Squeezing the maximum amount of profitability from your venture requires the utmost degree of efficiency. Considering the immense number of technological advancements in the last decade, accomplishing this goal is much easier now than ever before.
Since everyone in your organization uses technology in their daily lives, your team has a tremendous advantage when keeping everyone informed—with fewer administrative hassles, and less internal communications. Eliminate unnecessary tasks and propel your business to the upper echelon of success with these five tips to improve efficiency.
1. Practice Stringent Time Management
Using your time more efficiently is step number one. By utilizing the calendars available in CRMs and scheduling tools, your entire team or company can have access to information showing where they need to be, or what the team is currently doing when out of the office.
It’s important to establish your company’s culture around scheduling the most difficult tasks for times when individuals are most energized. Allocate time for tasks with the highest priority first, and allow zero disturbances during those times. Scheduling meetings should remain at a minimum, planned only when they’re absolutely necessary.
2. Utilize the Power of Technology
Centralizing customer or project information is essential to improving efficiency in your business. Keeping a current digital database will help to eliminate tons of Q&A via email. It also reduces costs, allows data sharing at light speeds, and helps streamlines your operations more effectively than performing burdensome manual tasks.
And since increasing speed is one of the most important facets of improving your business, making sure employees are equipped with premium software and hardware to do their jobs most effectively should be top priority.
3. Adopt a Mobile Platform Today
The versatility and reliability of the cloud, blended with mobile technology, equals unrivaled flexibility and productivity. Provide a mobile platform to your team that has CRM access, and they will accomplish more in less time.
Employees with CRM access on their mobile devices will be able to stay connected to company resources regardless of their physical locations. No matter where they are, they can stay more productive and efficient.
Sales teams can easily carry their mobile devices containing your preferred CRM solution, along with all of their customers’ information. Crafting a sales pitch that’s been customized for each customer, while the reps are on the go, is as easy as pulling out their favorite mobile devices—and getting to work.
Best of all, when a problem occurs, management will be immediately informed from anywhere on the planet. This gives them sufficient notice to assess the problem and figure out a solution. This allows your business to run smoothly in the time of crisis, and without any major hiccups.
4. Prioritize Tasks and Initiatives
Using technology to stay abreast and on top of your projects, client activity, and deadlines can assist you in realizing your most important tasks. While multitasking can be tempting for busy professionals, splitting your attention into more than one task unfortunately causes the loss of focus on both tasks, ultimately reducing your efficiency.
Schedule the most important business functions first—the tasks needed to sustain your organization or boost the bottom line.
5. Plan Efficiently
Failing to plan is planning to fail; business efficiency is no different. Determine the most valuable aspects of your organization and create contingency plans to ensure those assets are protected. Identify possible risks to your company’s health and work to mitigate or eliminate them altogether.
Furthermore, learning when to say no is critical. Refuse to take on projects or products that bring in lower margins, and focus on jobs that are more profitable. In the long run, expending more resources toward lucrative projects as opposed to those with low margins will bring your company significantly more revenue.
Key Takeaways
Organize – Well-organized companies are able to provide services, create products and retain customers with minimal effort and expense. Dedicating more present time to becoming more organized fosters a better climate to meet business goals, and allows companies to spend more time working to increase profits than they do putting out fires.
Automate – Today’s socially-savvy population are demanding more from companies than ever before in history. Clinging to outdated, inefficient technology and software can quickly cripple your company and reduce profitability. Invest in a robust CRM solution and thus eliminate the need to have someone complete the task manually; that person can then be used to fill a position that brings in more ROI.
Prioritize – When it’s time to plan your schedule and decide which tasks are more important than others, consider the consequences of failing to complete a task. Then, ask the following questions to get a better idea of what to cut and what to keep:
- Which functions will impact your business in the most detrimental way if not completed?
- Which tasks cause more delays?
- Which tasks are the team members experiencing problems doing?
- Which tasks increase your costs overall?
By implementing the tips highlighted in this article—and incorporating the right technology, stringent time management policies and strategic planning—your company will have improved business efficiency and higher profits.
