HOW TO SELECT AND IMPLEMENT SALES AUTOMATION FOR YOUR COMPANY PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES by David Hubanks / Sales Software Source / Chicago Doing it right, the first time! HOW IMPORTANT SHOULD SALES AUTOMATION BE TO YOUR COMPANY? A recent Harris poll of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in Fortune 1000 and Business Week 1000 companies listed sales and marketing automation (SA) as their number one project for the next five years. Automating sales and sales support operations in your company can payoff big in productivity increases (more sales), better customer relationships (keeping promises & faster access to more and the most current information), increased quantifiablility (better and more timely reporting) and better interdepartmental coordination of customer status (different employees telling the same story). The purpose of this article is to give you some insights on what to look for among the hundreds of SA programs available and what to look out for in planning, selecting and implementation. Lets talk first about some of the problem issues. SELECTING SA SOFTWARE: GOING AROUND 2 OR 3 TIMES One of the serious and continuing problems with companies automating sales or sales support operations is the "second and third dipper" syndrome. Companies that go through 2 or 3 SA programs before finding the "right" one. This is very costly in money, wasted effort and employee aggravation and turnover. Our consultants speak with hundreds of Sales Executives across the country, each week. We have found, through our on-going surveys of these executives, that over 50% of companies who says they have automated, fall into this "trial and error" category of SA program selection. Why, and how can you avoid this situation. What usually happens is one of the following. 1.) Senior management or senior Sales and Marketing management take the suggestion of one or several sales Reps that have, on their own, purchased some package or 2.) they let the "tail wag the dog" and allow MIS/IS to drive the sales automation process and decisions rather than sales and marketing management. What's wrong with these scenarios? Most sales automation software programs that are purchased by individual Reps (even if they offer a LAN version) don't meet the needs of companies. Most major and many secondary decisions about sales automation have NOTHING to do with software, computers or MIS/IS. SELECTING A SA PACKAGE SUGGESTED BY ONE OF YOUR REPS Many of the most visible and most heavily advertised and promoted sales automation programs, loved by individual Reps, are disasters when the same program is used for the companies entire sales force. The bulk of sales automation packages available today are what we call 3rd tier programs. They are conceived, designed and built with the individual Sales Rep in mind first, and the company second, or not at all. Little or no thought is given to the issues that are going to be most important to a company considering SA. Issues such as multi-level security, adhoc, frequency distribution and computational reporting, data centralization, end-user configuability, interoperability, data compatibility, data transfer issues to name a few. Many of the sales automation programs that have the biggest names, highest visibility in business and PC publications and receive the most glowing reviews fall into this 3rd tier category. The most glaring example of this is the Windows version of what is probably the top selling 3rd tier program. This program, which just released a network version, continues to have its' main focus on individual Reps while pitching that it's a company application. Perhaps the most glaring example of this in this latest update is its inability to maintain databases larger than about 1500 records or about 10 megabits. This is a serious limitation. A key benefit of SA designed for companies is the ability to centralization individual databases into a master database for managers to run a single summary report comparing or contrasting Rep performance. This is only one example of scores of activities and operations in this and similar 3rd tier programs that are not geared for company-wide use. By the way, having a LAN version of a program does not a company-wide application make. MOST SA DECISIONS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SOFTWARE OR COMPUTERS Many senior managers and sales and marketing management executives are ignorant about or are fearful of computers and anything associate with them. Unfortunately, this results in executives and managers that SHOULD be the point people in sales automation giving up those rights. Instead they turn the process over to IS/IT people reasoning that "they know all about computers and software." What's wrong with that reasoning? Most of the major and secondary decisions that need to be made about sales automation have NOTHING to do with software, computers or IS/IT operations. The decisions that DO need to be made about SA should only be made by the executives and managers incharge of sales and sales support operations. What kind of reports do they want? How often? What should the reports look like? What activities and operations do they want to automate and track? How do they want results of these activities and operations reported? What kind of information do they want available on the system? In what form and how will it be displayed? Is information going to be share with sales support? Which information? After these and many other similar questions are answered and decisions about each made then IS/IT should be involved in helping carry out the final design and implementation