Understanding the Confidence Interval
The confidence interval is a central concept of hypothesis testing. Although understanding its mathematical and statistical meaning is beyond the scope of this module, one needs to have a fair idea of the concept. Hence, a brief introduction of the confidence interval that is essential for the Six Sigma project team to understand is as […]
The Perils of Not Having Business Continuity Management Plans
This module has covered the need for business continuity management as a paradigm to be followed by corporates. This article looks at the pitfalls of not having adequate business continuity management plans in place. First, let us consider the case of Sony where the customer data from its website was hacked. This incident was to […]
Are Multinational Companies a Boon or a Bane?
The economic power that many multinational companies wield is commendable, to say the least. Companies like Amazon and Apple have a valuation of over a trillion dollars. This is more than the GDP of most countries! Hence, in purely financial terms, multinational companies do wield tremendous influence on the day to day operations of many […]
Why are Oil Prices Changing Gears?
The international oil market is known to be volatile. Ever since oil was first found, the market is known to have many boom-bust cycles. A perfect example of the same can be seen in the recent changes in the price of oil. Till September 2018, the prices of oil were on an upward trajectory. However, […]
Business Trends: The Coming Demographic Boom for Some and Bust for Some
Demographic Dividend We often hear the term, demographic dividend being bandied about in the media and in books. However, not many are aware what exactly it means and the implications of the same for business and society. The term refers to the advantages that countries have if they have youthful populations. This is because there […]
Sales support systems were developed to assist the sales force in improving productivity. This improvement in productivity was through continuous communication with the field offices about customer activities and requirements. The sales force focus was on cultivating long and fruitful customer relation.
Before the advent of information system, customer-related information was recorded in individual sales representative’s personal books rather than on a centralized data center. This meant that the customer information would be lost with movement of sales representative.
Therefore, to preserve and utilized customer relation and improve performance of sales force, sales support system was developed.
A sales support system can be divided into:
This module of the sales support system looks at offering calendar based activities to plan and coordinate meetings with customer relationship accounts. The module looks at consolidating team activities for a given period of time. The module provides in-depth analysis of the historical and current sales cycle.
Sales force racks up into team member and team member into the sales manager. Therefore, sales manager has to monitor activities of more than one sales team. This module helps sales manager generate reports, which provide data point around current sale activities performed by the different sales team. This module helps sales force connect with various product specialists based out of various sales office locations. Territory-wise pipeline management becomes easy for the sales manager.
One of the important needs of sales force and sales team is management of various contact points across different organization. Contact management module should be able to organize contact across current and potential client organization.
Sales force work relentlessly to generate a sales lead. Lead management module provides management of leads, which come through marketing campaigns and referral management. This module also tracks characteristics of each lead as to highlight other possible leads.
Every organization has distinctive and varied product requirement. It is important for the sales force to have ready access to different product configuration and associated price. This module facilitates configuration support.
The modern information system can hold large volume of data, which can be effectively converted into information.
Advent of the Internet has simplified sales force access to centralized databases. It helps sales force stay in touch with each other as well as sales manager. Availability of the Internet has reduced the cost of managing communication. Mobile devices have further contributed to proliferation sales support system.
Another aspect of sales is after sales product support. Organizations have on-site or field service staff. The Internet has made field service management possible on a real-time basis.
Sales support system enhances productivity and efficiency of the sales force. The sales force remains aware of development around the potential clients on a real-time basis. This increases probability of closing a sales deal. The productive sales force not only increases market share but also improves profitability of organization.
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Communication Systems and Groupware – Information System Concepts that Apply in All Functional Areas of Business
February 12, 2025
