The New Sales Software Market

PC software for sales applications, once a burgeoning field of untested programs, is exploding with new product releases at the rate of more than five a week.

With the advent of new lightweight, fast and powerful laptops, sales pros are appearing in droves on the streets and in office complexes all over America carrying these eight to 16 pound wonders. In fact, in many industries, a salesperson who does not call on a prospect or customer with laptop in hand is likely to receive a less enthusiastic reception than his or her more hi-tech competitor.

With the new and extremely popular hardware comes an equally imperative need for productivity boosting, user friendly software that can help sales professionals increase selling time and cut paperwork. As fast as new softwares hit the market, many others that have been around less than a year disappear without a trace.

The following article shows how the sales software market developed, what some current products offer, how salespeople can use software for better sales results, and where to find reliable sales software.

Novice stockbrokers like Smith-Barney’s Chip Lee are told that to survive they must have at least seventy active customers within their first selling year. As any sales professional knows, to generate this many active accounts takes 10 times as many prospect names. During his first month’s selling, way back in 1984, Lee almost got buried alive under a pile of prospect information cards and call back slips until a roommate suggested he automate.

“I was struggling along pretty unsuccessfully with a box filled with prospects’ and clients’ names and addresses on note cards. It was a messy process and I kept losing important information,” Lee recalls.

When Lee was learning the cold-calling and prospecting ropes at Smith-Barney, no one there had a better system for paperwork. Lee’s roommate, Jim Scherrer, who watched with chagrin while his friend struggled to maintain a semblance of order in the chaos, realized a computer could perform better, faster and more accurately than the file-box-all-over-the-floor method.

Scherrer hired a computer programmer, Sam Tatnall, to devise a sales management system for PC-based software. Then he gave it to Lee to try out.

“There were no pieces of paper to lose. It gave me the ability to sort through my client base and see who was interested in different stocks,” explains Lee. “My efficiency improved by about 50 percent. After trying it out at home, I bought my own PC and hauled the hardware with my new software into the office.”

The other brokers snickered – for one week. When they saw how much more time Lee had to make calls, the backbone of any sales effort, the smart ones descended on the local computer vendor like locusts on a corn field.

That was four years ago. Today, Scherrer and Tatnall head Scherrer Resources Inc., one of the first sales software companies on the market. Their line includes Broker’s Ally, a revised form of the first program they developed for Lee, plus industry specific software for real estate agents, insurance brokers and other salespeople. The firm recently hit the million dollar mark in sales.

At the same time that Chip Lee was piling up paper in Philadelphia, three thousand miles west in southern California, Michael McCafferty was trying to tame his own paper tigers. McCafferty, whose company, Remote Control Inc., now markets a leading software program called TELEMAGIC, and Lee didn’t realize then that solutions to their selling and prospecting problems would give birth to an industry that now sports some 500 sales software products at any given time.

This astounding proliferation of sales software has blasted its way through even the most complacent sales organizations, creating a wealth of new opportunities for belly-to-belly business.

McCafferty’s TELEMAGIC program grew out of existing off the shelf software. McCafferty, whose sales background with the computer giant IBM had taught him what salespeople needed in a computer, now turned his attention to users who told him they wanted sales and marketing functions along with their accounting programs. He surveyed the market, and found some eighty programs that salespeople could use. However, these had problems.

The ones that addressed sales needs were written in computereze that showed off the programmers’ prowess but were nearly impossible for the average salesperson to use. McCafferty, who recognized that a program is only as good as it is user friendly, set out to provide just such software. Instead of trying to market his program, he put it in the hands of 12 sales professionals to test for a few months. He then modified the program based on feedback from the field until he had a product that could stand up to any scrutiny.

McCafferty’s try-it-out, then modify it approach has paid off in sales of 25,000 programs over the last four years. It is one of the longest running sales software success stories on the market.

