Automating the sales process 
-- Vinny Alex
Over the last 130 years the sales process has been undergoing
a transformation all over the world. The early image of the traveling
salesman has given way to the high technology consultant of today. However,
the fundamental value contribution continues to be the ability of the
salesperson to educate the customer on new offerings, and help her negotiate
through the maze of products that claim to satisfy her requirements and
identify the one that meets her need the best.
Today's highly competitive environment requires that sales
do more than just sell products. They need to have an in-depth knowledge
of how their products integrate with other's solutions to give the customer
a seamless user experience. In addition, they also need a good idea of
the price band they would be allowed to negotiate in so as to help close
deals quicker. This necessitates the implementation of advanced Information
Management systems that makes information available to the front lines
quickly and easily.
One commonly deployed productivity enhancement solution
is a Sales Force Automation application. However, while SFA apps do help
keep customer and deal information in one central location for analysis
by managers, they do not often provide the field sales personnel with
information that they require to close deals. Although SFA do help increase
efficiency by speeding up routine reporting tasks (and help free up more
time for meeting customers) they do not improve effectiveness per se.
Another useful tool for improving effectiveness is an automatic
proposal and contract generator. This is an especially useful tool when
an organization seeks to ensure uniform quality and consistency of information
when giving a proposal or signing a contract. Many small companies do
proposal and contract creation in an ad hoc manner, often resulting in
misunderstandings between clients and vendors.
Price calculators help in cases where the sales professional
needs to choose from a combination of products in order to give a comprehensive
solution. Being a software product, it is possible to update the prices
for each of the components separately, and the software can do this easily
and quickly - either manually, or automatically. This ensures that the
field sales force always has the latest prices for both the company's
own and third party products.
Probably one of the most useful software tools for a sales
person of the field is the sales portal. Basically a website with restricted
access, a portal can give instant access to the latest information and
updates on any product, and can also have a secure area where the sales
person can enter customer details, view purchase history, view special
agreements with the customer, seek approvals on preferred pricing schemes,
generate proposals and contracts and even log orders online. Advanced
systems today allow field personnel to view the status of the order even
as it gets executed and shipped to the customer's location. What makes
these portals especially useful is that it gives just the information
that the person needs at the time when he needs it. Being a centralized
system, it is easy to update the information and instantly make it available
to all sales personnel, even if they are currently on the field.
Finally, a word of caution. While these tools can and do
help sales persons and management improve long term efficiencies (and
even effectiveness to a certain degree), they do not hold out the promise
of making an ineffective process effective. Even before any organization
goes for IT based systems, it needs to do a thorough review of it's existing
sales process in the light of the KRA (Key Result Areas) that the organization
has set itself, and the advantages and constraints that a computer based
system can bring. This is why, in many of our projects, we have worked
with the customer to first clearly map out their existing process and
re-engineer them wherever necessary before we embark on a software development
cycle.
Only this self-imposed discipline, of integrating process
renewal and information based systems implementation, can bring substantial
and lasting return on your software investments.
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