Posted by Commence on April 21, 2010 under Commence News | 
I started my career in the Mortgage industry selling re-financing services. The job was quite structured: call fifty people each day, document my discussions then follow-up with those that were interested as well as any I was unable to reach. The company had no automation, but people learned to manage their daily business using a spiral notebook or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. At the time I had no problem with this because I had a limited perspective on the most efficient ways to capture information, follow-up with potential prospects and keep my product and service in front of prospective buyers. While I was one of the more successful sales people I was beginning to have difficulty organizing customer files, finding information about past telephone conversations, knowing which documents I sent people or didn’t send and following up with those people that asked me to contact them at a later date. I found myself staying in the office later and later each night trying to get myself organized and keeping things from falling through the cracks, but it became an exercise in futility.
This all changed for me a few years later when I joined Commence Corporation, a provider of Customer Relationship Management software. At Commence, I was forced to trade in my spiral notebook and for a sales automation tool and while I was a bit dubious that a sales automation system would help me, after a few weeks of use I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I began capturing every customer and prospect interaction from basic telephone calls, quotes and documents I had sent to e-mail correspondence. I learned to enter follow-up activities on my calendar and set alerts that reminded me to contact people on the dates and times I committed to. Each day new leads with contact information were dispatched to me electronically and an automated sales methodology helped me to manage each opportunity through a structures sales cycle. Best of all, with the simple click of a button I had the ability to view a complete 360 degree view of all current and historical information about my customers and prospects. This was truly unbelievable. I even learned that I could integrate a Smart Phone so that I could have contact information at my disposal and have also begun to utilize the systems mass e-mail feature to help generate more business. I had never imagined that I would attain so much value from this tool.
The CRM system has impacted me both personally and professionally. On a personal level I am more productive than ever. I have access to customer and prospect information anytime and anywhere and I am confident that things are no longer falling through the cracks. On a professional level I have become almost fanatical about the product, which has helped me to serve potential customers more effectively. I continue to utilize my past experience as a vehicle for delivering a powerful testimonial of how CRM software has helped me better manage the sales cycle and improve sales execution. It’s a well known fact that prospects are more likely to buy from someone who believes whole heartedly in the product or service they are selling and my newly found enthusiasm for CRM software has enabled me to gain credibility with potential buyers.
As I talk with new prospects each day I understand and appreciate the reluctance they may have in implementing a Customer Relationship Management solution. I’ve learned that It’s a lot easier to understand their concerns and provide valuable assistance if you have been in a similar position, so I tell my story. Their interest level grows and often turns into a new sale. If you are considering a CRM system give me a call. I am confident that I can help you consolidate data, and improve sales execution so that your team and sell more and sell more easily.
About the author: Steve Fischkin is an Account Manager at Commence Corporation, a leading provider of CRM software which can be deployed in a web-based, cloud-computing environment or on premise. For more information about Commence visit www.commence.com or e-mail Steve at s.fischkin@commence.com
Posted by Commence on April 8, 2010 under CEO Corner |
Is your sales team working on the most qualified opportunities, or chasing tire kickers? Do you even know? Most companies rely on the expertise of their sales representatives to qualify opportunities, but this has proven over and over again to be inefficient and costly. The problem with relying on your sales organization is a lack of consistency. Most sales organizations have people with different levels of experience. The senior people may be good at determining a qualified opportunity from an unqualified one, but even they make mistakes. The people with limited experience are right only 50 percent of the time and the inexperienced ones may place an account on the forecast because the prospect asked for a brochure. My point is this, the amount of time your sales team may be spending following up on poorly qualified opportunities may be costing your business much more than you think.
