Best Customer Relationship Mimics The Best Salespeople This Software Takes Place Of Firm's Top Salesperson
Date: 9/30/99
Author: Matthew Benjamin
Web-based software that can boost a company's sales and manage customer relationships is hot.
Often called electronic customer relationship management, or e-CRM, the applications try to help companies better respond to customers consistently across all sales channels - on the Web, over the phone or through dealers or distributors.
FirePond Inc. of Waltham, Mass., is a leader in the field, in vision and technology, if not in sales, says market researcher Gartner Group Inc.
Chief Executive Klaus Besier joined FirePond in 1997 after serving as CEO of SAP America, the biggest unit of Germany's SAP AG. SAP is the leader in back-office business systems, as opposed to the front-office CRM field. Besier recently spoke with Investor's Business Daily about CRM.
IBD:
What does e-CRM mean to you?
Besier:
It means emulating the behavior of very good salespeople. In other words, that guy who's up on stage at the president's sales meeting, with the highest revenue achievement. It's his behavior you want to clone.
IBD:
How does your product do that?
Besier:
The way we do that is to study how good salespeople execute and how they interact with clients. What's more personal than an account executive dealing with a client, to find out what the client's needs are and how they want to use the product? Then picking the product that fits their needs the closest, pricing out the product, quoting the price, determining when it can be delivered, discussing financing, etc.
A good salesperson goes back to his organization and tells them what a great prospect he has, lines up all the relevant resources to deliver and install the product, makes sure everything's flawless, sends out appropriate documentation, enrolls them in the right system. That's what our product does.
IBD:
Is this software solely for the Web?
Besier:
We don't just address the e-business, but also the other channels you have, like a direct sales force or an indirect channel like a dealership or a distributorship.
Your direct sales force you have under immediate control. You can train them, get them product announcements and all the things necessary to do their job. With an indirect channel, you don't have that luxury. You have to make sure they have tools that are easy to use, and that they will sell and promote your products.
IBD:
You talk about an outside-in approach to selling. What does that mean?
Besier:
The customer drives your back-end processes, instead of the back office driving the front office.
Here's an example that's typical in the auto industry. You go to a dealership and you want to buy a red Camaro. They don't have a red Camaro, so they try to sell you a black one. You want a car right away, so you might settle for the black one. Imagine the manufacturer never finds out you wanted a red Camaro. What does it do? The next month it manufactures more black ones based on your sale. That's why it's so critical to track what people look for and what they request.
IBD:
How does your software help with customer loyalty?
Besier:
We keep track of what your preferences are, what your business is all about and what products you currently use, so we can alert you if there's a promotion or special upgrade. We maintain a relationship with you.
IBD:
What's your traditional customer base, and what new markets are you going to hit?
Besier:
Transportation manufacturing, like General Motors Corp. and John Deere & Co. But we've really branched out into other segments, primarily the high- tech and telecom areas. Like KLA-Tencor Corp., which builds testing equipment for chip manufacturers. They happen to have very complex products, so you can imagine the value of having all the knowledge of those products built into a sales system.
Another client is Bell Atlantic Corp., which uses the system to generate quotes and proposals and so forth. It also has very complex products, often the sum of many products -routers, connections and computer equipment.
IBD:
Why does Gartner call FirePond a visionary in CRM?
Besier:
The way the company was started was to focus on what salespeople need to do their job better. And that's not going to a training class and all of the other hoopla. It's having the information available at their fingertips to serve clients better. Today it's viewed as visionary to put that on the Web.
(C) Copyright 1999 Investors Business Daily,
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