Apple has inspired a lot of people lately. Their much hyped release of the iPad has made many people rethink the way they do business. One of those people is Mike Ladd, President & CEO of Euchner-USA.
SalesLogix account details on the iPad
Euchner makes safety switches and automation systems for a variety of industries. Ladd’s salespeople are constantly traveling, so entering notes in a CRM system is imperative to track all of those on site visits. Ladd understands the value of CRM, and he has been disappointed with user adoption. He hopes to change all of that with SalesLogix Web on the iPad.
“There is a tremendous amount of good information in SalesLogix,” said Ladd. However, Euchner has been using SalesLogix LAN version. His salespeople are less inclined to use CRM on the road since SalesLogix can only be accessed through a cumbersome laptop.
“Their notes aren’t good because they save them up for the end of the week,” said Ladd. “They take notes on the back of a business card and then try to replicate them in SalesLogix. A lot gets left out.”
Those days will soon be over. SalesLogix has a few different deployment options now; SAAS, Web and LAN. Euchner is deploying SalesLogix Web in a few weeks. Their LAN instance will now be accessible through a unique URL.
Ladd has had an iPad for a while now and he’s convinced that SalesLogix on the iPad will encourage his sales team to take notes when they’re on site. Ladd expects SalesLogix on the iPad will generate better reporting, streamline the sales process better and save a tremendous amount of time.
“The value of SalesLogix is built for this,” said Ladd about the iPad. “My sales people can look at history notes in SalesLogix and they’ll be better prepared. The iPad is fun to use, and if it’s fun, people will use it more.”
Salesforce.com and SalesLogix by Sage Software are two popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. They serve the same general purpose: software that helps companies track customer/employee interactions, lead management, planning, calendar capabilities and much more.
Salesforce.com has been in existence for 10 years and is only offered as a software as a service (SaaS), i.e as a subscription model. SalesLogix has been around for 14 years and was previously install only. However, in 2010 Sage released SalesLogix Cloud. Customers can now choose to deploy SalesLogix on the web, SaaS (Cloud), mobile, and LAN (installed).
There are similarities in both Salesforce and SalesLogix. But also some significant differences. Such as functionality and data storage.
One of the big concerns many CRM users have is storage. Both Sugar and Salesforce.com limit the amount of data a company can store when they host on-demand to 1GB of data.
All three companies allow you to purchase additional storage.
Sales Force Data storage is $300 extra per 50MB per MONTH *
Sugar Data Storage is $200 extra per 1GB per YEAR no matter what kind of data
SalesLogix Cloud = 50 cents per month, per GB
Of course with Sugar and SalesLogix you always have the option to host it yourself, in which case there are no storage limits. SFDC has no option to host the application yourself.
*Note that Salesforce.com charges two separate data storage fees. $250 per GB per month for FILE storage (documents, pictures) and $300 per month per 50 MB per month for general data storage (notes and other organic info).
That’s right; a new way to stay up on the latest Saleslogix news. The Saleslogix podcast is geared towards developers, but avid users will find value in it too. Each podcast includes commentary on upcoming release news, discussion of new videos added to the Developer’s subscription, responses to current threads on the newsgroups, and an update of what’s new in Sage Learning Services.
Purchasing and implimenting a CRM system can be a daunting task. Sometimes you can buy directly from the software vendor and other times you can buy through a Value Added Reseller (VAR). BrainSell President Jim Ward addressed the topic of who to buy from as a guest blogger on the Sales Opperation Blog this week.
Jim focused on the pros and cons of buying direct and buying from a VAR. Here are some of his points in short… to read the entire post, visit Marci Reynolds’ Sales Opperation Blog.
Definitions:
Direct Sales: A direct sales model for a CRM software vendor means the vendor employs their own sales force and you do business directly with the vendor.
Value Added Reseller (VAR): When buying through a VAR you’re buying through a company certified to resell the vendor’s software. VARs offer additional services such as training, development, consulting and implementation to add “value” (the “V” in VAR) to the sale.
Guest blog by Seth Ellertson, Director of Sales East for Sage CRM
As Sage is rapidly approaching the advent of our new and exciting cloud offering for SalesLogix CRM, we’re tasked with advising our partners on how to appropriately motivate and compensating their sales people in this new world. While there is no question our partner and customers are anxiously awaiting our new offer, I can’t help but think that this changes the game for sales compensation. The old days were easy – you gave a sales representative a quota for license sales and paid them against achievement. It was really that easy. The only real question was how much to make their quota and how much to pay them, but of course that could be solved pretty easily by some revenue and cost modeling done by accounting people much smarter in the ways of finance than myself. Sales people had a license revenue target that they achieved by securing upfront software license purchases.
