Category Archives: Information aggregation/accumulation

We believe that organizational knowledge bases, organizational understanding, and organizational decision making and proper action all depend on the continuous aggregation and accumulation of accurate, complete, and timely information from all areas of the organization but, in particular, from the field sales individuals meeting with customers and living in the marketplace. Systems must be installed in infrastructure, their usage required, and the knowledge access simple and natural throughout the organization. Such systems are required if voice-based sales reporting is to have a meaningful impact on the forward-looking objectives of the sales organization and corporation.

CRM Delivers the Best Results When Everybody Plays

Posted on April 18, 2012 by admin

“The Collaboration Curve – ‘World of Warcraft’ players improve their performance by leveraging a broad set of discussion forums, wikis, databases, and instructional videos that exist outside the game….The more players participate and interact with World of Warcraft’s knowledge economy, the more valuable its resources become, and the faster players increase their rate of performance improvement. Said more generally, the more participants in number – and interactions among those participants – you add to a carefully designed and nurtured environment, the more the rate of performance improvement goes up….In nearly all of these group efforts, rapid leaps in performance improvement arise as participants get better faster by working with others. This is called ‘the Network effect’ (see right for picture). These leaps in performance describe the shape and power of the collaboration curve, a new force in our professional and personal lives” (Hagel, Brown, Davison, “Introducing the Collaborative Curve,” Harvard Business Review, 2009).

CRM databases are of the highest quality when they are fertilized by a rich and continuous inflow of accurate, complete, and current information from everyone who has anything to do with customer relations. Massive accumulation and aggregation of information from as wide and diverse a population as possible ensures that the CRM database can generate the patterns and trends that give all players solid understanding, strong analytical material, better decision making choices, and more trustworthy and proper action. The knowledge rich and fertile CRM database available to and used by all is the reason the organization bought and implemented CRM in the first place.

But how do we enable and encourage this “Collaboration Curve,” this “Network Effect,” where we see “leaps of performance as participants get better faster by working with others”?

The only way to get ideas, thinking, and learning moving within an organization is a voice-based CRM data entry system. People have to be enabled to speak their minds, share their insights and experience, ask for information, challenge concepts and facts, ask for help in ‘playing the game’, and otherwise talk and ask and communicate with others in the organization. A voice-based CRM data entry system is simple and direct, using voice and phone, two technologies that are profoundly simple and intuitive and robust today for all kinds of stationery and mobile applications. Speech recognition software is too “closed” and limited to be the tool for this kind of collaborative/networking high-volume discussion and communicating. Only a human transcriptionist-based system, one that joins human capabilities with the finest computer technologies of today is capable of enabling such a Collaborative/Networked environment.

Any company considering a CRM implementation and any company considering how to improve the user adoption or the value of an existing CRM system should take a few minutes to put the words “Voice-Based CRM“ into the web browser to access information that teaches the value of such systems.

Report Immediately/Respond immediately: Value of Current, Accurate, and Complete CRM Information

Posted on April 17, 2012 by admin

The only value of a CRM system is the quality of information in its databases. What good is information from the field that is a month old before it is reported? Of what help is information to a manager or to the organization when the manager doesn’t read reports regularly?

Here is a note sent from a manager to a sales rep:

“Shawn,

Why are all these reports so old. There are no new reports that have been filed in this last batch. Not really any point filing reports this old; as Jim and I read them, we can’t really do anything with reports a month old. Are you this far behind on your call reports? Have you filed your more recent reports?”

Two things we might surmise from this statement: (1) the sales rep is not reporting his sales meeting information immediately or regularly, and (2) the sales manager isn’t reading reports anyway, as he doesn’t seem to notice the missing information until a month has gone by.

1. Sales reps who do not report immediately and regularly

Again, the problem is the quality of the CRM database. Sales reps who do not report immediately following a sales event are limiting severely the capability of the database to aggregate or accumulate information sufficient for a reader to see and understand patterns. The only information of any worth in a CRM database is that sufficiently accumulated to reveal patterns and trends. We have to have bulk, mass, accumulation from all sources of good information if we are to “see” (discern or detect) patterns. Therefore, it is imperative with a CRM system that the sales team understands its responsibility to create a continuous flow of good information into the CRM system databases. Regular reporting isn’t a merely trivial administrative activity that is forced onto the sales team. It is not something of choice. We need the sales reps to report because the entire CRM database depends on mass and accumulation for meaningful understanding, analysis, decision making, and action. A sales rep who withholds information for a month before reporting it doesn’t understand what is going on with a CRM system implementation. Once they understand, they contribute willingly and meaningfully.

2. Sales managers who do not read sales reports immediately and regularly

This is the most interesting issue with CRM sales team reporting – a manager who doesn’t read the reports coming in. Sales reps are quick to pick-up on this lack of attention by the manager, and they delay, procrastinate, and often fail to report at all, knowing there are no consequences for not reporting and no purpose for reporting at all. In many companies, because sales managers do not read the reports, the reporting function languishes and disappears. What is the consequence of this? What the sales manager doesn’t realize is that the quality of the CRM function for the entire organization depends heavily on the continuous inflow of accurate, current, and complete information from the field, from those closest to the customer relationship experience. By failing to pay attention to the reporting function, the sales manager – not the sales reps – is seriously compromising the value of the investment the company has made into its CRM program.

We encountered a sales rep who was writing this statement at the bottom of each of his daily sales reports: “If there is anybody out there reading this, please give me a call at (phone number).” For over a month, no one responded and he kept adding this statement to his reports. When we flagged this to senior management and they went checking with the sales manager, they found that the sales manager was so busy doing his own paperwork and tasks that he didn’t have time to read the sales reports and respond to them. He was fired on the spot because of his failure to understand organizational priorities.

We often ask, “If your most productive sales rep, the one bringing in the most revenue, won’t report his/her sales activity, would you fire him/her?” If the answer is yes, then the priorities of the organization towards its commitment to a quality CRM database are clear. If the answer is no, then the “tail is wagging the dog,” and revenue production ONLY is the activity of greatest interest in the organization and they should not have invested in CRM in the first place. Any simple activity tracking software would have worked better. Companies often have Lone Ranger hero sales people who “do their own thing” and seem to be successful in producing. If revenue only is the goal of management, then this is tolerated and even applauded. However, if long-term customer relationship and care management (CRM) is the goal of management, then this person needs to change or be let go. The CRM databases need this person’s sales meeting information, without exception, and the person should consider it his/her sales responsibility to report immediately and regularly.

The purpose of buying and implementing a CRM system is the quality of the databases that will result and the power that gives to everyone in the organization to see patterns in the data, to understanding more clearly what is going on, to apply meaningful analytics for clearer sense of pattern, to engage in fruitful decision making, and then to take proper action. With that goal in mind, it is easy to see why a sales rep who does not report any of his/her customer interactions for months on end, why a sales manager who doesn’t read the reports and only talks about the issue after months of non-reporting have gone by are serious constraints to a powerful and successful CRM system.

CRM and Pattern: Why the CRM Database IS THE POINT!

Posted on February 21, 2012 by admin

“… the fact that little causes can have big effects….” (Gladwell, The Tipping Point, 9)

The only thing valuable about a CRM system is the quality of its database. No data in the CRM database, bad data, missing data – then what good is the system? Little things can have big effects ONLY if the little things are accumulating, aggregating sufficient to form patterns.

If knowledge from the customer environment is flowing continuously into the database, if those data are accurate, current, and complete, then those who use the database can find in it patterns of meaning for correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action. Tipping points become possible.

Patterns can only form when data are aggregating and accumulating in one place, from the best possible sources, and are available to searches and queries that “see” or “discover” them. All management thinking is a matter of “seeing” patterns, gaining a correct understanding of them, making good decisions, and then taking proper action.

Consider this supporting statement from a leader in the study of “pattern” in thought:

“In any stream of ideas, some kind of pattern will be evident. The trick is to look for patterns.” (Gary Hamel, Leading the Revolution, 2000)

IN THE PATTERNS IS THE MEANING! The search for pattern in CRM databases is the key to CRM system value to an organization. We can have a tipping point ONLY if we have the accumulated and aggregated information sufficient for patterns to form. We have to have a rich “stream of ideas” before patterns can emerge.