The pioneering efforts of McCafferty’s Remote Control Inc. and Scherrer Resources Inc. helped open the way for a flood of followers. Currently, there are about 500 different programs on the market that will do anything from tracking customers to keeping tabs on expense accounts. As a spin-off, there are now specialty catalogs that sell programs, handbooks telling how to use them and even hands-on seminars to keep buyers abreast of the latest product developments.

These include Marketplace Software Inc, ($2.00, Amherst, N.Y. 716/835-2225), a 38-page catalog that details the features and benefits of sales software programs; “The Sales Associate: How to Use the Personal Computer in Sales” by Joseph M. Cerra ($39.95, Evergreen Ventures Corp., P.O. Box 1269, Southampton, PA 18966); and the Fifth Annual Marketing and Sales Software Conference, sponsored by the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Boston, Inc. (617/431-1088), which will be held in late May at Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Sales software has caught on because salespeople are now realizing what Scherrer, McCafferty and others grasped right from the start. Computers can do the paperwork they hate so they can concentrate on the selling they love.

Software Boosts Sales

According to a much quoted 1987 study done by Sales and Marketing Management magazine, salespeople who use software increase productivity, on average, by 43 percent. Those gains can have a significant impact on their company’s bottom line. A 1986 McGraw-Hill study found that a 6.2 percent increase in sales productivity results in a 21 percent increase in corporate profits.

How does software do it? Basically, it’s a more organized and efficient way of tackling paperwork. Instead of writing information down in dayrunners and on company forms, sales reps type data into a database and pull up what they need with a keystroke or two. Some systems, such as SNAP and Agenda, even allow sales managers access to salespeople’s information in order to track their progress and pinpoint areas that need improvement.

According to a study by Booz, Allen & Hamilton, sales reps spent 36 percent of their time selling and 39 percent servicing before their offices were automated. Afterward, they were able to spend 50 percent of their time selling and 25 percent servicing. Time spent on office duties, such as paperwork, went down from 19 percent to 15 percent.

One of the main features of every sales software is file space for clients’ names, addresses and phone numbers. Included may be categories for listing whether the person is a hot prospect or a steady customer, what information he’s requested and when he should be called again.

Each package is a little different. BusinessWeek SalesFinder, for instance, gives its users an edge by including the names and the key data on 2,000 of the largest companies within a given sales territory. SELLSTAR! by ESPRIT Soft-ware Technology Inc. has what it calls a built-in “expert system,” which keeps track of clients’ personalities and motivation, and will recommend selling strategies.

Stockbroker Lee, who loves the client file aspect of Broker’s Ally, wears a headset when he phones prospects so he can type information into his computer as he talks.

“Before, I was writing so fast I couldn’t always read what I’d written. I’d lose client cards because they’d fall off the desk. And you always wondered if anyone ever took any because it would be so easy for another broker to come over and steal a few cards,” he says.

Broker’s Ally can only be accessed by a password.

Once the information is stored in the system, it’s a simple matter to call up a list of hot prospects or a to-do list of calls organized by date and time. Some software, like TELEMAGIC, will also store sales letters, and can print them out – complete with address label – at the touch of a button.

“The best sales lead,” says Donald J. Plumley, “is a request for information, a quote, an inquiry. A simple confirmation letter, a phone call – on time – may be the only difference between you and your competition. Who does the buyer remember?” His company’s software package, Act!, also includes letter writing capability.

Sales software can also handle call reports, tickler files, expense reports, sales forecasts, electronic mail and make presentations. Some programs, like PROSELL, can do it all; others, like Touch ‘n Go, Wisard Forecaster, EXPEN$E MA$TER and FREQUENT FLYER AWARD TRAKKER, are designed to deal with only limited sales functions. MARCAR Personal Computing Inc., gives its clients both options. Its EIGHTY/20 Client Management System can be expanded by adding a new EXPENSE REPORTING module to handle expense account records.

