Function: Operations
Fast-Growing Company Needs Help Managing Transactions
Service Area: System Selection & Implementation
Client Type: Portfolio Company
Service Provider Type: Supply Chain Technology Firm
Industry: Waste Management
Need
System Selection & Implementation in Waste Management
A rapidly expanding outsourced waste management company had outgrown its accounts payable automation tool. With a modest-sized IT team, they needed expert help with greater depth and engineering to better handle their growth requirements.
Challenge
Tech service provider to ingrate their CRM with their AP tool
With an IT team of less than 10 people, the VP of Tech asked BluWave for help finding a service provider that could better integrate their CRM with their AP tool. As business continued to boom, they weren’t able to keep up with the transactions and needed guidance on not only getting the most out of the tools in place, but finding something more powerful for the future.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
The very next day, we connected them with four experienced service providers that have done excellent work for other independent and portfolio companies, respectively. They landed on their top choice – a proven system architecture firm that understands their industry – and we continued to support the company by monitoring the service provider until the project was finished, and beyond.
Result
Connected with a best-in-class IT firm
The IT firm helped the portco reorganize its systems internally, better equipping them to select and implement a new AP automation tool. They were able to better integrate with their ERP and manage ever-increasing transactions more efficiently.
The work product we have seen is very good, both for documentation and quality of expected outputs.
They stayed involved from the discovery phase on through implementation.
The changes all look very good and were completed faster than expected. Additional input on changes were well received and follow up has occurred quickly.
-Vice President of Technology at the Company
How To Analyze Sales Data: Tools, Examples, KPIs
What is Sales Data?
Knowing how to analyze sales data is a valuable skill that can be used to improve sales results. By tracking and analyzing sales data – concrete information about how your products or services are selling – you can identify trends, patterns and opportunities that can help you close more deals and increase revenue.
For example, you might see that your sales cycle is longer for certain types of customers. This could be because you need to do more research on them or because they are more difficult to close. Once you know this, you can take steps to improve your process for these types of customers.
Having this information is a great way to increase sales effectiveness and training. The more actionable data your team has, the better set up for success they’ll be.
An experienced third party that specializes in sales effectiveness and training within your specific industry can be a great resource for these situations.
To help you get a better understanding of your situation, let’s talk about the importance of analyzing sales data, how to do it and what steps you can take to improve your business’s process. Whether you’re at a private equity firm, a portfolio company, or a private or public company, you’ll benefit from being equipped with this overview.
READ MORE: Sales Process Workflow: Stages, Examples for Businesses
Types of Sales Data
There are many different types of sales data that you can track. Here some of the most common statistics:
- Leads: Potential customers who have shown interest in your product or service.
- Opportunities: Sales prospects that have progressed beyond the lead stage and are being actively pursued.
- Deals: Closed sales that have been won.
- Revenue: Total amount of money generated from sales.
- Customer satisfaction: Degree to which customers are satisfied with your product or service.
- Sales cycle length: Amount of time it takes from the first contact with a lead to closing the sale.
- Average deal size: Average dollar amount of each sale.
- Sales team productivity: Efficiency and effectiveness of the sales team in generating revenue.
- Sales team turnover: Rate at which sales team members leave the organization and need to be replaced.
READ MORE: Why Hire an Interim CFO?
How to Track Sales Data
Two common ways to track sales data are Customer Relationship Management systems and spreadsheet. The most important thing is to choose a method that works for you and your team.
As your company grows – or aspires to grow – a powerful CRM such as Salesforce or Hubspot will be a must. If you’re reading this article, you probably already have a CRM in place.
These platforms provide comprehensive tools for managing sales data, including tracking leads, opportunities, deals and customer interactions. You can easily input, store and retrieve data in a centralized location, making it convenient to extract meaningful insights.
A spreadsheet is probably only a good option for companies that are just starting out and have small sales teams. Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets offer basic functionality for organizing and analyzing sales data.
They allow you to create custom columns and rows to input sales data, and you can use formulas and formatting options to calculate totals, averages and other key metrics. While spreadsheets may lack the advanced features of a CRM, they can be a cost-effective solution for businesses with limited resources.
