If you have a growing or hoping-to grow sales operation, congratulations. Sales are at an all-time high, and you are wise to make the most of the present market. It's not easy to manage a sales operation with emails and spreadsheets anymore. The scene of the business world has changed, not least due to COVID restrictions. Many employees are working remotely and are busier than ever.
Perhaps you have been using a homegrown sales solution that's ready to be replaced. You might need something more sophisticated with automated processes that make admin work easier for your sales team. Maybe you're contemplating an ERP upgrade and realize this would be an excellent time to add better sales tools.
. In fact, there are several great sales toolkits available, and it might be hard to figure out which one will be best for you. We can help with that.
Choose the best sales solution for your organization
Microsoft has always been interested in the needs of sales organizations. Over the past several years, Microsoft listened intently to its customers. As a result, it developed four separate Sales solutions: Professional, Enterprise, Premium, and Relationship Insights.
So, what are the differences? Which one should you consider for your business? Each offering fits different types of users, so let's look at the details and see which one might be a good fit for your organization.
Sales Professional
Sales Professional is an excellent solution for companies looking for essential sales capability tools. Sales Professional supports lead and opportunity management and comes with basic product, price list, quote, order, and invoice workflows.
Sales Professional is the module for you if you require minimal or no changes to the out-of-the-box software. Sales Professional is a really useful offering because it takes very little project time to set up, but it will give your team basic sales functionality. Smaller or startup businesses new to sales software or whose sales functionality requirements are limited will appreciate the simplicity of this solution.
Sales Enterprise
Sales Enterprise provides the essential sales capabilities of Sales Professional. Still, it has a more customizable environment and more advanced and proven sales tools, such as sales goals, forecast management, and complex product hierarchies. Sales Enterprise leverages the latest and best sales tools from Microsoft.
In addition, the flexibility of Sales Enterprise allows for custom tables, forms, and views, which are more limited in Sales Professional. Businesses with a more established sales team will find Sales Enterprise easy to adopt. It's also a workable solution for companies considering ongoing feature enhancements. Microsoft continually releases new features based on customer feedback.
Sales Premium
Sales Premium gives Microsoft customers the valuable tools of the other solutions, but it also provides native artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Sales Premium builds on the features available in Sales Enterprise but goes further. AI turns your collected data into a more meaningful sales tool.
With AI on forecasts, pipeline analysis, product analysis, and tools like phone dialer, you'll simplify data collection and maximize the power of your information. Organizations that have recognized the value of AI consider it a requirement rather than just a nice option. Sales Premium provides all the capabilities of Enterprise with the addition of AI designed to play an essential role in your overall sales strategy.
Relationship Insights
Relationship Insights will add to your organization's capabilities by giving you the functionality of Enterprise Sales paired with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Relationship Insights is a good fit for businesses that grow via connections and relationships.
By connecting Relationship Insights with LinkedIn, you can improve lead generation. Additionally, having insight, for example, when a contact moves to another organization, is valuable in your sales strategies toolbox. Businesses that emphasize building relationships to support sales will benefit from this offering as it puts LinkedIn capabilities like InMail in the hands of your sales team.
Ask the right questions; find the right tool
As you see, Microsoft offers several excellent sales tool options designed to meet the needs of different sales teams and various types of businesses.
How can you decide what will work best for you and your team? You might consider the following questions:
- Why does your business need a new solution for managing your sales environment?
- What sales tool features would be most valuable to you?
- Do you have an implementation timeline?
- Do you have the internal resources for a software project?
- Is your business in a discovery phase?
- How does your budget look?
- Do you need to decide before another year of licensing renews on your current software?
- Do you have someone who could be a project manager?
- Do you have time to provide business-process education to a consultant?
- How much time can your team commit to an implementation project?
Identifying your sales tool wishes and requirements will define your search. Be clear about what resources you are willing to invest – time, money, personnel.
Bring the answers to the above questions with you when you are ready to ask for a product demo.
The next step
You have a lot of options, but you don't have to feel overwhelmed. A trusted Microsoft partner can help you find the solution that meets your unique requirements. So, the next step is to get in touch with a partner who can show you the software. our Western Computer team for a guided discussion of your business needs as well as a tailored look at how one of these Sales offerings could work for you and your business.
By Western Computer,
