Business continuity refers to an organization's ability to maintain critical functions during and after unexpected events, such as natural disasters, cyber attacks, or supply chain disruptions. It involves proactive and reactive planning to prevent operational interruptions and ensure a swift return to normalcy when disruptions occur.
Understanding the key components of business continuity is crucial for effective planning and management. Three main aspects to consider are:
To ensure continuity, organizations should follow these steps:
Organizations face several common challenges when it comes to business continuity, including security breaches, natural disasters, power outages, equipment failures, and sudden staff departures. Overcoming these challenges requires a proactive approach and strategic planning.
Some effective strategies to address these challenges include conducting a business impact analysis to evaluate the importance of different functions, ensuring systems and processes are resilient and can withstand disruptions, and having contingency plans in place for unforeseen events. By implementing these strategies, organizations can maintain critical functions, recover from interruptions more quickly, and minimize the risk of financial, personal, and reputational loss.
Adopting best practices in business continuity can help organizations maintain critical functions and recover from disruptions more effectively. Some of these practices include:
Precision targeting is a marketing strategy that uses data to identify and reach a highly specific audience most likely to convert.
Customer retention refers to the strategies and activities a company uses to prevent customer churn and encourage them to continue buying.
Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.
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Demand capture is the strategy of engaging potential customers who are already actively looking for a solution that your company provides.
Page views count the total number of times a page on your website is loaded. This metric is a key indicator of your site's overall traffic.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication method that lets you specify which mail servers can send emails on behalf of your domain.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.
Regression analysis is a statistical method for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables.
A nurture campaign is a series of automated messages designed to build relationships with potential customers and guide them toward a purchase.
Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.
Cold calling is a sales technique where reps contact potential customers who have had no prior interaction with their company or product.
“End of Quarter” (EOQ) refers to the final weeks of a business quarter when sales teams rush to meet quotas, often leading to a flurry of deals.
A sales quota is a time-bound sales goal for a rep or team, measured in revenue or units sold, to be met within a specific period.
Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the percentage of people who click on a specific link, ad, or call-to-action.
Data mining is the process of discovering patterns, trends, and useful information from large datasets to make better business decisions.
Sales prospecting techniques are methods used by sales teams to identify, contact, and qualify potential customers, also known as prospects.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.
Customer Success is a business strategy focused on proactively helping customers achieve their goals with your product or service.
Data security protects digital information from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft throughout its entire lifecycle.
CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.
Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.
The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, posits that 80% of results come from just 20% of the effort. It's a key concept for prioritization.
AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.
A headless CMS is a back-end content repository that delivers content via API to any front-end, decoupling the content from its presentation layer.
A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.
"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.
Edge locations are globally distributed data centers that cache content close to users, reducing latency and delivering web content much faster.
The self-service SaaS model allows customers to independently sign up, use, and manage a product without any direct help from the company.
A marketing budget breakdown is a detailed plan that allocates your total marketing funds across various channels, campaigns, and activities.
Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.
Contract management is the process of creating, executing, and analyzing contracts to maximize performance and minimize financial risk.
Sales Engineers blend deep technical knowledge with sales acumen, demonstrating a product's value and solving customer problems to drive revenue.
A consumer is an individual or entity that buys products or services for personal use, not for resale. They are the final user in a supply chain.
Average Customer Life is the average time someone remains a customer. It's a key metric for predicting revenue and measuring customer loyalty.
A trusted advisor is an expert who builds a deep client relationship by consistently prioritizing their best interests over any single transaction.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
Social selling is the art of using social media to find, connect with, build relationships with, and nurture sales prospects.
Voice search optimization is the process of optimizing your content, SEO, and online listings to appear in and rank for voice-based searches.
Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the total amount a company spends to keep an existing customer over a certain period of time.
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is the ideal order quantity a company should purchase to minimize its total inventory-related costs.
Churn, also known as customer attrition, is the rate at which customers stop doing business with a company over a given period.
Discount strategies are pricing tactics used to attract customers and boost sales by temporarily reducing the price of products or services.
Sales intelligence is technology that gathers and analyzes data to help salespeople find and understand prospects and existing clients.
Email deliverability is the ability for your emails to successfully land in your recipients' inboxes instead of their spam folders.
