COMPETITIVE SPOTLIGHT: Holden eFox Helps You Engage and Defeat Your Competitors

Let’s face it: sometimes CRM is too much about data entry, and not enough about winning business. A good way to refocus CRM on generating sales is to use CRM to help track and follow a winning sales process and methodology.

The eFox Software Solutions suite from Holden International is a case in point. Holden eFox provides a graphical, easy to navigate way to increase win rates, reduce sales cycle, monitor competitive strength, formulate effective strategies with coaching, and even develop political insight into the customer’s buying environment. It does this through a simple four-step process:

• Step 1 – Discovery. You conduct an opportunity analysis, with the criteria for "Must Win" opportunities. Slide switches allow for data input, along with white pencil icons for commentary on criteria rating that turn yellow to indicate that comments have been added.
• Step 2 – Establish Value. You create a value position for individual customers, with templates for the construction of value statements and automatic formation of value propositions for use with C-level executives.
• Step 3 – Create Competitive Strategy. You formulate a competitive strategy, with templates and sales situation specific coaching as to the applicability of a particular class of strategy.
• Step 4 – Build Political Support. You build a "heads up" relationship display, with 10 question tools that are driven by easy to use slide switch data entry, to form a graphically illustrated map of your competitive position in pursuing an opportunity.

What We Like about It:
Holden’s eFox software is perhaps the only Sales 2.0 tool built specifically by a top sales trainer for use by sales professionals. The sales trainer in this case is, of course, Jim Holden, author of Power Base Selling: Secrets of an Ivy League Street Fighter (Wiley, 1999) and The Selling Fox: A Field Guide for Dynamic Sales Performance (Wiley, 2002) – both classics in the field.

As you might expect with an application with such a stellar genesis, eFox has an intuitive interface that requires minimal data entry, and provides highly graphical win/loss indicators and coaching that prompts sales leaders to make quick and precise decisions on what opportunities require immediate coaching. As a result, the application has a "natural" feel that’s easier to use than that found in traditional CRM interfaces.

Profile:
Partner: Holden International
Application: eFox
Application Published: August 2006
Average User Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Pricing Plan: Annual subscription fee
More Info: http://www.holdenintl.com