Sales Force Automation and CRM - new approach needed

I think the issue here Textor is like looking at the capabilities of Word and saying you only want to type a letter.

Also important is to realise that Customer Relationship Management is what it says on the tin - having evolved from systems designed to manage customer information, and a company's relationships with that customer. And that can be quite a long way removed from either Sales Force Automation, or indeed new developments like Sales Management systems.

You might find some of this debate interesting - http://www.modernselling.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=41 - or even a look through a rather more extended list of CRM type suppliers already on the market here - http://www.modernselling.com/business-directory-sales-team-suppliers/technology/software-services-crm.aspx. There is a variety of more and less complex stuff, including integrating with accounts etc. as Denis was suggesting (and that is a trend in medium and larger companies).

You might still have a shot, because lots of CRM implementations are failing, not least because sales staff are swamped with input requirements which are irrelevant (to them) and time consuming. But have you got much further than a kind of basic Outlook function? And, if so, what exactly is the added value that prospects will perceive?

Hope that helps - Neil