Sales Force Automation

luvcloud
Member

Posted 20-May-2004 02:05 AM
I'm trying to understand the sales process of an SFA system—talking about SalesForce.com system specifically. SalesForce.com has differenciated Leads and Accounts/Contacts and Opportunity can only be created when the Lead is converted into Accounts/Contacts. What happens when the Opportunity failed? Is that particular record deleted from Accounts/Contacts? Wouldn't it be better to convert a Lead into Account/Contacts AFTER the deal had been officially closed successfully?

There are also two scenarios below which i need further clarification on:

First scenario: So let's say I just had a campaign and I've collected 1000 business cards. Do i now key all the names into Leads? Lets say i keyed in all the names and out of 1000 names, 100 have been qualified and converted into Accounts and Contacts. What is usually done with the rest of the 1900 names under Leads? Are they discarded, or continually stay under Leads?

Second scenario: I receive lots of calls from individuals or businesses enquiring about a product. Do i key all the names into Leads? That would mean the database would just get bigger and bigger rite? How can i separate the ones who are 'just enquiring' from the ones who seem more interested (who later might be converted into Accounts/Contacts)?

I'm trying to understand the different entry levels when using SFA systems. Some softwares like Goldmine keeps record of both their prospects/leads and customers in one place. Wouldn't that be rather inefficient? Some of the records might simply be enquiries, while others might be customers who actually bought a product. Is this the way most SFA softwares work now:- Putting all records of any enquiries, any prospects, any leads, any customers into one location?

Those are some of the doubts I have, and i hope someone could clarify/correct them for me. THankss

Christopher Carfi—Cerado, Inc.
Member

Posted 21-May-2004 08:26 AM
How you identify a particular customer in a Sales Force Automation system is really dependent on the particular process you are trying to support. In some cases, you may wish to have separate areas for leads, opportunities, current customers, etc. This is the way the product that you mentioned handles things. In my opinion, however, this becomes challenging and makes it more difficult to recall the context in which you are currently working (not to mention the history of the particular customer).

I actually find it easier to manage a much "flatter" structure, where all the customers are at the same level, but each customer is tagged as to which step of the sales process they are currently in (new lead, qualified, current customer, etc.), as well as tagging each one with the particular marketing activities that have touched that customer. You also would want to note the customer/prospect's response to each of those marketing activities (e.g. not only was the prospect invited to the seminar, but the also attended the seminar).

Christopher Carfi
http://www.cerado.com

Richard Harris
Member

Posted 27-May-2004 09:31 AM
There are a lot of issues you must consider. One that you mentioned is if you put all the "leads" in the data base just grows and grows. The Salesforce.com approach is to keep the "Leads" and the Opportunities seperated so that only those with real value end up in the active data base. One can turn off the "inactive" leads so that the database remains ,managable. However, the bigger question is, Can your structure accomodate inputting 1000 leads all at once. Can 1000 leads be contacted and qualified in a reasonable period of time. If not then the more important issue is how do I manage the inquiries to insure that I get the most return.

Once you have the answer to that question then wheither you populate the lead isde ot the opportunity side becomes clear.

copparapu bobby(choudesh)
Member

Posted 24-Feb-2006 06:28 AM
First of all, I wonder how come one does n't aware of sales force when we are dealing with the customer based business. Most of time, if the products could not deliver to the customer on promising time, customer may have two options—(1) rejection (2) Dissatisfaction—probably next time he may not give you a lead. Ultimately he goes for the another competitior who manufactures or produces the same product in the market. I guess, one has to know about the Backlog or Hold Analysis part of business. Having leads to a company at one end is great, but the product availability and delivering on promising date are also equally important.

As christopher said, the current customer, leads and opportunities for the organization going to be dried. Only the old or Existing customer may be or possibly with him ... ha..ha.. because a habituated soul. But pragmatically saying Organization would loose its importance in the market.

choudesh copparapu
SFA/CRM/Data Integration specialist
Sea Shells Data Warehouse