At the end, the CRM system has only one purpose – to provide the means for accurate, current, and complete information from the customer environment to flow continuously into the database; and then, for those who lead the organization to search and query those databases to find the meaningful patterns that bring correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action. These elements of the CRM system are the essential, foundational processes through which the promise of the CRM investment and vision is accomplished.

We must get GOOD data into the CRM databases!

The essential tool to ensure a continuous flow of quality data into the CRM system is a data entry tool - for sales reps, executives, technical support, trainers, and others who travel to meet with customers – that is easy to use, quick to apply, and powerful in its capture of information. One essential tool is a voice-based CRM data entry system because (1) sales reps and others are willing to use it and make it their own, and (2) the spoken explanatory information of words, sentences, and paragraphs is the lifeblood of CRM database vitality and quality.

Every CRM system application should have at its front end for data entry (as one of the options) a voice-based data entry tool! Whatever the mix of tools available, leaders must insist on routine reporting into the CRM system by every person involved in customer, competition, or industry marketplace activity. Every one; without exception!

Accumulation and aggregation of quality information into CRM databases, with search/query routines, is essential for pattern formation and pattern recognition and ultimately for correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action.

10 Reasons Sales Reps Won’t Use the CRM System

Posted on February 14, 2012 by admin

In the spirit of Dave Letterman’s “Top 10″ lists, here are the Top 10 reasons sales reps do not use the CRM system or why CRM systems have such poor user adoption statistics (*for a possible remedy to these 10 reasons, see note at bottom):

10 They just don’t like administrative sorts of work, which takes them away from selling and making money. They consider reporting administrative work, so they don’t do it.

09 They just get busy doing their selling, making money, and caring for customers, so they forget to report; it isn’t part of their important work, not ‘top of mind’. “I just can’t get around to it.”

08 They report by talking about their meetings around the water cooler or in the break room or at the bar in the evening or in the car with a passenger when traveling, or anywhere they can talk about it (and not have to write it).

07 They just call the boss and tell him/her about it all (or, hopefully, get the boss’ email and leave the report as a message), so there is perceived to be no need to do a formal report.

06 They have learned and practiced procrastination from the time of early high school and are very good at it (especially at procrastinating reports), so they can delay reporting for days, weeks, and even months. “Oh, I’ll get to it next month when I have some time.”

05 They think that nobody in management reads their reports, so they think the reporting is a meaningless waste of time. “Hello, anybody out there reading this report? Hello? Respond to me, so I know someone is reading this.”

04 What they do and how they go about it is their personal “competitive edge,” their own “special style,” and they are highly competitive and not about to reveal it, share it, or comment on it through reports to management. “If I don’t sell, I don’t eat!”

03 They hate to write, they hated English classes, and they hate “writing” reports. “Give me enough alcohol and tobacco,” said one sales rep, “and I can write anything. Dope me up!”

02 They know that by not reporting they can “own” the information and by hoarding it ensure their long-time employment. “No one is going to be happy to see me “walk out the door knowing what I (and only I) know!”

01 They perceive that the only thing management cares about is making money, so if they are meeting their goals or exceeding them, they think reporting will never be enforced. “They will never fire me for not entering my sales information into the CRM system!”

*Note: Here is a possible remedy to these reasons sales reps won’t report into their CRM system. Attention Management literature suggests that sales reps pay attention to the things their managers pay attention to. The sales team must know that managers up and down the organization are (1) committed as a team to the value of the knowledge in the CRM system for analysis, decision making, and proper action, and (2) insistent on the fundamental requirement that aggregating in the CRM databases is a continuous flow of accurate, current, and complete explanatory knowledge from the field. This continuous flow of information is easiest attained with a voice-based CRM data entry system that is easy and quick for reporting and one that sales reps will use naturally.

Maybe sales reps – when shown a better way – can set aside these 10 reasons for not reporting and follow the example and attention of their managers in building CRM databases of good information that make a practical difference in the success of their organization and themselves.

