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Sales Tech Tools to Help You Close More Deals
March 29, 2007
Software trends that are shaping the way your sales force works
By Julia Chang
So you consider yourself a sales techie who's got enterprise incentive management, customer relationship management and social networking technologies down pat. But there are tools out there that don't fall neatly into those categories that can help you win more deals and sell more effectively. Here are some notable ones:
Landslide
Don't call it sales force automation or customer relationship management software; Landslide Technologies much prefers the term "sales workstyle management" to describe its offering. Landslide was designed by salespeople for salespeople, and its aim is pure and simple: Help your sellers close more deals by crafting an interface that is as intuitive as possible (so they’ll actually use it) and that makes the sales process as transparent as possible. Tabs on the home page can be customized to the phases of your sales cycle. Salespeople can track what steps in the selling process need to be completed (along with a prediction of the likelihood a prospect will close, based on reps' progress); get ready access to marketing collateral and sales aids, such as executive conversation guides; and create a customized Web portal for each customer using Landslide's iO channel, which facilitates communication and alerts you when a prospect has downloaded documents or left comments. Perhaps the pièce de résistance is Landslide's VIP assistants, whom you can call or e-mail to help you with data entry or call preparation when you'd rather be selling.
www.landslide.com.
StrongMail
There are few companies these days that don't conduct transactional business via e-mail. But are you making e-mail work hard enough for you? The folks at StrongMail want you to turn your simple customer communication e-mails (order confirmations or account summaries, for example) into a two-way dialogue. They offer e-mail delivery software and infrastructure that help you use those e-mails to cross-sell, provide better customer service, and reinforce your online brand—which is started on your Web site but loses steam in the plain-text follow-up e-mails customers usually receive after a transaction. Using StrongMail's suite of tools, you can personalize the transactional e-mails; make special products and offers based on customer purchase history or click behavior; facilitate service and order management; create e-mail campaign lists on the fly through StrongMail's back-end integration with your business-process or customer relationship management systems; and analyze the results of your e-mail marketing campaigns.
www.strongmail.com
SalesGenius
Ever wish you could catch a customer in the act of responding to an e-mail blitz? Sales Genius, an e-mail marketing and Web-watching service, gives reps a chance to gauge prospects' interest by monitoring their Web activity in real time. Users sign up for a SalesGenius account with a corporate e-mail address and provide the URL they want tracked (don't worry, your corporate Web site is unaffected). Once you activate your account, the Genius Tracker instantly notes when prospects open your e-mail pitch, whether they go on to visit your Web site, and records the pages they click through and how long they stay there. The product comes with e-mail templates and enabled chat. The intelligence you gather from the Web-based software helps you prioritize sales calls, better qualify leads and customize pitches. Integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce.com.
www.genius.com
References-Online
Don't burn out your best customers by having them constantly act as a customer reference for you. References-Online offers various levels of reference management for companies that find their biggest selling points are the words of their customers. The service records audio or video interviews with your customers and places them on a secure server where prospects can view or hear them anytime. References-Online also offers services that helps manage and set up your references by determining which customers would make the best reference sources; surveys potential references to uncover any problems lurking within that customer relationship; manages reward programs for customers who act as references; and tracks usage of your reference program. Integrates with Salesforce.com.
www.references-online.com
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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