Are you looking for a Sales Force Automation Solution (SFA) if yes then read on? Before start looking for a solution it is important to understand the meaning and the utility of the solution. The exercise starts by distinguishing between a Personal Information Manager and a Sales Force Automation Solution.

What is a Personal Information Manager (PIM)?

PIMs, such as Microsoft Outlook and PDA software, were designed to help you organize basic personal information. They typically include an address book, calendar, and to-do list, mimicking the paper-based format of each. PIMs enable you to maintain your personal information, as well as basic information about Sales Force Automations, but do not allow you to integrate information such as linking documents or e-mail communications to a Sales Force Automation.

Some PIMs provide basic Sales Force Automation tracking and searching functionality. For example, a PIM may offer the ability to attach notes to a contact, but it would not provide a historical view of that relationship. Piecing together relationship histories with a PIM would require a great deal of time and patience, plus supplemental applications (such as spreadsheets or other documentation).

What is a Sales Force Automation Solution & Customer Manager?

A Sales Force Automation solution and customer manager allows you to manage all tasks and information related to developing and maintaining relationships with the people, groups, and companies with whom you do business. Sales Force Automation solution and customer management involves a variety of activities, including the ability to:

• Centralize critical contact and customer information and stay organized.
• Manage and grow business relationships through top-notch communications.
• Prioritize your work to stay on top of appointments and tasks.
• Forecast and track sales opportunities for an improved bottom line.
• Access and report on information quickly for a complete view of customer interactions.
• Improve efficiency by integrating the applications you use every day, such as Microsoft Office and Accounting applications
• Access critical information on-the-go from Palm OS ®, Pocket PC, BlackBerry®, and iPhone devices.

Built on the foundation of a contact-centered database, Sales Force Automation and customer management software provides comprehensive tracking and instant access to all contact and company related information. It's intuitively designed for the day-to-day management of contact information by an individual, workgroup, or corporate team.

A major difference between PIMs and Sales Force Automation solution is that PIMs contain isolated (as opposed to integrated) components. For example, in a PIM you might look at a calendar appointment in one view, and then separately refer your contact list for details about the person you're meeting. Sales Force Automation and customer management software's provides a 360-degree view of your contact information so you don't have to jump from one application to another to complete a task, plan your day, or execute your sales strategies. Sales Force Automation and customer management software is a tool to improve the way you build and maintain business relationships and enhance your professional image. It empowers you to focus on profitable endeavors, such as outshining your competition, by minimizing the time spent on routine tasks. It's an essential tool for consistently transforming contacts into customers and first-time customers into loyal relationships.

A Sales Force Automation Solution has the following features:

• Centralize important prospect and customer relationship details for quick, organized access.
• Manage interactions at the company or account level for a complete view of relationships with that organization.
• Get up-to-speed quickly and remain productive because of the easy to learn and use interface, eliminating the need for formal training.
• Find specific relationship details instantly using powerful search capabilities in an easy-to-use format.
• Manage daily responsibilities by scheduling and tracking activities to ensure individual and team productivity.
• Forecast and track sales opportunities to stay on top of all new leads and to provide management with insight into sales pipelines.
• Gain instant and accurate insight into individual and team performance using dashboards and reports.
• Communicate consistently and successfully with prospects and customers using Microsoft® Outlook® or other e-mail solutions used by your organization.
• Share and secure precious prospect and customer relationship details across teams of users.
• View how your sales reps are tracking to their sales goals and how their time is allocated using interactive dashboards and reports. With this information, you can coach your sales reps, and help underperforming reps get back on track without delay.
• Enhance sales predictability and results by providing a customized sales process for your team to guide their deals through close.
• Streamline your team's daily functions so they can focus more on selling rather than administrative tasks, to ultimately improve their productivity.
• Maintain relationship details, despite sales rep turnover. Rest assured that prospect and customer details will remain as an organizational asset, even as your team changes.

Sales force Automation can be a boon for SME and SMB's for their Sales and marketing teams. SME and SMB's in India are relatively new to Sales force automation but slowly and gradually they are adopting SFA processes. Software Companies like Sage India specialises in Sales Force Automation for SME and SMB's.

You can get more information from their website:

http://www.sagesoftware.co.in/SubSubProduct.aspx?SubProductId=24

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