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What Lessons Can SFA Software Take from a GPS?
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ScoreManager
ScoreCast automatically reports opportunity information to ScoreManager, where
it is formatted to suit the manager’s perspective. ScoreManager is the sales
manager’s interface. It aggregates and consolidates a single dashboard view of
the entire sales landscape and visually alerts managers to important changes
within the sea of opportunities they monitor. Other systems collect a lot of the
same data and leave you with a vague sense that “it’s in there somewhere”;
ScoreManager puts it all in front of you, on a single dashboard, in full
context.
ScoreManager allows management to build and deploy a company sales methodology,
so that new salespeople can ramp quickly and the entire team has a shared
understanding of forecast stages. ScoreManager provides the same
information-dense dashboard and one click access to everything that ScoreCast
delivers, whether in online or offline mode.
ScoreManager causes a fundamental change in the interaction between sales
management and salespeople. Without ScoreManager, when a manager wants to work
with a salesperson on an opportunity, they have to start with a recital of
what’s been happening and a Q&A about who’s got the money, how they buy, etc.
Only once the background is understood can they begin discussing ways to move
the deal ahead.
With ScoreManager, the manager already knows the current profile of the
opportunity including what happened last. From this vantage point, the dialogue
easily shifts to strategizing the best way to win business. Time spent is more
productive and satisfying for all concerned. The manager is doing the job he or
she loves.
ScoreManager also fulfills rigorous analytic requirements. It allowing
user-defined fields exposed through custom views of live data. All views are
live . . . even the forecast view allows you to drill down into current detail.
ScoreSight coined the phrase, “Multiple Points of Validation” to describe the
depth of information a manger can access by drilling into a live dashboard view
of the forecast. It all works because the information is enthusiastically input
by salespeople to advance their deals. That’s why they say, “ScoreSight ends
sales reporting as you know it today.”
ScoreSight should be of particular interest to software startup companies. They
can build early process and structure, provision their new hires, and set up the
means to capture lessons learned. Imagine new salespeople, geographically
isolated, encountering customers and learning what does and does not work. How
quickly they can capture, share, and translate that learning into repeatable
methods for the rest of the company can make a big difference in the new
company's growth rate!
Why ScoreSight Works
Remember playing with a mobile as a kid? It could be a jumble of strings,
sticks and shapes hanging clumsily if you picked it up in the wrong place, but
if you picked it up in just the right place, those same pieces would fall into
perfect balance. Sales software is like that. ScoreSight founders understood
complex sales from every angle. They elected to begin by solving the problem of
revenue generation – the toughest task. And by solving that problem, everything
else just fell into place.
Knowing the Sales User
ScoreSight‘s value proposition serves the entire sales chain of command. It
recognizes that salespeople are intelligent, competitive, goal-oriented
achievers. They are also impatient, distractible, and intolerant of anything
that does not at least partially serve their interests. They like to keep score
of deals closed, quota attained, rank among peers and so on.
Sales managers typically have come up through the ranks and generally have the
personality characteristics enumerated above. In addition, they are often
exceptional closers with talent to lead, and were promoted in order to help
close more deals and mentor the team. But many are frustrated by the time-burden
of preparing and presenting reports and by missing the chance to make the best
contribution.
Motivating the Sales User
ScoreSight is the easiest way a salesperson can manage and close a high volume
of complex sales opportunities. The developers of ScoreSight recognized that in
order to take powerful informed actions, users need to have full context of the
activity and all necessary resources at their fingertips. The ScoreSight GUI
delivers on this so well, it quickly becomes the primary application for most
users. ScoreSight frees sales management to do what they want to do, close
business and lead salespeople.
Here’s what one sales user had to say:
Dan Kehoe, Sales, Kazeon, Inc.: “Kazeon was looking for a sales forecast
solution that allowed the company to get a quick snapshot of the pipeline and
forecast of all salespeople at any time. We wanted a tool that was easy to
deploy and allows traveling salespeople to work "off-line". ScoreCast fit the
bill. It gives management visibility into what we are doing and provides
meaningful information to sales reps for managing their time and energy relative
to the pipeline.”
