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SALES FORCE AUTOMATION
Sales force automation - businesses either love it or hate it, although most fall into the "love it" camp. There's a lot of good reasons to fall in love with sales force automation, and not all of them have to do with revenue. Sales force automation enthusiasts claim that it improves the productivity of sales personnel - always a good thing for companies seeking to improve their bottom lines. Sales force automation can improve the productivity of reps and managers in a number of ways, including the following examples:- Sales force automation replaces the time consuming activities formerly associated with the sales profession, including sales reports, activity reports, and call sheets.
- Instead of printing out paper sales reports and then taking them to the sales manager, leads are instantly available on the sales force automation system.
- Reps and sales managers no longer need to track down crucial information such as sales prospect lists and sales support information - it's all right there on the company intranet.
- Common customer needs and issues can be resolved by having instant access to information online, even during an onsite customer sales call.
- By allowing better communication between sales personnel, sales force automation increases the success of team selling activities.
- Automated software systems can provide higher quality leads, thus reducing the amount of time that reps spend on unqualified leads.
But the benefits of sales force automation are not limited to the sales reps and managers. Marketing managers can use the software to understand "big picture" more readily than they could without the software, such as the underlying economic structure behind their particular industry, identifying target markets, and understanding competitors.
What about those who do not believe sales force automation is the best way to go for their business? Companies opposed to it argue that sales force automation actually increases workloads because it requires additional time for inputting massive amounts of data, not to mention the constant upkeep that the software systems require. They also argue that it dehumanizes the sales process by replacing personal contacts with automated lists. But love it or hate it, sales force automation is here to stay as companies look for new and better ways to compete in the global economy.
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