Sales Force
Management Systems
Sales Force Automation Systems (SFA), typically
a part of a company’s customer relationship management system, is a
system that automatically records all the stages in a sales process.
SFA includes a contact management system which tracks all contact that
has been made with a given customer, the purpose of the contact, and
any follow up that might be required.
Sales force management systems are information systems used in marketing
and management that help automate some sales and sales force management
functions. They are frequently combined with a marketing information
system, in which case they are often called customer relationship management
systems.
This ensures that sales efforts won’t be duplicated eliminating the
risk of irritating customers. SFA also includes a sales lead tracking
system, which lists potential customers through paid phone lists, or
customers of related products. Other elements of a SFA system can include,
sales forecasting, order management and product knowledge.
More developed SFA systems
have features where customers can actually model the product to meet
their required needs through online product building systems. This is
becoming more and more popular in the automobile industry, where patrons
can customize various features such as color and interior features such
as leather vs. upholstered seats.
An integral part of any SFA system is company wide integration among
different departments. If SFA systems aren’t adopted and properly integrated
to all departments, there might be a lack of communication which could
result in different departments contacting the same customer for the
same purpose. In order to mitigate this risk, SFA must be fully integrated
in all departments that deal with customer service management.
Proponents claim that sales
force automation systems can improve the productivity of sales personnel.
Here are some examples:
Rather than write-out sales orders, reports, activity reports, and/or
call sheets, sales people can fill-in prepared e-forms. This saves time.
Rather than printing out reports and taking them to the sales manager,
sales people can use the company intranet to transmit the information.
This saves time.
Rather than waiting for paper based product inventory data, sales prospect
lists, and sales support information, they will have access to the information
when they need it. This could be useful in the field when answering
prospects’ questions and objections.
The additional tools could help improve sales staff morale if they reduce
the amount of record keeping and/or increase the rate of closing. This
could contribute to a virtuous spiral of beneficial and cumulative effects.
These sales force systems
can be used as an effective and efficient training device. They provide
sales staff with product information and sales technique training without
them having to waste time at seminars.
Better communication and co-operation between sales personnel facilitates
successful team selling.
More and better qualified sales leads could be automatically generated
by the software.
This technology increases the sales person’s ratio of selling time to
non-selling time. Non-selling time includes activities like report writing,
travel time, internal meetings, training, and seminars.
|
