P Sai Lakshmi Moulika
Pranit S
Pravin Patel
Preyadarshne T
MM1 Case Study – 5
SaleSoft
1. What is your plan? Do you plan to continue with PROCEED or will you introduce the
TH product? Provide support for your plan.
Ans. It would be favourable to continue with PROCEED instead of going with the TH based
on the following reasons:
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PROCEED is core competency part of SaleSoft
It is helping SaleSoft achieving it’s primary objective of becoming a leader in the
high end of the sales automation(SA) software industry
PROCEED doesn’t have that much competition
It differentiates the SaleSoft product from other products
PROCEED will help SaleSoft in the long term and provide long term ROI
PROCEED focus on sales, marketing, services while TH just focuses on sales
It went through 8 months of development and upgradation
PROCEED is more beneficial to customers than TH
2. What is the buying cycle for PROCEED? Who are the people involved in the purchase of
a
CSAS
solution? What is the role of consultants?
Ans. PROCEED's buying cycle is typical of CSAS system buying cycle i.e it can last from 22
months to 30 months. The first 8 to 9 month is spent on evaluating the software and the
internal processes. In the process of evaluating the software, firms hired SA consultants.
SA consultants were specialist in vertical industry and helped firm in choosing the
software that matched company's need. Once the software vendor and hardware were
selcted, then a pilot was done to test out the software and its customization abilitites.
That took three months to five months. Finally CSAS software as modified based on results
of pilot. Overall it was a long long process.
Decision maker involved CEO, senior management team including VP of sales markeing
and IT, and SA consultants. Most folks, excluding SA consultant, had concerns about CSAS
solution as there were no of vendors that has gone out of businesses due to fragmented
market and nascent nature of industry.
Consultant plays a critical role from advisting customers on "what to automate" to
selecting vendor and helping client customizing the implementation.
3. Current approach to selling PROCEED.
PROCEED allowed customers to automate their entire marketing, sales and customer services
operations. Currently there were three modules in the PROCEED’s sales system. PROCEED
was highly complex automation system which was intend to target the industries with the
advanced procedures.
Since PROCEED was still a product with 3 modules and 5 modules have yet to come it was an
incomplete product yet it was more advance than the current CMS. The realization of the
management that the CSAS might be the one who can solve the problem is the beginning of
the approach as CSAS is the end Product which can be sold only after there is need to the
customer.
The second step is providing the SA consultants typically specialized in implementing SA to
evaluate the potential to automate the existing processes and to specify the order of the
functions to be automated.
Beta test sites were installed at a few selected customer sites for test.
Detailed evaluation for all products was very expensive and time consuming so business
customer’s with the consultant’s help would identify a few, selected vendors that were likely
to meet their specific needs.
Training was a critical factor in CSAS vendor evaluation given product complexity and minimal
prior user experience. In addition to to using CSAS system, they also educated the users on
using laptops, linking to central databases to transfer information, printing reports and using
application software such as word.
4. Quantify the benefits of CSAS to a customer using the information given in Exhibit 7.
The following are the benefits of CSAS to a customer.
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The Current selling cycles of the company A and B are 120 and 180 days
respectively but after implementing CSAS the estimated reduction in sales cycle
using PROCEED is 6 and 15 days respectively. The sales cycle of company A reduced
to 114 days and company B to 165 days.
Time for new Reps to become productive is 60 days and 90 days for companies A
and B Respectively it reduced by 14 days for company A and 20 days for company
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B. the estimated start up time for new salesperson using PROCEED will be 46 days
for company A and 70 days for company B.
There is 10% estimated reduction in rep turnover using PROCEED for company A
and 15% estimated reduction for company B.
5. What does TH provide a customer? How is this different from the customer value
delivered by PROCEED?
Trojan Horse (TH) is a system very similar to CMS that enables clients to maintain their
sales forecasting process. It gives an up-to-date report of sales. It can forecast revenues
and the effects of selling cycles on operations like human resource management, capital
management, etc. Although TH is derived from the sales system modules of PROCEED. It
has its unique features. it mainly focuses on sales which is a major requirement for
customers.
PROCEED enables customers to automate their entire marketing, sales and customer
service operations. It had eight modules but only 3 modules were ready which is PROCEED
Sales System.
The three modules are
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The Field Sales module recorded and displayed on an easy-to-use scheduling
system all customer information, personal appointments, meetings, and ‘to do’
activities. It was designed to minimize keyboard and mouse entry to make it easier
for salespeople to use.
The Opportunity Management module organized the flow of each prospective
sale into pipeline segments.
The Sales Management module continuously updated and consolidated
information by opportunity and provided up-to-date pipeline status on all
opportunities.
6. What is a Trojan Horse? How does it facilitate customer acquisition and retention?
Trojan Horse is a new product of Salesoft, Inc. and is a simplified version of the
Comprehensive Sales Automation System which would enable the companies to keep track
of their sales process and be up-to-date through automation and forecast revenue. It is for
businesses that don’t need complete modules in the PROCEED. Although there are very
favorable responses from prospects converting interest to actual sales was taking a long time.
Below are some ways in which it facilitates customer acquisition and retention.
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TH might offer an easy way to get into new customer accounts, gain quick sales, and
generate much needed revenues.
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TH offers a solution to the automation of sales process for customers it mainly focuses
on sales unlike PROCEED. Which is also what the clients needed.
It is inexpensive compared to PROCEED so it will be easy to acquire new clients who
are in need of specific sales modules.
TH is much more functional and effective when it comes to automation of the sales
process.
Even though PROCEED provides one-stop solution to their business needs it is still not
ready completely and whatever is ready could not satisfy the clients. So launching TH
might help in customer retention.
7. How will you price TH?
Trojan Horse (TH) should be priced lower that is at $400 as stated by Tanner. This is mainly
because:
-TH will be compared with existing CMS
-It will be easier to sell at this price to the customers as this is a B2B transaction
-The lower price would provide incentive for the customer to repurchase from SaleSoft,
Inc.
-More orders will be placed for TH which will help the company generate revenue
8.How do you think SaleSoft’s organisational structure will affect its ability to sell PROCEED or
TH?
-SaleSoft should have highly trained sales people who are completely focussed on one
product instead of having basic knowledge on many products
-The sales team should be centralized so that there would be less chance of
miscommunication amongst sales people
-The sales team should be given a certain level of autonomy
-A supportive culture must be maintained with teamwork as the prime focus