Commence Corporation has moved beyond traditional Customer Relationship Management software programs that are primarily focused on managing the sales cycle to delivering a solution that enables you to increase the effectiveness of your sales organization and focus on business with the greatest potential. Commence has introduced an automated business process that ranks and scores leads based a set of pre-defined criteria. The criteria consist of a series of questions that are used to automatically score each lead based on the responses entered into the system. The questions are completely customizable and users may create as many as required. (See sample below):
Lead Scoring Questions
The lead qualification questions and rating criteria are determined by sales management and ensure that every new opportunity is ranked according to the criteria. It’s an efficient process that results in a high level of consistency because every opportunity is scored using a standardized set of qualifiers and is no longer dependent on the experience level of the sales representative.
Each lead is then automatically color coded as highly qualified (red), requires additional follow-up (yellow), or not qualified (blue). (See diagram below)
Lead Qualification
The value here is twofold: First, there is no question with regard to where the sales team should be focusing their attention. The leads coded red are the most qualified opportunities based on the company’s lead qualification criteria and need immediate attention. Secondly, sales management can quickly view the most qualified opportunities and assist with the process of moving them toward closure.
Part of the Commence value proposition also comes from an integrated marketing application that is directly tied to the lead qualification system. Yellow and blue coded leads may be placed in an automated drip-marketing program that nurtures each lead with periodic mailings while your team is focused on the most qualified opportunities.
The Commence lead scoring capability provides critical intelligence and has proven to deliver measurable results. It will ensure that your sales team has a laser-sharp focus on the most qualified sales opportunities. With Commence, you’ll shrink the sales cycle and improve your bottom line results. I guarantee it.
About the author: Larry Caretsky is the president of Commence Corporation, a leading provider of CRM software which can be deployed in a web-based, cloud-computing environment or on premise. Caretsky is considered an expert in Customer Relationship Management and has written numerous white papers on the subject, which may be accessed via the company’s web site at www.commence.com.
Posted by Commence on March 8, 2010 under CEO Corner |
As small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) struggle to survive in this economic climate, they are placing a major emphasis on increasing sales. Whether through finding new customers or attempting to increase the volume of purchases by the existing customer base, the attention is on getting the sales organization to be more productive. SMBs, in spite of tough economic times, are investing in technology to enhance the productivity of the sales force and for the most part are implementing Customer Relationship Management tools to make this happen. While this is decidedly a step in the right direction, there may be additional ways to increase sales productivity. This article examines a more effective way of utilizing CRM software to increase customer acquisition and revenue growth.
The Role of Technology
The last several years have brought a radical change in the relationship between the customer and business as a whole. More and more customers are collaborating with businesses and technology is playing a key role in this new collaboration. An increasing percentage of interaction with customers is coming by way of social networks and online communities. These interactions include suggestions for product improvement, requests for help, information requests and even customers assisting their counterparts directly. These customer conversations are driving the need for the business to respond in a timely fashion and to also convince potential customers of their ability to adequately address their needs.
This is driving executives to focus more attention on discovering the “favorite” customer or target market and crafting a marketing message that resonates with that target market. To do this effectively, the business needs to gather and analyze all of the relevant customer data points, In addition to demographic and geographic data, the business needs to understand why customers are buying their products or services and more importantly, what specific language the “favorite” customer is using to describe the buying experience.
The Changing Customer Role
This calls for the establishment of a close collaborative effort between the business and the customer base. Sales and any other part of the organization that is in direct contact with the customer needs to listen closely to the conversation in order to hear what the customer is saying. The data gathered needs to be analyzed so that not only does the business then understand which customers comprise the target market, but also how those customers think and how they communicate.
This effectively achieves two goals. First, it allows the sales force to be immensely more productive by getting them to concentrate on that part of the general marketplace that has these pre-qualified prospects that have the same profile as the “favorite” customer. Secondly, it gives the marketing side of the business the ability to script a marketing message that resonates with the customer since it uses the information gleaned from the customer and can be written in a language that the customer understands.
Even more importantly, with more customers using online communities and social networks, it is essential that the key phrases that the business uses are the same as the key phrases that the customer uses in their posts on Facebook and LinkedIn or in their tweets on Twitter. It also allows the business to search engine optimize its web site because the language and the keywords used are the ones the favorite customers are accustomed to.
