Using ConnectWise Manage and ConnectWise Sell to support your remote sales team

Sales reps love to say, as long as they’re hitting their targets, they can work from anywhere. Well, the last few months have certainly put that statement to the test.

While working remotely certainly has its challenges, most teams have learned to do it successfully. In fact, many of us have grown so used to it that many are hoping for work-from-home flexibility permanently.

Some analysts predict that 25 to 30% of the workforce will work from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. On that same note, a study conducted on March 30, 2020 by Gartner, Inc. reveals that 74% of CFOs plan to move at least some of their workforce to permanently remote positions.

Whatever the case, it’s clear that this pandemic has forever changed the way we work.

If the remote workforce is here to stay, it’s probably time to reassess they way you manage, monitor, and communicate with your team. Luckily, ConnectWise Manage® and ConnectWise Sell® can help.

In this post, we’ll run through some of the ways you can use these products to gain visibility, ensure consistency, and keep your remote sales team working efficiently wherever they are.

Speed up the sales process with automated quotes and invoices

For many companies, cash flow is a challenge even when the economy is booming. In the current economic downturn, increasing your cash flow is more critical than ever. If slow-paying clients are your biggest problem in managing cash flow, you’re not alone: 58% of business owners are in the same boat.

ConnectWise Sell speeds makes it easier to gain new revenue streams by automating quotes and proposals. This makes it easy for clients to review your proposal, give feedback, and approve a quote or proposal from any device, regardless of their location.

This feature works great in tandem with ConnectWise Manage, which automates the invoicing process when payment is due. ConnectWise Sell passes information over to ConnectWise Manage, which makes it easier to invoice accurately. Client information is then saved for future transactions, and CRM integration keeps the whole process running smoothly. ConnectWise Manage is the one source of truth for all of your business data, including the CRM integration, to house and track pipeline.

Keep the ball rolling with standardized workflows

With a remote workforce, it’s harder than ever to make sure your reps are following the designated sales process. Without a standardized system, there’s simply no way to ensure consistency across your team. And without consistency, you run the risk of missing crucial steps, weakening the sales experience, and losing business.

Furthermore, when your team is spread out, it can be difficult to keep the ball rolling. Without transparency into the sales process, you may not know where you stand on a sale, who’s working on what, or which items need immediate attention.

By automating and standardizing your processes, you can gain visibility and control of the entire sales process. ConnectWise Manage’s automated workflows help ensure every i is dotted and every t crossed, while standardized templates in ConnectWise Sell keep the sales process consistent and aligned with best practices. You won’t have to worry about missing important steps, and you’ll get crystal clear insights into what your team is working on at any given moment. No matter where in the world your workforce is, your sales process will move forward efficiently.

Protect your profit margin by setting pricing rules

Sales professionals love to go the extra mile for clients, but sometimes they carry it too far. In the excitement of the moment and their eagerness to close, it’s not uncommon for a sales rep to offer a discount or special offer that hasn’t been approved by management. Of course, in a normal situation, they could just pop in to your office to ask for approval. But with a remote sales team, that’s not an option.

During this time when sales are down, it may be tempting for your team members to offer discounts in an effort to close. Use ConnectWise Sell to lock down discounts and pricing, ensuring your products and services don’t sell for less than they’re worth. You can set up criteria-driven pricing rules to automate and enforce your pricing strategy, keep track of client-specific pricing, and ensure correct quotes for new products.

In fact, a new feature coming to ConnectWise Sell in July is the ability for multi-level approvals, which can help you protect margin. Over discounting can be a huge problem, especially as TSPs are recovering from the pandemic—and competition is fierce as you try to recover from the financial impact of COVID-19.

Multi-level approvals are essentially a set of rules that prevent quotes from being delivered based on line item and/or quote level criteria. You will have the ability to set up these rules to lock down discounting and scoping issues by ensuring that the appropriate team members have viewed and approved quotes and proposals before they go out the door.

This way, you’ll avoid incorrect project scoping and all the problems that follow: like financial losses and bad customer experiences.

Build connection with personalized proposals

In today’s social distancing climate, people crave personal interactions more than ever. Of course, business has always been personal, but these days, a one-size-fits-all approach is simply out-of-touch. In a world where everything is virtual, adding a personalized, human touch can be challenging. But with ConnectWise Sell, it’s a breeze.

In ConnectWise Sell, you can create stylish, multi-media proposals. Encourage your sales reps to add headshots and videos to their quotes for more meaningful customer interactions. There are plenty of ways to create successful proposals that feel personal, but adding photos and videos is an easy, fun first step.

Create a phenomenal sales experience for customers

It goes without saying that good customer service is key to closing sales and retaining clients. According to a 2018 study, 73% of companies with above-average customer service perform better financially than their competitors. A similar HubSpot study found that 93% of customers are likely to purchase again from a company that offers excellent service.

But when you can’t check in with your team members, ensuring a great sales experience gets tricky. While you may not be able to oversee every customer service interaction, you can keep your customers happy by making the sales process as convenient as possible.

Give customers what they want—and need

Today’s buyers expect a self-service, e-commerce purchase experience, and you can give them just that. Your clients can receive and approve quotes, sign documents electronically from any location, and pay securely in ConnectWise Sell. They can even request quotes and receive an automated proposal immediately.

Use Order Porter, ConnectWise Sell’s online quote delivery solution, to provide quotes your customers can approve and sign in seconds. Then, use the electronic payments feature to collect full or partial payment via PayPal, Authorize.net, or ConnectBooster (within ConnectWise Manage).

You can also use ConnectWise Sell to cut down on friction points like price discrepancies. Automated, standardized processes minimize human error, preventing mistakes like inconsistent quotes and invoices. Your remote sales team will deliver clear, error-free information for easy purchasing.

Staying strong through challenging times

At the end of the day, there are plenty of ways to support your remote sales team from a distance. Whether separated by a few miles or a few states, you can use ConnectWise Manage and ConnectWise Sell to improve workflow and increase visibility.

While we adjust to our new normal, we’re all doing the best we can with what we have. And if your remote sales team has great resources, they can deliver a great sales experience.