Virtual Selling: Going Beyond the Automated Sales Force to Achieve Total Sales Quality - Softcover

Siebel, Thomas M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743236491 ISBN 13: 9780743236492

Publisher: Free Press, 2002

Synopsis

The days when a salesperson could carry the company catalog around in his or her head have disappeared. From high-tech to low-tech industries, today's salesperson often represents thousands of products available in countless permutations. According to Thomas Siebel and Michael Malone, although more than 500 companies are rushing to market with information technology to aid millions of salespeople world wide, these systems are destined to fail. Why? Because, the authors argue, they focus only on improving efficiency, rather than on increasing the effectiveness of the selling process.

Instead, Siebel and Malone demonstrate the need to incorporate Sales Force Automation (SFA) within an overall philosophy that supports the sales force by fully informing sales reps to assist them in real selling, not just data recording and analysis. The authors show how this new vision, called Virtual Selling, will spearhead a new generation of SFA design to provide powerful tools -- from opportunity management systems and marketing encyclopedias to product configurations and team selling across multiple distribution channels -- which will enhance customer contact and heighten the effectiveness of the sales representative.

By assuming the larger role of "point person" at the center of every transaction, the members of what the authors call the "Informed Sales Force" will resemble independent entrepreneurs directing their own business by developing long-term customer relationships, generating proposals, managing the configuration and creation of products, and providing customer service and support. Siebel and Malone explain how this reengineering of sales can enable firms to achieve the perfect balance between the needs of sales and the operations of the rest of the company. Finally, the authors reveal how, in their equation, the Informed Sales Force uses Virtual Selling to reach Total Sales Quality, with great leads, smart pitches, irresistible closes, and above all, sales.

The potential benefits of SFA to business are enormous, from cutting costs to boosting productivity and revenue. Siebel and Malone's innovative and inspiring approach to this important subject will enable corporate managers and sales professionals in all industries to transform the virtual selling vision into reality.

About this title

Review:

Charles R. Schwab Chairman and CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation "Virtual Selling" is loaded with practical ideas for improving and expanding our relationships with existing and future customers.

George T. Shaheen Managing Partner, Andersen Consulting Total Sales Quality will revolutionize the sales process, the same way that Total Quality Management (TQM) revolutionized business management. It's about time that TQM is applied to sales, the last unautomated corner of the corporate world.

A. Michael Spence Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business A very useful and insightful book. It sets forth clearly and persuasively the substantial returns to be gained from the right kind of investment in sales information systems.

Debbie Miller Vice-President, Systems Business Unit, Americas, Digital Equipment Corporation A must read for every sales person, sales manager and corporate executive who plans on using computers to make customers more satisfied and close more business.

About the Author:

Thomas Siebel is chairman and CEO of Siebel Systems.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743236491
• ISBN 13: 9780743236492
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256