So now, the business has a marketing message that resonates with the customer. The sales force has a sales pitch that is geared towards solving the customer pain and is in a language the customer understands. The customer feels that the business is listening and hearing them and prospects not only find the business, but when engaged by the sales force are easier to bring to a close.
Can current CRM systems play in this arena?
Most current CRM systems are very effective at helping the sales force automate the sales process and manage the sales cycle. The way they do this is by collecting customer and prospect data that the sales force uses to manage sales campaigns, schedule sales calls and keep the sales cycle moving along. To meet the new paradigm of target marketing that requires collaboration with our customers, these CRM systems need new functionality.
Commence Corporation is taking a leadership position in this area and understands that the future of customer relationship management will be centered on the collaboration and partnership with customers. Commence is busy restructuring the data points that their system collects to include the needed demographic and psychographics data that CRM system do not capture today. Commence is also looking closely at interfacing the product with social media applications so that it can collect and analyze all of the different streams of customer conversations that are currently on the web, then use this information to targeting effective marketing campaigns.
As a result of the economic downturn, many SMBs are struggling to justify the capital outlay to upgrade or implement a new CRM system because of cost and business uncertainty. To survive in today’s economy, you need to implement a CRM software solution, but you need to do it for the right reasons. Don’t implement a CRM solution to simply automate the sales process. Growing your business will require the ability to capture, manage and share vital customer information from several data sources and then use the information to gain a competitive edge. Select a CRM software provider that offers a platform that can support the customer collaboration that will need to take place in the future.
About the author: Larry Caretsky is the president of Commence Corporation, a leading provider of CRM software, which can be deployed in a web-based, cloud-computing environment or on premise. Caretsky is considered an expert in Customer Relationship Management and has written numerous white papers on the subject, which may be accessed via the company’s web site at www.commence.com.
Posted by Commence on February 17, 2010 under CEO Corner |
A lot has changed in the past 24 months. Companies have been forced to reduce expenditures; place purchases on hold or buy from a competitor that came in with a better deal. But despite increased competition, reduced budgets and a more stringent buying process, decisions are still being made to purchase products and services. What’s changed is a shift in buying behavior. Decisions that had been traditionally made by middle management or a committee now require approval by a senior executive. Most sales people perceive this as a negative and if you’re team is thinking this way, they may need an attitude adjustment. Here’s why.
Every sales person has experienced how difficult it is to get to the economic buyer. He or she is traditionally buffered by administrators, gatekeepers or committees of people that block your path to the decision maker’s office. The fact that executive management is now engaged in the decision process is the best thing that has happened to sales people in years. It opens up an incredible opportunity for sales professionals to state their case directly to the person who will be making the decision. Not only does this shorten the sales cycle, but it gives them the opportunity to layout the key selling points of your product or service in terms of ROI, which is how executives think.
The Key to Winning More Deals
Selling to an executive can be intimidating and they will expect a lot from you which means you must sell value. They will expect you to take the time to understand their challenges and recommend solutions that will significantly impact their business. Executives look for solutions, not features, and they will respond to sales professionals that can solve their problem. Here are 4 tips for selling to the executive level:
- Let the executive do most of the talking – the more you learn about the prospect’s pain points the better you’ll be prepared to recommend a solution.
- Use examples of how your product or service has addressed similar challenges in the industry. This will demonstrate that you understand the problem and have a solid recommendation or solution.
- Show enthusiasm – if an executive senses your excitement about addressing their problem they will be much more receptive to working with and buying from you.
- Be persistent — it will pay off. Executives of small to mid-size businesses are often crisis managers and can be pulled in several directions. Don’t let them off the hook. Once you’re engaged, get to a decision one way or another.
About the author: Larry Caretsky is the CEO of Commence Corporation , a leading provider of Customer Manager and sales process automation software for small to mid-size businesses. Caretsky has authored several white papers on the subject of sales process management, lead scoring and using CRM software to improve sales execution. For more information see www.commence.com or call 1-877-COMMENCE.
