Overview

As competition increases, customers become better informed, and products gain in complexity, sales professionals must grapple with new challenges. Sales-related CRM tools and sales force automation or SFA tools, can help.

Sales force automation tools, sales manager applications, product configuration engines and presentation tools are leading the march toward CRM. The business community views such products as a way to not only increase their sales force's productivity, but also contain and maybe even decrease the rising cost of sales. According to industry figures, the average cost of a direct sales call runs over $200 and continues to rise. As illustration: A late 2001, the monthly periodical, Sales and Marketing Management, conducted a survey of large, midsize and smaller companies and found that it costs an average of $189.75 to send a sales representative out on a sales call. In a February 2001 press release, Compaq Computer stated that cost analysis indicates that person-to-person selling can cost a vendor from $600 to $900 per sale.

General industry reports all show that after the introduction of a first class sales-related CRM system companies find at least:

• 10% increase in gross sales revenue per sales professional.

• 5% decrease in cost per sale mainly due to the ability to target specific suspects, prospects and/or customers (the "contact").

• 5% or more increase in closed deals because...