Sales Force Automation

Buyers Guide
Learn what a Sales Force Automation system can do for you and
understand what issues you should consider during your decision-
making process.
Copyright 2007, Tippit, Inc., All Rights Reserved. www.insidecrm.com
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Contents
Executive Summary 3
Sales Force Automation Overview 4
Market Overview 6
The Benefts of Sales Force Automation 7
Basic Features 8
Advanced Features 9
Cost 10
Checklist 11
Conclusion 12
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Executive Summary
On the road and often out of reach, keeping tabs on todays traveling
sales representatives can be tricky. Equally challenging is ensuring that
your road warriors have easy access to up-to-the-minute information,
from price lists to product specifcations. On the other hand, ever-anxious
sales managers are always eager to know where sales teams stand with
their pipelines. And dont forget about senior-level executives desperate
for sales performance data in order to forecast business opportunities
and emerging trends. Combine these disparate people and priorities,
and the challenge of managing a sales force can seem insurmountable.
Enter SFA (Sales Force Automation). Todays SFA solutions automate
sales activities, processes and administrative responsibilities so that
sales forces can enjoy up-to-date information while eliminating errors
and inaccuracies. Business activities best suited for automation include
order processing, contact management, inventory monitoring and
control, order tracking, customer management, sales forecast analysis,
and employee performance evaluation.
In this Buyers Guide, you will fnd details on what to look for, how to
buy, what you can expect to pay and how to derive the most value from
your SFA investment.
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Sales Force Automation Overview
Todays SFA solutions hold plenty of promise for companies looking to
empower their sales representatives with timely data, help managers
better forecast future sales and provide senior-level managers with
accurate performance assessments. But deriving real value from SFA
not only means selecting a solution thats right for your company, but
a delivery model that suits your IT environment, internal resources and
budget restrictions.
If the hype is to be believed, SaaS (software as a service) is the way to go.
Research frm Gartner Inc. reports that by 2009, more than 50 percent
of new SFA deployments will be based on SaaS delivery models. Whats
more, while SaaS represented approximately 5 percent of business-
software revenue in 200, by 2011, a whopping 25 percent of new
business software will be delivered as SaaS.
Its easy to understand the allure of SaaS. According to William Band, a
principal analyst with Forrester Research, SaaS solutions are very easy
to confgure and customize for both the company and the end user.
Not to mention the delivery models well-known benefts: low monthly
costs, easy deployment, simplifed upgrades, hassle-free maintenance
and support, and user-friendliness.
But caveat emptor: SaaSs simple approach to automating a sales
force can create the misconception that deploying an on-demand SFA
solution is an overnight afair. Rather, SaaS tools call for plenty of up-
front planning to ensure seamless adoption among sales reps and the
proper amount of product functionality. Furthermore, its imperative
that companies roll out SaaS SFA solutions gradually, all the while
soliciting honest feedback from sales teams.
If introduced efectively, businesses can roll out an on-demand SFA
solution for a fraction of the cost of its on-premise counterpart. There
are, however, factors to bear in mind when examining the bottom line.
For example, large multinational frms requiring sizable subscriptions
to a SaaS service are unlikely to reap the same cost savings as small- to
medium-sized businesses. Whats more, pinching pennies isnt the only
factor companies should consider when evaluating a SaaS solutions
value.
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Said Timothy Hickernell, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research
Group, Certainly, SaaS has had a very disruptive impact on the market
with respect to costs and has driven costs down quite a lot, but I would
caution companies not to focus on costs alone when adopting software
as a service.
Instead, Hickernell said that companies should pay close attention to
the types of data theyre collecting, data access, reporting capabilities
and process-integration points.
Types of integration points between sales, marketing and service
are variables you have to perform future-proofng work on regardless
of what delivery model you choose for SFA software, said Hickernell.
Evaluating these points might, for example, involve examining how
easy it is for a call-center representative to rapidly pull up information
on a particular customers buying preferences and history.
