November, 2022

Tedious tasks have always been a nuisance to deal with. They appear through all levels of the corporate world and we can all agree that nobody likes them. But thanks to business process automation (we’ll call it BPA from now on) the tables are slowly turning in our favor. Gone are the days when an employee has to spend a whole day filling papers and performing administrative tasks. BPA is gaining more popularity in the past few years and if you too are wondering how to improve the quality of life of your employees, clients, business partners, and your business as a whole, then please be our guest and read kindly through. As always, grab your favorite refreshment of choice, and let’s swoop in.

What’s BPA and why should you care?

In a nutshell, BPA relies on technology for the execution of various tasks in replacement of manual human effort. Now, before you jump on the Technology-is-going-to-steal-my-job-and-make-me-redundant train let’s clarify a few things. BPA isn’t your enemy, in fact, its sole purpose is to assist you in dealing with mundane, repetitive tasks, so you’ll have more time to focus more on creative and innovative work. Think of your relationship with BPA as a cooperation and not as a competition. 

Businesses tend to automate a portion of a particular process but there are cases where savvy businesses have completely automated processes from A-Z. An example we’ve all encountered is the chatbot in customer support. It can receive an inquiry, understand the issue and either offer a solution or connect the troubled customer to a customer support rep, which can then offer further assistance. 

Benefits of BPA

You probably already thought of a few scenarios where automation can become your best friend. There are numerous cases where BPA shines bright. We are going to share a few of the benefits which BPA can offer if implemented.

Efficiency

By automating a process you ensure that it gets done faster and with fewer errors. The reason simply is the removal of “human” in human error.

Standardization

When the same process is every time is done in the same way you also ensure uniform, predictable results. 

Customer satisfaction

We talked about how important customer satisfaction is for a business. When you combine efficiency and standardization it almost always leads to a happy customer. No missed deadlines, no mistakes, and no room for errors equal to a 5-star review.

5 Internal processes you can automate today

Digital transformation rarely happens in a day. Most of the time it requires a lot of time to set up, implement, adapt with employees, etc. But BPA is a whole different ball game. You can apply it to existing manual tasks and let it do its magic, under ideal circumstances, in a single day.

Hiring Process – recruitment is a very important and delicate process. Instead of sifting through a ton of applications manually, you can make use of automated hiring tools that will do it for you a lot quicker.

On-boarding – after successfully recruiting a candidate using your new automated hiring tool, you will have to onboard them too. Instead of giving them mile-long explanations and showing them what to do, you can provide them with the tools so they can do that by themselves.

Social Media Management – every business is expected to have at least one account on a major social media platform. Most of them have multiple and managing all of them can be daunting. To minimize that effort there are social media automation tools that can take care of business faster and better.

Sales/CRM Process – salespeople love to close deals and hate to fill in information in a CRM. Activities like prospecting and having meetings are here to stay, but processes like call logging, filing, and handoffs to the implementation team can easily be automated.

Auditing – a potential nightmare of a task. If your business deals with complex financial operations or major investments you can take off some stress from your employees and transfer it to an automation tool, that wouldn’t mind it at all and will perform the tasks a lot quicker with a lot fewer errors.

Conclusion

BPA is a friend, not a foe. Every business should take advantage of some form of automation tools. The key is to pinpoint areas of your business operations that can benefit most from automation and implement the right solution there. Not everything can and should be automated, so perform your research before deciding on automating any processes. BPA and automation in general will definitely shine more in the near future, so let machines take care of things they excel at and let employees use their talents to innovate.

Selling isn’t easy. While irresistible charm and eloquent rhetoric can get you a long way, most of the time they need a helping hand, a friend if you will, and that friend comes in the form of sales decks. A tool used by every sales team to get that investor on their side or to convince the customer to try the product out. If you want to learn more about what’s a sales deck, what are the foundations of a good sales deck and how to create an engaging one, you’ve definitely come to the right place. As always, get that beloved beverage of choice, and let us press ahead.

What is a sales pitch deck?

A sales pitch deck also referred to as a sales deck is a presentation in slide format (Slides, Powerpoint, Keynote) that is used to summarize a company’s mission, vision, values, product/service, and team, and portray them in an attractive way so that potential investors or other businesses might be more interested to get involved. In other words, it’s a powerful sales tool every business should take advantage of.

“The goal of a sales deck is to “visually and textually present your sales narrative to your ideal customer in a way that convinces them to buy your solution.” – Peter Kazanjy

By combining visuals and strong messaging, the main point of a sales deck is to urge its audience to take action. The most desired outcomes are investing in the company or buying a product or a service from that company. 

Elements of a good sales pitch deck.

Again we’ll start with the usual disclaimer that every business is different and every sales deck should be structured and designed according to the organization’s goals and needs, therefore there isn’t a unique formula to creating a sales deck that will guarantee 100% success when pitched. But there are some ground “rules” that you can follow to give your sales deck a strong foundation. Some elements or checkpoints you might want to include in yours or take into account are:

1. Start with a hearty introduction – a single slide consisting of “Hello we are… and we do…” often does the trick. The key point is to not overdo it by talking about your company for half of the whole presentation.
   
2. Point out the customer’s pain – by doing this you put the focus on them and not on yourself, which is also an important part when pitching. Just remember to do it in a non-threatening or derogatory way – be empathetic.
   
3. Elevator pitch – talk about your product/service and how it will improve the quality of life of your customer/prospect in under 60 seconds. Be eloquent and concise and try to avoid going on tangents.
   
   
4. State your expertise – share why you are the right company to alleviate the customers’ pain in slide #2. Just don’t make it sound like you are bragging about it.
   
5. Provide proof – add some testimonials. A list of clients that you’re working with, short case studies, articles, etc. Basically, you can include everything that will solidify your position and will act as a foundation to build trust.
   
6. CTA – no matter how well the story is told until this point, without a proper ending it will just fall flat. Compel your audience to take the action that you desire.
   

How to create an engaging sales pitch deck?

We’ve all heard that storytelling sells best. A powerful story that is told well can easily prove a certain point or urge to take a specific action. An engaging sales deck should be constructed and pitched as a story. The simple 3-act rule can also apply when creating a sales deck. There should be a Beginning (Introduction), there should be a Middle (Elevator Pitch/Offer), and an End (CTA). Everything in-between should support the main message and should drive the story further in a streamlined way without overcomplicating it.

Before sharing a few bullet points about creating a sales deck, we want to underline probably the best thing you can do, when creating yours. The key is to think like a buyer, and not like a seller. You know your product and its features best and it’s natural for you to want to share every detail about it. But perhaps the person you are pitching to doesn’t really want to hear all that. By putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes, you increase your chances to drive the right message. When a person senses that you took the time to think about their pain points, they listen—and they buy.

As promised here are the bullet points we mentioned earlier:

• Customize and personalize your sales deck to meet different client demands
  
• Use branded visuals and avoid using too much text
  
• Adjust the sales deck for online or live, in-person presentations
  
• Build your storyline throughout the presentation to hold interest
  
• Don’t make it longer than it needs to be
  

Sales Pitch Deck Examples

In order to clear any confusion, we’ll share a few good examples of sales decks that we think combine everything we said so far.

Reddit’s sales deck is a gem. The custom memes and images that will probably make you laugh also illustrate that the platform can be a solid contender alongside other advertising giants.

Splunk’s sales presentation on the other hand offers a more in-depth approach by clearly explaining the advantages of the product and offering a step-by-step walkthrough of how it performs.

Last but not least we decided to include Snapchat’s 2015 sales deck which starts with a knockout punch right at the get-go. This strategy doesn’t waste time and space with fluffy intros and instead doubles down on a strong statement: “Snapchat is the best way to reach 13-34-year-olds”. After reading that you either are all ears or you continue with more important tasks. 

Final thoughts

When properly created and catered to the right audience sales decks bring enormous firepower to your sales arsenal. They are a powerful tool that helps sales teams close deals. But in the end, it’s just a tool and can’t win battles by itself.  Sales teams and company leaders must speak a common language when it comes to sharing the business’s narrative.

Remember that a sales deck is, in a way, a representation of your company’s values. Make sure to design it in a way, which will truly make your business shine and hopefully will catch the eye of future investors, partners, or customers.

Numbers, numbers, numbers, it’s all about numbers these days. But digits by themselves don’t mean much. As valuable as collecting information is, it’s made redundant if it’s not put to use in a way that benefits a business. By measuring specific metrics an organization can track important marks, which can give them a sign of whether they are on the right course or they are drifting away somewhat aimlessly. Key performance indicators, a.k.a KPIs, are these magical creatures that are crucial for operating a business properly. In this article, we’ll do our best to demystify them and get a better understanding of why they are so important. As always, grab that favorite drink of yours, and let’s plow ahead.

Definition of KPIs, Types of KPIs & Why using them is so important?

KPIs are measurable values that showcase how effectively a company is performing and how well it’s achieving essential business objectives. They are important because they act as a somewhat real-time feedback system, on how an organization is functioning – whether it’s achieving its goals, or whether it’s falling short. In other words, by implementing them a business is making sure it’s going to get where it has to go. After collecting metrics, which then are used in forming KPIs, they are analyzed and reports are made. 

