Sales Force Automation

Sales Force Automation

Chapter 4
The CRM Handbook

SFA – Sales Force Automation
 Focus

on cultivating customer relationships

and
 Improving customer satisfaction
 Scenario Number One
 Scenario Number Two

The Ever-Evolving SFA
 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.

The Promise of SFA
 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 Force Automation Tools
 Sales
–
–

Sales
process

Sales
activity

Process/Activity Management

Include a sequence of sales activities
Guide sales reps through each discrete step in
the sales process

Opportunity

Opportunity
Generated
Generated

Lead
allocated

Prospect
contacted

Prospect
qualified

Solution
identified

Order
placed

Sales Force Automation Tools
 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 Force Automation Tools


Sales and Territory Management
–

Tools that enable sales managers and executives ondemand 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

Sales Force Automation Tools
 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.

Sales Force Automation Tools


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

Sales Force Automation Tools
 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

Knowledge Management
 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.

SFA and Mobile CRM
 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.

SFA and Mobile CRM
 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 and Mobile CRM


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.


SFA and Mobile CRM
 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

SFA and Mobile CRM
 New

wireless protocols such as WAP
 Bluetooth
–

New standard for short-range wireless
communications

 Research

Bluetooth

the various wireless protocols and

Sales Force Automation Tools
 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.

An SFA Checklist for Success
 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.

An SFA Checklist for Success
 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

Case Study: Hewlett Packard