SFDC stands for Salesforce Dot Com, a popular cloud-based CRM platform that helps companies manage their customer interactions and data.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a company is achieving its key business objectives.
Cold calling is a sales tactic where reps contact potential customers by phone who haven't previously expressed interest in their product or service.
Predictive Customer Lifetime Value (pCLV) is a forecast of the total net profit a single customer is expected to generate for your business.
Serverless computing is a cloud model where the provider manages servers, so developers can focus on code without worrying about infrastructure.
Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how a system behaves under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.
A RESTful API is a web service interface that uses HTTP requests to access and use data, adhering to the constraints of REST architecture.
Loss aversion is our tendency to feel the sting of a loss more acutely than the pleasure of an equivalent gain.
Lead response time is the duration between a potential customer showing interest and your team's first point of contact with them.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the predictable income a company expects to receive from its customers over a one-year period.
A Statement of Work (SoW) is a document that outlines a project's scope, deliverables, and timeline. It acts as a contract between parties.
Copyright compliance is adhering to laws that protect creative works. It involves legally using content by obtaining permission or licenses.
The FAB technique is a sales framework connecting product features to advantages and then to the specific benefits for the customer.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
A warm email is a message sent to a prospect with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact or a prior interaction.
Programmatic display campaigns use automation to buy and sell digital ad space in real-time, targeting specific audiences across the web.
A System of Record (SoR) is the authoritative data source for a specific type of data. It acts as the single source of truth for an organization.
A sales kickoff (SKO) is an annual event for a sales team to celebrate wins, align on goals, and get motivated for the upcoming year.
Tokenization is the process of breaking down text into smaller units called tokens, such as words or characters, for AI to process.
Ad-hoc reporting is the creation of one-off reports to answer specific business questions as they arise, providing instant, targeted insights.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based model where users subscribe to an application and access it over the internet.
AppExchange is Salesforce's cloud marketplace, offering a vast ecosystem of apps and expert services to extend Salesforce functionality.
Deal closing is the final step in a sales cycle. It's when a prospect signs a contract and officially converts into a paying customer.
Email verification is the process of confirming that an email address is valid and deliverable, which helps improve campaign performance.
Customer experience (CX) is a customer's total perception of your business, based on every interaction across the entire customer lifecycle.
Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) measures the mean annual growth of an investment over a specified period of time longer than one year.
Quality Assurance (QA) is the systematic process of ensuring a product or service meets specified quality standards from development to delivery.
WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that allows you to easily create, manage, and publish websites and blogs.
Direct mail is a marketing method where businesses send physical promotional materials directly to potential customers' mailboxes.
Revenue Operations KPIs are quantifiable metrics that track the performance, efficiency, and health of a company's revenue-generating engine.
Video email involves embedding a short video directly into an email. This lets recipients watch your message without leaving their inbox.
User Experience (UX) refers to a person's overall feelings and perceptions while interacting with a product, system, or service.
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.
Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.
API security is the practice of protecting application programming interfaces from attacks, preventing data breaches and unauthorized access.
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has shown interest based on marketing efforts but isn't yet ready for a sales conversation.
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An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and exchange information.
Time on site, or session duration, is a key web metric that tracks the total time a visitor spends on your website during a single visit.
A digital strategy outlines how your business will use online channels, data, and technology to achieve its goals and connect with customers.
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired goal, like a purchase or sign-up, out of the total number of visitors.
Account-based advertising is a hyper-focused B2B strategy that targets key accounts with personalized ads across multiple channels.
Average Order Value (AOV) tracks the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order on your website or mobile app.
A sales cycle is the series of steps a company takes to close a new customer. It starts with prospecting and ends with a signed deal.
Order management is the end-to-end process of tracking customer orders from placement to fulfillment, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is an individual with profound knowledge and authority in a particular area, topic, or industry.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Drupal is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) for building websites and applications. It's known for its robust flexibility.
Multi-touch attribution is a marketing analytics method that credits multiple touchpoints on the customer journey for a conversion.
Objection handling in sales is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns about a product or service to move the deal forward.
Buying criteria are the specific requirements and standards a customer uses to evaluate products or services before making a decision.
Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.
Retargeting marketing is a digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand online.