The future of sales is in the clouds

Cloud computing is being hailed as the future for many organisations with the Visiongain company predicting cloud computing services will be making some $83 billion per year in revenue by the year 2016. This kind of figure should make any sales manager or employer sit up and take notice as it seems cloud computing is something that can have a big impact on increasing sales.

Cloud computing isn’t a term everyone understands though and since the wider internet is often termed the cloud anyway, the concept of cloud computing can be confusing. Understanding the term, cloud computing and what it can do for sales is important when looking ahead to 2012 and so it’s best to start the year off by getting on top of this concept.

Cloud computing differs from the more traditional legacy computing. In the latter, you install a service or programme on a server or hard drive. Take Outlook Express as an example; this is an e-mail program that you access from your hard drive. Meanwhile, when using cloud computing, the service stays on the internet. Gmail is an example of this.

The result of cloud computing overall is the creation of a real-time service. This real-time attribute is a blessing for many types of organisation, including businesses aiming to increase sales. As cloud computing enables the swift collection of the latest information using only a browser and a connection to the internet, accurate information about what’s going on in all aspects of the business and its wider world is readily available. Information that’s useful therefore becomes available to businesses when they need it and this info will most probably be accurate. Using legacy computing rather than cloud computing, businesses have to enter information themselves and there’s a chance this info will be inaccurate. Cloud computing reduces the chance of error.

Because the business doesn’t have to enter as much data and has access to up-to-date info, it can make use of this data more readily and then use it to its advantage, for instance by increasing sales. An example of how this could happen can be found in terms of consumer trends. Cloud computing allows a business to analyse the latest data on what consumers are buying. A business can therefore focus its efforts on what’s selling and stay current on what is in demand from consumers. Businesses are able to respond more efficiently to a changing market, therefore concentrating on appropriate segments as required. In short, cloud computing results in a more competitive business that is in touch with the market.

The speed at which information is available and how that can help a business reach out to consumers is visible through the example of the web commerce giant, Amazon.com. When a customer purchases a science-fiction book through Amazon.com, for instance, they’ll get a bunch of recommendations based on what has just been bought. This targeted recommendation service utilises the information the website has about that customer and instantly turns it into advertising that taps into what the customer has already displayed they like. In this case, the result may well be that, thanks to the targeted promotion, the customer buys a second book based on what Amazon.com has recommended and a second sale is made.

Working in real time

Cloud computing isn’t just about enabling faster responses and data analysis. Cloud computing allows a business to work in real time.

Its very infrastructure is geared towards turning potential leads into done deals and therefore into money. Thus, the leads the company requires in order to generate profits are there for the taking. Companies that take advantage of this will be able to claim greater sales, as their lead generation and deal sealing will increase. Having access to real time information should mean that potential leads aren’t lost before they can be acted upon by the company.

Cloud computing has implications in terms of inner company workings too. As there’s a lot of information relating to the business and its projects available through the cloud computing infrastructure, this information is available to more company employees in a simple fashion. This saves time and effort and allows multiple projects to be managed coherently and simultaneously.

For general staff, the information that’s available can make a big difference to their success and productivity and cloud computing keeps this data at their fingertips. For example, an employee may need info contained in a specific e-mail; with cloud computing, they will more readily be able to access the e-mail. Alternatively, a sales assistant might utilise customer history to aid their work.

It’s easier to manage sales more effectively too, as professionals can build sales systems that integrate cloud computing and gain greater control over the sales process as a whole. A sales manager can utilise cloud computing to track a sale from a lead to an order to the completion of the sale. This aids understanding of the sales process and enables better troubleshooting should problems arise.

Finally, cloud computing enhances the ability of a sales team to drive business anywhere at any time. If a sales team member is out on the road, they’ll be able to use their laptop to access the latest information and services they require without considering the need for upgrades or whether the data they have is relevant. The up-to-date nature of the information can then be used as part of sales deals or to enable efficient management of overall sales performance within a company.

Photo by Daniel Boyd

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