process. USING SA TO BUILD THE STRONGEST CUSTOMER RELATIONS Companies that successfully implement sales force automation find that the content of that sales automation (SA) database quickly becomes "THE most important database" in the company. Why? Two reasons. First, because SA is being used every day by the people closest to customers, sales and sales support people, it has the most current information about the status of that customer, both quantifiable and subjective. Second, unlike other software system being used in your company sales automation software is the only one that is directly responsible for bring money into your company. All other software systems cost you money. Unlike MRP, inventory, billing, accounting software which tracks only quantifiable details about customers, sales automation can be configured to track both quantifiable and subjective details. Sales automation software can keep year-to-date purchase info, SIC codes, buying history, product buying preferences, credit status, order status and much more. But it can also gather and maintain something far more valuable. The subjective details about interaction with each customer. What's been said to the customer, who said it, what promises were made to the customer, by whom, when are you suppose to get back to the customer, who are the problem people in the account, who are the power people, are their any politics in the account to be aware of, etc. This ongoing, subjective information is the relationship building "GOLD" that sales automation software adds to your customer interactions that are missing in all the traditional manufacturing, accounting, billing, inventory software systems companies maintain. This subjective information, effectively use, is the "glue" that can bond customers to your company even when competitors may offer more features or a lower price. THINK OF SA AS A EIS SYSTEM (EMPLOYEE INFORMATION SYSTEM) ... ABOUT THE CUSTOMER We use the broad term, Sales Automation (SA) software, to describe the technology for any sales, sales support or telemarketing operation. At our last count there are over 400 packages that could be used for these operations. Some are very focused with limited function while others have a broad, enterprise-wide perspective on automation. Ideally, the program you select should be capable of enterprise- wide (field sales, telemarketing, customer service, sales & support management) use in your company... whether you're talking about 5 people or 5000 people. Sales Automation software should span all parts of a companies' sales organization... presales, sales, sales support and post-sales contact. It should represent all areas of sales... outside sales, sales support, telemarketing, customer service. The program must be networkable and have strong import/export capabilities. SALES AUTOMATION: BASIC TO ADVANCED CHART BASICS ADVANCED Includes all Basic Features Plus the Following: ------------------------------------------------------------ At Database with Text Notes Multilevel Security to grant attached & saved with the or deny access to each Rep or customer record Support person to most features functions and operations, based on level of need A Database Program with Computational Report Writing user-interface designed with (similar to Lotus 123, Excel, non-techie sales and support etc.) plus built-in full adhoc people in mind reporting Lets you easily search, Unlimited Database Creation and sort and find anyone in the Maintenance with password access database Protection Lets you schedule follow-up Intuitive interface to full dates for meetings, calls or power exterior word processor(s) "to-dos" for more sophisticated document production Automatically "Tickles" you Large or unlimited # of user on any dates you've set for configurable, user-definable follow-up calls or meetings fields Lets you send personal or Link, Nest and compute between customized form letters user-definable fields automatically Underlying database engine Run Adhoc (listing) reports designed to give nearly "instantaneous" access to selected records Company first (Instead of Rep First) approach to automation For use in field sales, inside sales, telemarketing, customer service & various sales support & marketing operations MAIN OPERATING SCREEN BASICS SAs should have a main work area we'll call the primary contact screen, i.e., a screen that has the basics on it... customer name, address, contact person or persons, telephone numbers, etc. SAs should open, with 1 or 2 keystrokes, a partial or full window (or the lower portion of the primary contact screen) that can be used to display any kind of textual information: pricing information; product facts and statistics; written verbal explanations of product or services; telemarketing scripts or surveys; static information, e.g., public or private corporation, the chairman's name, etc. SAs should, with minimal key strokes let you set recall dates, whether for phone calls, meetings or additional mailings. Other requirements are user-definable fields, unlimited dated note field area, word processor for mailing list and personalized form letter generation, reporting capabilities and networkability to customize your package and share its data with other users. SALES AUTOMATION WITHOUT NETWORKING IS ALMOST USELESS Networking lets all field salespeople, telephone reps, customer service reps, supervisors, administrators and managers have quick access to the latest information and reports about a customer or prospect contact. Telemarketing and customer service can quickly pass along, to field sales or sales management, opportunities or problems they uncover in their phone contacts. Field