Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008 - (Page 12)

MARKETING STRATEGY [By Neville May] COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN Customer service problems demand freer information flow t’s a sad-but-true fact: Far too often, salespeople aren’t sufficiently involved in the situations and decisions that affect their customers. When a business has to deal with such commonplace occurrences as the return of a product, delayed or expedited customer orders or a shortpay receivables situation, a lot of really pertinent sales or customer information is not readily available or accessible. What’s needed is to look at the circumstances and causal factors, which often necessitates consulting with other departments or people. Think about it: Most ERP and supply chain software vendors still talk in terms of the classical exceptions, expedite, defer and cancel, some other basic triggers and I data. But users need more than just these skeletal notifications. They need help with the background, causal and human factors, such as: Why? How much? How early, or late? What else is affected? Who else is affected? What are the alternatives? Recommendations? Cost implications? These often-critical aspects are key to effective event management. Workflow and CRM applications have attempted to address this area, but lack the flexibility to cope with unplanned situations, so operational users have to rely on less-than-optimal approaches to gather the information (be it from sales or other sources). The result is too many voice or e-mail messages, Post-it notes, pink slips and personal notes, as well as meetings, conversations JULY/AUGUST 2008 and phone calls. Since none of these are saved in any form that can be analyzed, the opportunity to gain insights into the business is lost. Any of the three hypothetical problems mentioned in the opening paragraph could necessitate the involvement of the sales representative, customer, sales management, operations and/or accounting. Therefore, the relevant information should be accessible in three ways: s With the appropriate records and data in the enterprise system. s With an action-oriented or tickler format for each individual. s Retained for review to set metrics and statistics. “Can we do better?” This was the question raised by Nucor Fastener, a building material manufacturer in St. Joe, Ind. As summarized by Jim Witucki, Nucor’s sales manager: “We needed to transfer an employee’s knowledge of a customer into the enterprise information. Nowhere in our ERP system was there a place for this information sharing.” Until now, that is. Nucor has found software that integrates with (and within) their ERP suite to provide facilities from messaging and event management to establishing innovative and meaningful performance indicators. This add-on application, Final Link, was provided by Systems Conversion Ltd. of Cartersville, Ga. Nucor makes use of Final Link in several departments, including: s Regional direct sales representatives. s Corporate-based sales, customer service and order entry. s Sales administration. s Shipping and receiving. s Production control/scheduling. s Receivables and credit control. s Purchasing. “We wanted to improve our customer service in terms of order accuracy, on-time delivery and quality,” says Tom Miller, general manager of Nucor Fastener. Neville May is a retired 30-plus-year veteran of the ERP business. He can be contacted at npmjmay@mindspring.com or by calling 563-422-5325. To learn more about Final Link, send e-mail inquiries to finallink@systemsconversion.com or call 404-915-8363. 12 istock photo SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008

Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Mother Lode of All Market Data Returns Embracing the Future Training Technology Incentives/Motivation Don't Become a Target Abroad Book Excerpt On the Road The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - July/August 2008

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