Posted by Commence on January 8, 2010 under CEO Corner |
Sure it’s tough out there. There is no doubt about it. In today’s environment no matter what you are selling there are dozens of competitors calling on your prospects and making similar claims. So how can you differentiate yourself from the pack? I have some recommendations.
As an executive of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software firm I understand competition. There are literally hundreds of CRM vendors from contact management software and sales force automation software providers to vertically based CRM providers all pitching their solution as the best, the easiest and the cheapest. Some make claims that their product is better than ours, others are offering lower prices and some will do almost anything to win business. Yet despite all of this, our sales team is winning more business based on a few simple tips that may help you.
Lets assume for a moment that you have a new qualified opportunity:
- The prospect has a need for your company’s product or service,
- They have a short decision timeframe,
- There is a budget in place,
- You are dealing with a decision maker.
Life is good! Now let’s go and win this business:
Tip 1. Preparation: Schedule a pre-approach appointment for the sole purpose of finding out the critical business issues in advance of your next call or appointment. This is the time to learn about their challenges and show them you are committed to understanding their business requirements and helping to address them. Too many sales people make the mistake of asking questions during their presentation or demonstration, which often frustrates the prospect and reduces the effectiveness of the call.
Tip 2. Research: The prospect has told you their needs, but before you make that next call to schedule your presentation or demonstrate your product, do some research about the company to learn about their specific industry and any critical business issues that affect companies just like theirs. This will help you to develop a flow for how you wish to present or demonstrate your product or service as an effective solution for their business. It’s also important to remember that any intelligent prospect will know if you have really taken the time to understand their business challenges or not.
Tip 3. The Presentation/Demonstration: Focus on their critical business issues right away with specific examples of how your product or service will address them. That’s what the prospect is interested in and if you wait too long, you run the risk of losing their attention and the potential for their business.
Tip 4. Sell Value but Know When to Stop: You probably have a lot of things about your product or service that will provide additional value to your prospect, but if you have successfully addressed their core business requirements then it’s time to stop selling. Sales representatives all too often frustrate or irritate prospects by over selling. Your product or service does not have to do twenty different things. It just has to solve one or two critical needs.
Tip 5. Know Your Competition: You know the prospect is shopping around and there is nothing you can do about it — or is there? Very often there will be a bottleneck in a competitive product that your solution addresses very well, but if you are unaware of this you will lose the opportunity to gain a competitive edge. In the famous book The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, he states, “know they enemy and you shall not fear the outcome of any battle”.
Posted by Commence on November 12, 2009 under CEO Corner |
I read an interesting article that compared the success rate of accounting software implementations to that of CRM solutions within a sales organization. The results were intriguing. While accounting software implementations seem to enjoy a high level of success, this is not the case for sales automation systems. The article went on to compare and outline the differences between the two areas and while it did not provide any specific recommendations, if you’re a small to mid-size business the information below may make you think differently about the importance of implementing a sales methodology or structure within your sales organization.
Outlined below is a brief summary of the article.
Accounting departments are traditionally known for having mature well-documented business processes, perhaps because the federal government requires them. Sales organizations are traditionally void of structure and process, which often results in inaccurate forecast and sales with lower profitability then desired.
Accounting departments have mature people. This is not to say that sales people are not mature, but accountants are traditionally degreed and well trained on the principles of accounting while sales people often come from different walks of life with different levels of education and sales experience.
Accounting systems have also been around for decades and have a mature set of features that have been designed to address a specific set of rules and guidelines. Sales systems while mature must be flexible enough to support a variety of unique sales functions within multiple sales channels. This often makes these systems overly complex and hard to use.
This brief analysis would indicate that mature business processes, mature people, and mature solutions drive the operational success of your accounting department. If this is indeed true, shouldn’t we be emulating this within our sales organization?
Small to mid-size businesses that have a CRM initiative should make sure that they add the ability to have a flexible sales methodology to their functional criteria list.