sales can update telemarketing, customer service and sales support of situations that need to be monitored, acted on or researched. Your company can build strong relationships and very loyal customers if it promptly delivers and uses the information and facts collected by sales and the sales support staff. WHO DO YOUR CUSTOMERS BELONG TO, THE COMPANY OR THE REPS? Company personnel change jobs frequently. The customer files they have been working on belong to the company. No matter where the customer or prospect files may be... in field offices, on laptops, in telemarketing or customer service operations or sales administration and support departments... they need to be periodically centralized. A network and strong import/export features are essential to keep a central repository of ALL company customers and prospects. This central repository should be routinely updated and backed-up at some predetermined (on-line, daily, weekly, biweekly) timeframe. The use of client/server or SQL technology is beyond the scope of this article. These technologies may or may not be advantageous to consider in your sales automation plans. THE IMPORTANCE OF AN EFFECTIVE SECURITY SYSTEM FOR YOUR SA If your SA program is going to be used by more than 1 person it should have security controls. Some of the better SA's offer several levels of security. A user should log-on with their name and key in a password of their choice to enter the system. Selectively you should be able to grant or deny access to various portions of the program or functions within the program. One very important feature is to not allow copying, editing or deletion of data without clearance from the system administrator. The security system should also protect customer or prospect data from being destroyed, damaged, changed, stolen, seen by the wrong person or given to competitors. All it takes is one disgruntled employee, and you could, in some cases, be out of business. COMPUTER OPERATING PLATFORM A SA package that operates in the MS-DOS/Windows environment will, by far, give you the best and broadest selection of programs to choose from. While there are exceptions, one of the problems we have seen in programs designed for the mainframe and mini environment (Unix/AS400/DEC) is that vendors haven't been motivated to be as creative and innovated because they have little competition. Generally, the mainframe/mini packages use older software design technologies and philosophies that are quite rigid and structured. Many of these programs are, for the most part, not as user-friendly as those programs coming out of the much more competitive MS-DOS/Windows environments. This tends to make these mainframe and mini computer packages less appealing to non-computer-oriented end-users such as sales and sales support people who really need a more intuitive, friendly package. A last point about these mainframe/mini packages is their cost. Many times, for the price of a mainframe or mini software program alone, you can pay for not only a good MS- DOS/Windows SA software program but also a 486 micro computer file server and workstation, PCs, network hardware and software, printers, etc., to run it on. THE TREND TOWARD AN INDEPENDENT MARKETING DATABASE One trend we've noted in a number of companies is the establishment of an independent computer system and SA database for the marketing and sales operations separate and independent from mainframe/mini operations. Sales, in most companies, needs to be immediately responsive to customer needs and inquiries. Sales people and sales management can not afford to be put on the MIS/IS waiting list for a project to be run. Sales response time is critical to sales success. THE IMPORTANCE OF USER-DEFINABLE FIELDS User-definable fields let you tailor any program to your business information needs. When reviewing a program for user-definable fields there are a number of features and functions to look for. How many fields does the program give you? A majority of SA programs offer user-definable fields, with various level of sophistication. Generally they provide from 5 to 30 fields who's labels are definable by you. A few offer pop-up windows from which you can select from a list of predefined choices. Some programs offer more flexibility. A few offer unlimited number of user-definable fields. In addition, a pop-up file of unlimited length, can be created and attached to each user-definable field. This might contain words, numbers, short phrases that can be selected and entered into the field. Look-up lists or pop-up windows eliminate the need for the operator to remember the correct spelling of a word. They also ensure uniformity in the words selected and entered in a given field, from operator to operator, so a later search of that field will produce the best results possible. A pop-up window or look-up list feature will be invaluable in reducing stress your sales or telemarketing people experience in learning. A few of the better SA programs let end-users not only custom label an unlimited number of user-definable fields, define what data can, should or must be entered in the fields response area, but also let you define and carry-out a series of mathematical calculations between fields and link user-definable fields together. This linking and mathematical capabilities let users design and easily develop user-definable fields into a form or window structure. A form which can be called up to the main work screen and used. What can the forms or windows be used for? Use your imagination. An order entry form, forecasting, gathering demographic or psychographic facts form, an inventory lookup (with look-up lists of inventory