Alan Bittman, salesman with Computerland in Charlottesville, VA, relies on four different software programs to streamline his business day. He stores Clients’ names and addresses in Microsoft File; he uses Microsoft Excel to prepare price quotes; he writes letters with WordStar; and he dresses up final proposals with PageMaker, a desktop publishing software.

“It makes things 10 times easier,” he says, adding that he uses a daytimer as a backup system.

Software Features

Here are some additional features available on sales software:

Automatic Lead Assignment: automatically assigns leads to specific sales reps based on user-defined criteria. This would be of special interest to firms that get large batches of leads, and is usually only found on systems that have a shared database.

Literature Fulfillment: tracks which prospects have received which pieces of literature, when they received it, etc., and is great for companies that mail clients a great deal of literature.

Tickler File: will call up every prospect record that needs follow-up action on a specific day, and should tell you what action needs to be taken. This is one of the most useful features on any sales software package because it keeps follow-ups from falling through the cracks. The Reminder System Plus, by Campbell Services Inc., takes this one step further by automatically adding uncompleted to-do list items from one day to the to-do list items for the next.

Activity History: the space on the prospect record where you can keep notes on what’s happening throughout the sales cycle. Beware of programs that limit the space for this, especially if you have long selling cycles. You don’t want to run out of space. An additional benefit of this feature is that new reps inheriting old clients save time learning about them by simply reading their history file. Prospecting Plus by Key Systems Inc., for instance, advertises that its system allows users to keep “virtually unlimited” pages of notes on each client.

Sales Pipeline: lets you define the steps in a sale and track its progress. As with activity histories, beware of programs that limit the number of steps in the pipeline.

Wrap-up Screen: is filled out by sales reps after each sales contact, and can be used by sales managers to track their productivity. A daily report based on a wrap-up screen, for example, can tell a manager how many calls got through, how many presentations were made and how many ended in a sale. If properly designed, they can be used during compensation reviews.

Autodialing: connects the software to your phone system so you can dial the phone number on the prospect record with one keystroke. Make sure your phone system can handle this feature before you buy it as many phone systems on the market can’t integrate with existing autodialing standards.

Lead Source Analysis: tells you where your leads are coming from and how good they are. It can track how many leads come from each ad, trade show, mailing, telemarketing effort or other campaign. Better ones can even track the sales and profits, and are a valuable tool for the marketing or advertising department because they detail how many dollars of sales you’re getting for each dollar spent.

Lead Distribution Analysis: identifies who got how many leads. More advanced software will even calculate the ratio of leads to closed sales for every rep in the sales force.

Scripting: favored by telemarketers, this allows them to read a script from their terminal screen and type in data during the conversation. SaleMaker Plus by Software of the Future Inc., for instance, has 891 pop-up windows for scripts. More advanced programs will change the script based on the answers to previous questions.

Exporting/Importing Data: exporting is when your software system can send data to other computers on your system or another system. One possible use would be sending information to field reps with laptops. Importing, on the other hand, allows you to receive new data electronically, such as a mailing list of prospects on a floppy disk.

With all the options and advantages available, it’s little wonder that sales forces are switching to computers. According to John Alexander, who puts out Marketplace Software catalog, “An estimated 10 to 15 percent of all sales departments in the United States are now using desktops and laptops to boost their sales productivity. Within the next 18 months, this number will easily double.”

Sales Leaders Like Software

Who are those 10 percent? Industry experts say they’re usually the companies who are on the leading edge in sales and want to capture even more of the market. In companies where sales reps have to buy their own software, it’s usually the top sellers who’re reaching into their own pockets in hopes of eventually having more in their wallets.

Lee, who was the first broker at Smith-Barney’s Philadelphia office to bring in his own PC and software, says 10 of the 60 brokers he works with followed his lead and bought Broker’s Ally. “They’re mostly the younger brokers or the more aggressive brokers. The bigger brokers who are established don’t feel they need it,” he says.

More Companies Switching To Software

That’s likely to change the longer sales software is on the market. For one thing, sales reps and managers are becoming more aware of its potential and more interested in testing its possibilities.