“Getting it Out There”: When CRM Information Makes the Difference

Posted on February 13, 2012 by admin

“I received a note from a sales rep in an entirely different territory, thanking me for information on a competitor in a sales report I had entered into our CRM system a month or so ago. The person said he was bidding against this competitor and my information on several key discriminators for our products really helped him write a winning proposal.” (a Voice2insight/CRM system user report, February 2012).

One of the most important values of an active, organization-wide CRM/Voice2insight system is the continuous flow of current, accurate, and complete knowledge in the system and available through search/query to all authorized members. This organization-wide availability of good knowledge has been the “holy grail” for knowledge management systems for many years. The collaboration and sharing of lessons learned and key technical information can save many hours of searching (often with no results) and can give employees a critical competitive edge, wherever they are working in the organization. This open and collegial sharing of knowledge is a key to what is called a “learning organization,” an organization with a vibrant date entry system and with feedback loops and double loops, where good information is “powering vigorously” around in the organization.

Sales reps will use a voice-based data entry system. A key to “getting it out there” is a voice-based CRM data entry tool that sales reps find natural, intuitive, easy, and fast. If they know they can get their sales reporting task done immediately following a sales meeting, in just a few minutes, without all of the hassle associated with keyboarding and writing, they take to it willingly and with positive business intent and purpose. They know that the organization needs the knowledge, so they give it clearly and completely, with thoughtful explanation and sufficient detail. With voice and the phone, the words, sentences, and paragraphs come out naturally and fluently because these are tools the sales reps use continuously and with excellence. They are very good at speaking their minds and explaining their experiences.

The need is for explanatory knowledge not jots and tweets. Organizational use of its expensive CRM system cannot be limited to just activity reporting, a number or statistic to be entered via a smart phone or tablet computer. These notes, jots, and tweets are not sufficient to sharing the explanatory and experiential knowledge of background and context that makes information useful for understanding, decision making, and proper action. We need full and open voice-based CRM data entry to capture the full experiences the sales reps are having out with the customers on the ground. Words, sentences, and paragraphs of explanation are the life blood of a “learning organization” environment.

The power of knowledge is in data aggregation. We need all to aggregate all of the information possible, amass it in one place, so the great power of computer searching can be brought to bear for an understanding of trends, patterns, and behaviors that are operating with customers and competitors and in the industry marketplace. That is why organizations buy CRM solutions. What is going on our there? How do these purchasing decisions compare or contrast with those of last quarter or last year? Why are they asking these kinds of questions now? Are we seeing a new product development life cycle because of the availability of these new materials? Can we raise our prices now or should we wait for the next quarter – what have our customers done in the past when we have raised prices – what have our competitors done in response? Who is this new company – why are they growing so rapidly – are they taking our customers? The greater the flow of information coming into the CRM system from the sales team, the greater the aggregation of good data and the greater the potential for good analysis, decision making, and proper action.

CRM has to connect top management and the sales team. The more vibrant, the more energetic the data input from the sales team that is flowing consistently into the CRM databases, the more good information is aggregating and accumulating, and the better the searches and queries and yield of strategically useful information. When the top managers of the organization know what they want as information from the field, from the sales organization, when they communicate this openly and positively to the sales team, then the sales people can gather this information and return with it for management use. The connection between the management team needs and the sales team capabilities for gathering information is a connection made in heaven when organization leaders see it and foster it.

A voice-based CRM data entry system, willingly and thoughtfully used, brings an incredibly powerful force of knowledge for good that is available no other way and is the heart of a successful “learning” organization.

CRM and the ‘Cost of Not Knowing’ (“CONK”)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

The promise of CRM is knowing what is going on with the customer, competition, and industry marketplace for proper understanding, decision making, and action.

We buy CRM software and pay the heavy expense of implementing it because we believe that the management of knowledge is critical to organization success. We believe that the organization is more capable of competing when our decisions and actions are based on good knowledge from the customer environment.

Because the knowledge we seek with CRM is that most directly related with customer needs and satisfaction, the group of people of most importance is the one most directly connected to this knowledge, and that is the sale team. The sales reps are the point of contact with customer decision makers, and, if the CRM system is to work, the information related to those contacts must be fed into the CRM system continuously for management understanding, decision making, and proper action.

