.KEYWORD industry
.FLYINGHEAD INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
.TITLE Palm’s strategy for your sales success
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY If you want to maximize sales success using your Palm device, you don’t have to do it alone. Palm, Inc. has worked hard to bring you powerful resources to aid in your sales process. Our own Steve Niles had the chance to go inside Palm and speak exclusively with Palm’s market experts to find out more about how handheld devices can integrate into your sales force automation strategy.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
As we publish this, Palm is formally kicking off an initiative to increase awareness of its various Mobile Workforce solutions, which are basically solutions for people who may benefit from carrying computers around as part of their job. The first phase of this initiative centers around the concept of mobile field sales.
Palm’s purpose in this initiative is to show how they can help you incorporate your Palm device into your sales force automation strategy. This being the case, we thought it appropriate to make sales force automation the focus of the inaugural issue of PalmPower Magazine Enterprise Edition.
You might be wondering, "What exactly is sales force automation and what’s it for?" For an answer, we can turn to David Gewirtz, Editor-in-Chief of this publication and founder of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing. This is what he has to say on the topic:
.QUOTE The term sales force automation seems to imply that you can automatically make sales, which is about as far from the truth as it’s possible to get. More accurately, what so-called sales force automation software does is automate aspects of the sales process, making it easier and more effective to keep track of whom to call, how and when to follow-up, the value of prospects, and how successful you are.
Putting it bluntly, the job of a sales person is to call or meet people and convince them to buy stuff. In order to do this, the salesperson has to organize enormous amounts of information, keeping tabs on the names, companies, and job progress for thousands of clients. Lots of luck to anyone still trying to get that done with a deck of 3×5 cards.
.H1 Sales force automation on the go
Sales force automation is a great approach to getting this difficult job done. This means finding software tools that can organize your contacts, track your phone calls, remind you of meetings and callbacks, and keep notes on where you are in a particular sale. Many solutions today also enable the sales professional to track order history and order status. Historically, computer-based sales tools have been reliant on desktop machines and laptops, which are fine if you can manage to work completely in the office, but they can be a pain to lug around if your job requires any amount of travel.
Amazingly, some of the best sales people throughout time have used nothing but paper DayTimers. Granted, they’re portable, but ultimately, they’re far less portable than Palm organizers. With these incredibly handy little gadgets, there’s no longer a need to lug around those awkward laptops or endlessly erase and scribble in bulky paper planners.
As most of you have no doubt already found, for the serious salesperson on the go, a Palm device is the obvious choice. It’s compact enough to slip into a pocket or briefcase, it can be easily carried at tradeshows, it takes up little space on a plane, and it can be easily hidden from the stewardess as she makes her pre-flight rounds to badger everyone into switching off their electronic equipment.
What’s more, the valuable information sales people collect can be synchronized with information in corporation servers. That means the organization has access to critical information about customers and the sales staff has access to information that helps them sell more easily. Try that with your paper-based planner! Throw in wireless modem enhancements, and all this information access, including email, can be accomplished in real-time.
The net of this is, the Palm device serves as an excellent sales force automation tool for you or your mobile sales people. As you’ll see in the article, "Easy Palm device add-ons that will help boost sales," elsewhere in this issue, there are already a large number of applications available to enhance your Palm device as a sales force automation tool. However, as I learned, Palm wants to go further to make their devices even more effective for sales people, sales managers, and sales organizations.
.H1 Palm’s Mobile Workforce solutions initiative
I spoke with Palm’s Julie Pederson, Manager, Strategic Marketing Programs, to learn more about the sales force automation phase of the company’s Mobile Workforce solutions initiative. To quote her:
.QUOTE Our solutions center around the sales department and integration of information between other data repositories within the company. Sales force automation is about more than just the sales individual.
She informed me that Palm views mobilizing your company’s e-business as a strategic imperative because the Internet has shifted power to the customer, increasing demand for choice and personalization. The only way to satisfy these demands, according to Palm, is for sales workers to become increasingly mobile and to give those workers key customer and product information at all times.
For personalized service to work, it’ll probably be necessary for sales people to go out and meet clients one-on-one. If they have to leave their PC-based sales automation tools behind to do that, then they’re not going to be as efficient and productive as they could be. As Julie Pederson said to me, "Palm devices allow you to access the critical information at the point of contact." I think that’s pretty exciting.