attached) form, a bid or quote form, collecting research data form, year-to-date sales, etc. HOW DO YOU PUT CAPTURED USER-DEFINABLE FIELD INFORMATION TO WORK? Think of user-definable fields as input. You use them to capture certain information that, in most cases, you want to calculate, list, tabulate or total in some specific manner. The output of that input will usually be a report or form. Do you think any of the SA vendors you're talking with know what you want included in your reports, or know exactly what your forms look like? If not, make sure your SA program choice has a full function computational report writer (RW) as an integral part of the package instead of just a set of pre-defined reports. These report writers are similar to having Lotus or Excel available but within your SA program. Some SA vendors may tell you they have "custom designed reports to meet all your needs". What that probably means is that they include a series of reports that have been pre- defined, and you must adapt your reporting needs to whatever forms they offer. A RW should let you freely create the visual design and structure of any reports you need. A good RW should let you duplicate any report or form you now use. Can the RW extract data to use in your report or form from any field in the any customer contact record? Can it extract data from any user-definable field? Can the RW, at a minimum, add, subtract, multiply, divide, figure percentages and total the extracted data before it is placed in the proper location in your custom designed report or form? Will it let you, at your option, generate a detailed listing of all your information or give you a summary one- liner with just the cumulative totals? In some of the more sophisticated SA programs, user- definable fields and reports let you, as mentioned earlier, create order entry systems, survey forms, inventory look-up functions, invoicing procedures, etc. Its possible to be quite creative with some of the better programs. Some may even offer output to an accounting or other type of program to let you manipulate or massage the data even further. DDL and OLE technologies available in Microsoft's Windows program will let you do many of these operations in Windows. SA'S MOST VALUABLE TOOL: DATED NOTE FIELDS FOR SUBJECTIVE INFORMATION The one essential feature of any good SA program for building strong customer relationships, is quick access (1 or 2 keystrokes) to an unlimited note field, attached to the contact record. A note field that let's the operator record detailed, dated notes about every face-to-face or telephone conversation with a customer or prospect. These notes should be used for review before every future contact to be current with the customer or prospect situation and be able to, in a very matter of fact way, sprinkle in some information you've recorded from previous conversations. This will help build a solid, long-term relationship with customers. It is also an excellent tool to separate you from your competitors. Recording and using detailed notes about every conversation you have with your customer or prospect will bond them to you by making them feel that you really "know their stuff". The SA program you choose should have a key word search feature that will let you find a word or phrase in these note fields. Ideally, the SA system should automatically date and time stamp notes and add the name of the person recording the notes. This way you always know who said what to whom. FINDING PEOPLE AND COMPANIES: SORT AND SEARCH FEATURES A good SA program should offer search capabilities on all the fields in the main profile record as well as all the user-definable fields. The most intuitive and user-friendly method for searching is called search (or query) by example. It will present the main profile screen or user-definable fields blank and you enter the words, numbers or dates into the fields you want searched. Some SA programs may let you search on partial words or numbers and may even let you enter search on a some selected range letters from A through Z, numbers or dates. Some of the better programs will let you carry-out concurrent, multiple searches. For example, let's say I want to find every customer in the zip code range 60610 to 60660 who is in the 3421 SIC code with over 50 employees and gross yearly sales from 5 to 10 million dollars. Assuming all the needed information is contained in your SA program, some programs would let you enter all 4 of these search criteria and give you an answer with one pass through the database. Look for programs that offer search or query by example and avoid programs that require you to learn and use boolean logic for searches. Boolean logic is a programming process that a number of these program use for doing multilevel searches. It is not easy to learn or remember. THE IMPORTANCE OF SEARCH SPEED One important characteristic to look for when evaluating search capabilities is the speed of the operation. Speed can be effected by a number of things including the programming language, the design of the program, the underlying file handling utility, etc. However, two of the main determining factors in search speeds are file handling capability and structure and whether the field your searching is a primary (the fastest) or secondary (a little slower) indexed search field. You don't want your field sales person or telemarketer waiting minutes every time they need to search for the next record or find a customer who called in. Look for SA programs that use file structures and file handling routines that are fast. Generally a D-base file is going to be accessed or transferred slower than a file that is using