Sales Management and Business Planning on Any Platform

As we have seen earlier, there are several methods and solutions available to optimize production and increase manufacturing efficiency, which enable the plant to produce efficiently, flexibly and according to customer needs.

Yes, but what are these needs? Where will the orders come from?

Without sales, there is no revenue. Whether the factory is producing to order, or the sales staff are trying to sell the finished product, it is important to see where these processes are. In many places, the information about who has negotiated with whom and when about what, and what the next step will be, is only in the head (or perhaps in the calendar) of the sales rep.

In the best case, all this is already kept in an Excel spreadsheet, but updating this is time-consuming and work-intensive, resulting in sales staff spending too much time on administration (and too little time on selling). Moreover, the results are ambiguous, as most people record customer data and events in their own way. As a result, management is not aware of the status of deals and does not see the whole picture.

DSS SalesTarget: sales management and business planning on any platform

This is facilitated by a solution that enables business planning on a customer-by-customer basis. Developed jointly by DSS Consulting and Bosch Rexroth, DSS SalesTarget is a turnkey solution that can be used out-of-the-box but can also be customized within a wide range of configurations, making life easier for both salespeople and management.

By using DSS SalesTarget,

• Sales staff will have more time for selling thanks to less administration
• Decision support becomes more efficient: Information for management decisions is simpler and of higher quality, so managers can keep up to date with the evolution of the plan figures and the status of individual deals
• The quality of strategic planning will also be improved: The information gathered in the system helps to plan and modify strategy

In addition, SalesTarget can import data from any ERP and CRM system – not only does this reduce manual work, but it also helps to avoid errors due to incorrect data entry. The plan numbers can then be loaded back into the ERP or CRM system if required.

Because all information is stored in one place, it can be presented to managers in a structured, easy-to-understand format. With the help of the dashboard, it’s easy to create any report, and changes are instantly and dynamically become visible as the salesperson uploads information. This allows for the tracking of bidding processes and sales information, giving managers an up-to-date view of the evolution of plan numbers and the status of individual deals.

Thanks to the improved access management system, different privileges can be defined for each user group involved: while managers can see the entire sales team’s operations and results, salespeople can only see their own customers and tasks in the system.

SalesTarget enables quarterly business planning according to the business model – the extent of deviation from the plan at the beginning of the year can be continuously refined at customer and business unit level, helping to plan and adjust strategy on the fly.

Finally, it is also important that business plans can be locked in the system so that they cannot be changed later, thus improving transparency.

Click here to read a brief description of DSS SalesTarget. In order to learn more about our Industry 4.0 solutions, visit this page.

Could your company benefit from a tool that makes sales and business planning easier?  So why not talk about it over a good cup of coffee?