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How To Achieve Business Success
5 min read
Business success comes in different shapes and sizes.
The definition of success for one business may be associated with failure for another. For instance, a business that is mainly focused on profit for shareholders will not share the same definition of business success as a not-for-profit social change project.
In this article, we’re going to explore the different definitions of business success and look at some of the tools you can use to help you achieve your targets and goals.
What is business success?
If you’re an entrepreneur who has a business idea or you’re a manager in an established business, it’s a good idea to define exactly what is meant by business success.
It’s not enough to simply state that you want your business to succeed, you need to know what that actually looks like, which areas it applies to, and plan how you’re going to achieve it.
Success can be defined by analysing actual performance data against KPI targets in specific business areas. In general, there are 6 key areas in which business success can be measured:
- Leadership and management – successful strategy, planning, and direction. KPIs for this area include: profitability, revenue growth
- Workforce – learning and skills development of employees. KPIs for this area include: staff retention rates, employee satisfaction scores
- Operations – optimised processes and workflows. KPIs for this area include: accounts receivables turnover, accounts payable turnover, quick ratio, cash conversions cycle (CCC)
- Product or service – efficiency of production and providing value to customers and clients. KPIs for this area include: team velocity, release time, customer retention rate, customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
- Sales and marketing – generating growth through conversions and brand building. KPIs for this area include: customer lifetime value (LTV), monthly recurring revenue (MRR), customer acquisition cost (CAC), % customer base growth.
- Finances – revenue and accumulating assets e.g. equipment and facilities. KPIs for this area include: gross profit margin, net profit margin, quick ratio
6 tools to help you achieve business success.
In this section we’ll look at some digital systems and tools that you can use to help you reach higher levels of success across different areas of your business.
1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution
A CRM solution is top of the list of must-have tools for business success. The reason that a CRM is so important is that it helps you to improve the efficiency of customer communication, track and monitor data more effectively, and boost the productivity of your sales team.
In practical terms, a good CRM solution, like efficy, will make it easier to organise customer and lead data, helping you to manage your sales and after-sales efforts. This will generate business success in operational, service, sales, and financial areas.
Some CRM solutions integrate with data analytics software, which means you can get deep insights to assist with strategic decisions and monitor business success more closely.
2. Content Management Systems (CMS)
A CMS is a budget friendly way to create a web presence for your business. CMS platforms usually have an easy-to-use website builder interface that allows you to drag and drop elements into place and offer free or low priced templates to get you started.
Most modern CMS platforms include advanced features such as a variety of plugins, automated translation, and SEO optimization tools.
3. Email automation tools
Many businesses use email outreach as part of their marketing strategy, as it is an effective and cheap way to promote products and deals. Automation tools such as email autoresponders, take some of the leg work out of email marketing and are an easy way to help increase conversion rates.
One of the most useful features of email automation software, such as efficy Marketing, is A/B split testing, which allows you to send out two slightly different versions of the same email. Using the results from the A/B test, you can tweak and optimise your email to maximise conversions and drive business success.
4. Recruiting software
A business is only as good as the people who work in it. If you want business tasks to be completed successfully to drive growth, then you need to hire the best possible people to fill any vacancies.
These days, it’s a good idea to carry out thorough background checks such as references and criminal record checks to make sure that candidates are genuine and don’t pose a risk to your business.
If you want to streamline your processes to drive business success, you have three choices when it comes to hiring:
- do it yourself, which takes a lot of time and effort,
- hire a recruitment company, which is more expensive
- or use a recruiting software tool, which is quick and cheap.
Some recruiting software tools automatically request background checks and will optimise your recruitment workflows. efficy offers a specially designed CRM that includes features specifically designed to assist with human resources and recruitment.
5. Accounting tools
When most people think of business success, they think of one thing – profit.
Although it is wrong to think of profit as the only indicator of business success, it is obviously very important to business survival and success. That’s why accounting software is a must-have business tool these days.
You can get accounting software that will help you to manage and monitor outgoings, gross profit, employee’s wages, business expenses, utility bills, ground rent, etc. Accounting software is more accurate and efficient than an accountant doing everything manually, and it frees up their time to make financial strategy recommendations and look for cost saving opportunities.
6. Task management software
Finally, businesses are all about activity. Everyone within the business has a set of tasks to do each day. In order to make sure that they are aware of their responsibilities and to help you monitor progress, it is recommended that you use some kind of project planning or productivity app.
Efficy CRM includes a project management tool to help you plan and keep track of tasks. It includes a GANT chart tool and collaborative features to help you organise business tasks more successfully.
Drive business success with a comprehensive CRM solution
If you’re looking to achieve higher levels of business success, there are hundreds of tools and apps to choose from, providing different ways to increase productivity and efficiency.
Of all the business tools described above, a CRM is the most effective in achieving overall business success in multiple areas, and we are not alone in saying so.
If you are looking for an easy-to-use and feature-packed CRM solution, efficy CRM is the ideal solution for you. Book a demo of efficy CRM to see how we can help you achieve higher levels of business success.
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