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It isn’t easy to stand out as a small producer in these modern times. Not only do you need to keep your current customers in mind, but you actively have to seek out new leads and drive sales all at once. For small producers to keep their sales up, it’s essential to look at what the larger companies are doing. And what stands out is that these professionals are leveraging technology in ways that we’ve never seen before.

So to help small businesses get a step ahead, we’ve created a list of must-have tech programs that are being used by some of your competitors. In fact, according to LinkedIn’s State of Sales 2021, 94$ of sales professionals say sales tech tools help them close more deals. So why not invest too?

Business Intelligence & Sales Analytics

Customer success software essentially ensures the customer’s needs are fulfilled when using the product or service. It is about cementing the relationship with the customer to ensure they “achieve success.” There is extreme value in customer success since it will consequently bring revenue and possible repeat sales.

How it works

Customer success software gives businesses a complete breakdown of the customer’s past purchasing behaviors and an estimation of their level of satisfaction. The software creates full customer profiles, captures data, their history, and feedback. In addition, it guides the customer throughout their purchasing cycle and predicts growth or red flags.

Why it’s useful

The software highlights unhappy customers, which sets off certain tasks and improves customers’ retention rates. These types of software can integrate with all your current CRM software, social media platforms, and help-desk software. Essentially this tool enables you to maintain customer satisfaction and ensures the right actions are taken to achieve this.

Marketing Automation & Lead Generation Tools

These tools help buyers seek out a specific business and product, without you having to seek out customers. As a result, these automated tools ensure all your customers and potential customers are reached promptly and receive regular, valuable information.

How it works

These tools allow you to automate your emails, social media posts, and lead generation. The tools will enable a business to personalize the marketing campaigns (both on social media and email). In many cases, these tools take customers through a personalized journey, ensuring that what they see on your homepage or emails are based on their specific requirements.

Why it’s useful

Personalization shifts businesses away from mass-marketing and ensures particular customers with specific needs are targeted well. Customers no longer wanted to be blasted with promotional emails. These tools allow a business to identify the customer’s needs and recommend products or ideas to fulfill that need.

Sales Intelligence

The aim of a sales intelligence is to monitor existing clients and potential prospects to understand them better. It helps a business know precisely what the customer wants, where they can reach them, and when to contact them.

How it works

Sales intelligence gather all the information needed about your contact list, what they purchased and what their digital footprints are. It gives you great insight into exactly who they are, what they’ve done, and what they prefer.

Why it’s useful

By understanding your current and potential customers, you can give them exactly what they want, when they want it. The data you receive through sales intelligence can help you close a deal much quicker since you’re not taking a shot in the dark with what requirements they have.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

In a nutshell, a CRM system manages the relationship between you and the customer. It helps nurture the relationship by tracking information on current customers, enhancing the relationship, improving customer retention, and automating communication.

How it works

The system tracks and stores all information on specific customers. So every request, all feedback, and past purchases are stored here. This ensures that you can personalize the communication to their exact needs every time you communicate with the customer. It also allows businesses to schedule tasks like follow-ups, ensuring no opportunities are missed.

Why it’s useful

Since we’ve highlighted how important personalization is, the CRM systems help you track their personal requests. This increases the rates of repeat sales, as well as the chances of upselling and cross-selling. And, of course, it strengthens the relationship with the customer.

Troly

If you’re a small producer looking to improve your business with one or more of these tools, why not try Troly’s for free? We have combined the best tech features to provide businesses with the only technology they need. Some of our best features include:

• Powerful CRM capabilities allow for detailed information, making it easier to give individual customers attention.
• Warehouse and Stock control systems that sync with your POS and eCommerce.
• Integration capabilities that ensure you can connect with your current software, like EDM platforms and accounting systems.
• In addition, we offer an award-winning eCommerce experience.
• These are only a few of the benefits you can expect, so sign up for our 30-day FREE trial and experience this first hand.

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The concept of selling directly to customers is fast becoming a popular route, completely eliminating the middle-man. There are several significant benefits to small businesses, including better control of the brand, as well as building meaningful relationships with customers. It is crucial for artisan producers, small farmers, and wineries to set a strategy in place that opens up a direct-to-consumer door.

