Using Sales Pipelines with shopVOX
On average, a sign shop business typically needs to generate around 25-30 sales leads per week in order to be successful. That might not seem like much, but it adds up to about 1,560 leads a year. That’s a lot to keep track of!
That’s where sales pipelines come in. shopVOX’s customizable sales pipelines make it easy for business owners to manage their sales process to serve their customers better. Don’t ever miss out on turning a lead into a sale again!
Want to learn more about shopVOX print shop software and all the things it can do for you? Here’s a helpful guide to shopVOX sales pipelines.
What Exactly is a “Sales Pipeline”?
One of the most important things to know about a sales pipeline is how it differentiates from a workflow. Sales pipeline and workflow often get confused for one another, but they’re not the same thing.
A sales pipeline is your business’ process of taking a lead and turning it into a closed sale. It comprises every step from the time you first acquire the lead all the way up to the end-point when you and your customer finalize an agreement and you begin working on the product itself. That’s when a workflow begins. Everything that comes before that, however, is part of the sales pipeline.
One of the reasons for this confusion is that sales pipelines and workflows do share some common ground. A sales pipeline breaks the larger process of converting leads to sales into several smaller, individual tasks, which you can then assign to your team as needed, making progress easy, organized, and quantifiable.
What Should a Sales Pipeline Look Like?
At shopVOX, we know that there is no one right way to create a sales pipeline. Every sign shop’s sales process is different, depending on things like business size, product specialties, and client pool. That’s why shopVOX sign software is designed to be fully customizable, so you can tailor your sales pipelines to your specific process.
In shopVOX, you create, name, and organize every step of the sales process, and you can make as many separate pipelines as you need. A sign shop could have a unique pipeline for every single product or service they offer, from lightboxes to awnings to illuminated channel letter signs. Vehicle graphics, flatbed printing, banners, wall murals, monument signs; the list goes on and on.
Most businesses, however, will only need 4-5 more general sales pipelines, with anything more representing unnecessary complication. For example, your sign shop business could have an “Interior and Exterior Signs” sales pipeline that might look something like this.
Step 1: Contact the customer
Step 2: Survey the job site
Step 3: Create a free mockup
Step 4: Check your inventory
Step 5: Contact outsource vendors
Step 6: Calculate an estimate
Step 7: Get approval of your estimate
Step 8: Present the customer with your estimate
This is just one example of what a sales pipeline might look like. You may wish to add steps, such as conducting follow-ups with your customers, or subtract steps, such as contacting outsource vendors if you do everything in-house. The great thing about shopVOX print shop software is that you have the power to personalize your pipeline to fit your specific needs.
What are the Benefits of Sales Pipelines?
Running a sign shop business can be difficult. There’s a lot of moving parts to keep track of, which is why things like sales pipelines are so useful. Pipelines don’t just break the sales process down into a number of simple, easy-to-follow steps; they also provide insights into how your business is performing and the best ways you can help it grow.
Having multiple sales pipelines, for instance, can help you make strategic marketing decisions by showing you which pipelines a majority of your customers are entering, what products or services your customers are most interested in, and what kind of customers you should be working to attract.
A pipeline can also show you where in the sales process customers may be dropping off, allowing you to identify problems with your system so you can fix them, creating a rock-solid process with no cracks for potential leads to fall through. Doing this will enable you to save money in the long run and increase revenue over time.
Sales pipelines also make it easy to onboard new employees who may not be familiar with your sales process. By centralizing all your data and assets in one place using cloud storage, shopVOX makes it easy for employees to have their questions answered at a moment’s notice. What’s more, pipelines put your sales process into the shopVOX dashboard in a clear, visual way that makes learning the ins and outs a breeze.
Streamline Your Sales Process with shopVOX
Customizable sales pipelines are just one of many beneficial features of shopVOX sign software that can revolutionize the way you do business. Whatever your business size, needs, specialty, or clientele, shopVOX has been designed to be as versatile and accessible as possible.
Discover what shopVOX can do for you. Try it today!