The SASS and Cloud offerings require a bit more thought, although according to Joel York in his March 2010 article SaaS Sales Compensation Made Easy, “The ONLY difference between SaaS sales compensation and sales compensation for software or other products is that you should pay based on the “LIFETIME VALUE of THE DEAL” instead of the unit price of the product. Unfortunately, It didn’t appear that simple from the rest of his article. Joel actually goes on to talk about present values of annuity’s and other financial calculations that I just simply couldn’t focus enough of my attention deficit mind around in my most boring college classes. (Trust me there is a reason I’m in sales) Joel then goes to provide the following formula – SaaS Subscription LTV=RR = RR (1-a)/(1=i) + RR ……… ok, I can’t find the symbols on the key board for the rest of it. Needless to say that’s where Joel lost me.
So I started to think about all of the reasons that a re-occurring model was different from a traditional sales model and the questions surrounding the differences - Should a sales representatative be paid upfront despite the company receiving payments in monthly or quarterly increments? Do you pay on total contract value or reoccurring revenue? If you pay on reoccurring revenue how to you motivate someone to secure a multi-year contract. What if a customer cancels their contract? As I’m researching options, one thing continues to come to my mind –COMPENSATION DRIVES MOTIVATION.
As we’ve rolled out dozens of different sales models over the years the only real question that sales people have is – what exactly do I need to do to make exactly how much money. So what does that mean for a small business owner or a VP of sales looking to change a compensation model… well its simple I think (although I’m clearly not as financially educated as Joel) - First make sure the plan is easy to understand and calculate, remember us sales people like thinks simple. Second make sure that you align compensation with corporate goals. If your corporate goal is to acquire 100 new customers this year, then base a sales representative on customer acquisition. If your goal is to secure 5 million or 500 million in annual re-occurring revenue, then base them on those targets. The only real thing to be careful about according to Joel (yes, I really did read his whole article, it was quite insightful) is to make sure that you choose a time frame for the reoccurring target like monthly, quarterly and yearly and stick with that timeframe, as changing it periodically has serious impact.
So at the end of the day figure out a reoccurring revenue target by doing some projections and modeling and pay your people for achieving those targets. Couldn’t be easier… after all sales people aren’t compensated for managing cash flow they are compensated for closing deals.
I found a great quote in a pdf presentation I found on sales compensation -
“Most of the time was spent discussing our business plans and objectives and worrying less about paying too much or too little” Steve Balk, VP Sales, Dataflux
Steve, I don’t know who you are, but I like your style. I couldn’t agree with you more, although I selfishly favor paying salespeople too much. Lets figure out how to achieve our business objectives and if we overpay our salespeople a bit in the first year because we achieved those objectives – who cares, let’s just go sell!
As I look around I’ve noticed competitors selling their businesses, closing their doors or simply getting small. It’s not just my competition, it’s the business world around us. Whether you’re starting a business or want to build your business in this economy, here’s 7 simple ideas to consider.
1. Acquire: Growth through aqcuisition could be your key to future growth. Find businesses within your industry that are distressed or tired. Or stretch a bit and add a business that has synergy with your core business. But don’t wander too far from your core business. Look for a business that adds to your cross-sell initiative since new customers are hard to find in a tough economy.
2. Inbound Marketing: Invest wisely in marketing. Although traditional marketing still has it’s place, use your spare time or consider getting your marketing folks onboard with Inbound Marketing initiatives. Become a thought leader within your industry. Use the web to get found by your buyers. Today, people want to buy rather than being sold too. Using Inbound Marketing (blogs, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more) help your potential buyers find your company when they are ready to purchase. Inbound marketing creates credibility with your buying audience and it’s cost effective! It’s also timely since people who find you are already in the buying /sales cycle. Read the book Inbound Marketing. It’s full of ah-hah moments that will get you rolling with new marketing strategies. Check your web site grade against your competition with this free tool; website grader. Here’s a shout out to our friends at Hubspot for a great product too!
Ross Jones, VP of Sales Engineering at BrainSell, lectured at Harvard University’s Extension School of Management last month. Jones has been feature as a guest lecturer for three years at Harvard.
Jones’ lecture, The Need for CRM, is part of the graduate course, MGMT 6060 Customer Relationship Management. The course, led by Paul Olean, teaches how to develop a successful customer relationship management (CRM) program.
Jones’ two hour presentation addressed why CRM is needed in business, the benefits and implementation tactics. Jones also discussed why social media is now an invaluable facet of CRM.
“Social media can no longer be ignored,” said Jones. “Using social media as a means of inbound marketing is a very cost-effective way of increasing sales. CRM can handle all the extra data that is a product of social media. It’s a win-win.”
Jones has been a VP with BrainSell for eight years and is an expert on CRM implementation and service.
For more information on Harvard University’s graduate management program, visit the extension Website.
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