1. BGS Customer Relationship Management
Chapter 8
Sales Strategy and CRM
Thomson Publishing 2007 All Rights Reserved

2. New Sales Challenges

3. The New Sales Challenge
Sales forces are experiencing significant new challenges in the sales process:
Internal challenges include integrating:
(SFA) tools
Consistent use of CRM systems
External challenges include:
Competitive environment
Improving technologies
New data resources

4. The Use of CRM
CRM has been developed to meet the ever-evolving needs of sales
Sales forces use CRM systems to deliver:
The right offer
To the right customers
At the right time

5. CRM and Sales
A salesperson’s principle responsibility is to improve his or her business and relationship with his or her customer continually.
Today’s sales forces must record customer needs.
The single greatest impediment to effective CRM is the lack of sales force participation.

6. CRM and Sales Strategies
There are several different selling strategies currently used based on the strengths of organizations.
Transactional selling
Consultive selling
Strategic selling
Partnership selling

7. Strategic Selling Example
3M uses this approach in its adhesive divisions with their windows and doors industry customers.
Invest significantly in providing technical resources for new customer new product development.
The key account representative must mobilize resources in 3M for the long term.

8. Who Executes these Sales Strategies?
Same sales technique?
Boeing 787
Wellbutrin XL (an antidepressant)
Crest toothpaste

9. Who Executes these Sales Strategies?
Different skills are needed by:
Manufacturer’s representatives
Brokers
Direct salespeople
Inside telephone salespeople
CRM system can help

10. CRM Benefits CRM provides salespeople with the ability to
Document customer needs quickly
Provide senior management exposure to customer problems
Direct other departments

11. Sales Challenges in Consumer Package Goods
Sales is challenged with
Managing extensive customer relationships
Reacting to customer demands
Developing local promotional programs to achieve marketing objectives

12. Sales Challenges in Consumer Package Goods (CPG)
What caused this organizational change for sales?
The introduction of scanner technology
Retailers were more aware of customer demand
Data collection system was faster and more accurate
New data created a new approach to customer management called frequent shopper or customer loyalty programs

13. Sales Challenges in Consumer Package Goods (CPG)
Leveraging household data and running promotions are at the heart of the channel conflict between manufacturers and retailers.
Who will control the dollars and the message used to motivate households to purchase products?
Who makes decisions?

14. CPG Relationships

15. An Expansion of Sales and the CRM Mentality

16. The Selling Landscape
The selling landscape today is filled with a variety of selling techniques:
SPIN Selling
Miller Heiman
The time is right for us to consider selling as a buying management process

17. Sales Models and CRM Sales models today use fact-based selling
Essential facts and compelling reasons to buy must be recorded in a CRM database
What if your sales representative leaves?

18. Commitment to Customer Management
At its heart, CRM is a disciplined approach to customer management.
Successful CRM requires a clear commitment of the entire company to the process from the top down.
CRM is not technology dependent but rather a business framework for improving performance.
Small companies with good knowledge of their customers, such as Dry Cleaning to Your Door, practice CRM without a sophisticated CRM system.

19. CRM and Customer Management
Today, sales strategy is changing because of the need to serve larger and more influential customers more expeditiously.
CRM systems can provide a wealth of information previously unavailable.
CRM empowers sales to take more control of customer management.
Account Specific Marketing
Category management programs

20. Information Empowerment
CRM is providing sales forces with the capability to monitor their business better.
The foundation for these capabilities is the acquisition of better information collected from a variety of customer touch points.
Sales collects and inputs the following buyer organization data:
objectives
motivations
purchase cycles
available budgets (open to buy)
purchase authority
buying-committee involvement

21. Information Empowerment
In addition, the salesperson is responsible for inputting:
sales forecasts
sales probabilities
delivery specifics
expected sale timing

22. Information Empowerment
Today’s CRM systems provide for superior relationship management because information is more
accurate
timely
comprehensive
CRM systems provide management with improved sales forecasts and better pipeline management to direct production

23. Information, Sales, and CRM

24. What Strategies Work Better when Supported by CRM?
The following strategies are now utilizing new data resources and better analytics to improve company performance with retailers:
Category Management (CM)
Account Specific Marketing (ASM)
Continuity and Frequency Programs (FSP)

25. Using CRM for Selling
We evaluate the impact of CRM with the following analytics
ROI
Sales opportunities closed
Prediction accuracy
The capability to track major sales events
It is easy to see how sales leaders are using CRM and gaining prominence in their organizations

26. Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics?
Objectives specify an intended accomplishment.
A strategy statement focuses on how you will accomplish your objective.
A tactical statement is what you will do specifically to reach your goal.