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Market Overview
Theres never been a shortage of vendors peddling SFA solutions. In
fact, Sales Force Automation was the frst area that most companies
tried to apply technology to, said Forrester Researchs Band. And
there continues to be a lot of ongoing interest in enabling the sales
organization.
Providers have, however, become more targeted in their oferings.
According to a Gartner Inc. report, with less choice for on-premise
software due to the Oracle acquisitions of Siebel and PeopleSoft,
vendors such as Sage SalesLogix have gained more attention as
plausible on-premise alternatives. In the meantime, Microsoft has
gained market momentum for its Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 product,
while Salesforce.com, RightNow Technologies, SugarCRM, NetSuite and
GoldMine continue to court small- to medium-sized businesses with
their cost-conscious solutions.
But dont expect niche oferings from todays SFA solution providers.
Rather than force companies to choose between a single SFA solution
and an entire enterprisewide CRM suite, vendors are now peddling
modular CRM solutions that allow companies to adopt a piecemeal
approach to deployment. The frst step: Drive sales productivity with
an SFA solution. Next, make the most of your marketing initiatives by
integrating sales data with targeted marketing campaigns. And fnally,
bolster customer loyalty by automating your companys service and
support capabilities.
Said Hickernell, The high perception of failure amongst frst-generation
CRM ... has led to this new resurgence of generic oferings and only
implementing one module at a time and not the whole CRM suite.
Vendors are now
peddling modular CRM
solutions that allow
companies to adopt a
piecemeal approach to
deployment.
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The Benefts of Sales Force Automation
Whether your goal is to keep closer tabs on jet-setting sales
representatives or better cater to high-maintenance customers, theres
no discounting the perks presented by an SFA solution. Here are just a
handful of benefts companies can expect:
Improved Collaboration: Say goodbye to communication gaps.
With SFA, sales teams, managers and other departments can easily
swap up-to-the-minute sales data, from price lists to product
specifcations.
Bolstered Field Sales: By ensuring anywhere, anytime access to
data, including client account information, inventory availability
and delivery schedules, road warriors are better equipped to
respond to customers questions, concerns and special requests.
Enhanced Sales Productivity: Improve efciency and drive
revenue by better managing and targeting leads. Whats more,
identify leads that may have otherwise fallen through the cracks.
Detailed Reports: Collecting and integrating data is only the frst
step to improving the sales pipeline. Analyze revenue, forecast
opportunities, rate sales-campaign efectiveness and track each
sales reps success using an SFA solutions reporting capabilities.
Empowered Sales Managers: Allow sales managers to carefully
track their sales forces activities. By identifying areas of weakness,
lost opportunities and underserved territories, managers can
better coach and bolster individual sales performance.
More Opportunities: Get a leg up on your archrival. With SFA,
you can track the competition on pending deals and strategically
highlight competitive trends, as well as looming threats.
Educated Partners: Dont leave your channel partners to fend
for themselves. Instead, automate your partner recruitment,
training and planning processes to build more mutually benefcial
relationships.
Better Managed Territories: Having your West Coast-based reps
manage New York City-based clients is an exercise in geographic
mismanagement. An efective SFA solution, however, can
automatically route leads to the right sales reps based on territory.
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Basic Features
Functionality is relatively standard among todays top SFA solutions.
Basic features include:
Sales Management
Lead Management
Opportunity Management and Forecasting
Account and Contact Management
Activity Management
Approvals and Workfow
Territory and Quota Management
Partner Management
Feedback Management
Outlook Integration
Thats not to suggest, however, that each and every solution is
interchangeable. Warned Hickernell of Info-Tech Research Group, SFA
has been around a long time and the base feature set is fairly standard,
which is a good thing for companies; it makes RFPs and evaluations a
little easier. What does tend to vary is the ease with which you can make
changes and customization. For example, an on-premise solution is
typically easier to confgure and integrate than is a SaaS product. So be
sure to consider the complexity of your IT infrastructure when selecting
a solution and reviewing feature sets.