Depending on the goal those reports can be structured roughly into three types – analytical, operational, and strategic.

Analytical – they are used across all areas of a business for a wide range of cases and can be as broad as this definition.

Operational – they are predominantly focused on the day-to-day activities of a business. Short-term outlines of how a company performs. 

Strategic – they are used to provide a clear picture of a company’s “health” and in which direction it’s heading. These reports show owners and stakeholders how the business is performing in the long run.

Benefits of KPI reports

There are many reasons why KPI reports are important. By analyzing and adjusting accordingly, a business can only benefit from them. Here are four ways how an organization can utilize KPI reports.

To strengthen employee morale

Probably the most under-utilized value of KPIs. We can all agree that a company’s culture is important for performance. Tracking KPIs promotes a sense of accountability and responsibility in employees and by hitting a mark at the end of the day/week/month/quarter/year, a sense of satisfaction is spread across everyone involved. This on the other hand can also motivate everyone else to push themselves more and to achieve even greater results.

Foster personal growth

In the previous paragraph, we mention the benefits which KPIs provide to employees, on a company level. The same logic can be applied on an individual level. If an employee is able to monitor their performance and respond at the moment, they can achieve their goals and better yet, understand how to do it better in the future. With KPIs, which are tracked on a real-time KPI dashboard, teams are able to see exactly how they are performing at any given moment. This sets a tone for constant improvement and a healthy environment for continued personal growth.

Help to make decisions

KPIs are very useful when it comes to making a decision, but they shouldn’t be the sole reason why a certain decision is made. When the time to make a call comes, having the bigger picture in mind is a must. KPIs are in a sense just numbers, the reasons behind those numbers can be many. Always fully examine an issue and never rely on a single KPI report. 

Help to set goals and plans

Every business has objectives and goals that it strives to achieve. Sometimes getting everyone to work on achieving a shared goal can be a difficult task. Once an overall objective has been set, KPIs will help to break the process of achieving it into smaller and more manageable chunks and allow for a step-by-step approach.

How to create a KPI report?

There are five simple steps for creating an effective KPI report.

Create an overview – The first step is crucial. An overview can be a simple outline of what the goals of the report are going to be, and how it’s going to serve the organization. By answering the following questions, a business should set the right criteria:

1. What is the goal of the report?
2. Who will the audience be?
3. How will the report be used – is it strategic or operational? Static or interactive?
4. When will it be distributed?

Define the KPIs – once the initial objective has been established a business will have a general idea about the metrics which are needed in order to compile the KPIs. The tricky part is how the organization obtains these metrics. Are they reliable and accurate, how are they obtained, etc? 

Present KPIs – visualize the data properly. Make sure everything is understandable and not overly complicated.

Build a prototype – create a first draft of the report. Use dummy data if none other exists and present it to colleagues. Gather their feedback and make the necessary adjustments.

Refine and release – finalize and distribute. Just like any business process, reports need to be adjusted and evolved in order to be efficient. Make sure to perform regular maintenance to avoid report “bloat” and to keep information straight to the point and up to date. 

Examples of KPI reports in different industries

To hopefully make things a bit more clear, we will share a few examples from different industries.

This is what a retail report can look like. This particular example shows information about relevant shopper engagement and associate performance indicators to maximize profits, featuring KPIs such as by-channel sales, and return by % of sales.

A manufacturing report can highlight information such as supply chain and operational efficiency to optimize costs. It can feature KPIs such as availability, performance, quality, etc.

A financial services report can look like this. This demo example shows information regarding relevant customer and team indicators that drive growth while reducing costs. It features KPIs such as utilization, returns on assets, returns on equity, etc.

Closing lines

Every business has to set, measure and analyze relevant KPIs. That’s the surefire way to navigate properly and achieve various objectives with ease. It doesn’t matter if you use a complex CRM or a simple Excel spreadsheet, integrating your KPIs onto an analytics dashboard can be a huge upgrade. Having real-time metrics, all in a single place, allows teams and individuals to improve. Being able to have a detailed overview of which metrics need improvements and which ones are performing well can enhance an organization’s health and allow it to work more efficiently.

We don’t want to ring any alarms and raise your anxiety levels further but when there are more and more talks and signs about an upcoming recession. With an unstable economy and inflation slowly creeping up, questions regarding your security at the workplace might arise. A study conducted by Insight Global earlier this year showed that nearly four out of five American workers (78%) are worried that they might get laid off during the next recession. Some other findings include that 56% of American workers pointed out that they aren’t financially prepared or aren’t fully sure how to prepare for a recession should the economy enter one. 

