The tech startups of Southeast Asia are often so busy and financially limited that it’s hard to find the keys to make their business grow. New technology is created on a near-daily basis, and it’s hard to keep up.
You see fledgling businesses around you transform into major successes, but you’re so stuck in the day-to-day operations that you can’t see past the daily grind. You’re limited on personnel, time and financial resources, but these constraints shouldn’t define your business. These six SalesTech trends in Southeast Asia can bring your business to the next level.
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Be sales-ready
Before analysing emerging SalesTech trends in Southeast Asia; you must first be ready for the sales. Sales readiness platforms like MindTickle prepare customer-facing employees to be ready to make a sale through education and coaching programs, closing the skill-gaps that hold companies back from achieving their full potential. Help the people you already employ understand your brand message and develop new skills with a robust training program, so you’ll be ready for the next level.
Employ a chatbot
One of the top SalesTech trends in Southeast Asia 2019 is the introduction of chatbots into daily usage for businesses. If you’re big on ideas but short on staff, it may be time to add an AI member to the team. Add a chatbot to your marketing team to have a staff member who’s always on call and can lead prospects through your sales funnel by utilising on-brand messaging at any time, day or night.
Utilise the Facebook Messenger bot to interact with clients on social media. Provide a full e-commerce experience within the chat session or set parameters to interact with clients and send them to your website to complete the sale.
Once potential clients reach your homepage, you can set up a chatbot on your site to lead them through the sales funnel to close the deal. Unlike human employees, chatbots never get tired, never have a bad day and always stick to your company’s script.
Utilise a CRM
Salesforce and other big-name Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software target big enterprise, but tech startups of Southeast Asia need a solution that fits their brand and budget. Startups often rely on Excel spreadsheets to track customer data and miss out on the functionality a CRM can offer to analyse data and increase repeat sales.
You could pay for a fancy CRM system, but why spend your budget on something you can get for free? HubSpot offers a robust CRM system to track your pipeline, chat with clients and store customer data at no cost to you. It’s time to get rid of those spreadsheets you’ve been using!
Predictive analytics and data analysis
The data you need about past and potential clients is out there. You just need to find it. However, if you’re like many tech startups, you don’t have the time or money to search for it. You’re not alone. A recent Nielsen poll of 2,000 small businesses surveyed in the US, showed that time and money are the biggest barriers to conducting market research.
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Although predictive analytics sounds like something reserved for larger enterprises, several providers offer data science for the tech startups of Southeast Asia:
- IBM Cognos Analytics is an AI-driven platform that offers smart data discovery and automated data visualisation with the help of an AI assistant.
- SAS saves time and money by offering intelligent and automated solutions and powerful analytics.
- InsightSquared uses revenue intelligence, gathered by AI to help you make the most informed decisions with the data you’re collecting.
- Qualtrics offers an easy-to-use platform that collects and analyses data and automates actions tailored to the customer’s needs.
Presentation software
Information is only useful when presented clearly. Tools like Prezi or Google Slides help streamline the process of both internal and external communications. Prezi is a secure, cloud-based presentation software that gives more robust collaboration options and templates, so you’re not starting from scratch each time you build a presentation. If your team uses Google’s G Suite, perhaps Google Slides fits your company’s needs. Google Slides offer the opportunity to create browser-based presentations. Google’s real-time technology allows multiple people to work together at the same time, allowing everyone to see the most up-to-date version. Less time building the presentations means you can spend more time building your business.
Customer success
The relationship with your client doesn’t end once you close the deal. Invest in customer success technology to continue the relationship, which can lead to repeat sales.
- Gainsight knows that some of your best potential buyers are your existing clients. Their platform nurtures current client relationships to upsell and create customers for life.
- ProfitWell believes you should focus on your product and your customer. From reports and analytics to optimize your monetisation, ProfitWell aims to take care of everything else when it comes to subscription growth.
- Client Success excels in maintaining current client relationships by offering recurring value and automated growth strategies.
Implementing these affordable SalesTech trends in Southeast Asia can take your business to the next level, without adding stress on your current operations. Are you already employing some of these trends to expand and grow your business? If not, which of these will you implement into your business model first?