Lavina Tolani - TigerSheet - Custom Software for Business

The Joy of Reporting in Tigersheet- An Interactive Video Guide to Keep Your Work Sorted!

Visualization and Reporting are one of the most vital motivation users want to go through all this trouble building an application and pour all their data into it. You can have numbers for each day and each month, and still, with all this detail, you can’t see the forest for the trees.

You might have a faint idea as to what product sells well and what does not, or which ad campaign seems to work better but it’s always until you have a chart produced, or a ranking report generated, that you get the clear idea of what’s going on for your business.

Creating reports from data stored is generally a tedious and labor-intensive job. The good news is that with Tigersheet in place, you don’t have to worry about this!

Tigersheet offers a wide variety of powerful reporting options such as Standard Views, Charts, Pivot Tables, Kanban Boards, Grouping Items and Filtered Views. This enables you to easily analyze your data and derive great insights. The intuitive drag and drop interface further make it super easy to construct the required reports in a matter of a few minutes!

Scheduling Reports

Once created, you can automatically send reports to your colleagues, executive management and non-Tigersheet users by scheduling the desired reports daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

Once the Report scheduler is configured, specified reports will be delivered to the recipients as an email attachment.

Standard Report

Users can create their own Views by Grouping, Filtering, and Hiding Columns, etc.

To create a view, click ‘Create View’, on the left panel under the Reports option and chose the type of report/view you want to create.

2. Under the columns section, chose the column you want to add in your view by ticking the checkbox.

e.g.: Suppose you want to create a view where you want to display all the leads based on the salesperson assigned to them. Go to the grouping section and chose Group by ‘Leads. leadOwner’.

3. The view appears on the left-hand side under the default view.

4. You can make any report/view as a default view for you by clicking on the Pin icon next to that view/report.

Watch our video that shows how to create a standard report in Tigersheet:-

Pivot Report

A pivot report is a table that is used to store the summary of a certain data set in a condensed manner.

Pivot reports are useful to show counts, sums, the average for different groups. For example, Show the totals No. of opportunities at each sales stage for each salesperson, or show the count of open opportunities at each sales stage for each salesperson.

Watch our video below to see how you can create a pivot report in Tigersheet:-

Kanban Report

A Kanban board is a work and workflow visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow of your work, limit work-in-progress, and maximize efficiency.

Using a Kanban board, one can view work at various stages of a process using cards to represent work items and columns to represent each stage of the process.

Here’s a step by step video to create a Kanban Report in Tigersheet:-

Timeline View

A timeline is a type of chart that visually shows a series of events in order over a linear timescale. The power of a timeline is that it is graphical, which makes it easy to understand critical milestones, such as the progress of a project schedule.

Let us consider an example of a hotel management system, where the hotel manager creates a timeline view of his guests’ check-in and check-outs.

To create a timeline view, click on ‘Timeline’ under Reports.
Configure your timeline by choosing a Start and End date.
Select column names you want to display on the y-axis in the timeline chart.
You can even customize the timeline view by choosing event colors and text.
Once done, click ‘Save’.

Check out the video to understand how you can generate a timeline and manage your work in progress:

Viewing a report

Once a report is created and saved, it will appear on the left panel.

You can mark a view/report as a default view for that sheet by clicking on the pin icon. This will be the default view for that user only.

Editing or Deleting a Report

You can rollover the mouse on the Report or View name. You will see the Edit and Delete icon appear next to the Report.

Export a Report

You can export any report in CSV and XLSX (Excel spreadsheet), and then send the export to your accountant/payroll, keep as a personal backup, or import data into a spreadsheet and analyze the results.

Create the view/report/ sheet with the data filtered/ searched you wish to export.
Click on the Export button

The visible rows will be exported in an Excel / CSV file.
If there are sub-sheets in the sheet, they will be exported in another tab with the main sheet identifier. You can click on the main sheet identifier, you check the records for that sub-sheet

Watch the video to see how you can export a report step by step:-

Report Permissions

By default, the report will be shared with all the users of the sheet.

You can also hide this report from other users of this sheet using the Permissions tab. You can choose which user groups should have access to this report.

Options –

By default, each report displays 20 records.
You can override this setting and choose to display more records per page using the ‘Options’ tab.
You can set to show 50 / 100 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 records per page.
You can also set how many max records should be displayed.

January 8, 2020 Lavina Tolani Features, Tips & Tricks, Product No comments yet

Create Custom Print Templates in Tigersheet

Feature: Design Custom Print Templates

Print templates enable you to print a record in a pdf format. You can customize and beautify the template look and feel.

For example, the sales reps may have to send a quote to a customer for review. In this case, they can use print templates and choose a template to print a quote and email them directly.

With print templates, you can print, email the pdf directly, and download a record. You can use the readily available templates from Word and paste it and then print or export your records.

For instance, you can

1. Easily print Opportunity records and forward them to your sales reps.

2. Print Invoices and send them to your customers’ postal address.

Creating a New Template

Open an existing record
Click on the Print button
Print dialog box will open up.
Click on Default template dropdown
Click on ‘New’

You can view all the fields captured in Tigersheet
Select All and delete.
You can copy-paste an existing template
You have to replace with existing variables – you can use Insert variable dropdown in the editor menu.
You can also use Lookup fields stored in another sheet to be printed.
Give the template a name.

Printing a record

Steps:

Open the record
Click on Print

In the Default template dropdown, click on the name of the template you wish to print.
Click on the Print button at the bottom.
A new window will open up with a Print option.

Saving as a PDF’s

Open the record
Click on Print

In the Default template dropdown, click on the name of the template you wish to print.
Click on the Print button at the bottom.
A new window will open up with Print option.

Still facing issues with Print templates? Got stuck somewhere? You don’t have to worry, Check our video below to learn how you can print records with custom templates!

December 6, 2019 Lavina Tolani Features, Tips & Tricks No comments yet

How to Build a Custom CRM with Tigersheet- (No Coding Involved)

If you do a quick Google search for CRM solutions, you will find a dozen options today…and yes, just after a single search!

In fact, the CRM software market is now expected to reach more than $80 billion in revenues by 2025 according to Grand View Research.

The CRM industry continues to grow at an astonishing rate, and each year new statistics are reported based on CRM trends.

….What could be the reason?

CRM has today become the heart of every growing business. The core of any business depends on the rapport it shares with its customers. Managing this crucial relationship is vital to building customer loyalty which in turn brings revenue. Enterprises today have readily moved to online CRM’s and applications that help to automate workflows and streamline customer journeys through the sales funnel.

The Problems with off-the-shelf CRM Software

In an endless plethora of readymade CRM solutions available today, finding one that fits your business needs is quite daunting. While these CRM solutions do offer some solution, the problem is they are expensive and overrated.

Not to forget, most of these CRM suites are designed to meet common needs and are difficult to implement. This is the reason why many companies have begun to realize that the best CRM solution is the one they build themselves.

And here’s why your company also needs an application build uniquely tailored to your needs- and that is a custom CRM System!

Why should you build a Custom CRM?

Imagine you are given the task of buying a CRM system for your company’s lead generation and relationship management activities.

After hours of intensive research and checking reviews after reviews, you return back with bloated, cumbrous software that is equipped well with everything from custom reporting to market automation integration. And now, your IT department struggles to configure and deploy the whole suite despite the fact that it contains only a handful of features you desire to use. All of this can consume a lot of time and can impact productivity. Not to mention, it also becomes difficult to justify the inflated subscription costs.

To put it simply, all that a company needed was a tool to track its leads and close deals.

Companies’ today jump after hand-me-down CRM solutions thinking that- buying a perfect tool is the answer to all their problems. It is only later they realize that they have acquired a huge system that has components they don’t use and a handful of features they really need.

Still trying to decide whether your company needs custom applications? To help you out we have come up with a list of benefits in building custom apps and why you should choose no-code platforms like Tigersheet to create these applications.

The Benefits of Building a Custom CRM

Start Small but Scale Big

Building your very own CRM lets you prioritize the features you need the most. You can start small and expand from there. This also eliminates the need for learning how to use complex suites thereby bringing fewer distractions and giving more time to improve productivity.

Better Integration with your Business Operation

By using a no-code platform like Tigersheet to build a custom CRM system, you have an opportunity to automate another process of your business. Right from sales, customer service to HR your daily business operations can run more smoothly with Tigersheet when implemented across multiple departments.

Affordable Pricing Plans

Most of the pre-canned CRM software available today incur huge costs and that too with a lot of features you don’t need. Instead, why not subscribe to a no-code platform that allows you to create your own CRM at a fraction of costs?

Tigersheet works on a low-cost monthly subscription, hence your businesses are not locked in with long term contracts. There is no limit on the number of applications you can build on the Tigersheet platform. With our low-cost monthly subscription, we believe businesses can achieve tremendous value and achieve a positive ROI within a short period of time

Building a Custom CRM without Coding

Purchasing a readymade CRM suite for your business forces you to spend exorbitantly on software that hasn’t been uniquely tailored to your needs. On the other hand, going with traditional software development is expensive and tedious, taking months for the first version of the app to be deployed successfully.

So, what could be the fastest, cost-effective and reliable method of building a custom CRM application?

Chose a no-code platform to build your very own CRM app tailored with the only features you need!

Here we have listed down six characteristics to look for in no-code platform if you want to create a custom CRM app without writing a single line of code:

A Visual Interface

The very foundation of a no-code platform is to be able to build applications without the need of hand code. Tigersheet uses both drag and drop tools and clicks and point elements that help to create applications in a breeze even for a novice

C:\Users\Priyam Tolani\Desktop\tigersheet\screenshots\Leads tigersheet.png

Click to point elements and visual interface explaining how to add a new lead in a CRM build using Tigersheet

Third-Party Integration

Integration with third party systems is a must to have feature for an effective CRM System. Ensure the platform is able to talk to other systems letting you send emails, SMS and perform other similar tasks.

Tigersheet support with third-party integrations lets of connecting your CRM to a large ecosystem of automation tools such as QuickBooks, Zoho, ERP to services like Twilio for sending emails and SMS messages.

Cloud Infrastructure

Choose a no-code application platform that’s based on the cloud, which means everything is available online. Tigersheet is an innovative SaaS platform and there’s no need to purchase any additional infrastructure. Once the app is built, it’s ready to go.

Report Generation

The report is one of the key features of CRM software.

Do you know which product gave you a maximum no of leads in the last campaign? What was the most profitable channel? Which product performed well last year?

Tigersheet has powerful report generation capabilities, including grouping items, generating pivot tables and charts. All your reports can be saved and shared with other users, along with drill-down filter capability.

Reliable Technical Support

Building a custom application like a CRM should let you enjoy the benefit of getting immediate support without the need to be reliant on third-party providers. Hence, make sure the platform you are choosing to build your CRM should give you access to it.

With Tigersheet round the clock technical support, in place, we ensure our clients address issues enabling them to use the product more effectively.