a file handling utility like Btrieve from Novell. This SA program feature can be a serious problem with larger databases and is many times overlooked. WORD PROCESSING AND FORM LETTERS GENERATION SAs should have the capability to easily generate personalized form letters for direct mail campaigns, fulfillment, pre and post sales call contact, etc. Ideally you should be able to, at the conclusion of each conversation, enter 2 to 4 keystrokes and select for mailing the most appropriate letter from a list of previously created letters. Depending on the size of your operation, these letters can then be sent one at a time as generated to the printer or batched for printing later. You should be able to select the same or different letters for each contact. Each letter, if necessary, should be easily modifiable without leaving the contact screen to add a sentence or two that personalizes it even more. The better programs will give you access to Word Perfect or Word. In Windows programs you should expect to be able to use any of several full power word processing programs because of the Windows environment. IMPORTING AND EXPORTING DATA Sending and receiving customer or prospect files is an essential part of any SA program. Transferring and synchronizing files from field laptops to headquarters, from field to regional offices, from telemarketing to the field, from field to customer service, from sales management to company management's mainframe are just a few information transfer operations you may need to perform. Be sure the program you select is up to it. A good SA program should have a section of the program which will let you set-up the field structure (length) and type of field (alpha, alpha-numeric, date) for files to be imported and define the format (ASCII, etc.) of the files to be exported. This transfer process should be set-up and defined in advance by the administrator or manager of your SA system. One other facet of importing and exporting data that should be addressed is spinning off and merging back data files. When a transfer of data is needed you must be able to quickly identify and spin off the files to be transferred. So that the computer is not disabled for other uses, this spin off process should be fast. Once spun off into a subdirectory the export function in your SA program should ideally have the ability to speed the modem transfer of data by compressing the files before they are sent. This will reduce phone line charges and reduce the time the computer is not available for other purposes. MACRO CAPABILITIES ESSENTIAL FOR USER-FRIENDLINESS Once formats and file structures have been defined, the better SA programs will let you automate much of this process through the use macros. This key stroke capture process is used to carry-out regularly scheduled, repetitive reporting or operational routines. To use this process you simply turn on the function and then as you press the keys needed to do the routine or process you want done, the utility records every key you strike. Other programs have you record the keystrokes needed to carry-out the operation or activity to want to automate and then enter them in the macro utility area. The beauty of a macro is that it can reduce a complex process down to 1 key stroke. This keeps sales, sales support and telemarketing people focused on getting the data transfer or any other task done quickly rather than figuring out how to do it or getting frustrated by not being able to do it. ACCESSING MAINFRAMES AND MINIS FROM PC'S What if your company decides it would really like to go with an MS-DOS/Windows SA package but your order entry, inventory or customer buying history records are on a mainframe or mini computer. How can you get at and use that information and those resources from a PC? As mentioned earlier, you may want to consider client/server and SQL technologies here but a simpler, and much quicker to implement way would be to add terminal-emulation and an application switching or multitasking functions. The emulation program will let your PC look like a terminal on the mainframe... letting you read and enter information into the mainframe. The multitasking or switching program, will let you, with one keystroke, switch back and forth between the SA program and the mainframe terminal produced by the emulation process. YOUR SALES AUTOMATION EDUCATION Consider what you've just read as a condensed educational course on SA program technology. With it you should be better able to define what you really want in a SA program. You should also be better able to know what questions you need to ask and which answers are acceptable and which are not. Our Executive Briefing and Workshop on Sales Automation and Database Marketing for New Business Development was designed to help senior and middle sales and marketing managers and executives learn, in a non-technical way what Sales Automation is from the most basic to the most advanced, how to cost justify it, get a look at 8 to 12 programs and learn strategies and tactics that can be used in conjunction with SA to make them more proactive in business development efforts for their company. Ask for our free 15 page automation survey. ------------------------------------------------------------ ---- David Hubanks is the President of Sales Software Source, a firm specializing in education, research, marketing and implementation of Sales Automation. They handle a wide variety of packages and regularly hold workshops to help companies determine and decide which package may be best for them and how to use them most effectively. They are located at 566 West Adams Street, Suite 506, Chicago, IL 60661, 312- 258-9700.