Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) Key Differences Explained
Sales Automation
The 3 primary functions that should be included in a Sales Automation suite are:
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Sales Funnel
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Customer Service
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Marketing Automation
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Suppliers of Sales Automation products focus to a varying extent on each aspect dependent upon there background.
Which Sales Automation Product should you choose? How to decide:
- Is “Customer Service” a crucial differentiator or frankly do you need to just “get new business leads”. We all say customer service is important but there are degrees!
- How important is the ability to customise the basic package to fit your industry and the ease in which the Sales Automation Suite can accommodate your own text, colours and logos.
Your Project Planning Process
A process of consultation is essential within the company to include at least Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, Senior Management, Order Fulfilment and Key Customers. This will identify -
- Specific goals and objectives that must be delivered by the new application
- "Stress-points" that a new application will cause to existing processes and people
- Efficiencies that might be achieved
- Training
- Pre-loading of data
- "Piloting, measuring and learning"
- Full-scale roll-out plans
When do you see the benefits start to take effect?
The full advantage of installing Sales Automation suites will only be realised, once the procedures and personnel have been redesigned to work with (and not against) the new application. The management of this significant change needs to be well planned, communicated and people need to be "bought into the process” right from day one.
Would you like some help?
If you feel that Sales Automation is the next step for your company and you need independent advice on planning for and the commissioning of a Sales Automation service, then call o i solutions. We can offer a short seminar on the suites available in the market today with an independent compare/contrast assessment. Then work with you on the selection process that will deliver a service that is "right" for your needs, schedule and budget. In terms of an off-the-shelf package we recommend SalesOutlook because of its ease of use and ability to integrate with Outlook. However if you have other requirements then we are happy to advise.
What’s the difference between Sales Automation and CRM systems?
CRM is the acronym for Customer Relationship Management systems. The IDM Guide to CRM Mastery defines CRM as “…. an enterprise-wide commitment to identify your named, individual customers and create a relationship between your company and these customers so long as that relationship is mutually beneficial.”
Sales Automation on the other hand is very much concerned with satisfying the salesforce information requirements, whilst recognising the company does not want to input information twice with its CRM system. Hence you must plan your approach systematically: we have the experience to help you here.
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Thanks to our partnerJohn Cornish at Cornish Business Resources (CBR) for his input. CBR are market research and marketing analysis experts with whom o i solutions work with on CRM projects.
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SalesOutlook CRM Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for Microsoft Outlook which utilises both Microsoft Office® and the Microsoft Exchange Server® to deliver a powerful and customisable account-focused CRM.
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