Page 358 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 14: Sales Force Automation

Notes
Did u know? Tracking the productivity of their sales force by combining a number of
performance measures such as: revenue per sales person, revenue per territory, margin by
customer segment, margin by customer, number of calls per day, time spent per contact,
revenue per call, cost per call, entertainment cost per call, ratio of orders to calls, revenue
as a percentage of sales quota, number of new customers per period, number of lost
customers per period, cost of customer acquisition as a percentage of expected lifetime
value of customer, percentage of goods returned, number of customer complaints, and
number of overdue accounts. More complex models like the PAIRS model (by Parasuraman
and Day) and the Call Plan model (by Lodish) can also be used.

Advantages to the Marketing Manager

It is also claimed to be useful for the marketing manager. It gives the marketing manager
information that is useful in:
 Understanding the economic structure of your industry
 Identifying segments within your market
 Identifying your target market
 Identifying your best customers in place

 Doing marketing research to develop profiles (demographic, psychographic, and
behavioral) of your core customers
 Understanding your competitors and their products
 Developing new products

 Establishing environmental scanning mechanisms to detect opportunities and threats
 Understanding your company’s strengths and weaknesses
 Auditing your customers’ experience of your brand in full
 Developing marketing strategies for each of your products using the marketing mix
variables of price, product, distribution, and promotion

 Coordinating the sales function with other parts of the promotional mix (such as
advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and publicity)
 Creating a sustainable competitive advantage
 Understanding where you want your brands to be in the future, and providing an empirical
basis for writing marketing plans on a regular basis to help you get there
 Providing input into feedback systems to help you monitor and adjust the process

Strategic Advantages

Sales force automation systems can also create competitive advantage. Here are some examples:
As mentioned above, productivity will increase. Sales staff will use their time more efficiently
and more effectively. The sales manager will also become more efficient and more effective.
This increased productivity can create a competitive advantage in three ways: it can reduce costs,
it can increase sales revenue, and it can increase market share.
Field sales staff will send their information more frequently. Typically information will be sent
to management after every sales call (rather than once a week). This provides management with

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