Last week Henry Ward from Carta wrote an internal memo to his company about their impending layoffs. Instead of allowing it to leak, Henry got in front of the message and self-published the internal memo on Medium. He framed his actions around the moral conflict of layoffs and the perspective of the shareholders and the employees.
I applaud Henry for publicly sharing his thought process. It’s brave to reveal the hard decisions CEOs have to make trying to appease two sometimes diametrically opposed stakeholders: investors/shareholders versus employees and their families. I’ve been on both ends of this moral debate. It is not easy to lead through such challenges, but it’s adversity that forges true leaders.
I’d like to dive into Henry’s thought process around evaluating what is essential and what is non-essential. He discussed how he first looked into cutting non-essential software. According to the Pew Research, on average employees have 5.8 apps on their work phones. Most employees spend 2.5 hrs per day on their phones for work-related activities, outside of email. 60% of them sleep with their phones. So phones are essential tools for the workforce. So dissecting what is really non-essential is not trivial. I would argue that applications that are not driving towards your mission, should be labeled as non-essential. Most businesses thrive on Customer Engagement, Deal Generation, and Prospecting. These are essential activities that keep a business striking the right balance of new business and caring and nurturing existing customers which leads to more assets under management, more net new premiums, more share of wallet, and more revenue.
Companies purchase (or build) a CRM to manage their customer engagement and pipeline growth. However many CRMS are really being realized merely as systems of record and have not excelled in becoming useful for the field or remote workers. Many try to compress all the bells and whistles from the desktop to the mobile device, instead of optimizing the essential workflow and intuitive UX for deskless sellers. It’s reported that most mobile CRM apps only realize 10-15% adoption that means almost 90% of your licenses per user per month are not being used thus throwing 90% of the company’s money out the window. This is definitely not the time for reckless spending, quite the opposite.
A wholesale investment banker’s primary role is to help advisors or pension consultants find the right investment opportunity for the client -B2B2C. This is especially true with the ongoing volatility in the market.
Wholesalers work for fund companies that actively manage portfolios to meet the needs of multiple parameters such as risk, tilt, ESG, just to name a few. In order to add substantial value, wholesalers need to become advisors in terms of addressing concerns, queries and support, and less about updating pipeline reports over the course of the day. Moreover, managers need transparency into daily activities so as to be able to intervene wherever necessary, especially when facing a lagging sales pipeline. Also, a wholesalers recommendation needs to be thoughtful, add value, and work towards the best interest of the client. They have to act and advise like a fiduciary.
So, how does your current CRM support the wholesaler in updating the pipeline? How does it help the manager with engagement transparency? How does it recommend the next best solution based on suitability or client best interest?
Cost-cutting during these unprecedented times is essential–saving headcount is paramount. However, as you look through your expenses like Henry did, really take the time to evaluate what line items, especially software, is really essential to your business. You’ll need to dive into the real needs of your business and your sales teams.
Investing in applications that deliver value like Customer Engagement, Deal Generation, and Prospecting may in the long run drive the revenue growth you need as you de-invest in large cumbersome solutions that do not deliver the value your teams need and your customers demand.
Schedule a meeting to see how Vymo’s solution can help you with your CRM and software evaluation decisions.
If you have any questions, drop us a note on wfh@getvymo.com. We’ll get back to you 🙂
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About Vymo
Vymo is a mobile-first Personal Sales Assistant that automatically captures data of sales activities, learns from the best sales reps in the organization, and suggests next best actions contextually. Vymo eliminates manual reporting of data into CRM systems, enables managers to make coaching interventions in the moment, and helps leaders plan their business with data-driven insights.
Vymo is used by 100,000 salespeople at over 60 global enterprises such as AXA, AIA, Generali, and Sumitomo, and the top banks in APAC. The company is headquartered in the US and has offices in Singapore, Japan, Australia and India. Vymo has been recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in the CRM space.
