A fundamental challenge of sales and marketing departments is delivering up-to-date reference information to an often geographically distributed group of people. Having just the right information at the right moment can make a sale happen, and lacking that information can mean losing the deal to a competitor. An intranet can give immediate access to the following types of information: Product Specs, Pricing Charts, Marketing Activities, Sales Forecasts, Online Training Materials, Sales Presentations and new Sales Referrals. Information by means of immediate access to accurate information over the company's World Wide Web gives a competitive edge over the competition.

Transaction applications with a web browser, coupled with industry-standard databases, help marketing departments maintain and access a database of key customers and references. Salespeople can use transaction applications to place orders, check order status, and complete the paperwork surrounding a sale. For example, by publishing multimedia files on the intranet, HBO is saving thousands of dollars previously incurred for printing, duplication of videocassettes, and distribution of marketing campaign materials among 200 to 300 sales representatives. The intranet eliminates the time and effort involved in distributing these materials and gives the sales force instant access from any location.

In just three months, Cadence Design Systems built a dynamic databased sales and marketing intranet. The system maps out each step of the sales cycle with links to sales support resources, uses forms to facilitate communication with headquarters, allows global account teams to securely share information, provides a repository of sales tools and reference materials in a variety of document formats, has links to relevant Internet sites, and accesses and distributes a daily news feed on the industry.

In collaborative applications, sales and marketing teams share expertise that improve their success rate in specific sales situations. Newsgroups might focus on issues surrounding winning deals against a particular competitor: weak points, rebuttals, and the latest tactics of the competitor as experienced by sales people in the field; feedback and discussion of various marketing programs, working solutions, and suggestions for improvement; and threaded discussions about specific accounts or issues to help sales representatives exchange information about the challenges of a particular segment or customer.

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