Computer-aided selling

The term sales support involves using computer-based tools and methods to optimize sales processes and in doing so increase sales. Sales support is a central component of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and should be used in all areas of sales. From acquiring new customers to the processing of existing customer enquiries. The basic motivation behind sales support is improve the efficiency of sales processes, to increase service quality and sell more of your own products and services.

The beating heart of sales support is the contact database

The central element of any form of sales support is an up-to-date and well-managed database that contains all of your current and prospective customer contact data stored in a clearly-structured format. This database can then be used by the sales and marketing teams before, during and after customer contact and continually updated with new information. Professional software for sales support increases efficiency on a number of levels: making quick conversation documentation more readily available, enables the creation of specific customer profiles as well as making the observation and follow-up of opportunities, and the creation of sales forecasts and customer analysis much easier.

Sales support and cold-calling

As we outlined above, sales support plays an important role throughout the sales process. However, certain measures are used with more and more frequently in the cold-calling and new customer acquisition processes. And it is particularly in these areas in which high costs are normally an issue for both sales and marketing, that targeted measures employed by sales support have been shown to reduce costs. For example by mean means of: initial filtering, validation and quality checking of interesting contact data and through intelligent software support for sales discussions. As a result, the ration of new customer acquisitions per sales discussion is increased and the company can reap the benefits of competitive markets.

Sales support and CRM

Without sales support a professional CRM system would not be possible as professional support measures, high-level customer care and effective new customer acquisitions that make it all possible. The effective support of every sales employee in their daily work is also a central goal and quality characteristic of any CRM software system or CRM solution.

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