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Advanced Features
SFA features may be fairly standardized, but theres always room for
improvement. Just ask Band of Forrester Research, who said that one
of the key considerations among buyers right now concerns satisfying
road warriors. The big question mark in peoples minds is about mobility,
he said. Can we or cant we push information out to sales organizations
using laptops, PDAs and BlackBerrys?
The answer so far is a resounding yes. An increasing number of vendors,
including Sybase, Sage Software and Saratoga Systems, are extending
SFA functionality to wireless devices, enabling mobile workers to access
key information without having to connect to a back-ofce system. In
fact, 50 percent of surveyed companies believe that mobile SFA will
have a major impact on the way they do business in the next fve years,
according to an Aberdeen Group report.
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Cost
Theres nothing cheap about automating a sales force. On-demand
solutions can average out to $75 per user per month, while on-premise
software licenses can run upward of $1,500 per seat, plus three times
that amount for integration and confguration expenses.
But ensuring that you get the most bang for your buck means looking
beyond dollars and cents. Unlike many other areas of CRM, SFA is highly
dependent upon end-user adoption and end-user participation, and
that takes a tremendous amount of cultural and organizational efort,
not just technology, to be successful, cautioned Hickernell.
Unfortunately, SFA is one of the most challenging components of
CRM when it comes to driving adoption, thanks to a combination of
strong personalities and the inherent complexity of a sales network
that typically includes feld workers, channel partners and internal sales
reps.
For this reason, Hickernell recommended assuring sales reps that SFA
wont interfere with their hard-earned clientele base and demonstrating
the systems immediate benefts. If you build the perception with an
SFA project that it could threaten the relationships that feld salespeople
have developed with their customers, then its seen as a direct threat to
their ability to earn money, which they take very seriously.
Another challenge companies face when evaluating the return on
an SFA investment is deciding what metrics to use. This is particularly
challenging when a company attempts to tackle every element of CRM
at once. Said Hickernell, If the project gets too large, then youre stuck
with trying to measure really generic high-level things like improved
productivity and improved satisfaction these are really nebulous
types of metrics.
Instead, companies would be wise to look for improvements in time-
to-lead qualifcation, order-to-cash processes, churn rates and error
reduction. Band of Forrester Research agrees, because with SFA,
the benefts tend to revolve more around efciencies in the sales
process. Band recommended relying on additional metrics such as the
acceleration of deals through the sales pipeline, increased orders and
cross-sell ratios.
Companies would
be wise to look for
improvements in time-
to-lead qualifcation,
order-to-cash processes,
churn rates and error
reduction.
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Hosted CRM Checklist
What to ask before you buy.
Before talking to an SFA vendor, you will need to know the following
information about your current situation:
r How many employees are in your organization?
r Will your company be in growth mode over the next fve years?
r How quickly are you looking to deploy an SFA solution?
r What are your total SFA project cost limits?
r Do you have the in-house IT resources to support an on-
premise solution?
r What degree of customization are you expecting from an SFA
application?
r Do you have the safeguards in place to securely manage in-
house datacenters?
r How could you beneft from an in-depth view of your sales
pipeline?
r How could your salespeople be better managing customer
relations?
r How easily can you generate forecasting reports?
r How efectively are you targeting top customers?
r How efectively are you generating and qualifying leads?
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Conclusion
The right SFA solution can empower sales representatives with up-to-
the-minute information, help managers better forecast future sales
and business opportunities, and grant senior-level managers accurate
performance assessments. Selecting a solution that can deliver results,
however, entails asking the right questions before signing on the dotted
line.
For example, is an on-demand solution likely to save you money and
ease implementation headaches, or is an on-premise tool better in the
long term? Have you taken the necessary steps to drive adoption of SFA
among your veteran sales teams? And how do you plan on measuring
the return on your SFA investment? By arriving at honest answers to
these important questions beforehand, an SFA solution can help you
better manage your sales organization for years to come.
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Phone: 415-318-7200 / Fax: 415-318-7219
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