The paradigm shifts that will help startups up their game

The growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had been a hyped-up story in the country, with 99.6 percent of all registered businesses comprising of these startups. While there is no guaranteed immediate success during their first year of operation, these up-and-coming companies can still win in the competitive market—especially when they learn to grasp the different paradigm shifts needed in building a strong business foundation.

In the Philippines, most SMEs are going beyond survival, backing themselves with the most traditional means of running the business to avoid costly technological investments. However, being successful in the ever-growing market means being able to understand the fundamental changes to help businesses not only thrive but also stay on top of the competition.

This is where the three major paradigm shifts come in—to ensure steady growth, business owners need to have a complete understanding of their business from their methodologies up to the solutions they use to win customer loyalty.

Selling as a science

In the market, systematic procedures are being followed to achieve goals, which means that selling is more than art—it is a science. Experts explain that this paradigm shift is deeply anchored on the premise that “what you can’t manage, you can’t measure; and what you can’t measure, you can’t improve.”

What makes selling as an art different from a science is that, selling as an art means maximizing the potentials that a team currently has and leveraging individual strengths. This involves emotional intelligence training, where companies give more importance to improving the salesperson’s interpersonal skills, empathy, and self-awareness.

On the other hand, selling as a science means that sales can be increased by growing the pool of performers with the deployment of consistent processes. This primarily involves sales technology training where companies opt to use CRM solutions and other sales enablement tools, processes that are often scalable.

Behavior triumphs attitude

After considering the first paradigm shift, the next fundamental approach that business owners need to know is why behavior triumphs attitude.

Attitude towards a goal is important. However, attitudes are like words and behaviors are like actions. In which case, actions speak louder than words. A salesperson’s attitude towards providing excellent business solutions aligns with the way he behaves. When he talks about promises, he should also act to make it real. There is always a need to diligently execute the planned strategies towards achieving better business outcomes.

For example, a good salesperson is always paying attention to the concerns of his customers. To better boost the enhancements of products and services, he is no less expected to incorporate his customer’s needs and long-term goals. By listening closely to the needs of the customers, he will be more able to take actionable strategies rather than spending time promising.

Competency over knowledge

The last paradigm shift involves why competency is more valued than knowledge. Knowledge is just in the mind; it’s about what a businessman thinks about. On the other hand, competency is about applying that knowledge; it’s what businessmen can do to turn the knowledge and experience he acquired in years into more actionable plans.

Competency is also about choosing the right solutions to achieve business goals. It focuses on how a business owner makes sense of what he knows. Ideas and plans can only take effect once these are smartly applied to the customer’s operations. Maximizing the right knowledge to stay on top of the competition in the market truly makes the difference.

While these paradigm shifts are put into consideration, Jennifer Ligones—President and CEO of Third Pillar Business Applications, Inc., emphasizes that another factor contributes to ensuring that the business stays on a competitive level—that is by ensuring an effective customer relationship management platform.

“The relationships you build with your customers are far more valuable when aiming for a sustainable growth. This is why businesses that put a customer-centric approach at their core take a lead in the industry: they create scalable solutions for their customers not only to keep them coming back but also to boost sales,” Ligones emphasized.

With this, Third Pillar—an information technology consultancy company dedicated to providing best-in-class services and solutions—engaged in a strategic partnership with Salesforce to help provide best-in-class CRM solutions to its customers.

“These paradigm shifts, when complemented with the right business solution like a CRM, can help build a stronger foundation for up-and-rising companies,” Ligones said.

Salesforce’s CRM platform is a smart strategy to maximize a company’s profitability by safeguarding its relationship with its customers. Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM solution that eliminates expensive setup and maintenance costs. It may also be utilized using different devices ranging from smartphones, tablets or laptops for added convenience. It also tracks all customer interactions—from calls, emails, meetings, presentations up to closing the deal.

Moreover, the core CRM platform can also be customized depending on the needs of the company—from Salesforce’s full range of tools to open-app ecosystem of prebuilt applications.

“It lets you work on one platform where everything works systematically. With a unified customer view, a businessman can have access to all the data businesses need to optimize his company’s performance for better strategic planning to win more customers and partners and keep them,” Ligones emphasized. “Ultimately, this improves the way an entrepreneur runs his organization.”

A proven track record

The Third Pillar offers proven premium solutions for all your business needs. Technology is central to an organization’s success, however, Third Pillar also believes that expertise and industry experience are crucial to any project’s success.

“With our partnership with other smart alliances, Third Pillar’s core competencies are anchored on helping organizations become more innovative, cost-effective, and revenue-earning,” Ligones said.

Ligones concluded, “Third Pillar will always explore new ventures to help address the challenges that may come with business success. This includes the company’s partnership with Salesforce for its CRM solution. Ultimately, we will continue to eye on business development to help SMEs compete in the market—we will equip them with the latest technologies that are at par with international standards. Every Filipino start-up business deserves this.”

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