Sales Team Information Systems

A Sales Force Ten Feet Tall
A Sales Team Information System for Union Carbide, Linde Division
by Stephen Schiavo
Associate Professor
Computer Information Science
College of Technology
Missouri Southern State University

The most important weapon in the manager's arsenal is information, and the computer revolution of recent decades goes far to make information available and useful. Of all corporate functions, sales and service had for years been the last to benefit from the computer revolution and the information it provides. Those systems that had been created for the sales department too often automated little more than the Day-Timer and Rolodex . In the marketing department, the systems one usually found were limitied efforts in lead-tracking. The most common application was counting the number of responses by source of lead. Systems should have been doing much, much more .

A good sales team information system (STIS) can help the manager balance and assign territories quickly and fairly. It is invaluable in applying a reasonability check to revenue targets and commission plans. It should keep managers informed of the sales reps' calling schedules, objectives and expectations, and achievements. It buffers the firm from the effects of turnover, allowing a new person to pick up the territory where the departing rep left off, with all the details of clients and prospects intact and up to date. It keeps the reps in close touch with their prospects and customers, and makes it easy for prospects and customers to keep in touch with them. It provides early warning of, and fast response to, changes in client needs and preferences. It provides a common forum in which to share the latest information on your firm's entire constellation of operations -- clients, competitors, suppliers, regulators, investors.

Union Carbide — Linde Division

This multi-national industrial division engaged Sales & Marketing Systems, Inc., of Vienna, VA (SMSI), to design and implement their sales team information system. I had worked with SMSI on other projects, and agreed to manage the Linde project.

Linde's operations involved over a hundred sales and service people, sales managers, and supporting staff in a dozen district offices across the country. The division manufactured and sold industrial gasses -- nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and helium mostly. Their market was characterized by tough protracted negotiations, long term contracts, a handful of world-class competitors, and withering price competition.

They had spent considerable time and money to provide sales information systems from their huge mainframe installation at the head office. Field reps and managers alike said the system was often unavailable when they tried to connect. Once connected, the information that was available had been defined more for head office administrative functions, than for sales and customer service; and little provision was made for the information needed to manage a sales territory professionally.

Together, we created a sales database and system that the sales people could carry with them on portable notebook computers.

They could look up any person or company with just a few keystrokes, and review activity-to-date at any client or prospect, be reminded of any follow-up activity that was needed, and note the results of current talks or meetings. Everything they needed to know about a prospect or client, or about a product or service offering, was in their notebook computer.

The system provided a means of communicating changes in pricing and policy from the head office quickly and accurately. More important, it provided a way for the field staff to communicate quickly and accurately back to head office.
We set up their common form letters -- "Thank your for your interest in ...", or "This is to confirm our meeting for ..." -- that sort of thing. All the sales rep had to do was point to the person in the database, then point to the form letter, and hit a button. There was the option to print the letter immediately, to store it until the next time a printer was available (back in the office, or in the hotel room). One could even transmit the letter to one's office to be printed and mailed from there.
They established series of letters, one to follow another over a period of some weeks, designed to follow up with prospects deemed less immediate. Knowing the nature of the long term contracts in their marketplace, and when competitors' agreements were up for renewal, they were able to time their contacts accordingly. Naturally, the letters were intended to lead to personal calls and meetings.
Previously they had spent as much as one day every week in preparing reports for management -- activities completed the past week; activities planned for next week; forecast for the month, or the quarter; expenses, etc. With the new system they just kept their own notes, and kept the status of each account up to date. When new leads came into headquarters, they could be distributed directly to the reps through the periodic updates.
Every two or three days the rep would plug a phone line into the PC and the system would automatically dial the next higher office and exchange updates. Management always had everything the reps had: branch office matched the individuals' data, division matched branch, HQ matched division -- all current to within the last 24 hours.

There was some trepidation and reluctance among many of the seasoned veterans about using the new system. Some of them may have thought their reputation as a leader would suffer if they were judged by their facility with the new computers. We made no demands on them whatever regarding using the system. Rather, we made extensive use of their advice and experience in designing the features of the system and the details of the customer-and-prospect database. As time passed, however, the production gains of others began to suggest to the more astute of the veterans that there might be something to this new system after all. We provided extensive training and assistance, in formal and informal settings, in the regional offices, and on the road. Before long, reps who had never even signed onto the old mainframe system, were using our new system religiously.

Sales went way up. Head office had more reliable information more often and more quickly. Innovation in the way products were sold, contracted, and priced came faster and faster. Customers reported an improved level of service. And the sales and service staff reported increased ability to meet targets and exceed customer expectations.

Two years later the head office launched another mainframe-based effort to create an elaborate sales/billing/marketing system. The sales reps continued using our PC system tailored especially for them. One convert said he'd give up his system “when they pry my cold dead fingers from around it.”

Measures to improve sales and service may involve changes in any part of the company; and changes in other parts of the company often mandate changes in sales and service. But the right process will help insure that whatever changes you make are effective. Properly implemented, STIS extends beyond the sales staff itself. Customer Service needs to have ready access to the status of customer accounts, just as they need to keep sales and marketing informed of customer complaints and product problems. Dealers and distributors can be closely integrated into the sales organization through a well-planned STIS. Production can monitor forecasts, and Engineering can monitor client response to the product. Today's inexpensive portable computers give unprecedented power to the sales-and-service forces to serve more clients more professionally, and less expensively.