CRM vendors like Commence Corporation offer fully integrated solutions for contact management, lead management, sales management as well as consulting services that help businesses deploy proven sales methodologies or create custom programs to match unique selling requirements. The flexibility of web based solutions like Commence coupled with high level sales expertise can help make your sales organization as efficient as your accounting department.
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Posted by Commence on October 27, 2009 under CEO Corner |
Any high-growth business strategy must begin with a consistent and disciplined sales process that is easily understood across the sales organization. Salespeople and their managers need to use the same vocabulary, and view selling opportunities as having sequential stages that must be completed before a suspect becomes a prospect, and a prospect becomes a customer. Following a consistent process reduces the anxiety and uncertainty common among both salespeople and sales managers because everyone knows what is expected and needed for every sales pursuit. Having definite requirements and policies on when and how to give a demonstration, prepare a proposal, or send a sample helps the sales force proactively control the sales process versus simply reacting to requests from potentially unqualified prospects. Better preparation, deeper research, and clearer goals for each stage of the selling process will result in a more effective sales team and better business results.
A standard approach to pursuing and tracking opportunities is a smart way to assure that all sales activities are aligned with organizational goals and the overall direction of sales management. Consistency also reduces the amount of non-value added sales activities such as drafting letters, writing reports, and having lengthy phone calls to determine what stage is next in a sales opportunity. Having standard terminology saves time and minimizes confusion.
Sales managers benefit from standardized processes because it is also easier to determine how each salesperson is performing. Opportunities that are stalled in one stage can be identified and resolved. Salespeople benefit from standardization because they waste less time determining what information is missing and what the next step should be in the workflow. Sales appointments become more productive because they are only conducted when qualified as part of a planned sequence of events.
The high level steps to implement a sales process are:
- Document your sales process
- Design your implementation
- Train your sales team
- Support the implementation
Some companies adopt branded systems such as Sandler, Solution Selling, Dale Carnegie or others. Others develop their own systems with distinct terminology; perhaps a hybrid of popular systems or a mix of the techniques used by the company’s most successful sales performers.
A standard sales process allows companies to more easily analyze events and make sense of trends. As a regional sales manager at a mid-sized organization observed, “The only way to discover what’s working and what’s not is to measure the individual steps of the sales process. If you know the percentages of prospects that proceed through each stage of the process, you accurately predict how many sales will close in the future, based upon the current pipeline. You can also compare the performance of team members and take appropriate action, like additional coaching, in order to ensure that the team remains productive.”
Applying Best Practices to Sales
Most organizations are not strangers to processes, systems, and re-engineering. For example, in the manufacturing industry, plants and warehouses couldn’t operate profitably without them and no business manager would let accounting and purchasing departments improvise. The more complex the task, it’s more likely that the effective principles and processeses for successfully completing that task have been defined and codified. In other words, much of the business world is already highly process-driven, systematized, and automated.
Yet, oftentimes, the sales department hasn’t been automated. For example, in a recent study of distributor respondents, eighty-eight percent indicated that they do not have a documented, formal sales process. Given that sales is fundamental and represents a large expense item, it was quite surprising that written sales processes were non-existent for the majority of the study participants. Without such a document to provide a consistent road map, executives have no choice but to depend on the creativity, work ethic and luck of individual sales reps and their managers.
Organizations without a documented sales process often exhibit several common symptoms, such as a disconnected and manual approach to selling and a lengthy cycle time to find prospects, get quotes out the door, and close orders. This may in turn lead to irritated prospects, who expect a rapid response to their inquiries or request for a proposal. . In addition, top sales employees may become annoyed. They want to sell, not figure out the best way to put prospects in the pipeline, create quotes, enter orders and track shipments delivered. Other symptoms of process deficiencies include abundant and costly errors, evidenced by expedited orders and high volumes of returns, and inadequate margin on too many quotes, resulting in deflated profitability. This may lead to stagnant sales from the most important customers and cause engineering and other departments to be pulled into disarray when the sales team gets a request for proposal or learns about a bid opportunity.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many executives voice issues similar to these, yet the remedy seems to be incredibly difficult. Sales teams are often extremely autonomous, and management struggles to avoid “big brother” accusations and micromanaging. Despite these legitimate concerns, it is not that difficult to successfully implement a standard sales process.