Regardless of the method you choose, it’s essential to establish a consistent and structured approach. This includes defining clear data entry processes, setting up regular data updates and implementing data quality checks.
It’s also important to define and track relevant sales metrics that align with your business goals, such as those mentioned in the previous section.
How to Analyze Sales Data
Analyzing sales data is a crucial step in understanding the performance of your business and identifying areas for improvement. One effective approach is to utilize various visualization tools such as charts, graphs and tables to represent your data in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand manner.
For instance, you could create a line chart to track the monthly trend of leads generated, allowing you to quickly identify patterns. If you notice a decline in the number of leads over time, you can take proactive measures to address the issue. For instance, you could revamp your marketing strategies, optimize your website for better lead capture or invest in targeted advertising campaigns to boost lead generation.
In addition to visualizing data, statistical analysis can provide valuable insights into sales performance. For example, you could conduct regression analysis to identify the key drivers of sales, such as the impact of pricing, discounts or promotions on sales volume.
By analyzing the statistical significance of these factors, you can make data-driven decisions.
It’s also important to compare sales data across different time periods, geographical regions or customer segments to identify any variations or patterns. Sales may be down from Q4 to Q1, for example, but up year-over-year.
If Q4 is traditionally your strongest quarter, there may be no need for concern. In fact, it’s probably worth celebrating the increase from the same period in the previous year.
Getting more granular, if you notice that sales tend to dip during certain months, you can strategize accordingly, such as by offering special promotions during those periods.
This information and more can help you tailor your sales strategies to better meet the needs and preferences of different customer segments or regions.
READ MORE: Sales Pipeline Funnel: Methodology, Process for Businesses
How to Use Sales Data to Make Decisions
Once you’ve analyzed your sales data, you can use it to make decisions about your strategy. For instance, if you observe that a specific product or service is underperforming, you may consider discontinuing it or revising your marketing approach.
On the other hand, if you identify a product or service that is performing exceptionally well, you may want to allocate more resources towards its promotion or expansion.
You can also use sales data to make decisions about your sales team. By analyzing individual sales performance data, you may identify trends or patterns that highlight areas for improvement.
For example, if a particular salesperson consistently struggles with closing deals, you may consider providing them with additional training or coaching to enhance their skills. Alternatively, you may identify high-performing sales team members and recognize their achievements to motivate the rest of the team.
How to Share Sales Data with Your Team
Sales data is not just for you. It’s also important to share your data with your sales team so that they can use it to improve their performance.
There are various ways to do this. For instance, you can create a shared spreadsheet or database that is accessible to all team members, allowing them to view and analyze data in real-time. This promotes transparency and fosters collaboration, as team members can collectively track progress, identify opportunities and take appropriate actions.
Another option is to send out regular reports that summarize key sales metrics and performance indicators (KPIs, or OKRs) to your team. These reports can be delivered via email, shared on a team communication platform or posted on a shared drive for easy access.
In addition, holding regular sales meetings or performance reviews where sales data is discussed and analyzed can provide opportunities for team members to provide input, share insights and collectively brainstorm improvement strategies.
It’s essential that the sales data shared with your team is presented in a clear and understandable manner, with relevant context and insights provided. This can help team members interpret the data correctly and use it to make informed decisions, set realistic goals and take actions that can positively impact performance.
READ MORE: How To Raise Prices Strategically with Sales Team Buy-In
Using sales data to improve your results is a continuous process. Perhaps this level of detail is new to your business, or maybe you’re unsure how to scale your existing strategy.
You might even be trying all these things and still not seeing the progress you expect.
It might be time to bring in an expertly vetted service provider that knows your industry inside-out and can equip your sales team and its leaders to reach the next level.
Whether you’re selling physical products, software, services or anything else that’s core to your business, the BluWave-grade sales effectiveness firms and consultants are on standby to help.
We maintain a close relationship with each and everyone one of the resources that make up our invite-only network, which means we know the best match for you before you ever contact our research and operations team.
