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Technology Stocks : Siebel Systems (SEBL) - strong buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: seth thomas who wrote (1330)	3/31/1998 11:21:00 AM
From: Melissa McAuliffe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

Steve, I know that the companies have not yet merged but I think that is more difficult from a sales perspective than after the merger takes place. Since we are talking about difficult quarters, I am viewing this from a sales perspective. Since this quarter is supposedly going well I take that as a very positive sign. Once the merger is finalized and the companies get it together with respect to consistent messages, stories, etc. my personal opinion is that it should become easier. Having also gone through this, I found this time to be the worst. Again, maybe that was just my perspective. With respect to your point about the problems from "April" not showing up until later this year. e.g. you make this statement..<<.The sales rep keeps it on his pipeline report through the next quarter, as he perceives he is still in the thick of things. In July, the decision is formalized and announced to the vendors.>> Aren't you making the assumption here that the sales rep doesn't know what he/she is doing? You say he "perceives" he is still in the thick of things? By this statement I think you are assuming that all these sales reps are inexperienced rookies and it is going to come as some big surprise when(according to you) they lose the deal. If a company makes an emotional decision not to buy from company S in April, then the S sales rep if he is any good will figure this out real quickly. I hardly think he will go all the way through to July without figuring this out. BTW. If so, maybe he will be looking for work elsewhere. I MEAN you do have to tell someone about this big July deal you are working on. Isn't that what these SFA systems are supposed to help with anyway..managing your pipeline. Plus..these guys have been around for a while. It's not like they just fell off the turnip truck and said ...ok..Now I'm a sales rep.. what should I do???? I just think you are not giving the sebl salesforce the necessary credit here. Let me share just one thing more here... I have always believed that it should never come as a big surprise when you either a)win or b)lose a deal. If it does, then someone wasn't on top of things. Even when the prospect won't really tell you, it's just something you know if you are any good.. (Though I believe it's better to believe and operate as if you are losing unless you know with certainty you are winning). Managing a sale is managing a complex process and there are reviews all along the way.since deals are not decided at the 11th hour anyway. If you know you have problems in a deal in the earlier stages they can be turned around. It's only if you wait until the decision is made(or the 11th hour) that it's usually too late. Can there be potential problems in some of these accounts. Sure.. but let's hope they will figure it out and do what it takes to get the deal back on track.This is what happens all the time anyway. It's just a different set of issues but there are always issues. Good sales reps are used to this. Melissa