As your business grows, it’s important to standardize your processes to reduce errors and save resources. Otherwise, you can end up with too many steps and people involved where they shouldn’t be.
With the right processes, you can ensure the same level of quality and efficiency as you scale. But which ones should you focus on? Small businesses generally have five types of business processes covering internal and customer-facing aspects of a business.
Business Process Types
Sales
The sales process refers to the series of steps a business follows to turn a prospect into a customer. This is where you’ll get the most direct engagement with your target customers. That said, your sales team members shouldn’t each be doing things their own way. This won’t only complicate your internal operations, but your customer relationships will also be affected.
You should have a standardized sales process informed by careful research, authentic communication, and a strategic approach to closing a sale. With a standardized process, your team can convert leads more efficiently. This strategy should include how quickly and frequently they should follow up, specific ways to pitch your products, and how to resolve objections.
While the process may be similar for most sales teams, standardizing each step tailored to your team will make your workflow more efficient. Doing so will also help you detect which parts of the sales process results in low returns through performance metrics.
Marketing
Building your brand and promoting your business also requires process-driven strategies. For example, if you want to use content marketing as a strategy, you can’t just write a blog post on the side whenever you have the time. The same goes for the visual content you’re creating.
Everything you’re putting out must align with your brand identity—tone, color palette, brand story, and values. You can develop lead-generating content efficiently by having a marketing process (e.g., scheduling monthly brainstorming sessions, creating editorial calendars, and posting content as scheduled). Plus, you can track your performance and identify which parts of your marketing process need improvement.
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Customer Service
When people pay for your product or service, they expect you to provide the right solutions at the right time. Everyone representing your business should follow a unified process for dealing with customer complaints and answering questions. Be sure to address all steps of customer service.
Every customer service process begins with a customer approaching you for a solution. Make sure your business is accessible by keeping your lines open.
Finance
Standardized business processes become all the more crucial when dealing with many numbers and complex data. Your finances should be the last thing you want to do on the fly. Consider tax deadlines, invoices, cash flow statements, and other transactions. Plus, having organized databases will help you make more accurate decisions when allocating resources.
Some ways you can improve your financial processes are:
- Unifying all finance processes in one software system
- Integrating team members into the processes
- Streamlining interdepartmental collaboration
- Setting regular schedules and deadlines for invoices and payments
Human Resource Management
Despite having a small company size, it’s worth investing in your human resource management. After all, there’s a lot more to HR than hiring new people. As you scale your business, your work demands will inevitably grow with it. It typically involves everything, from recruiting to providing employee benefits and security.
As the first step of the HRM process, you must create strategies to attract eligible candidates. You can do it through websites, articles, newspapers, word of mouth, and other modes.
Add Magic To Your Business Processes
Small businesses typically lack the resources to carry out the necessary business processes. Magic can offer a cost-effective solution to your current business needs. By hiring a Vlaid Assistant, you can ensure that each of your business processes is running smoothly.
Below are some of the tasks our VAs can do to achieve that:
- Monitor the performance metrics of your marketing campaigns
- Manage your CRM database
- Assist in processing refunds for seamless customer service
- Manage your team’s calendar and organize virtual meetings
- Compile and analyze customer data
- Perform basic bookkeeping
- Do positive scripting for your customer service team
You won’t have to worry about losing more of your time as we’ll take care of the hiring and recruiting for you. Check out our comprehensive hiring guide to get started.
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