Here are comments from sales management:
Craig Smith, VP of Sales and Professional Services, Media Publisher: “I wanted
to build a sales methodology so my new people would know immediately how to go
after business in the Media Publisher company way. I sat down with my best
salesperson, interviewed him to learn his methods, then worked with the
ScoreSight consultant and found the best way to implement the process in the
ScoreSight Progress Form. It was easy to build once we knew what we wanted, and
I was able to change it later without disrupting anything! I see my new reps
ramping much more quickly now. The quality of my sales organization has improved
with ScoreSight. Without reservation, I recommend it.”
Mara S. Henderson, President, Imagitek, Ltd.: “We have utilized several
sales force automation tools in the past – all of which, quite frankly, gave me
a perspective on ‘old’ data. SCOREsight is the first tool that we have seen that
truly gives us a view to where we need to go, versus where we have been.”
Dave Frye, Director, Eagle Mapping, Inc.: “Our 2007 plans call for 50%
growth and we purchased ScoreSight to meet those goals. ScoreSight gives me and
my team deep visibility into opportunities and forecasts. It’s not a passive
collector of data, but rather an integral part of our sales process and adds
value to every user.”
Future Products
I asked Mike Schaefer, CEO and Founder of ScoreSight, to give me a sneak peek
into their future.
Mike Schaefer: “In April, ScoreSight will deliver a product for the CEO
and executive management. This product will be a comprehensive executive rollup
of forecasts, objectives, and rankings. Its purpose is to provide the ultimate
in comprehension of what’s happening within global working teams, utilizing
different methodologies and collaborating on multiple opportunities.”
Mike Schaefer: “Many people have asked us to provide a UI to their
existing CRM system, so that complex sales opportunities can be tracked within
the encompassing structure CRM provides. They see the volume and high quality
information captured in ScoreSight and want to make it available to downstream
applications. We are carefully considering that idea.”
Now for my reservations:
ScoreSight is young company. Their product is V3 and has production users, but
to date, no customer has more than 50 sales users. ScoreSight could fall prey to
a single large customer that dictates their product direction. ScoreSight needs
to establish a reseller channel in order to grow rapidly, an effort they have
only recently begun.
That said, I’ll go back to the beginning: This product is something special.
Users will want to use it because it helps get them where they want to go. It’s
easy to set up and easy to learn. It is a whole new class of software because it
is the first product that will help you produce more revenue and deliver the
most accurate forecast ever.
My advice: Take a look at this company, they’re on to something!
ScoreSight matches quite well with the slogan of The Podium Group, “ACCELERATING
TIME TO MONEY”. Best wishes for 2007 revenue growth from The Podium Group!
Comple this form to contact ScoreSight. You will also automatically be
entered into a draw for a FREE Garmin GPS.
GPS draw will take place March 31, 2007. Only the winner will be contacted. The winner's name will be announced on www.ScoreSight.com between April 1, 2007 - April 15, 2007.
If you know others who would be interested in ScoreSight or would like to be entered for a FREE GPS draw, please click here. |
This article was sponsored by ScoreSight.
Austin F. Ford, Jr. is the Founder of The Podium Group. Founded to help
emerging companies shorten private investment cycles and increase revenue
streams as quickly as possible, the firm focuses on developing and executing
business, marketing and selling strategy with achievable targets and realistic
commitments to shareholders. Austin has provided business services including
planning, marketing, and sales consulting for a variety of startup and emerging
firms, as well as process improvement consulting to domestic and international
companies including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sony, and Johnson and Johnson. As a
founding member of three companies that were acquired, he collaborated on
business and marketing strategy and had functional responsibility for marketing
and sales. Austin has a BS degree from Holy Cross College and an MBA from
Pepperdine University. For article feedback, Austin can be contacted on
925.872.7900.
 
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