Sales management database

by Jeff Van Order, John A. Chunko

Sales management database

"Nothing moves until a sale is made!' And so where better to begin our digital delineations than with the sales and marketing department? Ad sales are crucial for the success of most publications. But just how effectively are your sales support efforts being managed? Ideally, your salespeople should perform a minimum of paper work and spend their time selling!

Are you giving your sales team the tools they need to compete for ad space? Frequently updated, comprehensive call reports enable a salesperson to keep track of changing decision makers and appropriate dates to schedule sales calls. Key information about the client and its agency--details gathered over the course of several visits-- should be included on the call reports. "This is especially critical when a brand new salesperson takes over an account or sales territory,' comments the sales manager of a 130,000 circulation outdoor enthusiast magazine. "Bringing sales reps up to speed on established accounts is always a delicate business.'

According to the sales director of a medium-circulation publication, "Easily maintained comp and promotion lists, automatic mailmerge generators, timely reminders for upcoming deadlines, and source lead generating systems should be used to support the sales staff.'

Manual systems are inadequate for maintaining this type of support. Storing and retrieving information on index cards or from sales books is fine for small jobs, but soon becomes unmanageable when the task demands sophisticated data manipulation, or if the number of accounts exceeds 50.

Nor is it enough simply to automate your operations by using a computer. Care must be taken to ensure that the proper system and software are used.

The results are far from satisfactory. Although excellent for complex calculations and analyses, a spread-sheet is not designed to create and update call reports. Nor are word processing programs well suited for list management. Readers would be surprised to learn how many users try to make one piece of software handle all their needs. Implementing an account management system tailored to the specific needs of your sales department requires an expert to design and program one from scratch--or a database management software program with its own simplified programming capabilities.

Enter Ashton-Tate's Dbase III, a heavyweight data management tool. Dbase III allows you to create computerized "filing cabinets,' each capable of storing thousands of records. These files are simple to create, yet flexible enough to allow modifications when your system's needs change and as your expertise grows.

Why Dbase III? Most database management software will provide the same basic functions: information may be conveniently stored and retrieved; files may be indexed on various fields; and custom reports may be printed. We've examined other popular progams --such as Rbase:4000, Knowledge Man, and Foxbase. These software packages offer many of the same features as Dbase III and perform well under simulated publishing office environments. But Dbase III goes beyond the basics by providing the best built-in programming environment we've tested. These programming commands allow the user easily to create systems tailored to their specific needs.

You can find help

Also, and most important, should you need assistance with Dbase III, finding help is no problem--it's the most popular, well-supported database manager available. In our book, good technical support help-lines and access to other experienced users (user groups) makes any software more desirable.

By taking advantage of the Dbase III programming capabilities, you can create systems for managing your sales department--not just computerized "filing cabinets.' Duplicated efforts, typing errors, time wasting repetitive tasks and other problems can be reduced or eliminated using turnkey applications programmed with Dbase III. The Dbase III programming language offers great power and flexibility, yet it is easily learned by nonprogrammers. Friendly "Help' messages are available at the touch of a key to guide users through various Dbase III procedures.

Dbase III is also well supported by both the publishing and software industry. In our opinion, and in the opinion of publishers we've talked with, Dbase III is clearly the popular choice for database management software by a three-to-one margin! Reasons cited for its appeal were ease fo use, flexibility, ability to handle large amounts of information, and Ashton-Tate's reputation for quality products.

Earlier we used the analogy of a computerized filing cabinet to describe database files. Let us expand on that concept, pointing out similarities and differences between computerized data management and a manual filing system.

Many of the terms used to describe traditional filing systems have been assimilated into the computerized version. For example, a database record is basically what you would expect it to be--a grouping of information that goes together. Each separate item of information in a record is called a field. A record in a billing system might contain the following fields: customer name, invoice number, quantity ordered, unit price and the extended cost.

Records are grouped into files, or databases. With Dbase III, you can create files of over a billion records, and each record may contain up to 128 fields! That would get a little tough to manage using a manual filing system!

But wait, the best is yet to come! Dbase III is actually a relational database, which means that files containing related information may be linked together. Imagine--each time someone in accounting pulls a record from an Accounts Receivable file, several other files containing useful information are opened to the records for that client! Dbase III allows up to 10 such related files to be "open' simultaneously.

Let's go through the steps involved in planning and creating a sales account management system, and see how easy it can be using Dbase III.

The primary file in any account management system would be one that contains information about the advertising brand. We'll call this the Brand file. Basic information about the advertising brand will be entered as shown in Illustration 1.

The next files to be created (after the Brand file) would store information about the client, agency, and various contacts. They would be named, respectively, the Client, Agency and Contact files.

Typical information fields found in the Agency and Contact files might be as shown in Illustrations 2 and 3.

The Client file would contain fields similar to those shown in Illustrations 2 and 3, but pertaining to the client.

Now that we have our four basic files, let's see how they relate to each other in our account management system. If we open the brand file to a particular record, Dbase III will open the agency file and go to the record of the corresponding agency listed in the brand file. Similarly, the client and contact files will be opened records linked to the brand file.

Efficiency increases

This system is much more efficient than trying to store all data relating to an advertising brand in one large file. In many cases a client or agency may represent several different brands. In some instances, the same client or agency contacts may service multiple accounts. Avoiding duplication of information and using smaller, more easily managed files will make your data management system more efficient; Dbase III allows you to create such "turnkey' operations in-house, without the aid of professional system designers and programmers.

Our basic account management system should contain one other file for tracking new brand leads. A good method of locating potential advertisers is to monitor the ads in competitive publications. Much information about the account's marketing strategy may by gleaned from its advertisements. For this purpose, we will create an Ad file, with a structure as shown in Illustration 4.