Page 279 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Customer Relationship Management

Notes Sales Force Operations: This CRM area is perhaps the most mature. Companies have been
deploying sales force automation solutions long before CRM became a popular buzzword. The
rise of Sales Force Automation (SFA) software parallels that of the portable and laptop computers
and the handheld devices. Measurements in sales force operations focus on tracking leads as
they develop into sales, measuring performance of individual sales staff members and teams,
monitoring the sales performance of products, reviewing the impact training has on performance,
and the cost of sales. Some measures include:

Sales quota The amount of sales each sales representative, team, product or product category
has committed or is assigned to solicit.
Close percentage This metric goes by many names. The purpose of the metric is to score a lead with a
percentage that it is likely to turn into a sale. As sales personnel work with the
customer to answer questions, exchange information, prepare legal contracts and so
on, the percentage is changed up or down.
Customer score Not only are leads scored, but customers are too. By scoring a customer, companies
can develop a model that helps them predict which customers are likely to purchase
their product or service. Many attributes (size of the company, geographic location,
level of access into the company, level of cultural, industries the customer serves,
size of budget for the solution being sold) can go into scoring a customer. In this
regard, customer scoring is similar to a segmentation exercise. However, many sales
teams score customers within a segment and the scoring is often subjective.
Sales expenses This metric includes all expenses related to the sale, such as travel, entertainment,
printing, shipping, use of other internal resources, 3 party expenses, etc.
rd
Close rate The percentage of sales leads that convert to sales. This is often tracked at the sales
representative, team, customer segment and product/product category level.
Sales totals The total number of sales represented by all leads. This metric is often multiplied by
the close percentage for a weighted sales leads number. This metric is used to
predict future sales.
Sales lost The number (or percentage) of sales lost, broken down by reasons, which can
include loss to a competitor, loss of customer funding, and many other reasons.
Training impact Companies use different techniques to detect the impact of sales training on the
sales force, including sales staff surveys on training effectiveness and comparisons
in other sales metrics pre- and post-training.
Cross-sell rate The percentage of sales totals that include items that were not specifically requested
but recommended by the sale force or through marketing.
Number of calls The number of calls made by a sales representative or sales team. This can be broken
down by new account calls and existing account calls.
Number of new How many new customers have been added during a period of time?
customers

Service Centre Operations: With the increased use of phone technology to handle incoming
phone calls and manage outbound sales calls, companies have long housed those resources into
a single functional group called the call centre, service centre or interaction centre. Much has
been written about call centre and service centre operations, revealing a host of measures
(Anton, 1997), some of which are listed here.

274 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY