CRM - February 2008 - (Page 35)

The key is maintaining a continuous dialogue—before things blow up into a crisis and fingers start pointing. Working together should be defined as a priority and included in annual performance evaluations.“I am big on top management setting a positive tone and keeping people focused on serving customers,” Bohn says. Some of the most egregious failures occur in highprofile industries. Konczal cites as an example the communications industry, where the failure of informed exchange between sales and IT has caused marketing campaigns and sales efforts to fall well below forecasted expectations. “There are countless examples of sales and marketing going to market with a specific promotion or campaign that could not be supported by the billing system. Hence, revenue could not be collected and, of course, the campaign did not meet objectives,” he says. But this seems to be a trend that is changing. Today’s Slicks often have a technical specialist whose job it is to act as liaison to the Propeller-Heads, coordinating requirements and projects. “One example that comes to mind is the case of the sales organization of a large communications service provider that has decided to take back in-house its Web sales channel and some of its retail stores from a thirdparty sales company,” Konczal says. “In this case, the sales and IT teams are working as one team to design and implement the communications retail experience of the future.” SOLUTIONS Some would argue that software-as-a-service (SaaS) circumvents the Slicks/Propeller-Heads struggle. Indeed, the reduced impact on technical infrastructure and personnel has been among the chief selling points for SaaS. “I don’t think SaaS provides an end-run around the problem,” Bohn says. “The same problems are all still there. Look at any big Salesforce.com project and you will see all the same issues present.”Whether or not this is true, the fact remains that many organizations have already invested considerable time and effort in their CRM systems—investments they won’t be keen on scrapping in favor of SaaS. Let’s focus on the needs of those companies, the ones that have something in place and no compelling reason to change. Identifying and properly communicating requirements The sales engineer (SE) uses tech knowledge to move sales forward by working with the customer to establish technical requirements, functional needs, and points of integration. Somebody who understands the IT environment and is able to think like a salesperson could be the ideal moderator. In some cases, at least: “It depends on the seniority Engineering the Sale When it comes to bridging sales and technology jargon and processes, many organizations have a sales engineer—a role uniquely designed for straddling both sides of the equation. “In many sales, there are two sorts of people at work for the vendor: the sales rep, who does the actual deal, talks about financing, and such; and a tech guy who runs demonstrations, www.destinationCRM.com of the SE, and maybe on the kind of business the company serves,” Janus says. “With applications vendors, the SE is always working with IT groups, and is sensitive to their needs” even while driving the sale to completion. On the other hand, Janus notes, in other businesses (such as medicaldevice sales) the SE interacts with specialist end users (such as doctors and nurses) and the connection isn’t as strong. —ML 35 handles RFPs, and is responsible for solution closure. We call that person the sales engineer,” says Phil Janus, chief executive officer of aptly named software vendor Salesengineering.com. Janus notes that the process (and the sales engineer’s expertise) often enables the organization to grow the size of a deal by identifying areas where the customer’s capabilities are lacking. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | FEBRUARY 2008 http://Salesforce.com http://Salesengineering.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - February 2008

CRM - February 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Loyalty Riddle CRM Drives Down-Market Out of the Gate: Marketers Rate ’08 Traits The Pulse Consultants Adapt to CRM’s Changing Landscape Required Reading Cover Story: CRM Gets Serious Contact Center Solutions Always On Rumble in the Office The Smallest Slice Tying Up Cable’s Loose Ends Burning Up the Paper Trail Sunny Skies for Knology No More Bumps for BlueRoads Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - February 2008

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