The 10 biggest efficiency killers in business processes

Is your company growing steadily and your employees not overworked? If so, you are fortunate to be among the 3% of German companies that are already exploiting their market potential to the full. If not, read on!

The repetitive and manual tasks that are part of every process are hidden time wasters. Similarly, a lack of standardisation and automation leads to efficiency losses and has a negative impact on the value chain. We have listed the 10 biggest efficiency killers for you and have a single answer: Salesforce. How many efficiency killers can you identify with?

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#1. Manual lead entry

80 leads have seen your ads and contacted you. Great! What now? All these leads have to be entered into an Excel spreadsheet and forwarded to your sales colleagues. But they'll have to wait a little while...

There's an easier way. With customised landing pages and integrated web forms, those 80 leads go straight into Salesforce. No one in the company has to type a thing. Your colleagues can see them right away, without having to wait.

#2. Lack of process coverage

Perhaps you already use a CRM system and the sales department is very happy with it. But what about accounting? Do they use a different system? Or none at all? These operational processes are just as important, but are only sparsely covered.

Not with Salesforce. We ensure that as many departments as possible work efficiently in a single system. This results in a seamless business process.

#3. Poor task management

You are in the middle of working on several processes. A call comes in. You hand a few things over to your colleague. Later, you return to your processes. ‘Where was I again? What do I still have to do? What has already been done?’ This probably sounds familiar. It's only natural. You have a lot to do and there is always something that comes up. But without concrete and clear task management, the process gets stuck and no one feels responsible.

With Salesforce, there are two ways to organise your tasks: with lists or with specific tasks. The open tasks and the person responsible are clearly displayed. And automations can be integrated. Everyone knows exactly what they have to do and who is responsible for it.

#4. Manual document creation

You're ready to send the quote to your customer. You've filled in the blanks and then you notice that something's wrong with the formatting. Now you have to change it and create a new PDF.

What if you didn't have to waste time doing that and could just click a button in your Salesforce interface? Or even better, if it were automated, you wouldn't have to click anything at all? No more frustration!

#5. Manual email sending

You probably have email templates saved somewhere, or you look in your send history and copy and paste.

Sure, you don't have to start from scratch, but all that clicking is super annoying and you can't even find what you're looking for quickly. Here, you can also create and send these standard emails fully automatically in Salesforce with just one click. It's that easy.

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#6. Missing mailbox connection

Your colleague has CC'd you in an email to a customer – but unfortunately, the customer forgot to CC you in their reply. You have no idea what the current status is. And your colleague is on holiday in Machu Picchu. Now you have to chase up your customer. Not only are you less efficient, but it also looks unprofessional.

With Salesforce and our solution, you can always document incoming emails or even text messages. Everyone knows the current status. Even your colleague in Peru.

#7. Missing payment integration

Has the customer paid? No one has documented anything here and you don't know if it's time to send this customer a reminder.

Or worse, you don't know if you can order their shipment. The result: you get stuck in the process.

Incoming payments can also be documented with Salesforce. And assigned to the right processes. Everyone benefits!

#8. Lack of automation

Have you been using Salesforce successfully in your company for a few months? The data structure fits and the users are configured correctly. Cool, 80% of your optimisation work is done. And the other 20%?

Automation: why do things manually when they can be automated by Salesforce? Sounds sensible, right?

#9. Automating the wrong things

Automation is good. But not when the wrong things are automated. The system gets stuck or unwanted things happen. You don't have AI programmes for screening applicants, but the system is supposed to decide which candidates are suitable for the open position based on certain criteria? That can't work... It's important to know the difference between ‘complex’ and ‘complicated’. Complicated tasks always have the same result. With complex tasks, the result depends on other factors. These require a human brain. Only complicated tasks should be automated in Salesforce.

#10. Poor usability

You have everything you need in your system. Great. But you actually have more. Far too many buttons and empty, unnecessary fields. The clicking of the mouse is annoying and it takes forever to scroll down and find what you actually need.

We recommend only displaying the minimum interface you need. Always consider how many clicks should be necessary for a task. It is important to ensure good usability, as this can lead to a further 50% improvement in efficiency.

Did you count how many points sound familiar? Salesforce is a good tool for improving efficiency, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind to implement it correctly. Once you've done that, you can expand Salesforce's functionality and further optimise your processes. Book your free workshop now to find out how we, as a Salesforce Consulting Partner, can eliminate your efficiency killers!