We buy CRM because we need to know what is going on out there! We spend the money to train and equip the ‘point of contact’ sales team to find and deliver that knowledge back into the organization. Thus, that knowledge is expensive to gather and make available, certainly, with the cost of the CRM software, the training, the organizational changes, the monitoring, and the motivation. Certainly, proper CRM implementation is a significant cost in the treasure of the organization.

However, what is the ‘CONK’ or the cost of not knowing? What if we are NOT getting the information we planned and worked for? What if the sales reps won’t use it or won’t use it to deliver explanatory information?

What is the cost of not knowing that your competitor reps are into your major account and doing audits and offering information for their products or services as opposed to yours? How long will that ignorance go on before you find yourself shown to the door?

What is the cost of not knowing that your pricing is too high in the competitive marketplace, and that it is causing your customers to “shop around” for alternative sources? How long before your ignorance allows a significant loss?

What is the cost of not knowing that your product has features that the customers find limiting or constraining, such that bad feelings are developing towards your company that are going to be easy for the competition to capitalize on and move you out of the business? How long before you are way behind the curve and cannot catch up?

What is the cost of not knowing that there is a pattern of activity developing in your industry that changes the way businesses manage their projects, such that the bidding and contracting processes are changing to privilege or benefit competitor companies? How long before your company finds itself “outside” of the flow of the competitive market?

What is the cost of not knowing that one of the senior people in your major customer organization finds your product or service defective and poorly designed and is angrily going about in the company and among his golfing and tennis associates bad mouthing your company and your products? How long can you survive this going on?

What is the cost of not knowing….? What is the cost when the expensive CRM system isn’t producing the critical information from the field that you need?

Interestingly enough, CRM with voice-based data entry, that makes it easy and intuitive for sales reps to report their sales meeting information quickly and easily, is the least expensive element in the CRM cost. This is because it involves only the mouth and the phone. CRM based on voice-based data entry has the potential to gather ALL of the critical explanatory information from the customer environment and feed it immediately into the CRM databases. What is the cost of current, complete, and accurate information flowing into the CRM system from the customer environment? What are you already paying for your sales team? They already know how to make your CRM investment pay off with the information you need. They speak on the phone constantly.

The cost of the most important piece of your CRM investment, sales rep usage through a voice-based data entry tool, surprisingly, is the lowest of all, yet it provides the most valuable ingredient for CRM success for the organization.

(CEM) Customer Experience Management: Use Voice for ‘CEM Conversations’

Posted on January 26, 2012 by admin

“2011 was a big year for customer experience management (CEM)…. CEM incorporates many channels, for example social CRM, which offers the means to understand where, what and which conversations are happening, and how to engage in conversation. Social CRM can be used for engaging internally within a sales team, as well as externally with the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment.” (Steve Fearon, Oracle: “The evolution of CRM to customer experience management is happening, January 26, 2012″)

“ENGAGING IN CONVERSATIONS” is the key to social CRM and the new Customer Experience Management approaches to “providing mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment.

CONVERSATIONS!

Conversations are people talking to each other, communicating, explaining, sharing, and collaborating. All human exchanges require the use of “voice,” which is word and sentence and paragraph based, whether that voice is spoken or texted. And the easiest and most satisfying conversations, especially of any length, are communication by voice – people talking to each other.

Voice-based CRM data entry using human transcription, rather than speech-to-text software, opens the space for speakers to explain the background and context of the information, to phrase and rephrase the explanations to get them right, and to relate the information personally to the listener/receiver. Speaking is natural, intuitive, and powerful, and a phone-device makes speaking fast and effective.

Voice is the most effective communication vehicle between and among sales team members, sales reps and their customers, among customers, and among management groups in the various organizations. Conversations, talking, explaining, asking and answering questions, clarifying positions, expressing thanks or concerns, etc. People explaining, sharing, responding. CONVERSATIONS!

The best voice-based CRM data entry systems are simple and very effective. Just dial a number, enter a secure ID or PIN number, enter an open dictation environment, and speak in the information. The voice-based CRM systems that promise accuracy and freedom from extended editing then use human transcriptionists (native English language speakers and U.S. citizens) to transcribe the audio message, and sync it automatically into the CRM fields and onto executive dashboards.