When reviewing the various sales methodologies and processes available, make sure your final selection is repeatable, predictable, and scalable. What you want is a sales process that is simply enough that, over time, it will become second nature to the sales staff. Also, make sure that it isn’t too complicated, or the sales team will not use it.
The elements of a sales process typically include:
When smart organizations are designing a sales process implementation, they focus on change management, not sales training. By implementing a formalized sales process, businesses are fundamentally changing the way people do their jobs on a daily basis. There will be natural resistance. To develop a change management plan, make sure you can answer the following questions:
Follow the Leader
One of the best ways to make sure implementations “stick” is to have the management involved. One recent study found that when sales training is reinforced by management, the sales skills taught during training produced a 15% permanent increase in productivity.
Management needs to be involved in more than a cosmetic fashion. A senior member of the management team needs to attend the training, and this same manager should inspect the sales activities for a period of time to make sure they continuously are consistent with the new sales introduced during the training.
At the end of the day, the challenge with adopting a new sales process is getting everyone to follow it. Sales management must lead by example in sales meetings and on sales calls. An automated workflow reinforced by a CRM system that quickly prompts a salesperson to enter required information before moving to the next sales stage is invaluable. Standard reports and online visibility into the sales pipeline can help monitor the progress of opportunities over time so that both the salesperson and the sales manager can spot when an opportunity is stalled.
As one sales leader summed up his company’s recipe for success: “Our company can’t grow consistently unless the sales process is repeatable, not arbitrary. For us, it is a condition of employment – you have to embrace the standards, follow the processes and use the CRM system.”
Author Larry Caretsky is the CEO of Tinton Falls, N.J.-based Commence Corporation.
Tags: CRM, Information Management, OnDemand, process management, project management, Reports, SaaS, sales, Sales Effectiveness, sales force automation, sales forecasting, social networking, software
Posted by Commence on under Commence News |
-FREE Software Up-Grade Offered to Existing Customers-
TINTON FALLS, N.J., (October 15, 2009) – Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions, today announced that it is extending its managed services offering to existing desktop customers and offering a complimentary software upgrade with its new hosting service.
“Today’s economic crisis has created an environment whereby companies are finding it difficult to upgrade and maintain their own IT infrastructure,” said Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation. “Some have been forced to reduce their IT staff, making the management of their systems even more challenging. As a result, these businesses may now be working with older, fragile hardware or unsupported software and they are rightfully concerned about the impact this will have on their business.”
Commence Corporation has created a unique Managed Service designed to address this business challenge for existing customers. The service places the role of managing and maintaining the Commence Server hardware and software with Commence Corporation. It provides customers with the use of state-of-the-art high-speed server hardware at Commence Corporation’s data center as well as 24/7 management of the system by trained engineers. Customers are also entitled to a free software upgrade and continued upgrades for as long as they remain on the service. This ensures that they are always working with the highest quality server hardware and the latest version of the software.
Abhijit Joshi, president of White Hedge Inc., recently switched over to the service and is pleased with the outcome. “As a small company I did not have the resources to purchase the equipment and staff necessary to manage and maintain my Commence system,” said Joshi. “In addition, keeping up with the latest product releases became difficult. By outsourcing this function to Commence I freed up time and resources to dedicate to growing my business while Commence manages and maintains the hardware and software.”
Joshi, is not alone, several dozen new companies are already utilizing Commence’s managed service. For more information contact Commence sales at 1-877 – COMMENCE.