Contact us today to lay out the challenges you’re facing to properly leverage sales data and we’ll connect you to two of three niche-specific matches in less than 24 hours.
Offshoring Experts Sought To Save Time, Lower Portco’s Operation Costs
Service Area: Offshoring
Client Type: Lower-Middle Market Private Equity Firm
Service Provider Type: Business Process Outsourcing – Offshoring
Industry: Human Capital
Need
Business Process Outsourcing – Offshoring
PE firm sought offshore assistance with manual tasks to increase efficiency, lower costs and focus on higher order.
Challenge
Finding an offshore partner to free up resources
The PE firm sought an entity that could get them as close as possible to a turnkey finished product for several daily manual tasks performed by one of their human-capital focused portcos. Many of their work streams were labor-intensive, and the right offshoring partner would help them free up those resources to focus on higher order while lowering costs.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
After the initial scoping call to understand the PE firm’s specific needs, we reached to a pair of exact-fit resources that we knew would be great matches for this project. The firm evaluated them both and engaged with a BluWave-grade service provider that has completed multiple successful projects for other PE firms.
Result
Lowered operation costs and freed up resources
We connected the private equity firm to a trusted, proven service provider that specializes in offshoring. They tapped into their network in high-growth emerging cities, allowing the firm to lower its operations costs and connect with tenured expertise in a less competitive environment. The manual processes were offshored allowing the PE firm to reinvest the time and money it saved its portco.
Tech Stacks of Companies: How To Choose
What is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack is a set of software tools and programming languages that serves as the foundation of any technology project, including websites, desktop software and apps.
It’s also the backbone of a project and can determine its performance, scalability and maintenance in the long run. Selecting the right one can help developers streamline their work, speed up the development process and provide a better user experience.
CASE STUDY: Transforming Big Data into Actionable Insights for Legal Services
Tech Stacks of Companies: Examples
- The LAMP Stack is a widely used open-source web development stack that is suitable for creating dynamic websites. It comprises Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, where Linux is the operating system, Apache is the web server software, MySQL is the database management system and PHP is the programming language used to create dynamic web pages.
- MEAN Stack is a comprehensive JavaScript framework that is widely used to create dynamic web applications. It comprises MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js. MongoDB serves as the NoSQL database management system, Express.js is a web application framework used with Node.js, Angular is the front-end JavaScript framework that enables the creation of dynamic web pages and Node.js provides the back-end JavaScript runtime environment.
- Another JavaScript framework that is commonly used for creating web applications that support real-time updates is the MERN Stack. It comprises MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. MongoDB serves as the NoSQL database management system, Express.js is a web application framework used with Node.js, React is the front-end JavaScript library used for building user interfaces and Node.js provides the back-end JavaScript runtime environment.
- Ruby on Rails is a well-known web development framework that utilizes the Ruby programming language. It is a preferred choice for startups because of its user-friendly interface and straightforwardness. Ruby on Rails follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and emphasizes convention over configuration.
- The .NET Stack is a Microsoft technology stack that includes tools such as C#, ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is widely used for creating enterprise-level web applications. C# is an object-oriented programming language that helps develop Windows desktop applications and ASP.NET is a web application framework used for creating dynamic web pages.
- Django Stack is a Python web development framework that is widely used for creating scalable and secure web applications. Django follows the Model-View-Template (MVT) architectural pattern and incorporates an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) layer that enables developers to interact with databases using Python code.
- The iOS Stack is a comprehensive stack of tools that includes Xcode, Swift, and Objective-C and is widely used for creating iOS mobile applications. Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) used to develop iOS apps, Swift is a programming language developed by Apple specifically for iOS app development and Objective-C was previously used to develop iOS apps before Swift was introduced.
- The Android Stack is another comprehensive stack of tools that includes Android Studio, Java, and Kotlin and is widely used for developing Android mobile applications. Android Studio is an IDE used to develop Android apps, Java is an object-oriented programming language that is used for building Android apps and Kotlin was introduced by Google as an alternative to Java for Android app development.
