Sales And Selling

Sales and Selling

Question 1

Anne Rothman find out that SFA system was creating more problems than presenting a solution to the problems. Sales managers and company executives were complaining about the reliable information on the company's sales pipeline.

Loss of Autonomy

When Anne Rothman was interviewing the sales Rep, she found that few sales reps hesitated to enter deals into an SFA system because they felt that manager will be watching them For many sales people, using this software is like a loss of autonomy, that is they will feel like their every step are being watched and monitored by their manager. This may stress the employees and it's the company which will suffer later on. It is also a loss of power for them as 'valuable customer's information is pried from their hands and dropped into full view of the entire organisation. In worst cases, some sales representatives may enter fake data on the software just to show the boss what he will be expecting. This action will therefore make the software useless as the 'system is only as good as the information it contains.'(Mark Cotteleer 2008).

Sales people may feel reluctant to use the software

In addition, Anne Rothman further learnt that sales reps were reluctant to used the software because they feel that daytime jobs don't go away when there are new tools to utilize, so learning the system was a tax on their time.

When PCs first were introduced into offices several years ago, very few people actually used them.'(Corse 1989). In the same way as the software will be new to salespeople, they will hesitate before using it. That is why proper training should be offered to show them how helpful the software will be to them rather than being a nuisance. For example, 'if all salesperson employ a standardised qualification process, the CRM software should be customised to automate what they already do manually. This will assist them in tracking the progress of sales opportunities, provide greater visibility into their pipeline and gives the manager the reports he needs.

Requires Continuous Maintenance

Sales force automation software requires continuous maintenance, information updating and system upgrading and all these requires investment for a company. The good part is that if the company is making profit with the help of sales force automation software, then the cost of the maintenance will be paid from part of the profit but if sales representatives or other employees are not using it correctly then it is a waste of money. However, in case of Quantium Technology Sales reps were simply not meeting quotas, and sales managers were frustrated with their lack of insight into the organization. Therefore, implanting SAF was not that fruitful for the company even after the huge amount of money had been spent.

A sizable monetary investment may be required

The initial investment on sales force automation software depends on the size of the company and its systems. Different companies will use different types or a modified version of the software and thus it ...