Sales Management Tools Word Count: 585 Summary: Sales management, in most companies, is controlled by customer relationship management (CRM) software. There are a number of options available, including the market leaders, GoldMine® software and ACT!® software. Within these contact management software programs there are dedicated modules for sales management. The customer relationship is what governs sales. A good relationship where the customer trusts and respects the company will mean repeat business and healthy sales.... Keywords: CRM, Goldmine, ACT!, Software Article Body: Sales management, in most companies, is controlled by customer relationship management (CRM) software. There are a number of options available, including the market leaders, GoldMine® software and ACT!® software. Within these contact management software programs there are dedicated modules for sales management. The customer relationship is what governs sales. A good relationship where the customer trusts and respects the company will mean repeat business and healthy sales. A poor relationship instills the opposite. By first cultivating a good customer relationship you can position yourself to fully implement the necessary sales management tools. While a happy customer is essential to healthy sales, a happy and motivated mobile sales team is equally important in maximizing efficiency. Many wise words have been said in this respect. Quotes may not be what immediately spring to mind when we think of sales management tools, but if it helps to motivate and inspire, then they are useful tools indeed. A few of the best quotes in this respect are as follows: * "The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new [sale management] plans to take the place of those which fail." - Napoleon Hill * "Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence." - Sloan Wilson * "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain * "The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become." - Harold Taylor * "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - W.W. Ziege The award-winning GoldMine® suite of CRM tools is a popular tool for managing sales. With the proper input from field operatives, which you can control to a high degree by setting rules, GoldMine® can help to make productivity increase by automating the marketing activity, and thereby streamlining sales. The sales process starts with winning customers. Mobile sales people can enter their customer data remotely, and the GoldSync module of GoldMine® will synchronize the data across the network, regardless of individual dispersion. A sales manager can use this data to produce meaningful reports, which can highlight the best leads and prospects. These leads can be targeted in a marketing campaign to optimize the likelihood of increased sales. The costs involved in acquiring new customers are considerably higher than that of getting repeat customer sales. Using the reporting facilities of GoldMine® or ACT!® to identify those who customers who bought your products or services previously, and targeting them with fresh promotional offers, makes good economic sense if it can lead to additional future sales. This approach generally has a high rate of success. Sales management reports from GoldMine® or ACT!® can include details of your sales pipeline and your sales forecasts. You can see at a glance the projected close dates and the estimated value of any potential deals. The type of information you need, the tools if you will, to drive forward the sales management process is available when you need it through the sophisticated reporting facilities of a good CRM software tool. Perhaps the best way to be convinced of the effectiveness of a CRM such as GoldMine® or ACT!® is simply to download GoldMine® or download ACT!® from their respective web sites. GoldMine® is produced by FRontRange, and ACT!® is produced by Sage Software.