Custom CRM systems can work wonders for small organizations as well as large enterprises alike. So, before you begin your new CRM endeavor, consider building your own customized application. Stay tuned with us as we are going to bring easy, free to follow the video guide that will help you will help you how to get started.

November 28, 2019 Lavina Tolani Product No comments yet

Feature: Import Excel Data to Tigersheet

Do you have a large amount of data is housed in Excel and wish to import that to Tigersheet? We have got you covered!

You can greatly benefit from Tigersheet’s importing capability. This allows you to bring your Excel record to the platform while saving in a lot of time and effort that can otherwise go into creating a sheet from scratch.

Start by Visiting ‘New Application Pack’> Create New Tigersheet> Import from Excel

To create a sheet from Excel Import, click on the option ‘Import from excel’ and chose a file (CSV, XLVS formats only) from your computer.

Make sure to give your sheet a name. Once done, press “Create”.
The system will show a preview of the sheet that is being imported and will give you options to select the worksheet, header row, columns you wish to import and define their types.
You can choose to import data from that sheet as well. If you don’t want to import data but just wish to create the structure, check the checkbox ‘don’t import data’.
In case the data import has failed, Tigersheet will allow you to export the failed records with error logs. You can make corrections to this file itself and re-import it to add only the failed records.

The setup below shows an excel sheet ‘Contacts’ being imported from Excel to create a Tigersheet ‘Records’.

This example can be seen live in the video below where a Lead sheet with records is being imported in the Lead Tracker Application for a Company.

November 15, 2019 Lavina Tolani Product, Uncategorized No comments yet

5 Most Horrifying Excel Blunder Stories that Will Make You Rethink Your Choices

Businesses all around the world have been using spreadsheets for statistical and financial analysis. Even after 30 years of its first release, Excel continues to be a driving force to be reckoned with.

While there is no doubt that Excel can be undeniably useful, it isn’t a perfect fit for organizations that deal with mission-critical apps or sensitive data. No matter whatever be the industry, businesses that use spreadsheets (even yours) can face data quality problems that can give rise to potential vulnerabilities.

Time and again there have been notable incidents where spreadsheets have landed businesses and individuals in a soup. These incidents have created havoc where companies have not only lost millions but their reputations have been severely tarnished. A 2008 analysis from a mixed study states, “Even the most meticulously created spreadsheets contain an error in 1% or more of all formula cells.”

Now the question that comes to our mind is why are there so many errors? …. It’s Simple.

Spreadsheets no matter how useful-are created by people and thus are susceptible to human error and have the potential to bring real harm. The heavier an Excel model gets; the more mistakes can happen and some with even irreversible consequences. With this in mind, we bring you top 5 of the most infamous and costliest stories of Excel Blunders from history:

JP Morgan Chase Copy and Paste Blunder

Also referred to as the ‘London Wave Incident’ that happened in 2012, the global financial giant JP Morgan Chase suffered a trading loss of $6.5 billion dollars due to a copy and paste error.

The bank was using a Value at Risk model, wherein a financial employee made a blunder while copying and pasting information from one spreadsheet to another. The formulas were not carefully adjusted, thus the errors never got reported resulting in the gross miscalculation of their synthetic credit portfolio. What could have otherwise been an easily rectifiable error turned out into a huge financial loss for JP Morgan Chase.

Eastman Kodak’s ‘Too Many Zeros’ Spreadsheet Shock

This is another example of a situation that shows how excel errors can turn out to be a costly affair for organizations.

In 2005, Kodak was forced to restate its financial results for two quarters by $2 million and $13 million respectively. An employee added too many zeroes to pension and other employment termination benefit records of one other employee. As soon as the error was made public, the company stock fell significantly and gave a further jolt to already hard times when the company was already losing more than $100 million every quarter.

Barclays’s Capital Hidden vs Delete Excel Horror

The 2008 global financial crisis that affected many countries got triggered after Lehman Brothers, once the U.S fourth-largest bank dissolved in September 2008. However, many people know about a related incident that led Barclays Capital to buy Lehman’s Brothers 179 trading contacts due to an Excel Error!

The detailed spreadsheet of Lehman brothers contained 1000 rows and 24,000 cells where cells containing the unwanted contracts were hidden (not deleted). When the spreadsheet was converted into a PDF to be posted to the bankruptcy court’s website, the cells appeared again. Barclays Capital filed a legal relief motion, but in the end had to swallow the losses, for an undisclosed sum.

Fidelity Investment’s Missing Minus Gaffe

In 1994, an American financial firm, Fidelity Investment’s had made an estimation that it would make a $4.32 per share dividend distribution on their Magellan fund by the end of the year and would pay its shareholders accordingly. However, the company had to cancel the promised dividend distribution after discovering that its calculation was massively incorrect.

This happened when an employee missed putting a negative sign on the fund’s net capital loss of $1.3 billion while transferring financial records onto an Excel spreadsheet. As a result, the loss was calculated as a net capital gain which threw off the estimate by a whopping US$2.6bn.

London Olympics Excel Typo Error

The organizing committee at the London Olympics for 2012 had to face a major embarrassment and a subsequent loss due to a simple typo in the spreadsheet. A staff mistakenly inserted 20,000 in a cell instead of 10,000 and the London committee ended up selling 10,000 non-existent seats for an event at synchronized swimming. When the mistake was realized, the organizing committee had to declare an apology and upgrade the ticket holders for major events at a loss.

Have You Learnt a Lesson?

What can businesses learn from these multi-billion dollar fails? That Spreadsheets excel at landing companies in awkward and sometimes very expensive messes! A one size fit solution adopted blindly and plagued with human error can bring catastrophic results to even some of the biggest business giants in the world.

Modern-day companies need customized solutions that can cater well to their very specific needs while providing security and scalability. The good news is that Tigersheet lets businesses to build secure and scalable custom applications without relying on a developer. Well, now that’s indeed a happy ending!

…. Ditch Spreadsheets today and prevent yourself from being the next excel horror story!

Want to know more how Tigersheet works, Get started on turning your Excel spreadsheets into a customized business app. Sign up for a free account today!

October 10, 2019 Lavina Tolani General, Product No comments yet

GDPR Demystified- What it means for Business and How to ensure that you stay GDPR Compliant?

Businesses owners around the world know that Europe is now protected by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) –May 25, 2018, as the date when it was signed.

But chances are likely high that they all have the same question: What does GDPR mean to my business and since the deadline has passed can we breathe easy?

To break down the truth, GDPR is indeed complex legislation that can appear difficult to comprehend. Any company, big or small will have to comply with new regulations regarding the secure collection, storage, and usage of personal information. What’s more, violations will be met with fines.

To make things simple, we have come up with a definitive guide to make you familiar with the nitty-gritties of GDPR, how it applies to your business and what steps you can take to be GDPR compliant.

Setting the Stage: What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a series of laws that were adopted by the European Parliament on April 2016, replacing an outdated data protection directive from 1995.

It is a regulation that requires businesses to protect data and privacy of the citizens of the European Union, who transacted with them.

At the same time, it empowers citizens with greater control over the data they share during transactions and use of services. Citizens have the power to request access to their data and even withdraw consent.

Whom does GDPR apply to?

At its core, GDPR applies to every organization operating under EU as well as to organizations outside the EU offering goods and services to businesses or customers in the European Union.

This simply means every major organization in the world that holds any data of EU citizens, from personal information such as credit cards numbers to even a simple a photo of the citizen needs to stay compliant with the GDPR.

C:\Users\Priyam Tolani\Downloads\Flowchart_gdpr.png

A simple illustration to determine if GDPR affects you or not.

Why GDPR does exists?

The reforms under GDPR are designed to reflect the world we are living in at present, which also brings in-laws and obligations centered on personal data, privacy, and consent.

The two reasons which can be attributed to the introduction of GDPR are:

GDPR brings data protection legislation in line with ever-changing ways of data consumption, for example, the way that companies such as Google and Facebook now swap access to their customers’ data in exchange for their services.

The earlier legislation- the Data Protection Act 1988- was introduced prior to the use of internet and invention of cloud-based services and hence had turned obsolete with regard to associated security issues such as data exploitation. With GDPR in place, the EU wanted to increase trust in the digital sphere and hence introduced a clear, uniform legal realm in which businesses must operate.

What constitutes “personal data” under GDPR?

Under the GDPR legislation, Personally Identifiable Information (abbreviated as PII) refers to any information associated with an individual pertaining to his private, public and professional life.

The types of information in PII included:

Basic Identity information such as First and Last names, addresses
Web data such as email address, location, IP address, cookie data, and RFID tags
Banking Information
Political opinions such as one expressed through Social Media Posts
Health and generic data
Sexual Orientation

Breaking down the basics: How to be GDPR Compliant?

For all businesses operating or dealing in the EU, the maiden GDPR legislation has introduced a lot of changes that they must implement. Right from maintaining strict data protection controls to reporting breaches to customers, businesses need to actively monitor and protect user’s data continually.

Consumer Rights in GDPR and what they mean for businesses

Here we are distilling GDPR compliance down to basics, so you can make sure you are in line with it.

Obtaining Consent

Businesses should clearly mention their terms and operations. This simply means you cannot stuff them up in the complex language designated to confuse your users. Consent should be easily given and freely withdrawn at any time.

Timely Breach Notification

In case a data breach occurs within your organization, you have to report it to both the customers as well as data controllers within 72 hours. Any failure to reporting breaches within this timeframe will incur fines.

Right to data access

In case users request their existing data profile, businesses should be able to furnish a fully detailed and free electronic copy of the data they have collected about them. This report must also include the various ways you’re using their information.

Right to be forgotten

Also referred to as Right to data deletion, once the original purpose of customer data has been realized, the customers have the right to request that you totally erase their personal data.

Data Portability

This right empowers users an absolute right to their own data. They must be able to obtain their data from an organization and reuse that same data in different environments outside of the organization.

Privacy by design

Under privacy by design, GDPR makes it compulsory for companies to design their systems with the proper security protocols in place from the start. Any kind of failure in designing your systems of data collection the right way will incur a fine.

Potential data protection officers

In certain cases, companies are required to appoint a data protection officer (DPO). Whether or not one needs an officer depends upon the size of the company and at what level it currently processes and collect data.

When should a company appoint a Data Protection Officer?

The GDPR directive clearly specifies that an organization should appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) if it carries out operations pertaining to special categories of data or is involved in large scale monitoring of citizens such as behavior tracking or is a public authority.

In the case of a public authority, a single DPO can be appointed for a group of organizations. While appointing a DPO is necessary, it is also vital for companies to ensure they have adequate skills and staff necessary to stay compliant with the GDPR legislation.

GDPR has brought about a new level of transparency into data collection, storage, and usage. In case your company is secretive about its data, this is high time to make a dramatic turnaround in line with the points mentioned above.

What comprises GDPR-compliant breach notification?

In the event of a data loss, whether a result of cyber-attack, theft or human error or anything else companies are subjected to deliver an official breach notification. It should specify information related to the number of individuals compromised along with the categories and approximate numbers of personal data records concerned.

In addition to providing the potential consequences of a data breach such as theft, identity fraud, companies are also obliged to describe measures being taken to deal with the data breach to counter any negative impacts which might be faced by individuals.

What are the consequences of GDPR non-compliance?

For your company’s account: Breaching GDPR comprises four levels of sanctions: a warning, a reprimand, the suspension of data processing and a fine.

The fines are distributed at two levels:

Level 1: A payment of €10 million or 2% of an annual global turnover-whichever figure is greater.

Level 2: A payment of €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover-again whichever figure is greater.

The higher level of fines are reserved for cases where data infringement occurs, consumer request for data access is overlooked, procedures handling data are not being followed or an unauthorized transfer of data occurs.

While the lower level of fines is also applicable to data misuse but on a minor level. Examples can be a failure on the part of reporting a data breach, failing in implementing proper data protection protocols

For the credibility of your business: GDPR is no joke, and any failure meeting it can directly put the viability and future of your company at serious stake. GDPR puts businesses under an obligation to officially notify of the possible leaks of user’s private data. If an organization breaches this notification, its image will get associated with this infringement, both in public opinion and within the industry. Don’t be surprised if you are given a straight no next time you happen to secure an agreement for your company.

GDPR is already here, now what?

In preparation of GDPR, many companies have updated and redistributed their business policies. And often think of what should be their next steps to stay compliant. We will break down the steps for you:

Manage your Data through Audits

The prerequisite to reviewing your current data protection policy is to perform a data audit. This includes checking all the current personal data and information that you have in the database asking yourself some simple questions:

How did you collect the data?
Was consent sought before collecting that data?
Has the data been used or sent to any 3rd parties?

Answering these questions will help you identify weak spots in your existing data policy thereby creating a scope to re-work on them accordingly. By getting an overview of the current data you hold and how you use it, you’ll be able to see which areas need improvement to become GDPR compliant.

Get Rid of Unnecessary Data

Once you are up with reviewing your current data on file and protection policies, move forward with a data clean-up.

This simply means looking through all the data you currently possess and deciding what you need to keep and what to delete. There can be scenarios where you’ve collected data in the past but haven’t used it. Hence, deleting unnecessary or redundant data is a great way to clean up your systems that help to mitigate the risk of any data breaches.

The GDPR legislation states that user and event data must be retained according to more strict settings; when set properly, your systems will automatically delete user and event data that is older than the retention period you select.

Adopting a retention control policy is a great way to avoid data hoarding, and at the same time provides a robust way to demonstrate to auditors. Hence make sure you:

Understand what data you are collecting and also classify it. Comprehend what comprises personal data and whatnot.
Adopt measures to understand where data is held, how it is kept and how & when to delete it.
Back up your data or anonymize and encrypt it.
Be open and completely transparent about your internal processes. Do not forget your influencers, customers and other stakeholders will trust you as long as you prove to be trustworthy.

Summary and Final Thoughts

It is not wrong to say that GDPR is indeed a huge transition in how business approach customer data. While the deadline has already passed, the real work is actually in the months and years that come ahead. Especially when the dust over the first breach is beginning to settle, this is a good time to reflect on the changes that GDPR can bring.

Companies should now begin focusing on the ultimate goal to build trust and be the kind of organizations where customers offer up insights and data freely. Encompassing the quintessential mantra “security is everyone’s responsibility”, it’s high time for businesses to holistically work towards meeting the expectations set for meeting GDPR.

To put it as the final verdict: GDPR is an aggressive swing in the face of data abuse. Nonetheless, it should also be viewed as a positive force that has come to safeguard consumer data rights in our increasingly accessible world. And just as it protects the consumer, it also protects organizations from surpassing their boundaries.

July 26, 2019 Lavina Tolani Bussiness No comments yet

A Look at the Low Code/No Code Development Market- Facts and Numbers Unleashed!

As the Low code/No Code market continues to grow at an impressive rate, we break down some competent resources from leading sources Forrester and Gartner highlighting how companies are using Low Code/No Code

Forrester expects the market for low-code development platforms to increase to $21.2 billion by 2022, up from $3.8 billion in 2017, a CAGR of 41%. Some of the highest-growth years for the market are expected to be between 2019 and 2021, where growth is expected to be over 50%.

Why Low Code/No Code?

The top three answers were:

69% – Accelerate digital transformation

55% – Reduce IT backlog

38% – Reduce dependency on hard-to-hire skills

The Growing Importance of Process to Digital Transformation

Published: 8 May, 2018

Source: Forrester

While earlier companies would prioritize process automation that was focussed on cost reduction, today they are moving towards digital transformation and better customer experience. As customer experience has become most important, streamlined and efficient processes (both front and backend) become high priorities for businesses.

This Forrester low-code platform report looks at these issues. Among 354 business professionals surveyed:

Cost reduction was listed as the top primary motivation for process improvement 2 years ago (32 percent of respondents), but that will slip to 8 percent by 2020.
Accelerating business transformation was the primary motivation for only 13 percent 2 years ago, but will become the top motivation by 2020 (49 percent).
In 2018, the primary motivation is improving the customer experience (33 percent), and will continue to be important in 2020 (28 percent).

Geneca Report- Doomed From the Start? Why a Majority of Business and IT Teams Anticipate Their Software Development Projects Will Fail”.

Published: 25 January 2017

Source: Geneca

This one lays the foundation for why low-code/no-code is such a big need. Here are some fascinating stats:

75% of respondents admit that their projects are either always or usually “doomed right from the start.”
80% admit they spend at least half their time on rework.
78% feel the business is usually or always out of sync with project requirements and business stakeholders need to be more involved and engaged in the requirements process.
Only 55% feel that the business objectives of their projects are clear to them.
Less than 20% describe the requirements process as the articulation of business need.
Only 23% state they are always in agreement when a project is truly done.

Here is a powerful info-graph on Low Code/No Code platforms that explains why they are such a big need today:

While the software is taking the world by storm, Low Code/No code is the single most disruptive technology that is changing the face of application development today. As organizations are embracing transformation, it is vital to recognize that LCNC is a viable measure for solving the challenges of transformation.

According to new market research “Low-Code Development Platform Market published by MarketsandMarkets, industries such as healthcare, public sector, and manufacturing and retail are already benefiting from adopting low-code to meet these challenges. Therefore, as the global low-code development platform market size grows from $4.32 billion in 2017 to the predicted $27.23 billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 44.49%, low-code is mainstream and here to stay.

May 29, 2019 Lavina Tolani LCNC No comments yet

Inside vs. Outside Sales: Which Works Best for You?

Inside sales or outside? This is one common debate that has been existing in the business landscape regarding which strategy is better from the other. But, speaking of the current market, the two roles are blending and have become an important part of the sales organizational structure.

While for business owners, choosing the right sales strategy could directly impact their business success on the other hand for sales professionals it could mean choosing the right job that could impact their professional life.

Before one can come to a final decision between choosing inside or outside sales, it is important to know the differences between them which we will break down in this brief piece of annotation.

Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales: Breaking down the Basics

If we speak at the most elementary level, the difference between outside and inside sales lies in the fact where the sales process is happening: Are the products being sold remotely or in-person?

Inside sales representatives identify, reach and turn prospective leads into customers remotely i.e. over phone or online, while outside sales personnel go outside to meet their prospective customers face to face.

Inside sales rely on phone, internet or email for reaching customers, it is often referred to as ‘virtual’ or ‘remote sales’. On the other hand, outside sales go beyond the doors of a formal office or team’s environment involving professionals to work autonomously, hence it is also called “field sales”.

What are the Key factors for comparing between Inside and Outside Sales?

Tool Requirements

Outside and inside sales differ in terms of the tools required for closing the sales. When it comes to inside sales, the majority of tools that are required are needed for activity automation. Hence, CRM (customer-relationship-management) software with facilities such as email management and tracking, SMS functionality, phone calling for in best to inside sale scenes.

Outside sales professionals also require CRM but do not depend entirely on it. Additional technological tools are needed by the sales team on the field that can help them pitch their clients, demonstrate product activity on-site, manage map routes and monitor and conduct field training.

Scaling Capabilities

Outside sales professionals can reach a limited number of prospects on a daily basis as face to face meeting is needed while inside sales professionals enjoy a huge advantage over scaling capabilities as they can reach multiple prospects with the help of technology such as email automation.

So it’s not obvious to understand that while an outside salesperson is busy pitching clients and dining prospects to move towards the closing deal, an inside sales could have already closed multiple deals.

Quantity vs. Quality

Since inside sales professionals spent most of their time pitching clients over calls, emails and other similar modes of virtual communication, they do not face challenges of travel and logistics.

Moreover, being on call for hours, their price point is lower hence they don’t have to focus on the same level of quality that outside sale professionals have to do.

This is perhaps the reason there are a higher number of successful demos completed and one-call closes in case of inside sales.

Outside sales tend to involve greater cost and more expensive products and services which is the reason why field reps meet clients and explain the functionalities with more detailing and intricacy. While outside sales team might have fewer meetings daily, it is likely to have well-targeted ones i.e. accounts for 30% higher closing rate than inside sales.

Sales Cycle

The sales cycle for an outside sales team is longer and more complicated as there is a constant requirement of face to face communication with more focus on volume, unlike inside salespeople who mostly rely on virtual communication for pitching clients and thus have comparatively shorter cycles.

Moreover, field sales can be intense requiring a lot of preparation beforehand.

For example: selling directly at retail stores can mean visiting the store, doing product displays and ensuring a constant supply of products and services.

Skills Needed

While inside and outside sales professionals have a lot of skills in common such as great communication skills, ability to play with words, being result oriented and driven to customer problems, there are some key differences that define the best skills required for each set:

Inside Sales Skills	Outside Sales Skills
Should be good with words and understand the terminology	Should be comfortable to enjoy working alone in the field
Should enjoy working with teammates and collaborating with managers	Should be capable enough to manage their own appointments
Should be able to manage 100+ calls a day	Should be able to manage their schedule effectively
Should be able to accept and adapt to a high level ofchange	Should be adaptable and flexible with spontaneous changes, new environments they are set into

Benefits of Inside Sales

Lower Cost
Higher Communication and Collaboration involved
Higher Quota Attainment
Shorter Sales Cycles

Benefits of Outside Sales

Higher close rate
The deal size is considerably larger
Greater salary (10-12% higher approximately)
Freedom & Flexibility to manage schedules and territory

Wrapping Up

While there can be no readymade manual to find the answer as to which is a better business model to consider: Inside or outside sales, having both systems mutually in place sometimes can benefit in the long run especially when one knows what one is selling. Keeping in mind factors such as business structure, product requirements, prospective customer base and market, one can definitely make a better choice as to what works best for them!

May 20, 2019 Lavina Tolani General No comments yet

Tigersheet wins 2019 Rising Star Software Award from Software Suggest!

We are incredibly proud to share the news that ‘Tigersheet has bagged the ‘2019 Rising Star Software’ award from Software Suggest, a popular B2B product and software review platform. This recognition is given annually to products that provide outstanding solutions for B2B companies across a number of categories, including the leaders in the Low Code/No Code (LCNC) market.

Tigersheet is a no-code platform to build custom applications for enterprises at lightning speed and drastically reduced cost. Tigersheet gives you the simplicity and flexibility of spreadsheets with the power and advanced feature set of complex applications (such as access control, notifications, and alerts, report generation) in a user-friendly platform that you can use, to create any custom business application.

In evaluating Tigersheet for the 2019 Rising Star Software Award, Software Suggest’s team of software experts examined and compared Tigersheet against its competitors in various scenarios. Some of the specific criteria that their review team took into account were:

Tigersheet’s range of “key No-code functionalities”, combined with a simple, highly responsive and intitutive interface.
The collaborative nature of Tigersheet’s application development capabilities
The support with third-party integrations that lets users connect their custom application to a large ecosystem of automation tools
Its flawless report generation capabilities, including grouping items, generating Kanban boards, pivot tables and charts.
The capacity to allow role based access control to make certain that only particular users can launch certain tasks and perform specific actions.
Its ability to create trigger based workflows enabling users to skip over redundant workflows and automatically complete tasks whenever an event is caused to occur.
The availability of one on one guidance and business consulting service in helping enterprises customise the software according to their needs

We are delighted to have a shiny new award to put on the Tigersheet mantle, but most importantly, the 2019’s Rising Star Software Award is another confirmation that our software is providing the best value to enterprises in meeting their custom needs.

Please visit SoftwareSuggest.com to post your own review of Tigersheet and thanks for your support through this amazing year. We hope to win many more awards in future, as the team is constantly working to improve user experience by adding new features to Tigersheet. We can’t wait to show you what’s in store for in the coming year!

Make sure to follow Tigersheet on our social media channels Twitter and LinkedIn to get notifications on all updates.

May 7, 2019 Lavina Tolani Product No comments yet

Demystifying the Difference: Low Code vs. No Code and How to Decide Which One Is Right For You?

One of the significant movements in IT over recent years has been a trend towards the low code and no code tools and platforms.

Low code application development lets businesses build apps faster with minimum coding. While, it’s been a while for these low code platforms to come into existence, they were initially introduced as auto code generation tools that evolved into enterprise-grade app development platforms covering the entire app delivery.

Present day low-code platforms speed up the entire app delivery process right from requirements to deployment stage. Some of the critical app delivery areas that get optimized using low code platforms are:

• Coding gets replaced by visual app building, where the developer creates the entire end-user experience right from the start, using simple drag and drop interface of UI components.

• Using, Low code platforms the entire artefacts of the project including front/back end coding, executables, configuration files are easily generated based on standard best practices. They also eliminate human errors in coding.

• Continuous deployment and integration of the app gets simplified.

Uncovering No-code platforms – Is it a new phenomenon?

Off late joining the family of a new breed of platforms, akin to low code platforms, No code platforms have also emerged.

Low code platform tend to have an edge over no code platforms, particularly during the development phase because the former involve a more intuitive visual development approach. A visual development approach allows the app builder to drag and drop predefined out of the box components into the work area.

However, in some scenarios, during app development, there are certain features that require customization.

For example, when building a particular page of an app, your visual designer would have given an innovative clock widget, in his screen mocks based on the company’s’ standardized widget set, and that is not a part of the default UI widget library of the platform. In this scenario, low-code platforms allows you to extend the platform capabilities by letting you build such a widget and make it available as a drag-n-drop component for future projects.

However, if the same company employed a team of developers who built an UI widget library based on the company’s approved design template and is made available out-of-the-box in the platform itself. Then app building becomes a no-code experience.

Hence, no-code-platforms are more like an evolution of low-code-platforms to particular scenarios, where the coding extensions are taken care of by providing out of the box visual components.

To put it as final thoughts, no code platforms are no different from low code platforms, rather are a specialized version of the low code platforms where the customization have been taken care of by pre-building all the required visual components.

Low Code Vs. No Code: Making a Choice for Your Organisation

As is the case with many up and coming technology trends, low code and no code are often used together, reflecting on how this innovative technology will change the face of traditional software applications. But, if you are considering one for your organization, how will you decide which one to choose and when?

Low Code	No Code
Used for more complex applications	Use for reporting, analytics and tracking apps
Apps that are foundational in nature or run important business processes	Apps that evolve with frequent updates and changes in use-case
Apps with more than 5 years lifecycle, fewer updates	Can be integrative or stand alone
Can be mission critical	Good for self-deploying apps
Offer Better Developer Control	Mobile responsive

How to get started choosing a low-code/no-code platform?

With so many vendors in space, the decision to determine which platform is the best fit can seem overwhelming for companies. Here are some tips to narrow down the selection:

Determine who is going to work

Broadly speaking, low code/no code platforms fall into two market segments: Those for developers and those for the business side. For developers, low code platforms make it easier to deliver more software in shorter time periods-say weeks instead of months. On the other hand, for the business side or “citizen developers”, low code lets people without any prior programming experience to create their own software.

Companies must decide which side they need a platform for, and which will fit their purpose best. For instance, let’s say you are trying to empower your business people and you don’t intend to put a tool designed for developers in front of them. It makes things complicated. On the opposite side, developers will ask for more control than a readymade product that has been given to them.

Chalk out the use cases the company wants to deliver

Each tool offers functions in different areas, including workflow and business process applications. You should select a low-code platform that fits your individual project needs.

Build a strategy that comprises governance

Whether done with or without coding, building and maintaining software is difficult. In order to make the most out of low code platforms, work on building a strategy which includes a portfolio management system, which can help employees keep track of what apps have already been built in the platform. Experts recommend to start small, invest in staff training, and identify a business leader to champion low-code projects.

What are the differences between the profile of a Low Code/ No Code User?

No code platforms are better suited for innovative and problem solving professionals who are aiming for better performance in the competition curve.

With basic spreadsheet skills, business professionals can leverage no code platforms to quickly build custom applications to solve business challenges, securely manage data, view real time reports and accomplish similar tasks without writing a single line of code. They can use existing templates or drag and drop features to build apps right from scratch. Continuous business improvement also becomes a cakewalk as app admins with access permission can easily update apps and workflows as needed.

On the other hand, Low code platforms are an ideal fit for professional developers and coders who wish to achieve higher productivity and better service to clients by streamlining the application development process. Using declarative tools, these coders can create complex, enterprise grade apps with high-control data permissions. Whether it’s tracking core business process for supply chain inventory or building a complex customer database, low-code platforms allow developers to be on the cutting edge of innovation while reducing project backlogs with self-service tools to support line of businesses.

Final Thoughts

As you disembark on the journey, evaluating low code and no-code platforms, make sure to visualize your end goal. Do you wish to decrease your IT expenditure on traditional software applications that require frequent maintenance and yearly renewals? Or, you are aiming for digital transformation of your company empowering teams, and more technically-minded personnel to create the applications that incorporate the features and workflow they need to be successful.

Then you are in luck: No code and low code platforms can actually help! Once you have determined what you wish to accomplish, move forward evaluating your skill and staff. No-code and low-code application development platforms have a lot to offer and choosing the one right for your needs and goals will go a long way.

May 5, 2019 Lavina Tolani LCNC No comments yet

8 paramers for chosing a no code platform

8 Key Parameters to Look When Choosing a No-Code Platform

The demand for custom applications has witnessed a tremendous upsurge with the digital era sweeping across the modern business landscape. The traditional methodology of software development has not only become obsolete but is also expensive, both in time and money.

In such dynamically changing times, companies are looking forward to ways that can help them build enterprise grade applications that can be delivered in few hours. Thankfully, this is possible through Rapid Application Development via No Code Platforms.

No Code Platforms- In the Picture

No code platforms have brought about a radical change in the ways software applications are being build and delivered. They have bridged the gap between IT and business, enabling more rapid, iterative and collaborative development.

Companies today have become more responsive. Instead of hiring high-priced in house developers or contacting third-party vendors, they are embracing no code platforms as the fastest way to move ahead. But how should they decide which no-code development platform is best for their business?

To make this decision process a lot simpler, we have curated a list of 8 key parameters companies should consider while looking for a no code platform.

Ease of Use

The no code platform you chose should be easy to use. If the team at your organisation is struggling on how to use the platform efficiently, wouldn’t it be a defeat to the purpose?

Tigersheet is a spreadsheet inspired no-code platform.

The fact that millions of people out there use spreadsheets to manage their data is a good start for us. So, we make the experience application development a lot like using spreadsheets, something everyone knows. The intuitive drag and drop interface enables users to build apps from scratch within a matter of minutes, without having to write a single line of code.

Affordability

Building a new software from the ground is expensive and could incur exorbitant costs. Besides, hiring experienced programmers or coders to help you out every time, is still expensive when compared to using existing resources. Hence, while going for a no code platform, make sure to go after a cost-effective solution that can help you to reduce the burden on IT teams and keep up with the demands for digital innovation.

With Tigersheet, you don’t have to worry about the costs! It works on a low-cost monthly subscription, hence your businesses are not locked in with long term contracts. There is no limit on the number of applications you can build on the Tigersheet platform. With our low-cost monthly subscription, we believe businesses can achieve tremendous value and achieve a positive ROI within a short period of time.

Pre-built templates

Templates can remarkably help to increase productivity. For example, if you are considering a no code platform for process automation, make sure it provides a variety of pre-built templates that can serve as a starting point for your team to begin creating apps and run them quickly. Not only, these templates accelerate development but are also well designed to end you up with a secure and more reliable application.

Tigersheet provides ready to use templates to meet the needs of multifarious data management purposes. You can install them and customize as per your need. Whichever department you are in (production, customer service, project management, research, procurement, warehousing, HR), there is always a suitable data management template designed to make your work easier and faster! Add new entries, fields, set triggers, and manage workflows in an already designed layout available for FREE!

Report Generation Capabilities

No two businesses are alike. Having said that it is easy to understand that different companies can have different needs. To be able to make best decisions, the ability to create custom reports is a must to have feature, companies should look when considering a no code platform.

Tigersheet has powerful report generation capabilities, including grouping items, generating pivot tables and charts. All your reports can be saved and shared with other users, along with drill-down filter capability. Such insightful reports will not only give your business a better insight but will also help you identify bottlenecks, view how your teams are performing, and allocate budget and other resources effectively.

Third Party Integrations

No potential for third party integration in a no code development platform can be an absolute deal breaker. Integration alone can result in so much value to your product whether they are public-facing products or internal business tools. Hence, make sure to go for a no code platform that supports third party integration so that your product build on it is able to adapt to a continually changing landscape of software solutions.

Tigersheet support with third-party integrations lets users connect their custom application to a large ecosystem of automation tools such as QuickBooks, Zoho, ERP to services like Twilio for sending emails and SMS messages.

Cloud Deployment

Go for a no code platform that’s based on the cloud, which means everything is available online. Seriously! Today, it makes a very little sense to do otherwise.

Cloud deployment gives you dual benefits: It gives you an added security which hold paramount importance to the viability of your business. Secondly, on top of security, cloud deployment speeds up things like breeze.

Tigersheet is an innovative SaaS platform and there’s no need to purchase any additional infrastructure. Once the app is built, it’s ready to go. This makes it possible to develop applications in a matter of days and in some cases right away. The no code platform is available in the cloud and supports the easy deployment of your app in the cloud. It’s time you take advantage of it!

Free Trial

Though, this is never a necessity, but it does make the process of choosing a platform a lot easier. With a free trail in place, you don’t have to make an outright purchase. One can test out the features like visual tools, UI accessibility etc. and determine if the platform actually delivers on the promises solving one’s business needs.

Tigersheet offers a free trail to its customers with no strings attached at $0 per user/monthly. Under this trail, customers can avail some awesome features like:

• 2 Applications

• 5 GB storage

• Up to 3 Users Access

• Phone/Chat/Email support

Does it Support Collaboration?

An application is seldom used by a single person in an organisation, unless it’s too simple in what it wants to deliver. If this is the case, one needs to look for a no code platform that enables users to communicate with each other while they are using the application.

Tigersheet facilitates such form of collaboration when you are planning to build your application on it. You can develop multiple apps and each app can talk to each other. In addition, it also runs interference for common master sheets across apps to ensure you have integrated reporting.

Still trying to decide whether your company needs custom applications? To help you out we have come up with a list of benefits in building custom apps and why you should choose no code platforms like Tigersheet to create these applications.

Choosing a no code platform is no cake walk. It involves a lot of searching and dead ends before you finally decide to click up with a final one.

But the search doesn’t have to be cumbersome- Tigersheet is one of the first options you can consider to build robust, budget-friendly apps that can accelerate productivity making it easy to meet your business goals.

Create your free account now to explore how Tigersheet can benefit your business…and witness the power and potential of the platform yourself!

April 30, 2019 Lavina Tolani Product No comments yet

Dispelling 5 Misconceptions Around Low Code: It’s Time to Let Them Go!

While low code platforms are taking the IT world by storm, the much talked about popularity has also created a room of various perceptions and misconceptions. It is necessary to separate facts from myths in order to know the true capabilities of low-code app development platforms.

Here is a list of some common misconceptions around low code and the supporting arguments to debunk them:

Myth 1: Low Code is a New Trend

While it may seem like, application development using low code platforms is New – the concept has been around for at least 15 years or so starting with the promise of 4GL in the 90s and rapid application development (RAD) tools in 2000.

However, there are definitely differences between the 4GL/RAD tools of the ’90s

and low code platforms today. These tools created convoluted code and locked enterprise to their platform which is not the case with low code.

The technologies today make low-code much more intuitive and approachable to a wider range of skill sets within IT. The interesting promise of low-code today is the possibility of providing more “self-service” to users traditionally outside of Enterprise IT which was not possible before.

Myth 2: Low Code is only for Simple Application Development

Many people believe that Low code platforms are only suited for small scale development and cannot be functional for scalable, mission-critical apps.

In reality, from small- to large-sized companies, low-code platforms are a step forward from traditional software development when it comes to building applications for desktop, mobile, and web. According to a study by Forrester, majority of applications built using low code are used across the entire enterprise or multiple departments. Many organizations that have experienced low-code development are scaling up their rapid development teams to cope with growing demand and are delivering mission-critical enterprise applications. Hence, Low-code is about gain, not pain.

Myth 3: Low-code platforms are only for the build phase of the SDLC.

It is commonly believed that low code platforms are specifically meant for the development phase of the software development life cycle. However, this is not true.

Modern-day low code platforms can efficiently support the entire app delivery life cycle- design, build, deploy, operate, monitor, and iterate

Equipped with visual development tools, these platforms come with added capabilities like agile management, social collaboration, one-click deployment, end-user feedback loops, and many more. In short, a solid low-code platform can act as a one-stop solution for handling all the stages of the application lifecycle.

Myth 4: Low code platforms are meant only for citizen developers and anyone can leverage them to develop apps with ease.

Before going deep into clearing the misconception, it is important to know different types of app builders:

Citizen Developers: This class comprises of people with no prior coding knowledge who are working in the front line of business areas such as HR, customer service, marketing etc.

Power Builders: These are a class of people working in IT units supporting operations and business units. Though, they do not possess formal coding expertise, yet are familiar with spreadsheets and have a basic knowledge of JavaScript, Script, and Python etc.

Professional Developers: These are professional coders with expertise in programming languages that require formal training to master.

So, which category can use low-code development platforms?

The answer is all of these. All three categories can use low-code platforms but the functionality and complexity of the applications developed will vary.

· Using a low-code platform, citizen developers can develop very simple applications that can offer basic functionalities.

Power builders can build applications with more functionality than that offered by citizen developers.

Professional developers can deliver complex applications with multiple functionalities and automation processes. A low-code platform lets a professional developer build application swiftly by reducing the amount of manual coding required.

In short, a low-code platform enhances the capabilities of all types of developers by letting them do more than what they are capable of in app development.

Myth 5: Low Code Platforms do not provide scope for customization

Another big misconception around Low code platforms revolves around customization. While it’s undeniably true that low code development favors the idea to achieve as much as possible without code, this does not imply software engineers can’t extend the functionality with the code they desire.

There can be scenarios where business requirements fall outside the skillset of the business developer and scope or capabilities of the platform, in such cases Software engineers can use code to develop reusable code extensions.

With the help of client and server side API’s, engineers can build, package and distribute new functionality such as connectors to external services like machine learning and AI, integrations to internal systems of record, native mobile widgets, and reusable UI components.

Closing Thoughts: Low Code/No Code is No Longer a Myth, But Only Reality

In conclusion, low-code platforms offer the necessary tools for both the business and IT to collaborate and build valuable enterprise apps at speed while maintaining control over the entire application life cycle. These platforms are not only here to stay, but also with expanding business technology, they are making it easy to streamline the development cycle and build applications that can solve the growing business requirements.

No doubt, they have their own strength and weakness but as a still-young concept, there are still a lot of misconceptions and myths that need to be busted to help businesses understand and leverage the true potential of these platforms.

April 29, 2019 Lavina Tolani LCNC No comments yet

What is CLV and Why it is the Most Important Startup Metric?

What is CLV and Why it is the Most Important Metric for Your Startup?

How can one make sure of the fact that their company is succeeding?

Well, one of the obvious answers could be by looking at operation metrics such as revenue, profit margins or sales and then comparing these figures with one’s own annual projections, historical records or number of competitors in the market.

But, these are not the only metrics one should adhere to especially if they want to assess their company’s success in long-term.

One of the most important metrics whose importance has been understated for a long time is CLV or Customer Lifetime Value. As the name suggests, CLV refers to the net revenue a customer would be bringing to the company during his lifetime.

While marketers have been repeatedly talking about the importance of CLV, surprisingly the term is not much known. A 2018 UK study revealed that “only 34% of the marketers who participated in the survey really knew about CLV and its real value in startup growth, while only 24% of them agreed that CLV was being calculated properly to assess their company’s success.”

What is CLV or Customer lifetime value?

If we speak of definition, Customer lifetime value (CLV), customer profitability analysis or simply User Lifetime Value (LTV) is a metric used to calculate a customer’s monetary worth to a company by factoring his relationship with the company over time.

CLV is a crucial metric that lets companies assess how much they should spend to acquire a new customer and to retain already existing ones.

What are the benefits of CLV?

1) CLV helps to design better Customer Acquisition Strategies

Paying attention to CLV can drastically change the economics of your customer acquisition plan.

For instance, if the CLV of a customer is $2000, you know how much you can spend to acquire a customer.

No wonder why companies like Uber, Amazon and others offer lavish discounts and offers to get a new customer in their door. Because they know the lifetime value of that customer is far higher to make up for any initial loss.

2) CLV Allows Better Customer Segmentation

Recognizing the company’s most valuable customers (ones with highest CLV) will give an insight on who should one target in terms of demographics.

3) Reducing Churn for Better Customer Retention

Knowing CLV of a customer will give a better insight to decide if the customer is worth retaining and then decide on implementing steps which can encourage them to come back to using your services.

4) CLV helps in Analysing Payback Period

The payback period determines how long the business will take to recover its acquisition cost from a customer.

A long payback period could directly associate more risk to the business.

For instance, if a customer churns before the payback period, the business would be bearing a loss in regard to that customer. Alternatively, if a customer runs past its payback period, any purchase from him will bring value to the business.

5) CLV Helps in Improving Customer Service

CLV can be deployed as an early warning sign to managed defection rate and complaints.

For instance, if a customer with low CLV complains about a particular issue, is it necessary to investigate the problem to the nth degree? Offering a solution and ensuring the fact that customer leaves happy is important but at the same time investing too many resources on chasing an already sinking ship is also not a wise decision to go forward.

The Math Behind CLV: How to calculate it?

There are a wide plethora of ways when it comes to calculating CLV for your company which we will look into detail one by one.

The Simple Formulae

The simplest way to determining CLV is by subtracting the initial cost of customer acquisition from the total revenue earned from a customer.

Total Revenue Earned from Customer= (Annual revenue per customer * Customer relationship in years)

CLV = (Annual revenue per customer * Customer relationship in years) minus Customer Acquisition Cost

Here is a quick illustration of the above formula:

Let us assume a SaaS company produces $4000 each year from every customer that has an average lifespan of 3 years and a initial CAC of $2000 for every customer. Hence applying the formulae, CLV should be calculated as:

$4000*3-$2000=$10,000

This simple method of calculating CLV can prove effective when the profit contribution from customer remains consistent. For example: If you provide a subscription-based service with only two models, then customers can be expected to provide a consistent source of revenue.

Historic and Predictive CLV

In terms of data used, the methods of calculating CLV can be divided into historic and predictive.

Historic CLV

It is defined as the sum of gross profits from all the past purchases of an individual customer. The formulae used is:

CLV= (Purchase 1 +Purchase 2+……. + Purchase N) * AGM

Where purchase N stands for the purchase value and AGM stands for Average Gross Margin.

Predictive CLV

Predictive method of calculating CLV is considered a more complete method which helps to project how much revenue a customer will be generating for the business during the course of his relationship with the business.

This method makes use of certain behavioural patterns and transaction history that is used to determine the current value of the customer as well to forecast how much will the customer evolve during his lifetime with the brand.
The accuracy of this methods improves over time as more and more data pertaining to a customer is collected with every purchase.

There are different formulas available to calculate predictive CLV, but here we will focus one of the simplest ways through which a predictive CLV can be determined:

CLV = (P × AOV) × AGM) × ALT

Where P stands for average number of monthly purchases, AOV stands for Average Order Value and AGM for Average Gross Margin and Alt for average lifetime of a customer.

How to improve your company’s CLV?

There are myriad ways that can be used to enhance the CLV of your company. Some of them are as follows:

Regular Communication

Keeping in touch with your most valuable customers can be a good way to increase CLV of your brand. For instance: online retailers can make use of email reminders to let customers know about new products and offers thus encouraging them to come back to the company’s website.

Long-term customer relationships are built on the base of customer loyalty hence marketers should focus on devising strategies that can improve customer-brand relationship letting customers stick loyal to them and not switch to other brands.

Remarketing Campaigns

Refining company’s marketing strategies to target most valued customers who are likely to make repeated purchases can be a powerful way of improving CLV.

Cross Selling and Upselling

These two marketing strategies can be effectively used to improve CLV. Though both these terms are used interchangeably, they work in tandem.

Cross Selling is the practice of encouraging customers to buy a higher end product than one in question while Upselling pushes customers to buy related or complementary items alongside the items they are already buying.

Let us take the example of e-commerce industry to understand the two terms more clearly.

Cross-selling is a highly effective tactic in e-commerce that comes in the forefront on product pages, during checkout. It aims at targeting repeat purchases and introducing a wide catalogue of services to customers.
Similarly, upselling involves showing comparison charts to market higher-end products to customers. Offering suggestions for better versions or models of a product customers are looking forward to buying can leave them more satisfied with the purchase, encouraging them to come back for their future needs.

Loyalty Programmes

Introducing Loyalty programs with additional perks can be one of the most effective ways of targeting customer retention as well as improving customer-brand rapport for years to come.

Special discounts, freebies or free shipping can encourage customers to make repetitive purchases.
Repeat customers are always more valuable as compared to ones that make a single purchase – as it costs less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.

Conclusion:

Whether you are a small brand with a limited customer base or a reputed firm with millions of loyal customers, determining your company’s CLV is a robust way to earn customer lifetime value.

Factoring your company’s CLV effectively will act as a recipe for your business success that can leave your less-data driven competitors struggling while you will be dancing in your company’s success bash.

April 15, 2019 Lavina Tolani Startups, Startups and SMBs No comments yet

Top Lead Generation Ideas for Your Next Trade Booth

In the world of cutthroat competition where businesses are increasingly turning their heads to online advertising and social media marketing- It may leave us wondering if live events such as trade shows or exhibitions are still relevant.

Well, the answer is Yes!

Though businesses have endless options of marketing today than what they had a few decades ago, they shouldn’t ignore the massive power of trade shows and exhibitions which can help them stand out amidst high competition. There is no denying that these live events do involve high costs, but with right steps and team on board they can turn out to be attractive lead generation opportunities.

Being themed events, trade shows or exhibitions help in garnering the attention of customers who are interested in services or products being offered. Moreover, these allow businesses to expand their customer base in a very short span of time. All one needs is to cleverly sift through the crowd identifying hot leads from the sea of people!

Here I have come up with some creative ideas that will help you turn attendees into leads, ensuring the best return of your investment.

1.Choose Strategically: Research is the Key

Exhibiting at a trade show is never a cheap deal-hence thorough research beforehand on choosing the right place, convention and the type of trade show to attract maximum leads is prerequisites to successful business marketing at live events.

For instance, say, your target audience is small business and they are on the lookout for knowing more about a particular industry at trade shows. Find out what they are looking forward to know and then equip them with some insightful information. Capitalizing on this opportunity and acing your presence at the trade show will leave a lasting impression of you as a business expert that will help you in future too.

Hence, know well in advance, what you want and then craft those details to delivery properly.

2. Invest in Pre-Event Promotion

The trade show is going to be your showcase event, hence you must ensure it is pre-promoted heavily.

Make sure to update your contact details to reach as many customers as possible. Make use of social media, update information on your website, create event landing pages to segment your contact lists and automate emails.

Another good way practice pre-event promotion would be to create a door of enticement. Send out just a particular piece of information to your contacts that may prove valuable to them, thus urging them to come and claim the full portion while attending your booth at the actual event.

3. Keep the Booth Designs Attractive

Your booth design will go a long way in attracting visitors hence make sure your booth appearance is professional yet attractive. Keep the design in line with your buyer persona in mind. Don’t include things that have nothing to do with your business and services. Invest smartly in building the brand so that your booth stands out: a nicely designed background, highlighted bold banners, some extra lighting (not too gaudy) and may be some unusual chairs.

Consider ‘installing call to action elements’ at your trade show booth such a screen asking visitors to fill a survey along with their contact details. You can install vending machines where you can ask visitors to equip it with their business cards. Such elements at your booth design will help you generate leads while encouraging participation from visitors.

4. Equip Your Booth with the Right Staff

Staffing your booth with enthusiastic, kind and inviting staff is one of the prerequisites to gauge solid leads.

The people at your booth are your brand representatives who know your services inside out. Hence, it is important for them to be assertive, friendly and professional in their approach and not behave like employees sitting behind tables who are bored and drained of energy.

Hence, be selective about selecting your staff and look for people who can communicate well, are willing to participate in the goal of bringing benefit to the company. They should also have a warm smile and pleasing personality. Taking a technical guy with no communication skills to represent your booth who can answer the toughest questions will never serve any purpose. Lastly, ensure that the staff manning your booth are trained about the products and well aware of your business objectives.

5. Hand out Freebies, Keep Giveaways

Freebies can instantly catch visitor’s attention, provided they are aligned well with your lead generation strategy. Consider keeping giveaways that are related to the services you are offering such as a pen drive for a software company, a wooden showpiece for a furniture company.

Also, make sure to give your gift items to qualified leads and not just for the sake of giving. Make them work to earn it like keep a prize draw as this will keep them engaged and offer a more time span to discuss your product value to them.

Though we are living in the age of digital, keeping some form of paper collateral such as a leaflet, a catalogue is good. Don’t forget to include details of your company logo, services offered, website etc. with everything you plan to give away.

6. Nail your Live Presentations and Product Demos

Doing a live presentation or a product demo would be one of the most effective ways to generate crowd at your booth.

However, make sure to keep it short and engaging keeping it for 10 minutes at most.

Keep a good presenter who is confident as well comfortable addressing the audience.
Doing a recurring presentation say every hour or at frequent intervals will be helpful in telling people about your products and inviting them to your booth.
Make sure to indulge or invite people after your presentation so they don’t end up leaving your booth. You can make them fill a form, participate in a competition or speak to your sales personnel so they can qualify them further.

7. Focus on networking, Visit Other Trade Booths Too

Exhibitions and Trade shows are not just about hype or making money, but also connecting with like-minded people, networking and having some fun!

Visit other booths, introduce yourself to people who might turn into your prospective leads. Strolling out can help you understand what your competitors are doing in keeping attendees engaged thus proving out a valuable tactic.

8. Keep the Atmosphere Lively, Indulge in Fun

The experience of meeting people in person at a real event can be overwhelming, especially when you can control the experience you want for your visitors. It can actually be energizing meeting leads face to face, knowing about them while adding a little flavor of fun while interacting with them.

In order to make your event memorable that can leave a long lasting impact in the minds of attendees, you can:

Consider doing a stage talk, or perhaps walk through a product demo answering questions and asking them, you don’t have to only focus on gaining customer attention but also in making your message stick longer with them.

Investing in some form of entertainment, music, food, and drinks will also make the environment more comfortable for your team boosting up the enthusiasm to work actively towards closing deals.

9. Collect Data and Follow Up Timely

Given the huge stake involved at your trade show event, it is important to collect all the data of your prospective leads who may be interested in your services in the future. Make sure to have a robust method for collecting the data.

Make use of productive CRM tools that can directly feed data to your smartphones or tablets ready to be launched in your customer database, it will save in a lot of time and manual effort.

Moreover, following up with leads in a timely fashion is crucial to keep the conversation going. Left attendees will forget you and grow cold in today’s’ fast paced environment or they may get wooed by your competitors who are faster on their feet. Reach out to leads through social media, connect them up on LinkedIn. Reply and Respond to every query and request to establish credibility and authority.S

Trade shows can be fantastic opportunities for you to increase brand awareness, multiply leads and maximize ROI for your business. All you have to do is understand what visitors are looking for, man your booth with the right staff, craft an attractive booth appearance, nail your live presentations, focus on networking and follow up in a timely fashion.

Ultimately the planning, thought and participation you put into your trade show will have a direct impact on the leads you will generate. Formulate your strategy based on the tips and suggestions outlined above and walk confidently in the direction of making your upcoming event a success.

March 30, 2019 Lavina Tolani Bussiness, Growth No comments yet

How to Hire Using LinkedIn through Free, Premium and Recruiter Subscription!

The domain of recruiting has changed drastically in recent years with employers increasingly moving to social media platforms to source talent. While there is absolutely no dearth of platform one can consider for hiring, LinkedIn, in particular, has emerged as a great resource for professional communities to build their network and augment their recruitment needs.

Unlike conventional job board portals such as Monster, Shine, Indeed, LinkedIn provides a more business-focused interface where a candidate can easily highlight their resume, skills, achievements, experience and connections and general influence in the field.

However, being inundated by hundreds of resumes from an endless number of applicants can make screening the right candidate a lot more difficult for employers. To make things simple at this end, we have come up with this comprehensive piece that will guide you on how to make the most of LinkedIn- using Free, Premium and Recruiter so that you can find the best candidates.

We have listed general tips that can be followed by all recruiters irrespective of the subscription they have as well as some paid subscription-specific tips that can amp up their hiring strategies to reach prospective employees.

How to use LinkedIn for Free for Finding the Right Candidate

Market Your Company through LinkedIn

Marketing your company page is one of the most important prerequisites for successful hiring. In order to garner the attention of your potential employees and bring an impact, you need to provide an outlet for candidates to reach you. Make sure to update the latest company activities and openings via careers page. The company profile should be linked to Twitter and Facebook profiles as well.

Another good way to indulge in your company marketing would be to make use of status updates to source the best talent. While back in 2010, LinkedIn used to fetch status updates from a Twitter account, today it supports standalone updates. Also, do not forget to modify your company status to “Hiring” that can indicate that the company has open positions and is actively seeking new joiners.

The Key to Finding Lies in “Search”

While it may sound very concrete, but the key to finding a right candidate lies in how one searches for them!

Searching through keywords is increases the chances of finding suitable candidates based on their skills and experiences. Moreover, LinkedIn itself comes with a search tool that allows search refinement to be done at multiple levels. One can search for specific people based on location, experience or company they work for, this will nullify the chances of coming across miss and hit candidates while saving in a lot of time.

While the search result can give a list of people matching your needs, the job doesn’t get finished here. As 90% of these people will already be in some role, a few of them who aren’t’ will most likely be using the keyword ‘seeking new opportunities’. Hence, as a recruiter consider looking at them as well as their skills could prove relevant to your needs.

Another aspect to keep in mind while searching potential candidates is to look for freelancers. While the majority of freelancers prefer self-employment working in flexible hours, there can be chances if some of them are looking for full-time employment for different reasons (e.g.; financial needs), hence approaching them would not be a lost cause.

Go for LinkedIn Referrals

More than 80% of employees believe that employee referrals are one of the most effective ways to recruit that saves in a lot of time and effort.

LinkedIn also has a feature called LinkedIn Referral that automatically identifies the first-degree contacts of your existing employees to find the most suitable candidate for your job posted on LinkedIn. Moreover, the software sends a notification of these matches to your fellow connections on LinkedIn every week that further helps to increase engagement. One can combine this technique with incentives and bonuses (if you complete successful hiring from one of your connections) to have a robust recruitment strategy at their fingertips!

Contact Candidates through LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups can be a golden guild of candidates with a very specific skillset that could exactly match your needs. The best part LinkedIn Group is it is Free and one of the exciting business offerings from LinkedIn.

Say if you are looking for a Social media expert, join a group like Social Media House, or if you are searching for a content writer connect with a group called Content Writers Network. It is simple as typing the relevant industry such as “media” or “engineering” in the search box and then selecting the group that is shown after the search result.

Being a part of LinkedIn Groups would help you come across leaders, available workers, professionals from different walk of life that will refine your search to reach your prospective employees. You can go through their post, read their conversations etc., weigh in different factors and contact them if you find them suitable. Don’t think of this interaction as a waste of time because LinkedIn ultimately is a networking channel and this group engagement can generate exposure and interest for your business from prospective employees.

Invest in Sponsored Jobs

One of the fastest, reliable and direct ways to catch talented candidate details in your inbox would be to invest in sponsored jobs. The sponsored category would highlight your job opening in front of candidates by bidding for prime placement in the jobs presented to them. This would cost you as it would work on pay-per-click system (pay depending upon as many times your job gets clicked) but at the same time will generate more exposure for your job thus increasing your chances of meeting the right candidates.

Make Use of “question and answer” and publish section

You can post questions and answers on LinkedIn in the question-answer section to establish relationships with leaders, industry experts, and influencers to expand your network and leverage them to fill your positions. Posting a department opening specific question or answer can invite people you’re your network as well as outside to come up with suggestions and influence hiring.

Also, do not forget to publish your own articles on the LinkedIn publishing platform. The benefit of publishing on LinkedIn can be many: you will get to share your knowledge, cultivate a following and strengthen your own professional identity.

LinkedIn Paid Subscription: LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Recruiter

LinkedIn offers a myriad of subscription plans to lets businesses meet their networking needs in the form of LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Recruiter. Upgrading to these paid plans unlocks various additional features like LinkedIn InMail, that lets recruiters connect directly with contacts, not in their connection list.

LinkedIn premium costs $47.99 per month for Business Plan while $99.99 per month for Executive Plan, however, the only difference is that Business plan gives 15 Inmails each month while Executive gives 30 every month.

LinkedIn Recruiter is available in two versions- RecruiterLite that costs $99.95 per month and Recruiter Corporate which costs $825 per month.

Having a LinkedIn Recruiter subscription is beneficial over LinkedIn Premium only in a sense that it lets you save your searches, get more number of InMails (30 total) along with saving the templates of InMail you send most frequently. In fact, it’s really not that best when compared to LinkedIn Executive Plan which costs a lot less.

However Recruiter Corporate does offer some additional recruiting benefits like applicant tracking, multiple users, a talent pipeline and the option to get feedback from managers while you are interviewing or hiring.

While LinkedIn Recruiter is an ideal plan for big companies and recruiters, small businesses and start-ups can go for LinkedIn Premium as it is more affordable

Here we have listed down some additional features of LinkedIn Paid plans that can help business owners and HR’s to recruit new employees.

InMail

InMail is a LinkedIn copyrighted email system that lets an employer contact candidate outside their connection without revealing their personal email address. Being able to contact anyone out of the blue can be extremely resourceful in a sea of professionals all around.

Follow these tips to boost your recruitment strategies while using LinkedIn InMail:

Customize your Job Description showing how their skill set matches your job needs.
Give the person a reason to contact you, for e.g.: “I loved your views on “X” and wonder if you know anyone who has expertise similar to you.”

Mention your contact details on your company page- phone, website, and work email so the candidate can reach you even outside of LinkedIn.
Follow up on connection request so that in case they reply it will be easy to contact them further without wasting your InMail credits.

See Your Profile Viewers

This lets you see profiles of people who are checking your business and personal profiles, and there are chances they may be job seekers. Send them messages, or invite them to connect sharing details of your business and current openings!

The Bottom Line

Hiring top candidates on LinkedIn is not rocket science, provided you are aware of using the platform efficiently. Make sure to come out as honest, upfront and clear with your job description, location, and salary parameters to stand out from the competition.

LinkedIn is a talent reservoir and with new features evolving every year, it would not be wrong to say that it will eventually emerge out as a major source of recruiting talent in years to come. Now go forth and employ these skills in your employee recruitment strategy and avail the benefits of finest candidates that end up coming your way!

March 21, 2019 Lavina Tolani Bussiness No comments yet

10 must have characteristics of sales teams

10 Must-Have Characteristics of High Performing Sales Teams

Despite the churn and the complexities that our business ecosystem has witnessed in recent years, there is one fundamental truth that remains true till date- “nothing can happen unless somebody sells something.”

If you wish to have a sales team that can deliver consistently high results, you must begin with creating a high-performance sales organization.

What are the Key Characteristics of the highest performing sales team?

Let’s have a look at the key traits of the high performing sales team and what differentiates them from the average ones.

Working on them will not only help you foster a culture where people are passionate to achieve their goals.

#1. Define your sales culture and hire according to it

What is your sales culture?

Is it collaborative or competitive or a healthy mix of both. What is your salespeople’s attitude towards the prospects and clients? Does “helping clients succeed” takes priority over “meeting quotas at all cost” or the other way around? How important is the element of fun?

Once you nail down the culture, hiring the right people who fit your culture becomes easy.

#2. Have Structured Sales Processes

According to research by the Sales Management Association, 90% of all companies that use structured, guided and formal sales process are ranked high performing.

(A sales process typically consists of 5-7 steps: Generating Leads/ prospecting; Qualifying leads, recognizing needs; providing the solution; managing objections, closing and supporting.)

Why sales structure is a key characteristic of high performing sales teams:

A structured process will help in clearly breaking down the steps of selling while identifying the best practices for each stage in the cycle.

A high performing sales team involves reps who are extremely driven and goal oriented. A structured sales process makes it more satisfying for the team to track progress in a concrete way.

Having the sales steps clearly laid out in a detailed manner makes training new hires much simple for managers and less overwhelming for salespeople.

#3. Equip Your Team with Enablement Tools

Once the groundwork of hiring the right people for your sales team and process mapping is complete, it’s time to equip the team with smart tools to ensure they are able to manage the timelines and deliver quality work.

While there can be no dearth of smart technology-driven tools you wish to provide your sales team with, make sure not to miss out on these essential tools that will leverage technology to more win-win deals. These are:

CRM: CRM (customer-relationship-management) software’s with facilities such as email management and tracking, SMS functionality, phone-calling are a lifeboat to any sales team.

Smart Contact Management: These take away the daunting task of manual entries allowing sales reps to give more time to selling.

Productivity Suite: These tools can enhance sales performance and are a must to have for your sales team. Some popular productivity tools are:

Business email such as Gmail
Document Management Tools such as PandaDoc
Video Conferencing tools such as Zoho or Slack
Cloud Storage Google Drive, Dropbox
Calendar Solutions such as Zoho Calendar

These tools can help in turning sales conversations into pitches, reducing the sales cycle, identifying potential leads, and more.

#4. Employ a Robust Coaching Methodology

Roughly three fourths (74 percent) of leading companies have said that regular coaching and monitoring are crucial for the sales team to perform well consistently.

In order to get a better sense of what a strong sales coaching looks like, here are some examples:

Reviewing a call session with the salesperson on what went wrong and coming up with areas where improvement can be done
Conducting a weekly in-meeting-talks about the areas of sales where reps are less confident and then discussing strategies to boost confidence
Accompanying reps on the field for mentoring and motivation

Ask your sales team if they are being trained and coached well and if they can tie to it to accelerate performance.

#5. Implement data-driven accountability

It is important to build a common understanding of core metrics with your sales team.

Developing a clear understanding of sales metrics brings every team member on the same page.

The right metric can depend on sales organization, company or industry. I am listing down some important sales metrics that matter the most:

Quota Attainment: This refers to the percentage of sales reps meeting the quota that reflects if the quotes are too low or high.

Going by the rule of thumb, the quotas are considered to be unrealistic if less than 60% is met. This also lets you decide to whether to hire better salespeople or fire the underperformers.

Average Deal Size: This is calculated by dividing the total amount of deals (in dollars) with the total number of deals closed.

Looking at this metric tells whether the contracts are getting larger, smaller or are still the same.

Moreover, if you find that the average deal size of a sales rep is less than the team average, it could mean the person is going too fast with low payback customers and needs to push aggressively towards more competitive or large customers. It could even mean he is discounting quickly.

Conversion Rates: Also called the “win rate”, this measures the percentage of leads turning to customers.

This metric lets one calculate how many leads need to be converted to meet the revenue targets. For e.g.: If your monthly team quota is $600,000 and the average deal size is $1000, the team need to close 600 deals. And if 10% of your leads are turning to customers, you need 6,000 leads per month.

#6. Allow Some Room for Growth

Being a sales leader, coming out with solutions to every problem is not very impressive, on the contrary, it’s obsolete and wrong.

To improve engagement, ask your sales team to come up with their own solutions.

For instance, you can say “Team, we have scored low on this aspect, what should we start doing or change to improve?”

Also, do not forget “not to sweat the small stuff”, be comfortable with the 10% that did not go according to the plan as it will make the 90% that went well more enjoyable for everyone around.

#7. Arm your team with true feedback

Sales leaders often fail to give the time on feedback, however, it can bring a great difference not only for individual reps but also for the team as a whole.

Most often we think of feedback as positive or negative, but here’s a new way to consider while giving employee feedback: redirecting or reinforcing.

Reinforcing feedback is when we want someone to keep doing a particular positive behavior. In other words, giving it means verbally reinforcing the positive effects of an employee action.

