Scribd
Upload
164 views20 pages

Sales Force Automation

Sales-force automation involves applying computer technologies to support salespeople and sales management objectives like cultivating customer relationships and improving satisfaction. It evolved from keeping customer info in notebooks to centralized databases accessible on mobile devices, improving productivity and information sharing.

Uploaded by

Yashpal Raghuwanshi Peepri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
164 views20 pages

Sales Force Automation

Sales-force automation involves applying computer technologies to support salespeople and sales management objectives like cultivating customer relationships and improving satisfaction. It evolved from keeping customer info in notebooks to centralized databases accessible on mobile devices, improving productivity and information sharing.

Uploaded by

Yashpal Raghuwanshi Peepri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

Sales-force automation is the application of

computerized technologies to support


salespeople and sales management in the
achievement of their work-related objectives.
 Focus on cultivating customer relationships
and
 Improving customer satisfaction
 Scenario Number One
 Scenario Number Two
 Early 1990’s companies with field sales forces
were faced with tremendous amounts of
customer information.
 Software vendors realized this unmet and
unrecognized need.
 Info about customers was kept in “little black
books” that left with the sales reps.
 Putting account information directly in the
hands of field sales staff.
 Making them responsible for it with the
promise of…..
 Making them more productive.
 Synchronize information with the corporate
client/server database.
 Sales Process/Activity Management
◦ Include a sequence of sales activities
◦ Guide sales reps through each discrete step in the
sales process

Opportunity
Sales Opportunity
Generated Lead Prospect Prospect Solution Order
process Generated allocated contacted qualified identified placed

Sales
activity
 Sales Process/Activity Management (cont)
◦ Offer calendars to assist in the planning of key
customer events
 Proposal presentations
 Product demonstrations
◦ Alarm Reminders
 Signal important tasks
 Generate documents as they are needed
 Make decisions based on the user’s input
 Generate a mailing suggestions
 Sales and Territory Management
◦ Tools that enable sales managers and executives on-
demand access to sales activities
 Before, during and after the order
◦ Enables managers to set up sales teams and link individual
accounts, regions and industries.
◦ Allows tracing of territory assignments and monitor
pipelines and leads for individual territories.
◦ Allows optimization of individual teams
 Contact Management
◦ Deals with organizing and managing data across
and within a company’s client and prospect
organizations.
◦ See p. 84 of the types of questions that can be
answered with this tool.
 Lead Management
◦ Also known as “opportunity management” and “pipeline
management”
◦ Track customer account history
◦ Monitor leads
◦ Generate next steps and
◦ Refine selling efforts online
◦ Allows sales management to automatically distribute client
leads to a field or telemarketing rep based on the re’s
product knowledge or territory
 Configuration Support
◦ Automatically factors in complex customer
attributes and requirements to build a solution
from scratch
◦ Among the companies who may use such tools
 Computer technology vendors
 Appliance manufacturers
 Telephone companies
 Many CRM tools geared to SFA include
functions specific to accessing and
conversing on a range of corporate
documentation to supplement sales efforts
and provide fast data during the heat of a
sale.
 From Client/Server to the Web
◦ SFA functionality now rests on a headquarters Web
server running CRM software
◦ Eliminates the traditional support costs of
managing communications
◦ Resource expenses are less than those needed to
support the old client/server mode.
 From Client/Server to the Web
◦ Simplifies access by allowing a company to
outsource remote access to the ISP
◦ Laptop config and support costs are reduced
◦ It staff now manage and protect critical customer
data in a central location at headquarters
◦ Risk of deleted files, smashed laptops, or lost sales
reps are dramatically reduced.
 SFA Goes Mobile
◦ Support for handheld devices is the next step in the
evolution.
◦ According to the Aberdeen Group, 74 million people will
have access to the Web via wireless technology by the year
2004.
 PDA’s
 Cell phones
 Web Phones
 Two-way pagers
 Tablet PC,
 Etc.
 Benefits of Mobile CRM
◦ Requires much less time than traditional fax or
email
◦ Field staff have access to info and can update
making companies smarter about their customers
◦ Real time alert about vital customer events
◦ Just-in-time personalized messages
◦ Provides field staff with access to vase amounts of
information
 New wireless protocols such as WAP
 Bluetooth
◦ New standard for short-range wireless
communications
 Research the various wireless protocols and
Bluetooth
 Field Force Automation (FFA)
◦ Part customer service and part sales force
automation
◦ Also known as “field service management”
◦ Field technicians receive dispatch orders via their
PDAs, pagers, and cell phones
◦ Making use of these same devices during the actual
repair.
 Understand how SFA will help, and enlist
salesperson stakeholdership at the beginning
◦ Initial requirements gathering
◦ Rollout tool
 Communicate the value to the sales force up
front
 Invest in-and enforce-training.
 Beware of inherent sales processes packaged
into SFA tools
◦ Customize YOUR sales process
 Understand the infrastructure necessary to
support wireless technologies
 Let SFA use affect sales compensation.
 Change hiring practices and job role
descriptions to include use of CRM

You might also like