You Have More Control over Brand and Product Image

One of the most significant benefits of selling direct-to-consumer is that you have better control of how customers perceive your brand, products, and reputation. With traditional models, retailers simply stock your product. With this, you lose the opportunity to talk directly to customers about your product or business. That leaves customers especially susceptible to different perceptions, ideas, and opinions about your brand based on what they experience in a store.

And since customers are constantly seeking an all-round experience with brands they interact with, you have complete control over how customers experience your product from start to finish.

Having a shipping option does not mean your business has to be directly responsible for the delivery. You have options that allow this extraordinary feature with little effort on your part.

You Build Meaningful Relationships with Your Customers

With this complete control of your brand, you are also opening up the opportunity to build relationships with your customers and learn more about what they require.

Having direct interactions with your customers through every step of their sale, you can gain insights that would not have been possible if you were working through a middleman. If customers seek an all-around experience with brands and businesses, your best shot is by working with them directly.

That being said, customers have certain expectations if you are looking to sell directly to them. If opening up the possibility of ordering your product online, directly from your business, here is what you need to ensure you have in place to make this a successful model for your business.

Customers are accustomed to eCommerce stores that constantly show innovation and efficiency, so they are quickly put off by an eCommerce store that doesn’t meet a high standard.

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Maintain a Unique Product Image

In this highly competitive market, the probability of a few other businesses selling the same product as you are enormous. The quality or price of your product might lure customers to your business. However, you have to find an element of your product that stands out and makes you different.

Create and maintain a product image that stands out and offers something completely unique. You have to provide customers with something that will leave a lasting impression and entice them to return for future purchases.

They Need an Efficient Ecommerce Platform

If you’re looking to create an eCommerce site for your direct-to-consumer efforts, it is crucial to make this platform efficient and user-friendly. Customers are accustomed to efficient and innovative eCommerce stores. Therefore, they are quickly put off by an eCommerce store if it doesn’t meet their standards.

This should not discourage small businesses from setting up an eCommerce store. In fact, if your store is fast and effective, you are simply setting yourself apart from other small producers. Additionally, you’re offering customers an experience to ensure they return to your business.

Fortunately, Troly offers powerful CRM capabilities that store customers’ information and order history, making it easier than ever to give customers individual attention and create a loyal customer base. This is one of only dozens of Troly features that are centralized around helping small businesses. These features help increase their sale with ground-breaking technology.

There is a commitment-free, 30-day Trial available, allowing you to explore all of Troly’s features and capabilities, which can take your small business to new heights and get your direct-to-consumer journey started.

You Need to Offering Shipping Options

While this may seem obvious, many eCommerce sites don’t offer shipping but reply on a click-and-collect strategy. In today’s times, especially post-Covid, customers are seeking delivery options more than ever. If you don’t have an eCommerce platform and don’t offer delivery, you are subsequently alienating yourself from many potential customers.

Find a local courier company and set up a business relationship with them. This will take care of all your future deliveries. Most companies just need to be notified about a package. Thereafter, they will collect it from your business and deliver it to the customer. Having a shipping option does not mean your business has to be directly responsible for the delivery. You have options that allow this extraordinary feature with little effort on your part.

Your Customers Need to be Able to Track Their Order

As a business, you need to have several touch-points with your customers throughout their buying journey. Whether you are reaching out to them via email or direct message, there are a few times that you need to make contact with them. This is crucial for them to feel like a valued part of your business and not just another customer.

One of these touch-points is directly after a sale, where you notify a customer that their product is en route. This simple message sets them at ease and ensures a pleasant post-purchase feeling. A crucial part of this message is sending the customer a tracking code. This code offers them more control and knowledge about the parcel.

Fortunately, if you’re doing direct-to-consumer, you don’t have to do this manually when each customer orders. Instead, it can be automated via several email-marketing platforms. By setting up an automated email, you are able to scale this process and minimize your workload. Our article on 2022 Marketing Trends discusses automated messaging in more detail, with some thought-provoking stats.

Market Your Product

Social Media, email, and direct messaging have opened up a world of affordable but highly effective marketing techniques. Use these channels and platforms for marketing your product. Ensure your customers know that they are able to purchase products directly from you.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out our article on Tools for a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy.

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