Social interaction, as CONVERESATION, is not about numbers, statistics, or jots or tweets or notes. Social interaction is about CONVERSATIONS that involve exchanges of explanatory information through sentences and paragragphs among the parties, with explanations, examples, stories, questions, answers, and all other kinds of social interactions.

Steve Fearson with Oracle continues, “A successful social CRM strategy for sales requires much more than access to social information about prospects. It requires a fundamentally different selling process. B2B companies need to leverage the vast volume of customer data and insights, but how the data is aggregated, transformed into intelligence and integrated into the sales process are the primary factors in determining the success of a sales organization ‘going social’.”

We need more than just information (the typical CRM system that monitors activity with numbers and statistics); we need “insights (CONVERSATIONS)… aggregated, transformed into intelligence and integrated into the sales process….”

Voice has to be captured in its full expression and explanation and then converted into digital form and entered into the CRM system in such a way that it can be “displayed” for all to see and available for drill down for use in the new SOCIAL CRM system.

A New Industry: Voice-Based Data Entry is the New Productivity Tool

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin

When we wisely abandon the drudgery, procrastination, and time wasting involved in keyboarding information among professional engineering and scientific people and, instead, use voice for serious, paragraph length data entry into company databases, when we see the natural and intuitive simplicity of a voice-based data entry approach, we can appreciate two applications that have been proved successful in major U.S. corporations:

1. Customer Satisfaction Surveys – identify the customer contacts you want to hear from, ask them to participate, give them a phone number to call and a secure (and anonymous) ID number, and then let them call into an open dictation system and answer 4-5 simple and general questions as they choose to answer. This will give you what is truly “the voice of the customer.” Then, use a qualitative knowledge analysis tool to convert the audio to digital, number/code the “thought units” (word, phrase, or sentence with one unique message), and enter the information into the database for analysis.

Such a system has been used by several major aerospace companies with their Department of Defense contacts on major weapons systems. The contacts are asked to comment on their perceptions of customer service, teamwork, product efficacy, and other issues they might have with the company sponsoring the survey (observing all confidentiality requirements). With this service, you get 95% participation, speaking times of 5-8 minutes (equivalent to about one-half page of 12-point font text), and significant qualitative insight into the feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of the callers/speakers. All input is anonymous in the database, so callers are free to speak their minds without fear of discovery or repercussion.

Voice-based data entry for customer satisfaction surveys is a state-of-the-art qualitative method of “hearing” directly, with words and emotions, the perception of company products and services with statements of satisfaction and suggestions for improvement and being able to perform analytics on those data.

2. Large Proposal Preparation – have the Proposal Manager set up the outline for the proposal, following exactly the guidance in the Statement of Work, Sections L and M of the RFP, and other guidance. Then have that Manager assign sections to the various content specialists and top level managers who know the information that is to go in each section. Realizing that at the beginning the people already know 98% of what is needed in the proposal, then have each of those persons call into the open voice-based system, enter their ID number, and then speak in their information. This is the very best “pre-kick-off” activity because it generates a baseline prototype of the document in a very short time. Have those inputs transcribed and entered into a master database for the sections of the proposal. Then a week prior to the formal “kick-off” meeting, pass out these documents and have everyone come to the beginning meeting ready to discuss the proposal direction, win themes, and content.

In a very short time, you can move from the announcement of the proposal to a working prototype with all sections started and everyone discussing the overall structure and content of the proposal. This is a far more effective method of proposal starting than storyboarding. This voice-based data entry is a tremendous tool for “front-end loading” and “rapid prototyping” of a proposal to get the energy up quickly and fully and everyone engaged and participating. One of the major problems with proposals is waiting too long to develop an initial prototype of the final document. This is sometimes left until the end of the effort, the last step. Far more powerful, is a front-loading by voice of all of the content that everyone already knows, getting it out where everyone can read it and evaluate it, and having an initial prototype in hand to force momentum and energy into the work.