More About Commence Corporation
Founded in 1988, Commence develops and delivers a diverse suite of award-winning CRM products that integrate people, processes and technology. Delivered via the popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) model or implemented as on premised licensed software, Commence CRM solutions are used by thousands of companies to streamline sales and customer service front end business processes. As a result, Commence clients increase workforce productivity, generate positive customer interactions, and reduce cost. More information about Commence can be accessed at www.commence.com
Posted by Commence on October 13, 2009 under CEO Corner |
TR Cutler, a leading business journalist, recently interviewed Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence Corporation, to learn more about the company’s significant success in the CRM space and plans for competing with the large players in this space.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is growing at a significant pace with other hosted solutions significantly surpassing traditional client server technology offerings. This growth has allowed several smaller companies, like Commence Corporation to quickly capture marketshare in the small to mid-size business sector.
TR CUTLER: The CRM field has big players, like Salesforce.com. Why did Commence choose to enter the space?
CARETSKY: A few years ago industry experts asked Jet Blue executives why they choose to start an airline when the industry was in turmoil and even the giants were struggling to stay alive. Jet Blue succeeded in becoming a significant carrier. Unlike the airline industry, the CRM space and is growing rapidly and no single vendor has more than a 5% market share. The new battlefield is the SMB market, which Commence has been servicing for almost twenty years. This is our core competency and we know how to compete effectively.
TR CUTLER: What was missing in the CRM market that Commence addresses more effectively?
CARETSKY: Hosted solutions such as Salesforce.com addressed the difficulties associated with deploying traditional client server based CRM solutions, but utilization rates have remained low and customer renewals have been problematic. This is the direct result of a business model that does not include the proper planning and coaching required to ensure customer utilization. Regardless of the deployment model (in-house or hosted), there is still a reasonable degree of planning and mentoring necessary for the successful implementation and utilization of CRM.
Commence has addressed this requirement with extraordinarily effectiveness through the use of a proprietary implementation methodology called STEP (Selling Tools Enablement Program). STEP outlines the planning and responsibilities required by the customer and Commence staff to ensure a successful implementation and use of our CRM solution. This critical training functionality has been missing in the industry and has become a significant differentiator for our business.
TR CUTLER: How does a company like Commence compete against the Goliath of Salesforce.com and other CRM giants that are publicly traded and well-financed?
CARETSKY: Well in this “pay to play industry” it is hard to rise above the noise of Microsoft and Salesforce.com. The way Commence succeeds is to simply be better at one or two aspects of the business then the big guys. Commence has been very clear in differentiation and continues to quietly and consistently earn new customers and build solid references.
The single most significant differentiator Commence possessed versus the big CRM giants is our business model. Saleforce.com’s objective, for example, is to sell their solution to as many companies as possible regardless of size or industry. The only way to do this is to develop a generic set of features that supports the general business requirements of companies across all industries. This one size fits all approach does not work in all industry sectors.
Salesforce.com has recognized this short-coming and created an add-on development tool that allows for the customization of their CRM solution. The problem is that the SMB space has no interest in doing custom development, nor has the infrastructure to support it.
Commence CRM, unlike Salesforce.com, is developing specific vertical industry solutions that are already tailored to the unique business requirements of the customers in each particular sector. The result…customers can achieve a rapid return on their investment (ROI) without costly development work. Commence currently has a tailored solution for manufacturers and distributors and a construction vertical CRM is in development.
TR CUTLER: Why should a company with a general database such as ACT, jump up to a more sophisticated CRM solution?
CARETSKY: Many of SMB companies, while small, have simply outgrown their contact managers and are looking for tools to help them improve sales execution and customer service effectiveness. In order to achieve these improvements, SMB companies require an integrated CRM system that supports sales, marketing, and customer support, while providing better collaboration and disparate system integration. In the past, this level of functionality was too expensive for small to mid-size companies and required IT support. Hosted solutions like Commence make this level of functionality affordable, easy to use, and simple to deploy. Additionally, Commence has developed conversion tools that make the transition of contact management databases such as ACT and Goldmine virtually seamless to Commence.