27. Category Management and CRM
Category management is selection of the appropriate assortment, shelf space, and promotion for a group of products.
Sales forces regard CRM as a valuable tool for category management
it improves the speed
accuracy
quality of information exchanged by partners by using CRM analytics to evaluate the performance of the sales force and the profitability of the programs

28. ASM and CRM CRM supports Account Specific Marketing through
improved customer information
more timely communication
providing better pipeline data
The metrics observed in ASM are
opportunity conversion rates
revenue and profitability of account initiatives
The sales force is responsible for ASM

29. Loyalty Programs/Frequent Shopper Club Programs and Sales
Loyalty programs become CRM programs
Most loyalty programs are in a B2C channels
United Airlines Mileage Plus Program
The Hertz Gold Program
Hilton Hotels Honors Program
Programs in B2B2C environments such as Safeway’s Safeway Club are also CRM programs

30. FSP and CRM
Frequent shopper club activity in the grocery industry is a promotion effort that works on three levels at any time
A reward to customers for purchase
A means to deliver in-store electronic incentives
A vehicle to target and deliver incentives via direct mail, web site, and at checkout

31. CPG, Promotion, and CRM
As sales forces become more involved with customer strategy, CRM becomes more important to a company’s success.
CRM provides the sales force the analytics to measure product and campaign performance.

32. CPG: What Have we Learned?
A new generation of leaders
Decisions made by sale forces are determining the success of customers’ marketing efforts
Empowered by CRM, the line between the sales and marketing functions is being blurred
Strategic decision making regarding loyalty programs, category management, customer communication, and consumer promotion are made by sales

33. CRM and Sales Techniques

34. CRM: The Foundation
CRM systems serve as the foundation for sales action maintaining record of
Buyer preferences
Process requirements
Purchase cycles
Contact dates
Contract information
Customer service interface information
Forecast sales

35. Proactive Sales Action and CRM
The ability to be more proactive with CRM results from having the right information to address a problem immediately.
Companies need to reduce the response time for solutions due to competition and technology.
According to Frank Loftus, 3M’s General Manager of Automotive Sales in Detroit, “Our customers require answers to business problems in minutes and hours not days!”

36. The Issue of Sales Usage
The key, of course, in sales involvement in CRM is actual usage of a CRM system.
According to Todd Forsythe, VP Integrated Marketing at Oracle, “The number one reason that CRM has not been successful is connection of the CRM system to the sales force. All the technology and sophistication of CRM is dependent on one function and that is the sales person must believe in the value that the system can provide.”

37. The Issue of Sales Usage
CRM systems used by sales forces began as server-driven programs exclusively designed to speed order entry.
New on-demand solutions like salesforce.com or NetSuite provide
Easier system access
Simpler interface to the system
A shorter system learning curve

38. CRM: Sales Force Value
CRM’s value to salespeople translates into the following areas
CRM must save the salesperson time,
CRM must save the salesperson effort
CRM must make the salesperson more productive
CRM must streamline the decision-making process for a sales organization

39. McKinsey and Company on CRM Usage
If salespeople are recalcitrant regarding system usage, they can cripple a CRM initiative.
Salespeople are inherently skeptical about CRM
Salespeople fear they loose their value to the company
Managers understand the benefit of CRM, but short- term volume pressure can compromise the initiative.
If sales managers do not support CRM, employee skepticism results.

40. CRM System Usage
Sales managers must focus on increasing sales force CRM participation
Short-term incentives for CRM compliance
Implementing more user friendly applications
Recognition of exceptional CRM compliance
Merchandising successful CRM results

41. The R in CRM

42. A Question of Value
How does CRM help to increase customer satisfaction?
More timely response to needs
An improved and smoother sales process
Better forecasting and performance
Providing the correct solutions at the right time

43. PERFORMANCE / TRUST CONTINUUM
Unfamiliarity
Trust
PERFORMANCE
Negotiation
Dialogue
TIME
Transactional Selling
Relationship Selling

44. Creating Customer Value
CRM helps to establish a competitive edge in providing added value and differentiating the companies offering by creating process value.
Two ways to add customer value
Impressive cost or process advantages (Southwest Airlines)
Creating better consumer perception of value

45. CRM and the Sales Organization
The sales force can be enticed to participate more fully in CRM if
They are part of a team responsible for CRM deployment
Clear direction is provided to the entire sales organization

46. CRM and the Sales Organization
A CRM solution can play a critical role in the reorganization of a sales department, both on the cause and effect sides.  
On the cause side, new tools make it possible to segment the customer base easily based on a criterion
Like company size
Or market potential
In segmenting the sales operation, companies can use an inside sales force to service the smaller accounts  
This provides the benefit of reducing the cost per sale and providing better service since it is easier to reach the inside person.  
GBC (General Binding Corporation) recently went through a reorganization of this sort and it was very successful. CRM was implemented after the sales changes.
On the effect side, CRM applications have the ability to assign accounts to the correct salespeople because of reorganization.
This lets the company get on quickly and easily with its plan.  The newly assigned sales representative gets immediate access to the account history, including scheduled follow-ups.
This lets them hit the ground running and minimize the disruption caused by reorganization.

47. Sales Engagement
Once sales is fully engaged in the CRM process, the company will be prepared to deal effectively in a new sales environment with
Different management structure
Compensation platforms
Account assignments
Call plans

48. The CRM Sales Cycle

49. The CRM Sales Cycle
In the CRM system, the campaign results are input into to the database for future reference and promotional activity.
Successful campaigns build relationships. Long-term success breeds true partnerships between companies.

50. Conclusion
The success of the company and often their customer will be dependent upon how well sales forces use CRM.