I have noticed that it is popular to start an discussion of Customer Relationship Management software with Sales Force Automation (SFA) in a 'let's get down to brass tacks'' approach to the subject. Frankly, this is a mistake. Most companies that I talk to have not set out a process for selling and SFA is a waste of time without a strong process. Marketing automation is the tool to start the process. Let's say that you invest in a trade show and receive the list of attendees with their particulars. You could make the promise to have the sales force of 8 contact all 800 but that's a waste, as you well know. First of all, the sales force does not have the time to try to qualify 800 leads. Second, a phone call is not the best way to make contact. Prospects are easily intimidated by aggressive sales people. Here's a different process to handle the volume with the right tone: Load the data from the show into the system as Unqualified Leads. Then put together your first 'touch'. It could be a personalized direct mail piece, for example, thanking the contact person for their participation in the show. A few days later construct an email marketing campaign in NetSuite that continues to tell the story of your company with some real life examples of good customer relationships that have benefited you and your customer. The structure of the mail can be rich HTML with graphics, etc., or a more conservative text mail, but both of them personalized for the contact, and with a few links back to your website for more information. You can blast this 'touch' to the entire group using NetSuite's Marketing Automation (MA). But what's really interesting is that MA allows you to monitor who opened the mail, or even clicked on a link that it contained. You now have the basis for the next 'touch'. Those contacts who have shown some interest in the email they received are 'touched' again with the offer of a new whitepaper that you wrote, discussing some important aspects of your business and your creative solutions. You have all of the information saved in NetSuite so it's simple to write a query to focus your campaign on the right group of leads. In general, keep whitepapers to 3-5 pages. The idea is not to make yourself look erudite, but to get people to read some interesting ideas that your firm has about lighting, dairy products, architecture and home building, software, etc., whatever you do. Include a link in the email for the whitepaper so again you can follow who has the interest in the contact group. Those who come and download the paper from your site are probably warm enough for a phone call from your sales team. From a list of 800 you may have 30 or 40 warm leads. Not 800, I know, but let's be realistic. A lot of the people at the show just wanted to get out of the office for a few days and have a nice meal on their company's charge card. At least you have found the 30 or 40 who actually have some interest in your offerings. Your sales force takes over from here and starts the direct contact campaign. The above is just an example of how a CRM application like NetSuite's can be used for more than a simple contact manager. It can be a tool for really focused and effective sales campaigns. The idea is to come up with a plan, a process, to manage a list of unqualified leads and find a way to whittle it down to real prospects without having to pay a lot of people to call the whole list. And think of the campaigns that you create from the perspective of the prospect. A few emails, a whitepaper, a webinar, etc., are a lot easier to accept and feel comfortable with than a direct call right out of the shoot. Let the prospects take a few steps toward you. It's the best way to distinguish them from the crowd. | 
