Sales Technology: Making the Most of Your Investment

Contemporary sales organizations are spending billions of dollars or euros
on sales technologies with the objective of streamlining the sales process,
enhancing sales force productivity, and improving customer relationships.
A variety of sales technologies exist such as customer relationship management
(CRM) software, mobile sales force automation (SFA) applications,
contact management software, and territory planning applications, to
name just a few. In spite of the amount being invested in such technologies,
however, few firms can claim to be enjoying performance improvements.
In fact, the majority of companies are struggling to gain salesperson buy-ins
and are failing to realize the intended return on investment (ROI). In addition,
the introduction of such technological applications may cause stress to
the sales force or disturb customer relationships. Against this backdrop, this
textbook is concerned with how executives can effectively manage a complex
and costly sales technology initiative in order to get the most out of it.
In particular, the textbook begins by providing the reader with a detailed
discussion on the various technologies that are being used by sales organizations.
It then provides an exhaustive review of the factors that might lead
to effective sales technology implementation and presents a managerially
relevant conceptual framework, which illuminates the mediating pathways
from using the system to salesperson productivity. Moreover, the textbook
offers a wide array of key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be readily
employed in order to monitor the progress and success of the implementation
effort. Next, it offers a comprehensive method that executives can use
to calculate the return on sales technology investment (ROSTI) in order
to substantiate the business case for the technology. Finally, the textbook
provides executives with a detailed three-stage process of sales technology
implementation and discusses what essential work should be conducted in
each stage.