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 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 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 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
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 the various wireless protocols and
Bluetooth
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