worthing store, in January 2021. Since the beginning of the pandemic, customers in Worthing have spent over £600k at HISBE’s tills and HISBE has spent over half of that money on Sussex suppliers, staff, and services. For every £1 you spend at HISBE stores, they spend 57p in the local economy, whereas when you spend £1 at the big supermarkets, they spend only 5p in the local economy. Shifting consumer habits are helping social enterprises like HISBE to expand in challenging times - with 60% of consumers reported to be making more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or ethical purchases since the start of the pandemic [source: Accenture survey.] So now HISBE is asking Brighton and Worthing shoppers the question “Why go back to normal, when you can go back to better?” They want to inspire more people to rely less on the big supermarkets and to make sustainable swaps in their food shop, be it big or small. Ruth Anslow, HISBE co-founder, “We had such a struggle to get our Worthing store going given the circumstances, but the feedback from our customer survey makes it all worth it! People praised the produce, staff, and environment - and when we asked customers how likely they would be to recommend HISBE to others on a scale of 0-10, 830 out of 1267 respondents said 10. We invite everyone to visit our stores and experience first-hand the difference a local independent supermarket can make.”
Sample quotes from Worthing Good customers in the survey: -
News
“Brilliant, helpful, different kind of SUPERmarket.”
“A great unique local shop stocking high-quality local goods with a strong emphasis on higher welfare and environmentally friendly products with a range that you would struggle to find in any other shop.”
“If everyone shopped at wonderful independents like HISBE with plastic free loose fruit and veg, refill section and local/sustainable ethos we really would be doing something positive for the climate emergency - and great coffee and cakes too. I love HISBE.”
“A supermarket that actually cares - and sells great produce. It’s a little more expensive usually but it’s worth getting a little less because it’s better quality. It feels really nice and welcoming and modern in there too, a way nicer experience than normal shops.”
www.hisbe.co.uk
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022
