One of the great difficulties in navigating isn't deciding
which waypoints to make along the way... it's finding the
next waypoint once your reference points have become obscure.
The more uncharted the area, the more dangerous the voyage.
For this reason the Coast Guard strategically places
navigational aids for mariners to follow.
Though the profession of selling and sales management have
been around fathoms longer than the Coast Guard, it's
remarkable how few navigational aids have been devised to
provide a safe journey to the often uncharted destination of
a close.
Probably the last major navigational aid in selling came
about fifteen years ago when Mouton and Blake quantified via
their Sales Grid what the street-smart "pros" knew all
along... that different people responded to different
stimuli. Through the Sales Grid, all salespersons were at
least now able to comprehend why their approach,
demonstration, objection, handling and closing techniques
missed the mark. And so since then, there has been a flood
of books and courses elaborating the psychological approach.
MAYDAY-MAYDAY-MAYDAY
HOWEVER, DESPITE THIS BEACON, SALESPEOPLE AND SALES MANAGERS
ARE STILL IN TROUBLED WATERS REGARDING THEIR LIVELIHOODS, ...
HENCE ARE THE COMPANIES FOR WHICH THEY SELL.
Additionally, several new waves are coming together to create
a "rogue" wave -- one which is formed by the additive effect
of multiple wave motions. The size and directions of the
individual waves are quite obvious.
. The new waves are:
which is driving
more companies to direct mail and to telemarketing for
closing in addition to qualification.
which are leading companies and agencies to
determine their best course to the close.
which is driving the cost of
computing down to the point of making it economically
available to computerize the entire sales process for all
sized companies.
which is
forcing companies to obtain the same sales efficiency as
their competition.
which are demanding that
management provide more state-of-the-art sales support.
S-O-S
To circumnavigate the force of this "rogue," companies are
rushing -- both internally and externally -- to create new
navigational aids by computerizing the entire sales function
from lead source through close for both salespeople and sales
management.
According to Peter Simon, VP of Sales and Marketing at Travis
Datatrak Inc, (Weston, MA) authors of the sales management/
selling software application, DATATRAK, the wave crests to
computerize when "management becomes nervous: Nervous because
it no longer knows what people are doing; because it doesn't
know what the competition is up to; and nervous because it
doesn't know why things are not going the way they use to."
"Moreover, the triggering factor need not be the number of
sales people involved. Often, it is the number of accounts
that are being tracked per salesperson that causes the
nervousness far more." Asked how he measures nervous, Simon
responds, "We have had companies purchase DATATRAK after only
three week's evaluation !"
In all, the market can be characterized as "infant and
enormous" according to Chip Stofer President of Envoy
Systems, Inc, (Waltham, MA) makers of SALES MATE, another
commercially available selling/sales management software
package. "In major corporations that we call on, there are
now people whose sole job is to find ways of improving sales
productivity... They estimate that two-thirds to three-
quarters of a salesperson's time can be spent in a non-
selling mode. The goal of Envoy is to improve that
productivity with a series of twelve application modules."
On the internally developed front, David Hirschfeld,
President of Business Controls Corporation (Clifton, NJ) has
been using and improving a sales system that BCC built three
years ago with it's own Cobol application generator. "It's
quite simple; we're doing things that just would not be
possible without this system," says Hirschfeld. "It has
enabled a small salesforce to undertake yeoman sized
territories and more efficiently close and service the
prospects in the individual territories."
While at the Cortex Corporation (Waltham, MA), Drew Hannah,
VP of Sales, feels strongly that the system should be
designed and implemented for the field sales organization.
"While there is no doubt regarding sales and executive
management benefits from such a system, it is our sales force
that has been providing a propelling force in the improvement
of our present sales system which is developed with our
application generator, THE FACTORY.
RANGE AND BEARING
Simon positions DATATRAK as a corporate productivity tool
-- not just a personal sales aid. Travis' approach is to
meet with management to determine the exact needs and then
through their "superstructure" design the system so as to put
the necessary sales functions on a lap computer which in this
case would be a DG-1.
On the other hand, Envoy's SALES MATE seems more positioned
to assist the gamut of sales function after leads have been
semi-qualified, though full management reports are also
available. Through the functionality of twelve menu driven
applications (for example, Sales Mail, Sales File, Sales
Desk, Sales Aid, Sales Status etc.) sales personnel work
their territory, report to their company and other
salesperson, and design their sales campaigns. Perhaps one
of the slickest feature is that every change that is entered
by the saleperson is automatically transferred to the main
computer so that both the salespersons database and that of
their managers are always in synch. Again the DG-1 is the
lap computer of choice.
Stofer relates, "Actually, no one type of company is a
prospect, but those that have acquired our system are those
which have a high number of sales calls; those that have a
high need for information regarding order status; and those
that have long lead times".
Hannah is looking for Cortex's improved system to help out
with a problem. "We're among the trees now and its time to
see the forest... We want to improve salesman productivity by
capturing data from initial awareness to close -- to track
opportunities and from where they originate to determine
filter ratios, i.e. what it takes to move a suspect to
prospect to customer. If you know what it takes to close
business, then you take that as a baseline and know what you
have to do to close the business at hand."
MUTINY ?
"
According to Simon, sales force acceptance and rejection
seems to be a random event, though how it is introduced has a
big effect on acceptance.. "Some feel threatened by the
system, while others, like the salespeople of a mid-west
hardware dealer, have expressly stated that they would rather
have their commission rates cut rather than not have the
system... Certainly, one goal of the application is to
increase the efficiency of the average salesperson by 10%
percent... In all the system forces a discipline that most
are welcomed to have."
Hirschfeld concurs. "Immediate data access; daily follow-up
cards by salesperson; management reports; tracking marketing
support data; demographics analysis; general list capability
based on an unlimited number of selects; scare resources
scheduling; unlimited correspondence file for call reporting
and retrieval; automatic forecast generation by
salesperson/product/period; selected mail merge;
and electronic tickler file all make an uncomputerized sales
approach impossible to think about for marketing personnel at
BCC." (Apparently, three users of BCC products feel the same
way, for they have convinced Hirschfeld to sell his internal
package.)
BOUNTY ?
)