.H1 Palm expands its solutions
Palm already dominates the enterprise mobile e-business market, with 80% of all Palm devices being synchronized at work and 40% of Palm units paid for by companies. In fact, about two-thirds of Palm’s over 100,000 developers focus on the enterprise. Even with these impressive figures, Palm is seeking to expand its solutions, especially in the realm of mobile field sales solutions. Towards these ends, they’ve recently established some interesting new partnerships with key sales automation companies.
.H2 Siebel Systems, Inc.
One of these partnerships has led to the development of the Siebel Sales Handheld, created in conjunction with Siebel Systems, Inc., at http://www.siebel.com. The application is a fully functional Siebel client that runs on any Palm device with 8MB of RAM. With Siebel Sales, you can forecast future business, generate customized presentations and proposals, and produce customer communications such as personalized invitations, thank you notes, letters, and other correspondence.
According to Palm, the application is intuitive and easy to use, with all information available within three screen taps. The application is still in development and is set to ship as part of the Siebel 2001 release, anticipated to be in the Spring of 2001.
.H2 Pivotal
Pivotal Corporation, a provider of business-to-business solutions for e-business relationship management at http://www.pivotal.com, will be offering Pivotal Anywhere, a customizable browser-based solution. It’s pictured in Figure A.
.FIG A The Pivotal Anywhere portal allows you to access your corporate information.
If your Palm device is equipped with Go America or OmniSky’s wireless modem, this application will give you live access to business information such as contacts, sales opportunities, and customer profiles. You’ll be able to access corporate information and make changes to corporate data, and you’ll be notified of mission-critical business activities.
.H2 FrontRange
In its partnership with Palm, FrontRange, at http://www.frontrange.com, is offering two products: GoldMine Everywhere Server, a Web clipping application for the enterprise, and GoldMine 5.0 for small groups.
The GoldMine Everywhere Server for the PalmVII offers GoldMine FrontOffice 2000. This software can allow you to access information about customers, prospects, and calendars. You can also look up contacts’ addresses, update your schedule, and follow up with clients via email or fax. It’s pictured in Figure B.
.FIG B Goldmine Everywhere Server offers GoldMine FrontOffice 2000.
GoldMine 5.0, meanwhile, works with FrontOffice to offer you calendar and address book integration. You can carry your contacts and calendar with you everywhere on your Palm handheld and simply update your GoldMine database when you get back to the office.
.H2 SalesLogix
SalesLogix CRM (Customer Relationship Management) for the enterprise is another Web clipping application. It has come about through Palm’s partnership with SalesLogix at http://www.saleslogix.com. This solution allows you to access and update SalesLogix information such as accounts, contacts, opportunity information, activities, notes, and history through a wirelessly enabled Palm handheld. It’s pictured in Figure C.
.FIG C SalesLogix CRM lets you access your SalesLogix information from a Palm device.
.H1 One company’s success
Julie Pederson stressed to me that today, innovative companies are extending enterprise applications for their increasingly mobile field sales organizations through handheld solutions. As an example, she told me about Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., an independent home loan lender that has adopted the Palm VII as their sales force automation tool of choice. Kevin Lavalle, Senior Vice President, Retail eBusiness, Countrywide Home Loans says this of his company’s experience with Palm’s solutions:
.QUOTE The Palm, Inc. field sales solution delivers time-sensitive loan data at the precise moment of need, without being intrusive to the sales process. Combining the Palm VII with custom mortgage origination tools, has given Countrywide’s sales agents information that augments and builds relationships with their customers and business partners.
The company has armed its entire national sales team with Palm VII wireless handhelds so they can access the company’s Web site. The Countrywide Home Loans sales people can also use the devices to compute a customer’s loan affordability based on current interest rates, thus providing monthly payment, principle, interest, estimated taxes, and insurance information, all without leaving the customer’s side.
.H1 Your sales force automation solution
In summing up, Pederson believes that through this initiative, people will come to equate Palm with sales productivity. She said that with a Palm device, the advantages are clear and simple. Information can be accessed at the point of contact, and best of all, there’s no need to fill out long paper forms or to wait for a laptop to boot up.
For more information on sales force automation, you need look no further than this issue of PalmPower Magazine Enterprise Edition. In "Understanding the sales process" by Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz, you’ll find an excellent analysis of the sales process. Then look to my article, "Easy Palm device add-ons that will help boost sales," to find a list of applications available today that can help you increase your sales success.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Siebel Sales Handheld, visit http://www.siebel.com.
For more information on Pivotal Anywhere, visit http://www.pivotal.com.
For more information on GoldMine Everywhere and GoldMine 5.0, visit http://www.frontrange.com.
For more information on SalesLogix CRM, visit http://www.saleslogix.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6ea87
