Qvidian has updated its Sales Playbooks & Analytics platform with features that help reps do a better job of gleaning pertinent information from the buyer in the initial sales approach. It then incorporates that information into the CRM system.
Other enhancements are aimed at helping sales reps respond to buyers’ questions on the fly by serving up relevant information during the back and forth.
Sales Playbooks & Analytics is one of Qvidian’s two major offerings; the other is a proposal automation product. The mission of both of these applications is to help sales reps maximize sales performance.
Moving the Conversation
Playbooks “can recommend the best set of steps, conversational content, research materials and so on to help the sales person get a better handle, from the beginning stages, on what the buyer needs,” Karen Meyer, VP of product, told CRM Buyer.
‘It then delivers that information to the buyer and helps move the conversation. It also tracks the activities and the status or progress of the deal.”
The application provides a level of visibility into how organizations are performing while using Playbooks, added Meyer.
Playbooks integrates with Salesforce.com and uses the information residing in it to feed its recommendations.
“Anything that is fed into Salesforce.com is fair game for us to tee off on and use in our own analysis,” Meyer said.
Automatic Harvesting, Syncing
One of the major updates to Playbooks focuses on the syncing the application does while in action. This eliminates double entry on the part of the sales rep, Meyer said, or the rep having to email documents provided during the sales call.
There also are new features that cull targeted content quickly during a call, helping the sales rep better respond to questions off the cuff.
The upgrades include enhanced notifications so the sales teams is made aware of new and updated content, or new advice such as coaching for a particular client or subject.
These features can be used in a number of scenarios, Meyer said.
In an initial call between a buyer and seller, for example, the sales person might learn new things about the prospective buyer or the circumstances of the sale.
“Say the seller suddenly realizes this is a competitive situation with many prospective bidders,” Meyer suggested. “That information is automatically fed back into Playbooks, which might adjust its recommendations as a result.”
That new information automatically is incorporated into the CRM system as well.
“For example, let’s say the prospective buyer revealed a competitor of which the sales rep wasn’t aware. Playbooks could present him with information about that competitor during the call to help him continue the conversation,” said Meyer.
The 15-Minute Sales Call
The Playbooks enhancements were designed to support sales people as much as possible during a sales call, noted Meyer. For some reps, a 15-minute call might be all they have. “In general, the pace of conversations now is being picked up — and sales people need to be very up on their game.”
The Playbooks interface was adapted with new fields and forms designed to better capture live conversation, said Meyer.
The company considered customer feedback and put a lot of thought and research into this redesign, she pointed out, since it is such an integral piece of how Playbooks operates
The Mobile Piece
Qvidian’s upgrades include better integration of its mobile application — an iPad app — with its desktop version.
These upgrades, Meyer said, “were done to make both interfaces look and flow the same way.”
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