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  • NEW 'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits' brochure - Sales Performance Management (more than just CRM) - now available

    'SymVolli -  Features, Advantages & Benefits' - Brochure - Sales Performance ManagementAs promised, last week, in preparation for the launch of SymVolli 8.0 we are and will be releasing new datasheets, brochures and documentation, the second of which is now available.  Click here to download 'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits'.

    The brochure 'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits' looks at SymVolli and highlights some of the key features within the system and how they can be of benefit to you.

    Click here to download 'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits'.

    NEXT WEEK: 'SymVolli - The Experience Of Others' - what other people have experienced and said of the use of SymVolli.

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  • 'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.4

    'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.4

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  • Oh how true, "Is CRM out-dated"?

    I can recommend a very good read, which pulls no punches and describes what we have been doing for thirty years and expecting a different result - "Is CRM out-dated?" from the Smart Selling Tools website.

    I was there when we first started and that was when we called it contact management.  We needed a way to manage all contact with our customers, prospects, suppliers, etc. We then went one stage further and started adding opportunity management, marketing, and customer service functionality so that we could manage everything we did with the outside world and also increase visibility throughout the organisation as to customer activities.  We then decided to call it CRM.

    This has been a great innovation, but we now seem to be stuck on technological advancements, such as supplying CRM as a Software as a Service (SaaS).

    With our clients we have found that more than ever they are looking at ways of applying their processes within systems that are flexible to meet their requirements and offer benefits to the user.  A sales person wants minimal interaction with the system and maximum interaction with the client.  He or she wants a tool that helps him or her manage the sales process, qualifying prospects, measure progress towards getting the order, and at the same time allowing management to use the same information to produce their reports.

    The next wave of development in the sale arena are systems that can cater for any sales process, giving management the ability to monitor results produced by using the process so that it can be refined if necessary.  It could be that by using a process, it is shown that sales person needs coaching or that the marketing message/plan needs reviewing.

    CRM systems are activity based, but where is the process.  The ability to review the sales situation from an elevated position can be achieved using systems that can cater properly for processes, I mean processes not procedures. Procedures/activities are a means of getting from one step, within a process, to the next. You could say that CRM is a subset of the next generation of systems.

    We are dealing with sales performance management systems that go further than managing targets and incentives. As the article says CRM systems are essentially still an interface to a database.  Sales Performance Management systems use the CRM functionality but take it to the next level, to have a direct influence in winning sales.

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  • NEW 'SymVolli - The Product' brochure - Sales Performance Management (more than just CRM) - now available

    'SymVolli - The Product' - Brochure - Sales Performance ManagementIn preparation for the launch of SymVolli 8.0 we are and will be releasing new datasheets, brochures and documentation, the first of which is now available.  Click here to download 'SymVolli - The Product'.

    The brochure 'SymVolli - The Product' looks at SymVolli and highlights some of the key features within the system.  It is an overview document aimed at given a concise portrayal of SymVolli.  In the coming weeks leading up to the launch further datasheets, brochures etc will be made available: 

    NEXT WEEK 'SymVolli - Features & Benefits'

    Click here to download 'SymVolli - The Product'.

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  • Garbage In, Garbage Out: The question is how do you keep the garbage out?

    I came across an article on the Sales Benchmark Index website entitled ‘Sales Performance Management: Getting A Fighting Chance'. It was an very interesting read and furthermore I completely agree with the key finding that viewing your data in different ways is not the most important thing and that attaining and maintaining accurate data is the basis of any decision making process.

    There is the traditional method of ‘carrot and stick’, the carrot being remuneration dependant on the level of accuracy of the information that is entered into a system whether it be contact details or sales forecasts, or the stick being the regular review where the cross-examination establishes whether the information is credible.

    The sales performance management system needs to be able to store snapshots of what is happening thereby building up a trend analysis database. By using the historic data it is possible to quickly establish whether the sales opportunity is being handled correctly or the sales person is not entering the data correctly.

    In the example below the system is tracking the information with regard to the key criteria so that progress can be measured. The opportunity is stagnating why? Looking at the criterion ‘Factors governing the decision’, the status went from ‘established and agreed in our favour’ to ‘established but not agreed’.

     

    Garbage In, Garbage Out - SymVolli - Sales Performance Management, Slippage Report

    Source: SymVolli - Order Slippage Report

     

    The sales person could have left the status as ‘established and agreed in our favour’, but the opportunity is stagnating and that is showing up in the slippage report shown below.

     

    Garbage In, Garbage Out - SymVolli - Sales Performance Management, Slippage Report

    Source: SymVolli - Order Slippage Report

     

    The reports are not only seen by management but also by the sale person, so the next time he or she enters data without substance they will think twice as they know that it will be easily identified.

    Setting up the system up correctly with proven processes will go a long way, but the system needs to have the ability to highlight exceptions thereby helping maintain to integrity of the data.

    You are asking for trouble if you are adding garbage knowing that it will eventually be trapped.

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  • 'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.3

    'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.3

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  • 'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.2

    'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.2

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  • 'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.1

    'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic No.1

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  • 'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - Back By Popular Demand... With More To Follow

    It is back! We have been asked over and over again what happened to our sales comic and as a result of the 'pressure' we have received to reinstate it, it is back.  We will be serialise all the previous comic strips and once we run out them, we will be printing a whole load of new ones.

    So stay tuned, enjoy, and from now on refer to Tuesday as 'Shoot The Salesman - Sales Comic Tuesday'.

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  • When Is ‘Interesting’ The Worst Word You Can Hear?

    When is ‘interesting’ the worst word you can hear?  When you have finished a meeting with a potential client and the only thing they have to say about what you discussed or presented was ‘interesting’.
     
    I was reviewing a sales visit that a sales person had undertaken and naturally I asked how the meeting was closed.  The sales person was very enthusiastic because the client had told him that he found the meeting very interesting and that he should call back towards the end of the following week.   My immediate reaction was that the meeting would not lead to anything and there was a strong chance that the call to be made the following week would not be accepted.  I asked the sales person to use the word interesting and tell me what he felt.  The response was that it was a polite way of saying I am not sure what you can do for me because you have not hit any points that grab my attention.
     
    Never finish a meeting with the word ‘interesting’.  Find out what is the key issue that is to be addressed and the perceived benefits that would be gained by using your products or services, or whether no issues were addressed.  You might get a second chance to go round again and try and address the clients key issues, but ‘interesting’ is not one of his or her issues.  Even if you come to the conclusion you cannot help in a particular sales situation, at least you would have qualified out this lead and you can now move on to another potential opportunity.

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NEW Download

SymVolli - The Product - Brochure - Sales Performance Management

'SymVolli - The Product'

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'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits' - Brochure - Sales Performance Management

'SymVolli - Features, Advantages & Benefits'

Click here or on the image to download now.

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