Articles by Alex Jefferies

Companies seeking to organize and centralize customer, account and opportunity information are leveraging sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools to provide sales managers with better visibility into internal operations and improve overall sales productivity. Despite the proposed benefits of an SFA/CRM initiative, some companies are still not realizing the sales potential of their SFA/CRM solutions due to inefficient processes and incomplete employee adoption...

When poet John Donne wrote, "No man is an island," he suggested that that all human beings are bound by the experiences of others. This timeless notion can also be applied to the business world: "No marketing channel is an island." When online information is examined on a larger scale across several thousands of customers, trends emerge that lead not only to Web site optimization, but also to the improvement of offline marketing campaigns.

The traditional sales pressures of lengthening sales cycles and low quota achievement have only been exacerbated by the recent economic downturn. Many businesses have been forced to cut costs, eliminate waste and often freeze spending. The few organizations that might be looking to spend are increasingly engaging in intense due diligence through various online sources, such as consumer-generated content forums and other third-party information providers, to inform their purchasing decisions.

The budget cuts and spending freezes resulting from the current economic downturn have reduced the number of legitimate opportunities for sales representatives; therefore, organizations are placing a renewed emphasis on cutting costs and customer retention to combat certain economic realities. In an ongoing attempt to meet the expectations of pros...