How To Choose the Right Tech Stack
Choosing the right tech stack is a critical decision for private equity firms. The right PE technology stack should be a cohesive system that enables fund managers to source deals, manage relationships with limited partners and portfolio companies, and close more deals.
A firm with the right technology solutions in place can work smarter and faster, deliver higher-margin services and ultimately increase profitability. For private equity firms, the technology stack should be viewed as an investment and a way to stay ahead of the competition.
READ MORE: The Power of AI, Data Analytics in IT Due Diligence
There are many factors that go into choosing the technology stack, but here are some of the more important ones:
- Out-of-the-box solutions: These are pre-built software solutions that can be used to solve common problems. They can save time and money by reducing the need for custom development. Examples include WordPress, Shopify and Salesforce.
- Integration with third-party solutions: This refers to the ability of a tech stack to work with other software solutions. It’s important to choose a tech stack that can easily integrate with other tools you may need in the future. Examples include Zapier, Segment and Twilio.
- Developer availability: This refers to the availability of developers who are skilled in a particular tech stack. It’s important to choose a tech stack that has a large pool of developers available so that you can find the right talent for your project.
- Documentation: This refers to the quality and quantity of documentation available for a particular tech stack. Good documentation can help developers get up to speed quickly and reduce the time needed for troubleshooting. Examples include React documentation and Django documentation.
- Easy to test: This refers to how easy it is to test code written in a particular tech stack. A good tech stack should have testing tools built-in or have easy-to-use testing frameworks available. Examples include Jest for React and Pytest for Python.
READ MORE: Data Warehouse Types: How To Choose the Right One
If any of this sounds like unfamiliar territory (and even if it doesn’t), it may be a good reason to look for expert help.
There are experienced, proven service providers out there who know industry-specific tech stack requirements inside-out and can help your business make the best decisions every step of the way.
READ MORE: How To Extract Data from ERP Systems
Fortunately, you don’t have to waste time searching for them. Hundreds of PE firms and private and public companies tap into the Business Builders’ Network for this exact reason.
Not only will you be connected in less than one business day, but we’ll only provide the exact-fit resources that are experienced in your particular industry.
Contact out research and operations team to get started with your firm’s or company’s tech stack.
Charlie Gifford, New Heritage, Getting to Yes Through Differentiation in Private Equity
List-Build Expert Needed To Grow Portco Contacts
Service Area: List Builds
Client Type: Upper-Middle Market Private Equity Firm
Service Provider Type: Business Process Outsourcing Firm
Industry: Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals
Need
Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals List Building Expert
A PE-firm’s portcos were wasting precious time manually building lists by going from website to website and scraping LinkedIn. They needed an experienced third-party resource that could create a contact map with shared customers across multiple businesses.
Challenge
Grow Portco Contacts
Multiple portcos were using different systems to work with many of the same customers in the life sciences industry. The PE firm wanted to not only identify overlap and consolidate efforts, but expand their database faster.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
After a Vice President at the PE firm emailed us, we immediately got on a call to scope the specific outsourcing need. Armed with a better understanding of the situation, we provided for the client multiple industry-specific BPO shops that specialize in list builds.
Result
Connected a best-fit service provider
The firm quickly identified the best fit among the short-list of options we presented, and engaged them to build and consolidate their contacts across multiple portcos.
The service provider did great work. We will be using them again if something comes up. Ten out of 10 quality and service.
-Vice President, PE Firm
Operating Partners Forum: Bank Collapses, Technology Best Practices
How has the current economic situation – i.e. the 2023 bank collapses – affected collaboration between operating partners, portfolio support and deal teams? What are private equity firms’ latest technology best practices around data & analytics, cybersecurity and AI?
These were the hot topics in the latest BluWave-hosted PE Operating Partners’ forum March 21.
Jeff Steinhorn of Gridiron Capital LLC, Anthony Di Leva of Marlin Equity Partners, and Pejman Pourmousa of Sumeru Equity Partners joined our own Rena Frackt Zimmerman as panelists for the virtual event.
SIGN UP for the next Operating Partners Forum
Here are some highlights of what was discussed.