Beth Drysdale, executive director of Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Boston Inc., has noticed differences in people attending her organization’s recent marketing and sales software conferences.

“What’s changed is the sophistication of the people attending,” she says. “In the initial conference, people wanted to know what was out there and how to buy it. Now they’ve got it, and they want to know how to implement it.”

Sales forces who want to make the jump to automation have two choices: buy a commercial program or have one custom made. Commercial software is generally cheaper, can be used immediately and is generally familiar to computer trainers. The major drawback is that there is little leeway in adapting the program to a particular business.

Customized software, on the other hand, should fit the purchasing company’s needs exactly. Although it tends to be more expensive – figures run from $1,000 to $100,000 – there are no license or distribution costs. Once a company buys it, they just have to pay duplicating costs for extra copies.

The rub comes when the company wants to train its staff on the system or adapt the program to meet changing needs. Training programs can double the price of the software package, and recustomizing a custom program is often limited or impossible.

“There are no black and white rules for choosing commercial or custom software,” Plumley says. “The general reason commercial software is chosen is cost and inflexibility of the custom package. Custom is selected for its application specificity or because commercial software is not available for the exact application.”

Try Before You Buy

Once the decision to use commercial software is made, Michael McCafferty of Remote Control Inc. has some commonsense suggestions for selecting the best software for you. The first is to try before you buy.

“Test drive the software program to see how easy it is to use,” he says. “After all, you don’t buy a car without driving it first.”

He also recommends grilling the sales rep on the following questions:

Can this system can be upgraded?

Is it multiuser?

Can it communicate with a mainframe?

Where and when do you get support and what kind of support system is available?

Also, ask the software sales rep for references, and call them up to find out how long they’ve been using the program and how well they like it.

How many updates has the company put on the market?

Caveat Emptor

Edward F. Lucia Jr., president of IDSC Rental Company Inc., recommends that buyers beware of the following pitfalls: inflexible software, slow hardware, poor data security and inexperienced vendors.

“Ask the sales rep for the exact process involved if a prospect company changes its name,” he writes in “What Every Manager Should Know About Sales and Telemarketing Software,” a booklet distributed by his company. “Some packages would make you delete the old record and retype all the old data into a new record. Others will let you simply type in the new name.”

Once a software program is selected, the best approach is to give it to a few salespeople in a small company or to everyone in a branch or division of a large company. This will serve as a test group to see how well the system works, and lower the amount wasted if it doesn’t.

Plumley recommends running such a pilot program for three months. “The first month is spent getting used to the equipment and software. The second month the user learns to work with the system on a daily, interactive basis. The third month becomes a more realistic appraisal of how the system works,” he says.

At that point, companies should reevaluate the program and decide whether to stick with it or switch to something else and start over.

Sales and Marketing Systems Inc. of Vienna, Virginia offers a unique software trade-in feature. “We produce a program called Sales Control II,” explains Bob Moir who markets the program. “It’s a lead/client management/tracking package with a network feature that we’ve designed for a sales team to take full advantage of data in the field. The same information on clients and leads that the salesperson uses can be an advantage to the sales manager who wants to look at the salespeople’s productivity. The manager who wants to know where his reps are producing and where they are having trouble in the field, can keep track on the computer from the home office. Also, we will allow anyone to trade up to our system if they find they have outgrown what they are currently using, or, if what they are using doesn’t support a network.”

As with any other major business purchase, a company about to make a substantial time and money investment in sales software has to cover all the bases. Advice from the experts who have created programs which are now industry standards is well founded.

The market is likely to continue expanding since the fastest growing segment of the laptop market is sales professionals. That means there will be more opportunity and more risk for the software user. However, the majority of sales software users seem to agree that the rewards of simplified PC-based record keeping far outweigh the risks. In most cases, where a company won’t support the purchase of either hardware or software, sales professionals who want to stay on top make the decision to buy on their own.