LEXIS-NEXIS Sales Suite makes sales professionals more productive

Business Wire, Dec 16, 1996

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 1996--LEXIS-NEXIS now offers sales professionals customized tools for keeping up-to-date and finding information important to their success. The services, called SalesWise(TM) and SaleSmart(TM), guide the user to what is important to know at each stage of the selling cycle.

The LEXIS-NEXIS Sales Suite offers sales professionals the ability to: -- prioritize selling opportunities -- be more consultative with customers during sales calls -- enhance selling skills -- create a common information base within a sales team -- support complementary sales automation efforts

"The LEXIS-NEXIS Sales Suite enhances productivity by enabling representatives to be more consultative, while minimizing their sales call preparation time," said Herman Rumpke, sales professional market director for LEXIS-NEXIS. "One true competitive advantage that a firm can maintain is its people ... SaleSmart and SalesWise empower a sales force to create that difference."

LEXIS-NEXIS SalesWise

In a survey by NAMA (National Account Management Association)(a), 86 percent of sales managers and account representatives indicated information on competitors, tailored to their specific business needs, would be critical or of high value to them. SalesWise meets this need by briefing sales professionals every business day about breaking news on not only their competition, but their customers and industries as well.

Most importantly, SalesWise easily fits into the daily routine of a corporation's sales force because it accommodates their habits and information needs on a platform familiar to them -- the company's e-mail, Intranet or groupware system. As a result, the service requires no training, and no new software or installation costs are incurred. SalesWise is now available on Lotus Notes(R) and Microsoft(R) Mail, Novell GroupWise(TM), Lotus cc:Mail and on the Internet.

LEXIS-NEXIS customer Mark Sloss, director of the New York Life Asset Management Group explains how SalesWise makes his team more competitive: "The asset management business is highly competitive and very little differentiates firms from one another. In the sales process, it is often possession of critical information about the prospect, or the ability to offer information to the prospect, that is the difference between winning and losing. LEXIS-NEXIS' SalesWise product empowers our institutional sales representatives with the information needed for New York Life to be viewed as a value-added provider in our market."

SalesWise provides three key briefings every business day. A company's sales force determines the content most important to them for each briefing:

INDUSTRY BRIEFING -- provides information from more than 7,100 news and business publications -- a collection only available from LEXIS-NEXIS.

COMPETITIVE BRIEFING -- gives a sales organization the ability to respond proactively with a comprehensive account of the activities of their largest competitors.

TERRITORY BRIEFING -- is a personalized, actionable briefing on customers and important topics for each sales representative, helping them be consultative on every sales call.

LEXIS-NEXIS SaleSmart(TM)

SaleSmart is a customized, Windows(R)-based software package for sales professionals which dials directly to the LEXIS(R)-NEXIS(R) online service to provide them with a complete information tool that guides them through the information gathering tasks that they face everyday. SaleSmart accesses over 7,100 news and business information sources. A variety of individuals such as account executives, customer support professionals, telemarketing specialists and lead generation representatives would find SaleSmart beneficial in executing the following activities:

PROSPECTING -- identifying and profiling prospective customers by size, location and SIC code. This information can be saved in a manner that eliminates the manual transfer of information into contact managers and other sales automation software.

CALL PREPARATION -- extracting useful or hard-to-find information ranging from personal profiles of CEOs, annual reports, news articles to financial and product information.

INDUSTRY AND TOPIC RESEARCH -- includes a tool to search on any topic, person or industry.

TRAINING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT -- provides a library of articles on selling skills and territory management.

For more information about LEXIS-NEXIS SalesWise or SaleSmart call (800) 235-4310, or send an e-mail message to eis@lexis-nexis.com.

LEXIS-NEXIS, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is the world's leading provider of enhanced information services and management tools. The company's mission is to help legal, business and government professionals collect, manage and use information more productively.

LEXIS-NEXIS is a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., and a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, one of the world's leading publishing and information businesses. Reed Elsevier has annual sales of approximately $5 billion and 25,000 employees. It is owned equally by Reed International P.L.C. (NYSE:RUK) and Elsevier NV (NYSE:ENL). Information about LEXIS-NEXIS and Reed Elsevier may be found at the LEXIS-NEXIS Communication Center on the World Wide Web at http://www.lexis-nexis.com/ . A listing of additional news releases available via fax may be obtained by calling (800) 34-NEXIS or (800) 25-LEXIS and ordering document no. 0001. -0- (a) Conducted in May 1995 by the National Account Management Association.