SVB Bank Crisis: What Will Happen Next and How Private Equity Will Reframe Crisis into Opportunity
Centralized Data Management: Business Intelligence & Analytics
What is Centralized Data in Business?
Centralized data in business analytics involves consolidating information from across an organization into a single system for easier analysis.
“This aspect of business intelligence and analytics is important because it gives companies visibility into KPIs at a high level,” says Brandon John, BluWave’s Service Provider Relationship Manager.
The consolidation usually happens in something called a data warehouse.
Read More:What Are the Different Data Warehouse Types?
Business intelligence practices like centralization are becoming more and more important to businesses, whether that mean private equity, portcos or private and public companies.
According to our most recent quarterly report, we saw “broad-scale adoption of data quality and visualization endeavors and emergent efforts in higher level analytics and AI.”
Let’s take a closer look at what data centralization can do for your business.
Read More: What is Business Intelligence Automation?
Benefits of Data Centralization
Increased Visibility and Transparency
Centralized data provides a single source of truth so leadership can make faster, more accurate business decisions.
Early Detection of Issues
Centralized data allows businesses to identify problems sooner before they become bigger issues.
More Consistency
Different departments often have the same definitions and metrics for things like active users and sales. By centralizing data, you can eliminate confusion at the leadership level.
Holistic View of Customer Journey
Centralized data from marketing, sales and customer service systems provide a complete picture of the customer experience.
Advanced Capabilities
It is easier to analyze data and find insights when all of the relevant data is in one place. Businesses can more easily see correlations across different data sets.
Increased Efficiency
Employees don’t have to spend time aggregating data from different systems. Everything is available in a single source.
Improved Trust
There is confidence that the data and reports are accurate and consistent since there is only one version of the truth.
Continue reading “Centralized Data Management: Business Intelligence & Analytics”In the Know: Essential, Accessible Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is no longer something only the biggest, wealthiest companies can afford.
Not only are these services within reach for businesses of all sizes – from enterprise organizations to lower middle market companies – but they’re also essential.
Learn about common improvement areas all businesses can implement to accelerate digital transformation efforts.
- Business leaders, including operations partners at private equity firms, C-level executives and functional leads are evaluating the digital capabilities and infrastructure in their companies to identify areas for improvement
- Simple improvements to workflows or procedures can significantly trim manual tasks and optimize human capital during economic uncertainty
- “No-regret” moves such as the following can accelerate change in a targeted, cost-effective way:
- Adopting cloud and SaaS solutions
- Improving cybersecurity
- Enhancing website capabilities with tools like chatbots
- Automating order processing and inventory management
Pricing Consultants: Hire an Expert
What Do Pricing Consultants Do?
Pricing consultants help businesses maximize profits based on researching trends, competitors, customer behavior and more. The goal is to maintain high demand and revenue generation without sacrificing quality, loyalty or perception.
Setting the right price for a product or service is a key factor in maximizing profit margin. It can unlock substantial additional revenue when done correctly.
In fact, demand for pricing strategy resources continues to increase in this high-inflation economy. It’s often among the most-sought resources in the BluWave network.
If you want to hire a pricing expert, here’s what you should look for during your evaluation.
READ MORE: How To Raise Prices Strategically with Sales Team Buy-In
Set Price
How consultants set prices depends on many factors, such as the type of product or service, market conditions, customer segments and business goals. That’s why it’s so important to hire someone who will take the time to intimately understand your organization and its competitors.
By choosing the “right price,” these consultants help maximize a business’s ROI by protecting profit margins while maximizing revenue and demand.
Pricing consultants may use a number of different high-level strategies: cost-plus pricing; value-based pricing; dynamic pricing; promotional pricing; penetration pricing; skimming pricing.
Pricing, however, is not a one-time exercise. They must be constantly assessed and adjusted based on performance. Consultants work closely with their clients to understand their objectives and constraints and develop a pricing strategy that supports them.
They help businesses choose the “right price” that aligns with the overall business strategy, marketing plan and sales goals to achieve maximum ROI.
