“Technology by itself does not deliver sales”

Mar 15, 2010

IN-DEPTH: Aligning CRM strategy directly with the sales teamCRM can be an able ally for the sales/marketing department in an organisation.

Published: 15 Mar 2010

IN-DEPTH: Aligning CRM strategy directly with the sales team

CRM can be an able ally for the sales/marketing department in an organisation.

As one central location for customer information, it can help companies address their customers’ needs in a personalised manner and also result in efficiency for its sales team members. Sales force automation is another key business challenge that can be effectively addressed.

At the same time, the utility or deployment of a CRM solution can be undermined if the end user doesn’t see CRM as making them more efficient and effective. If the benefits aren’t clear, then users fail to change their behaviours and user adoption is not consistent across the organisation. These are some of the challenges associated with the sales team.

In order to know more, EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta spoke to Norbert Zoet, vice-president - B2C, Transavia. Excerpts:

It is often said that CRM and other integrated business tools often represent a new way of selling, and therein lies the problem as far as the sales team is concerned. How can one make most of the investments and align CRM strategy directly with your sales team?

Norbert Zoet: We segment the total market into five focus groups.

Each focus group has its own wishes/demands/behaviour. Via our CRM database, web analytics and marketing research, we collect these consumer insights. The direct sales manager is responsible to develop the right contact strategy per focus group. The direct sales manager is part of our sales team.

How can one ensure that technology investments produce genuinely profitable sales? Also, what should one be wary of while making such investments?

Norbert Zoet: Technology by itself does not deliver sales. Technology is supportive to the sales. Business cases show the sales potential and revenues, external developments determine the way of execution and therefore the need of technology. The costs for the investments in technology (including internal resources and costs for maintenance of the technology) are part of the business case and it is all depending on a relatively short pay out time.

Which according to you is the best way to make sales team an integral part of the CRM systems?

Norbert Zoet: Concerning the business to consumer (seat only) sales, our CRM database is online filled with consumer insights concerning all elements in the circle of contact.

Concerning the business to business (wholesale) sales, we expect our sales managers to have full insights in the needs of our business partners and their clients. Based on these insights, we deal with business partners not in a general but in a more specific way.

How do you think having non-sales decision-makers buy a solution for sales impacts the final outcome of such investments? What needs to be done as far as the deciding upon any solution is concerned, especially considering that it would require participation from the sales team?

Norbert Zoet: Of course this does not work. The user of the technology should always be involved if not leading in defining the business requirements, in the business case, when purchasing and testing the product.

How can CRM tools be customised to support sales team’s specific needs?

Norbert Zoet: That depends on the needs and the question that needs to be answered. Customising of an existing tool is proven to be expensive and shows the wrong tool was selected to begin with.

How closely does the optimum mobile technology solution correlate to increased sales?

Norbert Zoet: At the moment we do not have a specific mobile website or other solution. The share of visitors via a mobile device is very limited but based on these small numbers rapidly increasing.

We expect mobile distribution and services to be the standard in the nearby future and therefore a investing and testing. The optimum solution, which we have not defined yet, for sure will increase sales or it would not be optimum.

How do you assess the utility of web-enabled analytic applications? How do they help in assessing sales performance?

Norbert Zoet: Web analytics give us great insights. Some examples:

  • Based on conversion ratios and sales targets, we know the number of visitors we would get.
  • If we do reach the targeted amount of visitors but sales is behind (or ahead), we know where in the sales funnel, the consumer bails.
  • This gives us information concerning attractiveness of the product, the price of the product, the offer (product and price) of the competition. Besides it gives us information concerning the quality of the sales funnel (e.g. banner --> correct landing page --> right offer --> usability --> sales --> cross sell).

Sales Management in Travel and Hospitality Conference

EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct Sales Management in Travel and Hospitality Conference as part of TDS Europe 2010. The two-day event will take place on 17-18 June in London, UK.

Super early bird prices are available until 26th March.

Norbert Zoet, along with other 21 speakers, is scheduled to speak at EyeforTravel’s Sales Management in Travel and Hospitality Conference. The two-day event will also feature speakers from Expedia, Sol Melia, Transavia, IHG, Disney, Hertz and a host of other established travel industry companies.

For more information, click here:
http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-sales-force-management/agenda.asp

or contact:

Rosie Akenhead
Global Events Director
Eye For Travel
Email: rosie@eyefortravel.com
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 375 7229