The company that provides a service or product with a competitive advantage wins market share and continues to grow. To do that, you need to discover how to generate more value from your resources than your competition.

Because employees generally make up the lion’s share of businesses’ resources, how they use their time is the first place to look when attempting to maximize productivity. Since officer workers’ productivity is usually not scrutinized the same way as that of production line workers, this is where business managers often find the low-hanging fruit.

Certainly, using the time and energy of employees does not imply engineering 60-hour work weeks out of them until they flame away. It means empowering them to work highly efficiently with processes and systems.

So, let’s look at a couple of areas that are ripe for harvesting savings in many companies. In service-oriented companies, a couple of tasks are often precursors to gaining business and are rife with inefficiencies.

Proposal Writing Made Easy

It involves a tiring and time-consuming process of writing up proposals. And because businesses want to provide more options and customized services to counteract the competition, it’s taking longer than ever before.

As proposals have become more complex and customized, a greater number of people are involved in piecing them together—salespeople, marketing and production managers, estimators and more. They’re searching for content; copying and pasting old proposals; tweaking the language to tailor it to the client; and running it up the approval chain of command before sending it to the client.

This is a perfect process to systematize with software such as SharePoint Solutions. SharePoint provides a content library where employees can easily search through reusable content to piece together much of the proposal. Also, the collaboration platform enables users to see every proposal that’s in the works. Tasks can be assigned to each of the individuals involved, and each person can filter tasks to see just what’s on their plate.

The approval process can be automated once the team has fulfilled their tasks and assembled the proposal. While the proposal circulates, it is all tracked by SharePoint and doesn’t get lost in an overflowing inbox.

It doesn’t stop there. You want to know what impact each proposal has on your company. So you need a system that tracks the approval rate, helping you to predict demand and cash flow. When you know this, you can hire people and order materials to meet future requirements

Follow Up For the Fortune

The National Sales Association says 2% of sales are made on the first contact and 80% of sales are made somewhere between the fifth and twelfth contact.

So if you follow up multiple times rather than just once, you’re 40 times more likely to get the sale. With an equation like that, it’s easy to see that a rock-solid follow-up system delivers a substantial return on investment.

Many companies have prospects sitting in the queue. But as day-to-day business operations become all-consuming, they don’t follow up. That’s money left on the table.

The solution? You can set up a follow-up system with an alert dashboard. It informs you whether no action was taken on pursuing a prospect within the set time frame, say two weeks. When it’s been several months and the prospect still hasn’t converted into a client, then there can be a need to close them out or try something that will bring him/ her closer to making an order.

The Automated Business

Transforming your business into an automated one means you go through every department, identifying and automating repetitive tasks. This change leads to a business where your team isn’t bogged down by routine work. Instead, they can concentrate on what really matters.

Automation lets you see exactly what everyone is working on. If you find tasks are not done as quickly as they should be, it’s a sign to take a closer look. Maybe you need more staff, or perhaps the team needs more training. It may also imply that there are some challenges in the way you handle things that require ironing out.

Through business automation, you don’t just make work easier but set up your team for success The workers have more working time to do critical activities, and you are clear on the operations within your firm.

Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)

IPA, an amalgamation of AI, ML and RPA is changing the way businesses approach complex jobs. For instance, in proposal writing, IPA can analyze past successful proposals, suggest content, and even predict client preferences, making the process faster and more tailored. In client follow-ups, IPA can automate responses, schedule meetings, and provide insights on client engagement, thereby enhancing the decision-making process.

AI and ML components in IPA can predict outcomes based on data trends, aiding in making informed decisions. This is invaluable in crafting customised proposals or determining the optimal time and method for client follow-ups.

Full-Cycle Process Mining

This technology takes every aspect of the business process by analyzing all details from several systems. For instance, it can trace areas of waiting in the making of a proposal or wastage during client follow-up approaches.

Full-cycle process mining offers managers a visual interpretation of methods, which does not require elaborate technical education to detect the areas for improvement

Workflow Orchestration

This approach is key in managing the complexities of interconnected tasks. In proposal writing, workflow orchestration can synchronize efforts between sales, marketing, and production, ensuring a cohesive and efficient process. For client follow-ups, it can align tasks across sales and customer service teams for consistent and effective communication.

With workflow automation, organizations can ensure that every stage of a process such as proposal approval or client communication follows an exact order and does not get delayed, resulting in better efficiency.

Low-code and No-code Platforms

These platforms make automated processes democratic. Staff in sales or customer service can build or modify their own proposal templates or follow-up sequences without needing in-depth coding skills.

Low-code and no-code platforms allow for quick adaptations to processes, making it easier to respond to changing business needs or client feedback in areas like proposal customization or follow-up tactics.

Generative AI in BPM

Generative AI can automate content creation for proposals, generating text based on client-specific data and previous successful documents. In follow-ups, it can generate personalized messages, enhancing client engagement and potentially increasing conversion rates.

The application of generative AI can lead to the development of new, more efficient ways of conducting business processes, potentially reducing the time and resources needed for tasks like proposal writing and client follow-ups.

Adaptive Process Management

This approach is particularly useful in customizing processes based on specific client needs or project requirements. For instance, the proposal creation process can adapt based on the complexity of the client’s requirements or their industry-specific needs.

Adaptive process management allows for the modification of steps in a process as it unfolds, which can be crucial in client follow-up strategies where each client may require a different approach based on their interactions and responses.

The Time is Right

With today's tech, you can redesign how your business works, making things smoother and more efficient. This step is key for growing your business over time.

Using tech like Artificial Intelligencea and smart automation helps make your work processes better. It also enables you to see what your customers are asking for and the current market situation, leaving you a step ahead.

To invest in this technology today means you are preparing not only to deal with problems but also to set a trail for others behind.

Call us at 484-892-5713 or Contact Us today to know more details about processes and systems that deliver amazing Competitive Advantages.