Pricing Market Research
When choosing a pricing consultant, finding someone who thoroughly researches the market before making recommendations is essential. Pricing consultants use various methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, experiments, data analysis, and more to gain customer and market insights. This establishes a solid foundation for an effective strategy.
In addition to customer and market insights, pricing consultants also consider production, distribution and other operational costs to develop a strategy that ensures profitability.
Pricing consultants also analyze competitors’ strategies to identify opportunities and potential threats. This analysis includes not only their product or service prices, but also their promotions, discounts and other tactics.
To measure price sensitivity, consultants may use techniques such as conjoint analysis or price elasticity testing. This helps them determine how price changes may affect customer demand. They also use digital tools such as web analytics, social listening and sentiment analysis to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences.
All this market research can help validate a new product or service, identify customer value drivers, measure price sensitivity, segment customers by willingness to pay, benchmark competitors’ prices and more.
Target Pricing Strategy
After conducting market research and analyzing customer insights, pricing consultants typically use a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to create a pricing strategy that meets their clients’ goals. This includes:
- Segmenting customers: Based on their willingness to pay, customer segments are created to help determine the optimal pricing strategy. This involves identifying the different types of customers, their preferences and their willingness to pay for a particular product or service.
- Identifying value drivers: Consultants work with their clients to identify the key value drivers for their products or services. This involves understanding what features or benefits are most important to customers and how they affect their willingness to pay.
- Developing pricing structures: After identifying customer segments and value drivers, consultants develop pricing structures that align with their clients’ business goals. This may involve creating different pricing tiers or packages that offer different levels of benefits or features.
- Conducting sensitivity analysis: For an optimal pricing strategy, consultants conduct sensitivity analysis to understand how changes in pricing may affect demand and revenue.
- Developing measurement tools: Pricing consultants also develop measurement tools to monitor the performance of the pricing strategy over time. This includes setting up metrics and analytics to track sales, revenue, profit margins and customer satisfaction.
By using a combination of market research, quantitative analysis, and pricing strategies, pricing consultants help businesses maximize ROI and growth.
READ MORE: Industrial Pricing: Strategies for Manufacturing Businesses
Customer Analysis
To better understand customer behavior and preferences, pricing consultants use a range of techniques to gather insights:
- Key decision factors: One of the first steps in understanding a customer base is defining what motivates them. This involves identifying the main drivers of customer behavior, such as price, quality, brand reputation or convenience.
Research techniques such as surveys, focus groups and data analysis can all be used to understand what influences purchasing decisions. - Willingness to pay: This concept helps businesses determine the optimal price point for their products or services.
Essentially, willingness to pay is a measure of how much customers are willing to spend on a particular product or service based on factors such as perceived value, quality and market competition. - Preferences: Customer needs vary from market to market. For example, pricing consultants may work to reduce churn for a SaaS organization by understanding customers’ needs, what they value and how they make choices. Success is measured by an increase in adoption and revenue.
- Offer options: Offering choices with good-better-best options and bundles that meet varying needs, use cases and budgets can reveal a lot about a customer. KPIs here include customer adoption and employing Give-Gets to protect price/value alignment.
- Perception of discounts: It’s also important to understand how customers perceive discounts and how they influence purchasing decisions. This information is also used to inform pricing strategies that maximize revenue while maintaining loyalty.
A pricing expert will know when and how to use each of these tactics to develop the deepest understanding of the customer base for your particular industry.
READ MORE: Hire an Interim CFO
Some businesses never realize the potential of their products or services because they’re not charging the right price.
By blindly setting prices without conducting proper diligence, you’re leaving money on the table. Depending on the size of your business, this could mean millions of dollars.
Fortunately, there’s a roster of expertly vetted price consultants ready for you to hire from within the BluWave Business Builders’ Network.
We have thoroughly evaluated each and every pricing resource that’s been invited into our network so that you can move forward with confidence. These niche-specific resources have invaluable experience helping companies like yours optimize prices.
Whether you’re a PE firm working with a portco, or a private or public company that wants to accelerate revenue growth, we already have the right service provider for you.
Contact our research and operations team to get connected with two or three best-fit options in less than one business day.