SALESOFT-SectionB_Group6

8/6/2019 SALESOFT-SectionB_Group6

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SALESOFT, Inc. (A)

Section B : Group 6

Aman Singh066

Aparna Giridhar076

Isha nag

086Naveen Murali096

Priyamvada 106

Sanjeeth Mishra - 116


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Objective:

To determine if Salesoft has to promote TH in the near future or continue withPROCEED.

Analysis:

Persisting Issues with Sales Automation (SA) solutions

- Customized solution is provided by many independent vendors, of which someproprietary solutions cannot be easily integrated

- High implementation time due to incompatability- There is a need for a fully integrated solution to reduce SA implementation time,

implementation costs and increase overall efficiency.

- Need for sales forecast and management solutions.Why PROCEED

- Long term integrated solutions provided by PROCEED covers a lot of THfunctionality.

- PROCEED will have a first mover advantage in the CSAS domain.- Salesoft can focus on product development and leverage on consultants domain

expertise and their reach for marketing the product.

- Since the product has already been sold to 5 customers and a commitment has beenmade for the next modules of the system, an abrupt end to PROCEED will tarnish

their image and could adversely affect the future deals, be it TH or PROCEED.

Why not PROCEED

- Since PROCEED is meant for complex sales cycles and is suited for largeorganizations, convincing a large corporation to lap up on the success of a partially

implemented CSAS offering by a start up would be a tough task.- Salesoft does not have sufficient working capital as of now, for the 21-30 months long

deployment cycle.

- High customization costs- Convincing all the potential customers about the utility of CSAS might be demanding.- The dependency on consultants could work either ways for the product. While

partnering with one consultant might hamper its growth potential, not partnering with

any would put a lot of stress on marketing division.

- Partnership also demands complete implementation of all the modules.- Some of the effort spent on PROCEED can be leveraged for TH because TH has a lot

in common with already implemented PROCEED Sales system.

- Since the industry is not completely ready for CSAS, the huge size of investment andworking capital could turn risky.


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Why go for TH

- Projected to create new accounts, serve a large customer base and generate revenue.- Freedom from consultants.- The benefits of TH can be easily quantified and hence making it easy for the sales

personnel to pitch TH

-

With only one third the marketing cost of PROCEED, has potential to generate higherprofit margins and higher market potential.

- Success of TH can serve as a recognition for Salesoft to convince customers aboutPROCEED.

- Comparatively shorter deployment cycles and lesser customization costs.Why not go with TH

- Launching TH would hamper relationship with Consultants who are critical for thePROCEED

- TH might distract sales focus from PROCEED and cannibalize PROCEED sales.- TH is more of an immediate solution to sales, but CSAS looks like the right choice for

the long run.

- Possibility of TH being viewed as a hifi CMS.- Higher competition from big players like Microsoft, IBM and many CMS players,

who were entering into the market and hence lower the profit margins.

Salesoft Sales Force

- Constrained marketing budget and sales force size- Complexity of PROCEED makes it difficult to market and hence the need to convince

the different strata of people in the organization

- Comparatively, the sales personnel might find it easier to market TH.- Along with TH, the sales force must also be trained on the utility of PROCEED

having domain expert sales people would help to push TH

- Since selling TH involves direct communication with different clients, havingdomain expert sales people would help to push TH

Recommendations:

Launch THo First mover advantage.o High industrial demand.o Manageable working capital and marketing costs.o Lesser the marketing effort and the time required for selling TH

Offering TH at $1000 so as to skim all existing consumer surplus and revising thepricing policy at a later stage when new entrants make an entry.


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Benefits of CSAS

As per data provided, Firm A (Financial services) saves $7.84 million and firm B(Computer

hardware) saves $44.78 million, by CSAS implemention. Refer exhibit for details.

Buying Cycle for PROCEED

Realization that CSAS cansolve existing problems

CEO, VP, other top officials 21-30 months

Evaluate the potential toautomate the existing process

CEO, VP, other top officials 3-4 months

Deciding how the differentfunctions to be automatedwere related

CEO, VP, other top officials,consultants

2-3 months

Evaluation of software CEO, VP, other top officials,consultants

6-8 months

Pilot testing Sales Reps, Sales managers,MIS department, SA

consultant, CSAS vendor

3-5 months

Modification of software Sales Reps, Sales managers,MIS department, SAconsultant, CSAS vendor

3-4 months

Rollout 4-6 months

Pricing of TH

It would be best to price TH a little high at $1000 initially for the following reasons:-

- High demand for a new sales forecast solution.- Being a new product, there is no similar product to compare against and high pricesare justified- Since the sales forecast segment might face considerable price competition, it is apt to

have higher profit margins in the beginning and further decide upon price revisions

later, depending on the market conditions.

Documents

SALESOFT-SectionB_Group6