3 Top Benefits of Successful Invoicing in Salesforce
Published: August 19, 2022
Many people involved in the sales cycle often underestimate how important invoicing in Salesforce is. Sometimes seen as the most austere part of customer acquisition and retention, it can be a powerful tool to drive business performance. Give it special attention, and it will become a major differentiating tool, both with respect to your competition and your internal processes.
Invoicing in Salesforce: An essential component of the customer experience
Taking care of the customer experience is not only possible but essential through invoicing in Salesforce. Invoicing in Salesforce: three major concepts can be found there: readability, fluidity and personalization.
To be successful, and therefore efficient, your invoicing must above all be readable! Your customers want to understand quickly what they are paying for, without having to go back and forth with a sales representative or the sales administration. This also requires a clear overview of his situation and an inventory of his current service consumption, for example.
Moreover, focus on fluidity: a clear and fast invoicing in Salesforce guarantees significant time savings for the customer and the best possible activation of his services. Any friction point eliminated at this stage will improve their experience and satisfaction.
Finally, of course, you need to use invoicing as a visible and central element of personalization. At this point, you need to adapt the invoicing and subscription model, but also to manage the payment terms and facilities, the available discounts and other loyalty and reward items.
All these elements contribute to customer consideration and loyalty and become the vector of your brand image as well as the perceived value of your service or product offer.
Invoicing in Salesforce for better customer insights
Obviously, a successful company is a company that knows its customers. The invoicing and management stage generates a large amount of information that is essential to progress towards a better understanding of your portfolio.
Indeed, many KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are then visible, such as the Customer Lifetime Value, which determines what your customers bring to your company. It is mainly measured through figures such as the average basket, the purchase frequency and the retention rate.
Other indicators, in the medium or long term, are also important. For example, your invoicing, if it is clear and well-integrated with your CRM ( Salesforce invoicing ) or sales management software, will allow you to identify purchasing or payment preferences.
These different indicators analyzed and reported through adapted dashboards, allow you to identify the most profitable customers. They also provide you with decision-making and/or prioritization elements according to the length of the sales or payment cycles and a refined segmentation of your portfolio, including identifying “good” or “bad” payers. This increased knowledge will not only facilitate a better customer experience, but also the optimization of the different company departments involved in the customer lifecycle.
Optimizing and aligning all departments in the company
Invoicing is obviously an important moment in your company’s lifeline: it is an information and a meeting point for most of your departments: sales administration, finance/accounting, sales, marketing, support etc.
As it becomes a particular point of attention and optimization, you give yourself the chance to automate multiple tasks and provide considerable time savings to all the teams involved.
In addition to sales administration, sales will appreciate the ability to focus on retention or upselling with data provided at or after billing and revenue recognition. Finance departments will see their cash management greatly improved. In fact, all departments will be positively impacted thanks to an integrated and 360° view of customers and the possibility of even more efficient performance management, including sales forecasts.
Finally, invoicing in Salesforce and its management will be optimized to rationalize efforts and make everyone more accountable throughout the customer life cycle.
Salesforce Invoicing App: Successful invoicing through direct integration with Salesforce
Ultimately, well thought-out invoicing, especially when it’s well integrated with Salesforce, not only saves time and streamlines processes, but is a key component of the customer experience and knowledge. Through CRM data and KPI aggregation, it makes the day-to-day lives of your customers and teams easier.
If you want to improve your company’s performance through this simple but decisive step, BILLWERK+ will guide you along your transition (see more on the Salesforce AppExchange)!
