Does Technology Help Sell

Can companies impact sales productivity positively with targeted investments in both technology and tools to provide additional support for their sales team's ability to win.

How many of you agree with this? I say tread carefully because once you start down the path to sales force productivity tools you become a slave to them. I'm not against them I'm just cautious about where and how to deploy them. And I would caution readers to have a well defined process in place before undertaking any sales force technology initiative.

So where and how can you make use of these tools? I have two ways that I've started.

1) Contact management. One of the best advancements I've seen has been the success of enterprise contact management programs. SaaS providers such as Salesforce.com have really made it easy to maintain, track, and report on customers and pipelines. Their move into more mainstream CRM for the masses has allowed small and mid-sized businesses to have the same technology as larger companies. As a user I can tell you it takes work and dedication to set up, run, and maintain. The information out is only as good as the information in. I've personally lived through the frustration with bad data and the clean up isn't ever worth it.

2) Shared storage. I started using Box.net as a way to keep centralized files. I can allow employees and customers to only see certain folders. It has made filing sharing easy(ier). It is like an FTP site but easier to use. Again it takes a lot of work to make sure the files are always up-to-date and that outdated materials are removed.

There are many great companies that provide sales force tools and I would love to hear about their products and your personal implementation and success stories. Comment here or you can email me directly at rgoldberg@stagesofinnovation.com.

Rob Goldberg 2009