TR CUTLER: What do you see as the drawbacks for those firms that have selected the big CRM solutions, like Saleforce.com?
CARETSKY: The problem with CRM today is that companies often look at CRM as a commodity and it’s really not. Having interviewed many customers that purchased their CRM solution based on brand recognition, they have been extremely disappointed with the end result. All of us at Commence Corporation believe that there is more value in the domain experience a CRM technology vendor can provide to the customer than in the product itself. The big guys specifically SalesForce.com and Microsoft are severely lacking in this aspect… their business model does not provide them with the ability to engage the customer directly.
Instead the CRM Goliaths rely on third party companies which rarely have the industry knowledge or experience to ensure the successful implementation and use of these products. This has resulted in higher cost implementations and a low level of customer satisfaction among many SMB organizations.
TR CUTLER: Other than a price advantage, what do you see as the top reasons people should consider CRM solutions, Commence specifically?
CARETSKY: Commence’s staff recognizes that improving the customer experience is one of the few excellence differentiators. CRM has shown to significantly impact sales execution and customer service by providing the end user with access to the vital customer information needed to perform their jobs more efficiently. Few question the value of CRM anymore, but rather are concerned with the high failure rate and low adoption usage that has plagued the industry.
TR CUTLER: Your literature indicates that your solution is modular and priced in license packs rather then by user. Can you elaborate on this?
CARETSKY: Commence is modular in nature which allows the end user to only select the departmental applications required for their business. Other vendors, such as Salesforce.com, force customers into more expensive solutions in order to add a minimal amount of functionality. This means customers are paying for functionality they don’t need.
The Commence licensing program is designed for the SMB sector…these margin-conscious business owners have made it very clear that they do not want to pay additional fees every time they need to add a new user. They refer to it as “paying by the drink.” Commence has created user packs that are designed for smaller businesses. SMB Customers can purchase a 5, 10 or 20 pack for instance at a discounted rate. This way the customer can add users at no additional cost. The significance here is that the solution actually gets cheaper as they add users and they don’t have to call Commence to change their license.
TR CUTLER: Where do you see Commence in five years?
CARETSKY: I believe that Commence will most likely continue to focus on those industries where our product offering and domain experience make us the logical and best choice among CRM technology solutions available.
TR CUTLER: Where do you see Salesforce.com in five years?
CARETSKY: I think Salesforce.com will continue to be impacted by the increased competition in the general purpose space from players such as Microsoft and Oracle and from industry specific players that are trying to carve out a vertical niche, like Commence Corporation. I suspect that the company would be a good acquisition target during this timeframe.
TR CUTLER: Where do you see the CRM marketplace in five years?
CARETSKY: The continued growth of CRM has attracted some of the largest software companies in the world and I suspect that the industry will go through a high level of consolidation as these companies look for strength in specific vertical sectors. It’s fair to say that many of the companies in existence today won’t be five years from now…after twenty years, we know Commence will still be here.
Posted by Commence on under Commence News |
Industrial CRM Solutions That Eliminate Company Inefficiencies
When it comes to using Contact Management and Customer Relationship Management software for Industrial Sales, Commence literally wrote the book. Using Six Sigma, lean practices, Commence CRM can help you implement smart business processes that will make your company a more efficient sales and service organization. Manage the selling cycle from introduction to closure though our contact management, lead management, activity management, quoting and sales automation software. Our off-line or disconnected capability is ideal for field sales representatives who need customer information with them at all times.
Our Sales Tools Combined with Smart Business Practices will Help You To Maximize Every Business Interaction and Achieve Your Sales Potential
Industrial Sales Tools
Rapidly deployable, easy to use tools for managing the sales cycle from introduction to closure. Commence takes the guess work out of sales management, contact management, lead management, pipeline management, forecasting and reporting. Commence can even help your company set up it’s own sales force automation services.
Smart Practices for Industry
This compendium of smart practices offers real life examples of how to create a customer centric marketing strategy, efficiently manage the sales process and use CRM technology to achieve industrial selling results.
