Next-Generation Sales-Marketing Tools For the Rest of Us

Charlston Regional Business Journal -- April 23, 2001 -- by Bennett Brecht

What good is a great marketing, fundraising or sales campaign without the luxury of great lead management and sales force automation to act and react to all of the resulting opportunities? Ford does it. Microsoft does it. But for most small and medium-sized businesses, cumbersome, expensive software has been the only way to organize and prioritize the hodgepodge of possibilities for handling marketing and sales data.

Fortunately, change is upon us.

Web technology now offers us a new way to handle lead management, data mining and sales force automation through a variety of robust, easy-to-use and-most importantly-inexpensive software tools.

With the proliferation of application service provision, powerful software can now be "rented" by anyone over the Internet. This allows small businesses to take advantage of a great deal of muscle power, formerly reserved for large corporations with fat budgets, to update their office procedures at greatly reduced cost. Since sales force automation, sophisticated lead tracking and customer cultivation are at the heart of revenue growth of most organizations, the emerging Internet offerings in this space are especially exciting.

Now you can save time and money by building, managing and exploiting your own data mine and let others worry about the technology.

How it works-Let's say your just ran a direct mail, telemarketing and Web campaign to gather prospect data. The data gathered from these campaigns can be used to build an integrated data mine, which is hosted online at a third party's facility, securely.

With Web access, your company can view, analyze and massage this data mine of information to further marketing activities and sales force initiatives. Salespeople can move leads through the pipeline purchase cycle via a suite of tools managing the entire process. This includes specialized mail merges, targeted e-mail and direct mail blasts, one-to-one communication features and a host of other marketing and sales tools.

LeadMaster.com touts features that help boost the power of any marketing or sales campaign:

• Design as many campaigns as you like at no additional cost.
• Download data for other marketing uses.
• Choose lead and data analysis for improving marketing efforts.
• Utilize their network of partner-vendors who can lend their expertise to help your organization with other services, such as direct mail, Web design and advertising.

Upshot.com, an online SFA program, boasts the following features:

• The interface is easy to use.
• Information is integrated across the entire sales and marketing teams of users.
• Records are accessible from any computer connected to the Internet, securely.
• Information can be accessed and synchronized with palm and wireless devices.
• Scheduling, contact and communications tools are available in the same environment, along with standard offerings like tickler reports and moves tracking.

It is now easier to approach marketing campaign management and sales force automation, one step at a time, as your organization can afford it.

The benefits of using next-generation ASP's for these types of services are enticing:

• Upgrades are often and automatic, with no downtime, requiring no effort (it's on the Web, not on your computer).
• Pricing (as low as $55/month) allows you to participate in sophisticated business activities for less.
• Fast implementation (as quick as one day).
• No technical hassles, extra equipment or software to purchase.
• An excellent first move into customer relations for small businesses.
• You grab and use your data any way you'd like.
• It's cross-browser, cross-platform and accessible from anywhere.

Since most of these services offer a free trial period, it's hard to make excuses not to take the next step towards improving the bottom line. By keeping an eye on building the next-generation office for your organization, the maturation of ASP and Web-based technologies are finally bringing us all something to cheer about. Jump in. The water's great.

Bennett Brecht is president and chief executive officer of Opus Media Corp., a digital media services provider located in Charleston. He can be reached at bennett@opusmedia.com or at www.opusmedia.com, 843-884-6214.

Reprinted with permission from the Charleston Regional Business Journal.Please visit their website at www.crbj.com. Read the original article on their site.