Sales force management

Sales force management systems are information systems used in marketing and management that help automate some sales and sales force management functions. They are frequently combined with a marketing information system, in which case they are often called Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

Sales Force Automation Systems (SFA), typically a part of a company’s customer relationship management system, is a system that automatically records all the stages in a sales process. SFA includes a contact management system which tracks all contact that has been made with a given customer, the purpose of the contact, and any follow up that might be required.

This ensures that sales efforts are not duplicated, eliminating the risk of irritating customers. SFA also includes a sales lead tracking system, which lists potential customers through paid phone lists, or customers of related products. Other elements of an SFA system can include sales forecasting, order management and product knowledge. More developed SFA systems have features where customers can actually model the product to meet their required needs through online product building systems. This is becoming more and more popular in the automobile industry, where patrons can customize various features such as color and interior features such as leather vs. upholstered seats.

Ref: Wikipedia

CRM Functions

Last time we talked about 3 different modules in CRM Software.
1. Marketing
2. Sales
3. Service

We talked about Marketing as one of the major module and it's functions in CRM Software Functions which is part of agency management system. Today we will continue our talk about remaing two functions of these modules.

2) Sales:-

Power your sales team with CRM that have functionalities of Sales Module. The sales team can manage leads and keep track of the communication with prospects, referrals and customers. For a big sales team or a call center the CRM must have fast and automated system to pull up customer data. Sales Automation Module features:

· Appointment Management

· Time Management

· Calender Management

· Reporting

CRM gives sales team the power to close the sale quickly.

3) Services:-

After marketing and selling the product your company must have a very good customer services team. CRM should have a good services module which can help the customer services department. They should be able to manage service contracts, tracking individual cases and recording information in a search able knowledge base.Services Automation Module features:

· Product Database

· Knowledge base search

· Customer tracking

· Contract Tracking

· Customer History

CRM gives customer service team a quick way to help the customers. This is very important so that the customer get satisfy by not just product but also with the service. These CRM functionalities help make any CRM strong. All of these modules must be integrated to make the system strong. Next time we will talk about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Sales Force Automation (SFA). What is the difference between ERP system and CRM system?

ref: agency management system