Datamail Uses RightNow To Forecast Sales With Increased Speed, Ease And Accuracy
Goals
- Improve sales forecasting and reporting
- Ensure accuracy and consistency of sales proposals
- Maximize sales rep productivity
Achievements
- Forecast roll-ups executed instantly, instead of taking hours
- Standardized proposals leverage language approved by marketing and legal
- Reps spend more time selling, instead of filling out spreadsheets
Ask most VPs of Sales what keeps them up at night, and they'll tell you it's wondering if they will hit their revenue objectives for the quarter. Pipeline visibility and accurate sales forecasting is critical to business planning and success. But most sales organizations don't do a very good job of forecasting, because they don't have the tools to do so.
Sales forecasting can also be a very time-consuming process. As the close of the month approaches, busy sales reps have to stop selling to prepare their individual forecast numbers for their sales managers. Those managers then have to aggregate all their reps' spreadsheets into team forecast reports, which, in turn, must be further aggregated into a consolidated executive-level forecast.
That's why New Zealand-based Datamail, one of the country's leading document management solutions providers, turned to RightNow. With RightNow's on demand crm software system, Datamail, a RightNow solutions distributor in New Zealand, is automating its forecast process so managers and executives can quickly check revenue projections and respond accordingly; while sales reps spend less time filling out spreadsheets, so they have more time to sell.
"RightNow is a powerful tool for capturing and managing sales data to enable faster, better business decision-making," says Vivian Morresey, sales systems manager at Datamail. "Even more important, it is providing Datamail with a strategic platform for both enhancing our sales operations and integrating those operations with marketing and customer service."
Before And After
Before implementing RightNow's on demand crm software system, Datamail forecasted sales the way many other companies do. Morresey would have to keep reminding the company's sales reps to get him their forecast spreadsheets as weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting deadlines loomed. Morresey estimates each rep spends approximately two hours every week on this task. This amounts to more than 100 hours per year that every sales rep would spend filling out forecast spreadsheets, instead of talking to customers and closing deals.
Morresey then spent a few more hours turning those spreadsheets into a consolidated forecast report. Plus, at the end of each month and quarter, the pressures of executive scrutiny doubled the time and effort necessary to complete the forecasting process.
The combination of all these factors led Morresey to look around for a better way of doing things.
"It just didn't make sense to have sales reps spending so much time doing something that wasn't generating revenue for the company," he explains. "I knew there had to be a better way to automate the process."
That better way turned out to be RightNow. RightNow provides Datamail with complete sales automation software capabilities, including account, contact and opportunity management. When sales reps create proposals in RightNow, they can simply check a box that automatically includes the revenue figures from the proposal in their forecasts. As a result, they no longer waste their time with spreadsheets. Plus, Morresey can get the aggregated forecast reports he needs with just a few keystrokes.
"It used to take me hours to pull together my forecast reports," he says. "Now, I sit down to prepare the report at 1:00 PM Friday; and at 1:01 PM, it's done."
In fact, Morresey can deliver real-time forecasts and pipeline reports to executives whenever they want them. The sales automation sofware system accurately projects when revenue will be realized and provides color-coded reports that indicate how much revenue is actually closed versus how much is at varying stages of likelihood in the pipeline.
RightNow also enables Datamail's sales managers to compare each rep's forecasts with their actual performance. This helps them determine which reps are forecasting accurately and which ones have a tendency to overestimate or underestimate what will close.
"Datamail now has a much better handle on revenue projection," Morresey declares. "That benefits every area of the business, since we don't have to worry about surprises at the end of the month, the end of the quarter or the end of the year."
High ROI
Better sales forecasting isn't the only benefit that Datamail is realizing as a result of its RightNow implementation. The company is also using RightNow's solution for customer service and marketing automation interactions, which means that it can now manage and maintain all customer contact information in one place.
In the past, when Datamail wanted to send out email broadcasts to its customers, salespeople would first have to take the time to ensure the master contact database was up-to-date. "It used to drive me nuts seeing salespeople spending their time going over contact lists so that we could get a mailing out," says Morresey. "Now, we have a single data store that's always current and that everyone can use."
RightNow also enables salespeople to generate quotes and proposals more quickly and easily than ever. Proposal templates are automatically populated with accurate customer information, as well as product and service descriptions that both the marketing and legal departments have pre-approved. The RightNow system also provides sales reps with current pricing and discount policies.
"Our salespeople can now respond to RFPs more quickly and effectively," says Morresey. "That's a significant competitive advantage for Datamail."
At the same time as Datamail's sales processes are being enhanced and streamlined, the company is also laying a foundation for a more broad-based CRM strategy under which sales operations can be better integrated with marketing and customer service. This integration will enable the company to leverage its common customer database across the enterprise. It will prevent salespeople from being blindsided by service issues. And it will ensure that both marketing and customer service can do a better job of feeding hot leads to sales.
Morresey is also enthusiastic about RightNow's on demand CRM delivery model. "The on demand model relieves us of all the usual infrastructure and support burdens of technology ownership, while allowing us to enjoy all the benefits," he notes. "The performance and availability of RightNow's applications are also superb."
Datamail Support Site | Datamail Homepage
About Datamail Ltd
Founded in 1988, New Zealand—based Datamail is a total document solutions company. Through integrated document management, the company enhances the ability of its private— and public—sector clients to manage documentation, improve business processes, understand customers and respond to market needs. Datamail's clients include BNZ, Diners Club, University of Auckland and ASB Bank. Datamail is wholly owned by New Zealand Post, one of the largest trading enterprises in New Zealand.
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