How can I evaluate our sales efforts?
How can I be sure my sales organization is calling on the best opportunities?
How can I better manage my sales team? Give them better direction? Ensure the best tactics are being used?

Is there an easy way to monitor the sales pipeline?
Can I use software to track new sales progress and support my current customer base? 

   For decades sales managers have been asking themselves these questions. Have you?

   Havill’s Relationship Management Systems group aims to answer these questions through an integrated "best practices" approach combining a sales and marketing database, custom designed automation software, management reporting, training, and technical support. The goal of the Relationship Management team is to provide a manageable software solution that acts as a lead generation service for sales representatives and a monitoring and analysis tool for management. The Relationship Management group provides six types of services to uphold this goal.

   Our clients frequently ask us for help in determining whom they should specifically target in their marketplace. Most companies feel that they have a strong inclination of who their best customers are. Through Havill’s customer modeling, provided by our Marketing Information Services (MIS) group, our clients have confirmed their "good customer" instincts. But they have also realized additional target customer segments.

   Havill primarily selects prospect records from Dun & Bradstreet data. Any combination of criteria may be used to select records, including location information (state, zip, proximity to location(s), etc.) and business characteristics (number of employees, years in business, sales volume, etc.). Using a good customer profile and other additional selection criteria, Havill can help a client select records with the highest sales potential. See MIS page for more information.

   Through the use of good customer modeling, record selection becomes more scientific and no longer guesswork. By selecting records that match your good customer profile, you’re preparing your company for sales growth. Giving a sales team a set of records that match the characteristics of your good customers reduces much of the time a sales representative spends prospecting. Therefore, more time can be spent selling to the cream of the crop. By knowing whom your best customers are, sales and marketing quotas become more easily attainable.

   Developing and maintaining a good customer profile is an iterative process. As your customer base expands, the characteristics of your good customers will likely broaden as well. In order to capitalize on such expanding opportunities, you must be able to monitor key demographic elements within your customer database. Below are some of the standard data elements our clients track in order to maintain clear picture of what their customers look like.

	Sales by business segmentation and Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC)
	Demographics including years in business, sales, number of employees
	Prospect credit information for credit risk and sales potential
	Information specific to potential sales including current product brand information

   On a routine basis our consultants are able to extract such customer demographics from our client’s files in order to revise and optimize their good customer profile.

   One of the first steps in designing a Relationship Management System is a system audit. During the audit, consultants from Havill & Company meet with your management and department employees in a round table discussion to review your current marketing, sales and customer service processes and information flow requirements.

   There are six successful relationship management program components that are examined during this audit process:

1. Business Processes: Selling and customer service processes are reviewed with the marketing, sales, and customer service groups.
2. Customer & Prospect Database: Current and any desired improvements to your customer and prospect database(s) are discussed with the marketing, customer service, and MIS groups.
3. Sales Force Automation Software: Sales force automation software features and configurations are reviewed with the marketing and MIS groups
4. Management Reporting & Communication: Current sales reporting procedures and the flow of information throughout the sales and customer service organization is reviewed with the marketing and customer service groups.
5. Training & Technical Support: Typical training services provided and optimal alternatives for future training needs and technical support services are reviewed with the marketing, customer service, and MIS groups.
6. Computer Infrastructure: Current and hardware and software specifications are reviewed and evaluated in light of future system requirements with the MIS group.

After the initial audit process takes place, Havill & Company documents its findings and presents them to your management team on the following day..

Manage Customers and Prospects

Send all prospects an introduction letter

Easily prepare sales presentations, quotations, and proposals through pre-designed templates

Automatically send all new customers welcome letters

Automatically schedule quarterly customer "touch base" calls

Work as a Team

   Throughout the audit process, Havill & Company documents your company’s best practices and integrates them into the chosen relationship management software.

   As Havill designs each module of the system, it reviews the requirements of each department to verify that all needs are being met. Once the system has gone through its initial design phase, it is reviewed with the client. In many cases, the initial system is tested by a user pilot group. Upon review and/or testing, the design and customizations are tweaked or reconfigured to meet the final expectations of the system users.

   User guides and job aids - A well designed and documented program is vital to successful system implementation. This documentation focuses on the tasks required to complete critical marketing, sales, and customer service activities. Step-by-step procedures and the corresponding computer screen captures instruct users on how to complete each task within the context of your business process.

   The administrator’s troubleshooting guide reflects common system issues that will need to be resolved by a system administrator. In a problem, cause, and resolution format, issues are defined and fixes are outlined in a step-by-step process. This format puts an administrator at ease because when they find the problem described, they learn what is causing the problem and follow pre-defined steps to fix it.

   Thorough training is important to insure frequent and effective usage of the relationship management system

  End user training – Havill & Company conducts three training sessions for system users: