It’s the holiday season, and this year is looking like one to remember. Thanks to supply-chain issues, popular items were out of stock or delayed before the shopping season even began. I bought a fancy scarf online in October, thinking I was going to beat the rush. Within a week, I had a backorder email. Two weeks later, no word—until about a month had passed, and my order was finally canceled.

There’s a lot of debate as to what makes a business “successful.” Is it money? Is it household-name branding? Is it longevity? All may seem like markers of a successful company to the general public. But what makes a business succcessful in the eyes of other businesses? A soaring sales growth rate.

We’re well into the final quarter of 2021, and that means it’s time for the fiscal year to wrap up, year-end statistics to flood in, and 2022 strategizing to begin. Just like last year, though, sales are in a unique place as buyers continue to work remotely, online sales increase, and the pandemic leaves companies on edge. Despite everything, your company’s goal for the coming year is probably the same as always: to grow and increase sales revenue.

Knowing whether or not your company is making a profit is essential to building a successful business strategy. The real question is: Do you know why your company is or isn’t profitable? This is the essence of the sales mix. Sales mix digs deep into the individual percentages and profits of your products so you can determine what stays, what goes, and what gets an update. Not every product is a best-seller, but that doesn’t mean it can’t hold value for the company.

Backordered for months, the couch Sasha ordered had finally come for delivery. Her doorway was narrow, but she had a plan. Which involved, well, a gymnastics routine of flipping and squeezing the boxed couch. Doorway conquered, she gazed down her mile-long hallway. Deep breath, she thought, and hauled. Sure, she lost two fingernails in the process, but this was a big day. The new couch was here! The one she’d pined for, the one that had taken practically the length of a pregnancy term to arrive.

We’ve all heard the phrase “time is money,” and in the sales world, this axiom resonates loud and true. In every company, sales teams work tirelessly to refine the process of persuading customers to buy faster each year. Time is a valuable parameter to measure, and not only in regards to your sales teams and their productivity.

Every company wants to increase productivity in its sales department—that’s a given. What’s not a given, however, is exactly how your company goes about the process. Sales reps spend hours a day recreating work that shouldn’t have to be recreated.

Over the past two years, the Internet has become our conference room, gym, doctor’s office, personal gathering place—basically, our whole life. With consumers spending more time online than ever before, companies have had to rethink their customer service experience. Businesses need to gain a clear understanding of the type of digital interactions customers want instead of relying on intuition.

Let’s start with the basics: What is a customer touchpoint? To put it simply, a customer touchpoint is any time a consumer interacts with your brand, whether that’s through an employee, a website, an advertisement, or an app. And the experiences consumers have with those touchpoints can shape how they view your company.

A great customer experience features efficient and personalized interactions at each step of the buyer’s journey. But in order to achieve this, companies need a way to quickly analyze customer data and act on it. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report, businesses that leverage customer data see 36-percent faster resolutions and a 79-percent reduction in wait times; they also solve four times the number of customer requests.