Computer assisted selling

Computer Assisted Selling is using system that provides all the information available on a computer system, including the Internet, for lead generation, and selling to a lead, prospect or customer.

It is a new emerging trend in sales systems. It could be considered as a neologism, however 'Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas that have taken on a new cultural context.'

This information can be data available from:
* Directories of companies: including Directory, Telephone directory, and other listings.
* Directories of people: like LinkedIn, Plaxo
* Directories of people and companies: example: ZoomInfo
* Financial information on companies: examples: Hoovers,
* Information about visitors on the company website and the website pages visited.

All this information is available online from the Internet, and can be used before and during the lead generation and sales process.

CAS versus CRM
The Customer Relationship Management “CRM” term implies that the software, not the sales pro, will be “managing” the customer relationship, which is the essence of the job of a salesman.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was originally called Sales Force Automation (SFA).
Sales Force Automation implies the automation of the sales process, making the Salesman or Sales rep. obsolete, which didn't make it popular with sales people.

The term CRM is mainly for building and maintaining a relationship with existing customers. However both existing customers and new leads have to be handled.

Many CRM initiatives have failed because implementation was limited to software installation without alignment to a customer-centric strategy.
A CRM requires manual input, which is too often expected of the salesman. One could argue that this turns a sales professional into an untrained data entry typist and thus a possible waste of a valuable resource.
The best salesmen often don't use a CRM but keep their data in an excel sheet or a bunch of word/text files, indicating that the current CRM systems don't go hand in hand with top sales professionals.

The term Computer Assisted Selling indicates it will assist sales professionals to sell. The goal is to help, not to replace, the sales people.
And CAS is customer-centric.
Additionally the process of selling is both to existing customers, as to new leads.

CAS is for knowing about the potential customer before he becomes a customer.

Computer Assisted Selling overview
Advantages of CAS
A CRM mainly requires data input from the sales team concerning the customers, whereas a CAS system will mainly be used as a source of information for helping the lead generation and sales process.

The goal of a CAS is to aggregate data, all possible data concerning the lead or the customer, in order to understand their environment and situation. Thus a CAS becomes the single point of information for the sales rep. The benefit is in the amount of data at the salesman can obtain without much effort. Information to be used during the lead generation or sales process in order to give the lead or customer the feeling the salesman thoroughly understands their problems and their needs.

Disadvantages of CAS
As a CAS is customer- and lead-centric, and it is less appropriate for sales organizations selling into B2C markets.
A Computer Assisted Selling system is mainly intended for B2B businesses, where every lead and customer is a unique case.

Trend reports and aggregated data on the entire lead or customer population for sales managers is not the main goal and probably not included.

Website visitor intelligence
As the website is a part of any B2B sales process for the potential buyer to get information, the visits on the website needs to be monitored.

Data available from website visits:
* Company name
* Pages visited
* Time on pages
* Most visited pages
* Click path
* Language used
* Country of origin
* Origin on Internet: previous website
* Origin on Internet: search terms used
* Returning visitors
This type of data is similar to web analytics, but enhanced with reverse DNS lookup in order to find the company names.

All this data is by visiting company, allowing to investigate by company in order to qualify as a lead or not.

Technology change
A Sales Force Automation system could be using any type of file system: before 1985.

The Customer Relationship systems are all based upon Relational database systems: after 1985. This allowed retrieving any data from any field or record in the system.

Whereas a Computer Assisted Selling system is mainly using the Internet and data mining as the basis, combined with a Relational Data base system. Additionally free form fields allow for more flexibility, as the primary goal is no longer mailings, but interaction with the potential customer.
Interaction for building a real relationship and obtaining customer retention.

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