Voice-based data entry systems are becoming a new industry, with companies seeking natural and intuitive ways to assist professional people gather and analyze “the voice of the customer.” Speak in the information and get it done in minutes, right now, with energy and intellectual intensity rather than depend on the old, tired keyboard method that can take months because of avoidance behavior, procrastination, and dislike of the writing task.

Missing Data! “What happened?” Putting Explanatory Data into CRM

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin

Why did that happen? Explain that to me; I don’t understand! What’s going on?

How do we get longer, paragraph length explanatory text into the CRM system efficiently and with the willing and positive contributions of the sales reps?

Explanatory data is sentences and paragraphs of information that tell the details and specifics of what is going on or what has happened. Explanatory data is the kind we get when we stand at the water cooler or sit at the hotel bar in the evening talking about things, telling the stories, giving all of the details, telling what happened and why. It is the information a sales rep speaks to his/her manager over the phone after a great sales meeting or winning event, telling all of the details of the people present, the discussions, the competition, the pricing and deal making, and, finally, the glory of the close and contract signing.

Explanatory data is talk, speech, telling, explaining – words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Some estimate that the 98% of the most valuable sales information from the field is explanatory or qualitative. It is words, sentences, and paragraphs not numbers, statistics, or notes or jots. These data are the background, context, and history of the situation or event. These data are the insights, perceptions, feelings, and observations gained during a meeting that have tremendous significance in the long-term service to the customer. These data display the intelligent imposition of meaning and purpose on the events and facts.

The big fish mounted on the wall and why it is there, what it means to the main decision maker, and what it tells you about his/her interests and passions. The photos of the three girls in soccer uniforms on the shelf behind the key account manager, and the excited talk concerning games and teams and the success of this manager’s daughters. The observation that the contact person’s mediocre office is in the basement of the 10-story building and the walk to meet with the decision makers takes you up the elevator to the 10th floor plush offices where the contact person is hardly even recognized by name by the secretaries. The gut feeling, as you listen to the pre-meeting talk and priorities that there is money to send a corporate jet to Norway to pick up a needed part but, you realize, there seems to be no money for your product or service.

The onsite visit to check out a task failure on a high-cost project to determine the involvement of your company’s products, with all of the companies involved trying to avoid responsibility, with the analysis of the actual failure and the technical discussions of why it happened and the reasoning behind the decisions reached.

How does this explanatory information get into the CRM system?

Someone has to talk it, explain it, tell it. The story has to be told, articulated, given form and structure and intelligent explanation. You can’t thumb it or tweet it or jot it.

Only a voice-based CRM data entry system can handle explanatory data, where the person calls on the phone and dictates the long explanatory message, in all of its details, with the system open to the person doing the explanation as he/she chooses in a way that is comfortable and intuitive. The voice-based system needs to be simple to operate, completely transparent to allow the entire story to be told, and then, when finished to allow the person to hang up and get on with the work. The voice-based system then transcribes the information, converting it to digital, and syncs it into the CRM database fields. Because this is a manual transcription system, with native English educated and trained persons, U.S. Citizens residing in the U.S., the transcription is 98% accurate and professionally prepared and secure, so the CRM databases are filling with clear, correct, and meaningful information for understanding, decision making, and confident action.

Why do the VP Customer Service and the Sales Reps Need to Talk?

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

What does the VP of Customer Service want from the Sales rep when that person is out meeting with a customer? Do these two people communicate regularly? Does the Sales Rep know the issues and needs driving the VP CS? Does the VP CS know the issues and needs driving the Sales Rep? What if the two of them talked regularly and shared current and practical needs? Would the Sales Rep, with new eyes, look for Customer Service issues and needs in the meeting with the customer and then report them as a partner back to the VP CS? Would the VP CS encourage his/her people to watch out for the Sales Rep’s needs and to make sure those customers are being served with excellence so as to enhance the Sales Rep’s earning potential? Upstream and downstream, key people need each other to be successful. These relationships are a significant and valuable ASSET and competitive advantage to the organization and should be encouraged in every way possible. Consistent and thoughtful sales reporting, among partners in the organization, is the engine for powerful exchange, understanding, and action up and down the organization.