Customer Relationship Management

(MKT 2227)

Sales Force Automation (SFA)

(Lesson 10)

Maduka Udunuwara
 SFA ecosystem
SFA ecosystem is made up of three components:
• SFA solutions providers,
• hardware and infrastructure vendors,
• associated service providers.

The technology enables companies to collect, store, analyze, distribute and use customer-related data for sales
purposes.
Customer-related data like this is the key to customer orientation and the development of long-term mutually
beneficial relationships with customers.
SFA software from solutions providers enables sales representatives and their managers to manage sales
pipelines, track contacts and configure products, among many other things.
SFA software also provides reports for sales representatives and managers.
All SFA software is designed so that pertinent customer-related data can be captured, stored, analyzed and
distributed to salespeople and sales managers for them to become more effective or efficient in the pursuit of
their objectives.
 Definition of SFA

Sales-force automation is the application of computerized technologies

to support salespeople and sales management in the achievement of
their work-related objectives.
Functionality of SFA
Account management
• Offers sales representatives and managers a complete view of the
customer relationship including contacts, contact history, completed
transactions, current orders, shipments, enquiries, service history,
opportunities and quotations.
• This allows sales representatives and account managers to keep track
of all their obligations in respect of every account for which they are
responsible, whether this is an opportunity to be closed, an order or a
service enquiry.
 Activity management

• Activity management keeps sales representatives and managers

aware of all activities, whether complete or pending, related to an
account, contact or opportunity, by establishing to-do lists, setting
priorities, monitoring progress and programming alerts.
• Activities include, for example, preparation of quotations, scheduling
of sales calls and following up enquiries.
 Contact management

• Contact management functionality includes tools for building, sharing

and updating contact lists, making appointments, time setting, and
task, event and contact tracking.
• Contact list data includes names, phone numbers, addresses,
preference data and e-mail addresses for people and companies, as
well as a history of inbound and outbound communications.
An illustration of a contact management page from a CRM vendor.
 Contract management
• This functionality enables representatives and managers to create, track, progress,
accelerate, monitor and control contracts with customers.
• Contract management helps manage a contract’s lifespan by shortening approval
cycles for contracts, renewing contracts sooner and reducing administrative costs.
• The software may use security controls to ensure only approved people have access
to contracts.

Document management
• Companies generate and use many documents as they sell to customers, for
example brochures, product specifications, price lists, competitive comparisons and
templates for preparing quotations. Document management software allows
companies to manage these documents, keep them current and ensure that they
are available to representatives and managers when needed.
• Some systems allow all documents to be ‘attached’ to the account or contact, thus
facilitating faster and fuller recall of past interactions.
 Event management software
• This software enables representatives and managers to plan, implement, control and
evaluate events such as conferences, seminars, trade shows, exhibitions and webinars,
whether run solo or jointly with customers or other partners.
• Some events, such as conferences, can be very complex and involve many stakeholders,
such as sponsors, exhibitors, security partners, police, accommodation partners, travel
partners, catering partners, lighting and sound contractors, speakers, invitees and the
general public.
• Indeed, some major events are planned many years in advance; you only need to
consider the Olympics or FIFA World Cup to appreciate the grand scale of some major
events.
• Event management software contains a range of tools that can be useful to sales
managers and others organizing events.
• These include an event calendar, online registration, partner management tools, event
reports and analytics, attendee communication and management tools, activity lists for
exhibitors and venue management tools.
 Incentive management
• Incentive management is an issue for sales managers who use commissions to lift, direct and
reward sales representatives ’efforts.
• In many companies, commissions are calculated using standalone spreadsheets.
• When part of a sales-force automation solution, incentive management eliminates the need to
re-enter or transfer data from spreadsheets, leading to better visibility, accuracy and higher
efficiency. Incentive management applications can be linked into back-office payroll applications
that automate payment.

Lead management
• Lead management allows companies to create, assign and track sales leads.
• Leads either expire or convert into qualified opportunities.
• User-defined rules allow leads to be allocated to representatives and account managers on the
basis of role, territory, product expertise or other variables.
• Lead management allows for more equitable workload distribution across a sales team, and
uses security controls to ensure that representatives can only access their own leads.
 Order management
• Order management functionality allows representatives to convert quotations and
estimates into correctly priced orders once a customer has agreed to buy.
• If this is done in front of a customer, the order can be loaded into production or
picked from a warehouse more quickly.
• Order management software may include a quotation engine, a pricing module and
a product configurator. With visibility through a portal, the customer, representative
and manager have access to the same, up to date, order information
Pipeline management
• Pipeline management is the process of managing the entire sales cycle, from
identifying prospects, estimating sales potential, managing leads, forecasting sales,
initiating and maintaining customer relationships, right through to closure.
• It relies on accurate, up-to-date opportunity information, such as the potential size
and close date for each opportunity.
Example of pipeline Management
 Product encyclopedia
• A product encyclopedia is a searchable electronic product catalogue
that generally contains product names, stock numbers, images and
specifications. These can be stored on representatives ’computers
and/or made available to customers online.

Product configuration
• Product configuration applications enable salespeople, or customers
themselves, automatically to design and price customized products,
services or solutions.
• Configurators are useful when the product is particularly complex or
when customization is an important part of the value proposition.
 Example: Product configuration

• A configurator is a software-based application engine that allows companies to

configure complex products and services based on predefined rules.
• Sometimes, customers interact directly with configurators.
• For example, the Dell Computer website allows customers to build their own
personal computers (PCs).
• Configurators guide users through the buying and specification process, offering
only valid options and features at each step. This can deliver benefits to
customers, salespeople and management. Customers can defi ne and build their
preferred customized solutions, reducing cost and meeting specifications.
• Salespeople no longer need to master comprehensive product or service technical
data, because these are built into the engine. Training costs for salespeople are
therefore reduced
 Quotation management
• Quotation management software allows representatives and managers to quote for opportunities.
• This may be part of a broader order management capability.
• The software allows users to create, edit, approve and produce costed, customized, proposals quickly and reliably.
• Some vendors enable users to create multimedia proposals with audio, animation and video. One survey suggests that proposals produced
with software have a much higher win rate (46 per cent) than proposals produced manually (26 per cent).

Sales forecasting
• Sales forecasting applications offer sales representatives and managers a number of qualitative and quantitative processes to help forecast
sales revenues and close rates.
• Among the qualitative methods are sales team estimates, and among the quantitative methods are time-series analysis and regression
models (covered in Chapter 5).
• Accurate sales forecasts help resource allocation throughout the business.

Territory management
• Territory management software allows sales managers to create, adjust and balance sales territories, so that sales representatives have
equivalent workloads and/or opportunities.
• Some territory management applications come with a territory management methodology which users can follow when establishing sales
territories.
• Some applications link to geographic mapping or geodemographic software. The software enables companies to match sales coverage to
market opportunity, create sales territory hierarchies (e.g. cities, states, regions) and reduce the cost of selling by reducing travel time.
• Call cycle scheduling, calendaring and lead management is often enabled by the software.
 Benefits from SFA
• Vendors and consultants claim several benefits from SFA implementation,
including accelerated cashflow, shorter sales cycles leading to faster
inventory turnover, improved customer relations, improved salesperson
productivity, increased sales revenue, market share growth, higher win rates,
reduced cost of sales, more closing opportunities and improved profitability.
• These benefits appeal to differing SFA stakeholders:
salespeople : shorter sales cycles, more closing opportunities, higher win rates
sales managers: improved salesperson productivity, improved customer
relations, accurate reporting, reduced cost of sales
senior management : accelerated cashflow, increased sales revenue, market
share growth, improved profitability.