While this survey gives only a glimpse of information, the solid fact is that the next recession is more than a “when”, rather than an “if”. The good news is that we are currently not in a recession and we have time to get a better understanding which should ensure our job and financial security when things eventually go south. We are going to review the potential perils of a recession from a business’s point of view, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be helpful for employees. So, as always, grab your preferred drink of choice, and let’s plunge right in.

Retaining employees during a recession

Remember the good ‘ol pandemic in 2020? COVID-19 put extreme pressure on businesses and a lot of them had to make difficult decisions. A lot of companies cut off working hours and, as a last resort, laid off employees in order to stay afloat during the troublesome times of the pandemic. While it’s not the same, a recession can put similar pressure on businesses and managers will have to make some tough calls.

Retaining your employees during normal circumstances is a feat in itself but doing that during a recession is a whole different ball game. When the world is going through an economic downturn your employees might be more likely to abandon ship and look for other opportunities which might offer a better sense of security in terms of career and finance. Adapting your retention strategy for the period of recession is crucial. So here are some tips on how you could do that.

Make them feel secure

If your employees feel safe about their current position, they will be less likely to leave it. You can offer your employees guaranteed working hours, salary protection, or even bonuses to stay in your company.

Be open and communicate

By upholding information regarding your future decisions on how you will tackle the situation, you make people even more anxious. Hold meetings and talk with leaders from across all levels to make sure everyone is in sync with your future plans and decisions. If you are transparent about the situation, employees are more likely to stick with you.

Lead with courage

When things go south, leadership is everything. If you manage to properly lead your business during an economic crisis, your workforce won’t abandon you ‘till the end. Although a bit stale, these ten action steps, written by Gregory P. Smith during the 2008/2009 recession, are still very much valid. 

Gaps between companies and employees

Trust is the foundation of every relationship, without it any communication is bound to crumble. The same survey by insight Global, cited a tad earlier, showed that should a recession happen, nearly half of the employees (47%) don’t trust their employer would properly execute their recession plans, and two-thirds of managers don’t believe that senior leadership would convey its plans. However roughly the same amount of managers and non-managers trust leadership with navigating them successfully through the storm. So despite the majority of workers are thinking that the company wouldn’t be able to communicate and execute its recession plans, they still believe that it will be able to get them through the recession.

A way of increasing the trust of your employees is to be as transparent as possible with your plans on how you’re going to handle the situation during a recession. Forming a recession plan and sharing it with everyone isn’t easy but it’s a nice starting point.

How to respond to questions concerning job security

With the looming option of being potentially laid off, anxieties and insecurities are sure to arise in employees, no matter the seniority of the position. From C-level to Junior – stress gets to everyone and all are bound to experience some form of negative emotion. Which in turn affects the overall morale. During recession employers also have to make sure that it doesn’t hit rock bottom. As with many things, there isn’t a simple universal guide on how to keep the morale at your company high, during a recession. However, there are a few guidelines that can help out. Here are five steps that you can consider when formulating a strategy on how to maintain healthy levels of morale in the company.

1. Make use of employee engagement data – by conducting regular surveys among your employees, you will get a sense of the pulse of the company. Making sure to understand how employees feel, in general, not only in times of crisis, is necessary in order to increase company morale.
   
2. Plan and provide growth opportunities – during times of economic downfall, money is often tight and raises and promotions become rare. Motivate your employees by planning and providing growth opportunities, which aspire to their personal career aspirations.
   
3. Schedule team-building activities – bonding as a team is always a good idea, especially during bumpy roads. Stress can have a significant effect on morale, but a simple game of Charades, after work on a Friday can do wonders.
   
4. Be empathetic – everybody is dealing with daily stress factors. By putting yourself in the shoes of your employees, you can get a better understanding of them. That eventually will build trust and will create opportunities for them to share things that bother them. Be present and listen.
   
5. Give recognition – make sure to appreciate your employees whenever there’s an opportunity to do so. Encouraging positive behavior will only lead to more positive behavior. On top of that, giving credit where credit’s due will build more meaningful relationships.
   
   

In summary, kindness, empathy, and honesty are powerful tools when it comes to communication. KEH isn’t a good acronym but if it will help you to remember those three, then by all means use it. The next time an employee comes to you with a difficult question or you notice a colleague who is in a rough patch and you want to help them – just lead with KEH and everything should be alright.

Final thoughts

A recession is no doubt a tough time for businesses, however, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world for your company. Planning and effort are key when handling difficult situations. Make sure to understand what your employees want and need, and you’ll be in a much better position to keep them when things go south. If you are posed with taking hard decisions, be sure to carry them out in a way that doesn’t damage the company’s morale and reputation.