Sales of Services or Products
Application Benefits
- Identify your most profitable service or products.
- Identify your most profitable customers.
- Allocate your valuable time & resources to achieve the highest return.
- Cost reports. See how your ‘cost of goods’ effects profitability.
Sales Reports
History is often the best predictor of the future, all things equal. Using data from your sales transactions, many different sales reports can be run. The level of detail you want on your sales reports relies upon the data collected during the sales transaction. If you are using the dbase-Designs Sales Application, we can decide upon the best structure for your application during the set-up process. If the Sales Reports rely upon your existing data, the same principle applies; the Reports rely upon the available data. dbase-Designs can ‘back-fill’ your existing data to include categories and classifications as appropriate.
Ultimately, the goal is to capture the data points necessary so that the Sales Reports provide enough information so that you can make strategic business decisions.
Examples of Sales Reports:
- Learn what sales categories are the most profitable.
- See sales trends over time (weekly, monthly, quarterly).
- Forecast sales using statistical analysis.
- See how seasonality affects your sales volume.
- By linking Sales to your Customer Contacts, you are able to see (and even predict) ‘customer lifetime value’. Allocate your time appropriately, based on their contribution to your profitability.
Cost of Goods
Analyzing ‘cost of goods’ can give you valuable information for vendor negotiations. Depending on your busines model, (e.g., if you sell products more than service) comparing your cost of goods as a percentage of sales on the supplier level provides insight into your suppliers’ competitiveness. This information can be used to leverage better pricing from your suppliers.
Ultimately, the goal is to provide enough information so that you can negotiate better terms with your key suppliers.
Examples of Cost Reports:
- Supplier-level reports show cost of goods as a percentage of sales
- By linking order activity to the Order Management application, more data can be collected in order to provide a complete picture of your suppliers’ performance and contribution to your profitability.
- Categorize suppliers into ‘tiers’ (e.g., A, B, C), according to pre-determined criteria (e.g., order count, dollars.)
- Identify and ‘grade’ your suppliers based on pre-determined criteria (e.g., number of replacements, or cancelled orders, or response time to orders.)
Contact me for a free needs-analysis: mattm@dbase-designs.com
