Sticking with Your Customer

Continued

Power in Numbers

Achieving a clear vision of sales-representative performance was a critical objective for the company. On a daily basis, some 3M sales reps were visiting a small number of doctors, while other representatives were able to visit as many as 15 doctors in the same time period. Some representatives were closing 5 or 6 deals a day while others were closing as many as 15. Without daily insight into each salesperson's plan, managers could not make quick assessments, formulate new strategies, and communicate them to sales representatives who were either underperforming or not managing their time effectively.

"We have great variety among our sales reps, which is good," says Díaz, "but none of the experience, the data, activities in the field—none of that information was available in any kind of central repository." Marketing and management was, as Díaz describes it, driving blind as they attempted to devise strategies or promotions. "The process of envisioning our business strategy for the next five or ten years was guesswork at best because we didn't have any updated information. Everything was tucked away in the reps' notebooks."

With an automated CRM approach, gone are the days of 3M marketing personnel interrupting sales reps with repeated phone calls asking, "How are you doing?" or "How can I help you close more deals?" Instead, sales reps are being assisted and directed, on a weekly basis, with information that is based on results coming back from the field. "We now have true sales and marketing visibility, and that means we have the data we need to support our strategies," says Díaz. This information helps marketing understand specifics such as what kinds of doctors use a certain product, or how well a promotion is doing. "Oracle CRM On Demand provides a more quantitative element that can be used to further develop design strategies for both the long term and the mid term," says Díaz.

The driving force behind 3M's success in a highly specialized market space, according to Díaz, is balancing what he views as "transactional" (hands-on) client relationships with direct marketing and education. "Effective transactional outreach into the field is one of the most significant operational challenges 3M solved with Oracle CRM On Demand," says Díaz. "It allows us to approach our customers with very targeted messages, which we can do very quickly."

Using laptops as their mobile office, representatives can connect from home, an internet café, a library—anywhere with wireless connectivity—and access customer contacts, sales appointments, special events, and other information. "Representatives don't have to spend a lot of time in the office collecting or sharing data," Díaz says. "Instead they can spend just a little time compiling data offline, and when they have time to connect, they can click a couple of buttons and the system synchronizes with the online data. It's an incredible time-saving feature."

Functioning with greater insight and accuracy, the 3M sales team can better allocate their time following up with established customers instead of spinning their wheels cold-calling customers who, as Díaz describes it, "aren't yet prepared to have a deep understanding of our specific value proposition." He continues: "Traffic is an issue here in Mexico, and it's very hard to go from one place to the other. You can spend two hours sitting in your car just trying to get to one place. Instead of sitting and accomplishing very little, through the [Oracle] CRM On Demand system our sales team can strategically plan their routes and visit doctors within a specified area." It's also standard practice for 3M to drive increased purchasing through special promotions, and Oracle CRM On Demand helps streamline this process. Says Díaz, "If one of our customers purchases product A with product B, we might offer them a promotional discount on a third product. Advance notification of promotions helps clients make better purchase decisions because it allows them to evaluate special offers before their sales representative arrives."