Technology – An Integral Component for any Business today Technology is constantly growing, and almost all the businesses are becoming more and more dependent on technology to run their daily operations smoothly and effectively. Real-time applications of technology in business starts from maintaining data flow, managing contacts, tracking processes, maintaining employee records, forecasting & estimating sales. Technology has helped to automate almost 90% of these tasks enabling even small businesses to level the playing field with larger organizations. Recent advancements like Chatbots, Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence have helped businesses to achieve the transition from the backroom of an organization into the hands of customers, employees, and society. In this digital era, a business that has the technological capacity to research new opportunities will stay a step ahead of its competition by attaining agility and stability. What Is Sales Estimation and Why it is Important? Advancements in predictive technology have disrupted numerous industries. For example, weather forecasting. The responsibilities of them reached new heights starting from alarming people regarding a hurricane, storm, and thanks to technology. Likewise, technological tools have also enabled business owners and entrepreneurs to effectively manage their sales cycle and also offering far better insights than manual processes could eventually give. Sales Estimation: Sales estimation is a key phase of business planning and enables you to predict what your revenue is likely to be over a fixed period. Without proper Sales Estimation, it is highly difficult to plan and make practical business decisions about investments, staffing levels, expansion and so on that will be flowing into your business. Inaccurate sales estimations will lead to serious business-wide repercussions and even if you overestimate sales, you start to spend money that won’t be coming in. Sales Estimation – Why It is Important? Spotting problematic issues in advance – Sales estimation allow you to spot potential issues prior and thus offering time to avoid or mitigate them. Analyzing Competitions – You could effectively analyze the existing market and your competitor’s activities and thus executing a sales plan that could beat them. Better Decision Making – Accurate sales estimations also helps to take several decisions, from hiring processes and resource management to goal-setting and budgeting. Evaluating sales opportunities – Doing an appropriate sales estimation helps to evaluate and predict the sales opportunities and the efforts to convert them out. Post-sales support – Effectively carrying out the post-sales support such as implementation, services, and support that helps to retain the customers. Technology in Sales Estimation: From prospecting to closing, recent technological trends like mobile, social, big data, and cloud technologies are revamping the entire sales process in multiple ways that remained unimaginable before a decade ago. Below are some tools that have the potential to upstream the sales estimation process: 1. Big Data: Competitive advantage for any sales organizations highly relies on the ability to successfully capture, manage, and analyze massive volumes of customer data that provides immense insights into customer behaviors and buying habits. This is where “big data” has its role to play with. By harnessing the power of big data analytics tools, organizations can now manage to prospect, a critical step in the sales process. This process of prospecting has been a time and labor-intensive process before and with Big Data, it has turned out to be more effective and accurate. 2. Social Platforms: Consecutive innovations in social technology have given rise to numerous social media platforms for attracting and engaging new customers which is generically a vital step in getting a customer into the sales funnel. Social media platforms keep the customers informed about the business, their services and latest promotions they make to impress their customers. It has the potential to keep the customers engaged in conversations about products and services for valuable insights that get converted into a sale. 3. Cloud-based CRM Technology: Customer Relationship Management is a power-packed tool that offers clear insights about the customer relationship by integrating marketing, sales, and customer support in a single hub. By harnessing these tools, businesses can effectively estimate their sales and thus make more informed decisions with a huge sum of data. 4. Amazon Sales Estimation Tool: – This is a boon for online business owners who are willing to sell their products on Amazon. This tool helps in estimating their sales along with insights about their competitors and thus device their strategies to beat the competition. 5. SalesForce Automation Systems: With Salesforce automation systems offers instant access to the activities of individual sales employees, sales figures, opportunities, customer complaints, and other data used to determine sales success and performance. Want to Earn More? Technology is everywhere! It is evident that businesses who use technology will gain a competitive advantage. Want to earn more and increase your sales potential by automating your sales cycle? Want to estimate your sales potential? Get in touch with the Silicon Valley’s featured Business Transformation experts – SDI for a free consultation at team@sdi.la