On the other hand, if we are sticking only to negative feedback that means we are only telling them to stop doing a particular action. With redirecting feedback, we are telling a rep to stop doing X and start practicing Y.

Examples of Feedback:

1. Something that I really appreciate about you is the knack to approaching problems and the zeal to come up with witty solutions! [Reinforcing feedback]

2. I strongly feel you have a superpower around making customers feel convinced and influenced while selling products. [Reinforcing feedback]

3. Do you have a minute to catch up on how X went? ( This is a good way to get started after a sales project or presentation and then come up with areas of improvement you wish to direct your team.) [Redirecting feedback]

#8. Share positive customer stories to instill motivation

Are you familiar with the phrase, “Sales is the hardest easy job in the world?” Behind every cold call, there is a challenge waiting to get solved.

Given the enormous dedication with which salesperson is constantly trying to get their numbers down, it can sometimes feel like a vicious cycle of thankless grind!

Having a regular meeting to share positive customer stories and how the company’s product is improving the lives of thousands around, can go a long way in much-needed motivation for sales reps.

It can help the sales team to push themselves while facing new challenges and reminding them what they are doing really makes some difference in the world and lives of people.

#9. Modernize Your Approach to Leadership

A sales leader or manager is the often considered responsible for ‘raising the bar of the company’.

With engagement and feedback culture increasingly spreading, any modern-day sales team requires proactive and responsible leadership.

Modern-day sales leaders need to be emotionally intelligent to break through the “quintessential mold of rigid sales leadership”.

They should be assertive enough to state what they need clearly and at the same time should combine it with empathy to make tough conversations whenever necessary.

Leaders should focus on empowering teams through monitoring, coaching, support that can shape their team’s success while bringing milestones for the organization.

#10. Do not forget to have fun together

A high-performance sales team is not limited to the competency of individuals comprising it but a spirit where collaboration is appreciated to achieve shared gain.

The best teams are not willing to just work together but also enjoy and have fun together.

The bonding can happen by allowing a fun environment to prosper from time to time. The approach to creating it can vary, say some companies do it through their an annual sales kick-off event, some do it by hosting a sports match at tropical locations while others do it by conducting a fancy dress day in office.

Whatever be the way, the goal is to foster better relationships among professionals giving them space to build rapport outside their work environment.

Summing Up

Having said enough, it’s not hard to understand that why teams selling works exceptionally well for some companies and is a complete failure for others. The keys to success for modern-day sales teams begins with identifying sales culture and hiring accordingly; incorporating structured processes; employing robust coaching methodology; implementing data-driven accountability; allowing room for growth; giving consistent feedback and modernizing your way to leadership.

Employing the above strategies will not only help in building high performing sales teams for your organization but also fuel in new energy and zest ensuring that the overall atmosphere of the company is positively impacted.

February 5, 2019 Lavina Tolani Growth No comments yet

Top Differences Between LLP vs Private Limited Company

11 Top Differences between LLP and Private Ltd. Company for your Startup in India

Starting a business is no cakewalk; there are a lot of things entrepreneurs have to consider while investing in a huge amount of hard work, effort and time.

If you are one of those aspiring entrepreneurs looking forward to starting your enterprise, there are chances that you must have thought of one of the most fundamental issues about what kind of business entity: a private company incorporated or a limited liability partnership (LLP) would suit your business needs.

It is crucial to know about both these types of companies in order to assess which option would prove better for the business to flourish.

While both these legal entities: LLP and private limited have their distinct advantages and disadvantages, there are substantial similarities and differences too that we will look forward to in this brief piece of annotation.

LLP vs. Private Limited Company: Where does the difference lie?

Limited liability partnerships were first introduced in 2008 under the LLP Act and have been growing in number ever since.

Though LLP’s are not as popular as private companies yet they provide nearly all the benefits of a private limited corporation without any downsides associated with that of a partnership firm.

LLP offers limited liability, offers simpler tax structure( there is no concept of dividend distribution tax as it is in Private Ltd.) , can facilitate accommodation of unlimited partners while offering credibility of registration from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

1. Unlimited Accommodation of Partners

The minimum number of partners required in case of LLP is 2, with no limitation on maximum partners. While in a private company the maximum number of members cannot exceed 200.

2. Taxation

LLP:

The rate of income tax applicable on an LLP is 30% where it is treated at par with partnership firms.
In the case of total income exceeding Rs 1 Crore, the amount of income tax gets increased through a surcharge at the rate of 12%.
Additionally, Education Cess at 2% and SHEC at 1% are also applicable.
Wealth Tax is not applicable for an LLP

Private Limited Company:

The rate of income tax for a private company is 25% in case they have a turnover of less than Rs 50 cores and 30% in all other cases.
Surcharge: When the total income of the company exceeds Rs 1 crore but does not exceed Rs 10 crore, the rate of income tax is increased at the rate of 7%. In cases, where the total income exceeds Rs 10 crore, the surcharge is applicable at the rate of 12%
Education Cess applicable is 2% and SHEC is chargeable at 1%
Wealth Tax is applicable at the rate of 1%.

3. Economic benefits:

Additionally LLP is more economical to the private limited company in terms of establishment cost and maintenance and also comes with fewer compliance regulations.

A private limited company has a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 200 members. Private limited companies have a wider range of applicability over LLP’s. While providing all benefits of an LLP, a private company differentiates between directors and shareholders. This makes it gain an edge over LLP in raising funding and attracting new talent by providing ESOP’s.

Personal Takeaway:

Employees nowadays look for additional benefits than just a high salary while getting associated with any organisation. Attracting good talent definitely requires businesses to offer benefits such as stock ownership, training, and flexible timings. Out of all the benefits, stock ownership is definitely more valued as it makes employees feel they are a part of the business thereby motivating them to perform better. Thus, private companies have an edge over LLP’s as they can provide employees with ESOP’s and stock ownership which helps in reinforcing hiring for the organisation.

Hence, If you are looking to raise fund for your organization or reinforcing hiring in near term you can register with private limited. But, in case you have plans of running a traditional brick and mortar business, consider going for an LLP over a private limited corporation.

4. Ownership

Private Limited Company has offers greater flexibility when it comes to sharing of ownership with shareholders.

The ownership here is decided upon shareholding where the maximum number of shareholders can be 200. Moreover, since shareholders need not participate directly in the management of the company, it brings a clear distinction as well as transparency between share ownership and management.

Talking about LLP, there is no distinction between management and ownership. The partners of LLP hold both the ownership of LLP as well as the ability to manage it.

This is perhaps the reason a private limited company is preferred over LLP for any business considering FDI or ESOP’s or Venture capital funding.

5. Process of Registration

The process of registration for LLP and private companies is quite similar however the differences are there in terms of documents and forms that required for registration.

The steps involved in a private limited company registration are:

Seeking approval of proposed directors for obtaining Digital Signature Certificate
Getting Director Identification Number (DIN) from the proposed directors
Getting name approval from MCA followed by filing for incorporation

The steps involved for LLP registration are:

Getting a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) from the proposed partners
Getting either Director Identification Number (DIN) or Designated Partner Identification Number (DPIN) from the partners
Obtaining name approval from MCA and filing

It is important to note that both LLP and private limited company are registered under Ministry of Corporate Affairs and are issued a certification of registration from the regulating body.

Moreover, the time frame for incorporation of both these entities is also comparable which is approximately 20 days for incorporation.

6. Registration Cost

LLP’s were introduced with a motive to meet the needs of a small business and hence they enjoy some benefits from the government which cannot be availed by private limited companies.

There is no minimum capital requirement in case of LLP, only incorporation charges are applicable which are Rs 7999/-. On the other hand, the minimum capital requirement for private limited company incorporation is Rs 100,000/. In addition, the incorporation charges are also there which are Rs 12999/-

7. Tax Structure and Compliance

LLP has a simpler tax structure where two taxes are functional – an income tax and an alternate minimum tax. This makes it an attractive option over the private limited company. Both the companies i.e. private limited as well as LLP have to pay an income tax at a rate of 30% of their taxable income along with additional surcharges depending on the total income.

The main point of difference lies in the fact that a private company has to also pay a dividend distribution tax applicable at the rate of 20.36% (15% tax plus surcharge and cess) on any amount declared or distributed by a private company to its shareholders. While in an LLP, there is no dividend distribution tax.

In terms of tax compliance associated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, LLP has a significant advantage over private limited.

An LLP is not required to get its account audited if its annual turnover is less than Rs 40 lakhs or the capital contributions are less than Rs 25 lakhs.

8. Transfer of Shares

In a private limited corporation, a shareholder has the right to transfer his share to any other shareholder. However, in an LLP share transfer are strictly governed via regulations of an LLP agreement.

9. Voting Rights

The factor for determining voting rights in a private limited company is the number of shares held by a shareholder. While in an LLP, voting rights are decided as per the agreement.

10. Annual Meetings

A private limited company is subjected to conduct regular annual meetings and board conferences as per the regulations mentioned in the Companies Act. An LLP is not subjected to such compulsions.

11. Foreign Ownership

Foreigners are not permitted to invest in Private Limited companies under the automatic approval route for the majority of sectors.

On the other hand, Foreigners can invest in an LLP provided they are given approval from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

For a better understanding of similarities and differences between an LLP and a private limited company, we have come up with a tabular distinction:

*Factors*	LLP	Private Limited Company
*Prevailing Law*	It is prevailed by Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008	It is prevailed by the Companies Act, 2013
*Registration*	It is required to register with the MCA ( Ministry of Corporate Affairs)	It is also required to be registered by MCA
*Number of Members*	Minimum-2Maximum- unlimited partners	Minimum-2Maximum-200 members
*Compliance Requirements*	Annual Return Filing	Annual Return Filing Board Meetings & General Meetings
*Taxation*	Profit of LLP is taxed at 30% cess Education Cess at 2% and SHEC at 1% are also applicable. Wealth Tax is not applicable	Income of private limited is taxed at 25% for turnover less than 50 Cr while at 30% for turnover exceeding 50 Cr Education Cess applicable is 2% and SHEC is chargeable at 1% Wealth Tax is applicable at the rate of 1%.
*Dividend Distribution Tax*	20.36%	Nil
*Conversion*	Cannot be converted into a private company	Conversion into LLP is possible
*Foreign Ownership*	Prior approval of RBI is needed by a foreigner to invest or become a member of LLP	Foreigners can invest in a private company under the automated approval route
*Venture Capital Funding*	No	Yes
*Ideal For*	People looking forward to raising capital	Traditional Brick & Mortar Business

Conclusion

Hence, having looked over multiple factors and considering all aspects we can say that LLP is ‘more flexible’ while the private limited company is more ‘old yet reliable’.

While your end decision to go with LLP or private limited company can depend on many factors such business requirements, future plans and most importantly the kind of liability you want to get involved with, a right choice will definitely bring a great impact in paving a road for your business success.

January 28, 2019 Lavina Tolani Startups No comments yet