Salesforce.com pretty much has the market for Sales Force Automation services sewn up. (it used to be called ‘Contact Management’) They offer a hosted application accessibile via the web and it is a great product. They deserve their place at the top.
So why have we just release a new Sales Force Automation system?
I don’t want to sound too patronising here, but most sales people I know have a relatively short attention span and zero interest in details. They want their tools to be simple, intuitive and fast. So the number of screens and menu options in salesforce.com tend to lead to confusion. I have designed a system based around just two screens.
- A list of your accounts and a list of current actionss outstanding.
- A screen about one customer or prospect that you can do anything with by revealing various forms.
The important thing is that neither screen shows all the options up front. But when you click on a link to (say) record a conversation, a form is revealed. Even this form is fairly simple, but as you click on options different bits of the form are revealed. For example if you want to send an email you select from a list of potted emails and a pre-filled email form is presented.
Because our system is integrated with our other software we can customise it. For a client who has an online directory, the sales person can switch directory options on and off and give temporary features from the customer page.
Take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.textor.com/sales-force-automation.html . There is a link to a demo.
Bob Browning's blog 
Leave a comment