I am evaluating the Entellium product test drive eSalesForce which is part of their Automation Release 2007. This is the first review of the series starting from this post –> Which CRM Vendor Provides the Best “Test Drive” Experience?

Entellium seems to be where salesforce.com was 5 years ago with their web site and product awareness. Their site and ideas seem to mirror the more successful CRM players and why not — it obviously works. Having worked at salesforce.com, I remember we would follow Siebel’s lead (the CRM leader at the time) and model some of our programs and campaigns from theirs. That’s just what all smaller companies need to do and there’s no shame in it.

Here are the 5 questions I will answer for all CRM test drive reviews I will conduct starting first with Entellium:

1. Is a free trial or demo available – Yes. Entellium provides a very easy to find test drive and interactive demo right from their home page.
2. Ease of finding the free trial from their home page – Can’t miss any of their three banner/buttons to click on.
3. Number of fields and/or steps needed to complete before accessing the trial – Fifteen fields (which is on the high side) but only one step to complete the registration.
4. Type of free trial or demo provided (30-days, white paper, flash demo) – Test drive, interactive demo, and white papers are all available.
5. Quality of the trial – Unsure. It was kind of a buzz kill having completed the registration form and not getting instant access to the trial. No reward for giving them all my personal information and I’ll be getting a sales call which I’m not fond of.

Here are the three pages and steps I needed to follow in order to complete a test drive registration. Entellium does a great job with guiding you from the home page all the way to the end of the sign up.

The good: Easy to find test drive links from the home page. Their interactive demo doesn’t require any registration.

The bad: Lots of fields (15) to fill out before completing the test drive. No instant free trial. You need to wait for a salesperson to call you once it’s completed. I was frustrated and wanted to get my hands on the product right away.

The bottom line: I like how easy Entellium makes it to find their test drive but the rest of the experience needs work. The overall look and feel of their registration page is pretty bland and intimidating with fifteen fields to fill out. Once you do complete the registration, I was a little confused as to why their recommended “next steps” included the free trial I just completed.

They have the right idea serving up other offers on their confirmation page but being a CRM company (who is supposed to be an expert in customer relations), they need to do a better job. Again, I was also disappointed that I couldn’t test out their eSalesForce product once I registered and need to wait for a salesperson to call and walk me through it instead.

Recommendations: If any Entellium marketing person happens to read this review, here’s what I’d recommend. Change your test drive page to 1/2 as many fields (if not more) than what you currently have. If you can’t, then make your test drive a two-step sign up so the visitor isn’t scared away by all those fields. Since you run Google Analytics, use it to see what your drop-off rates are. I believe you can also see exactly which fields visitors leave from (I know Omniture and Websidestory both do). I’d also recommend using a multi-variant testing solution like Google Website Optimizer (free) or Optimost. They do some cool stuff to rotate different content and test which layout works best.

Final score: (2 out of 5)

Make sure to continue reading each review as it comes out. There are 9 reviews left and the first post is Which CRM Vendor Provides the Best “Test Drive” Experience?

Update: Entellium now provides a free product test drive of their eSalesForce product. You should give it a try and let me know what you think.

Update 2: Since completing the test drive, I received two calls from their sales team and one email within the first 24-48 hours. That’s standard practice for three touches before I’m considered a closed or archived lead in their system. Here’s the email I received from Doug the sales rep.

Hello David,

Sorry I missed you. I tried calling you but was unable to reach you at 415-xxx-xxxx. I know your probably really busy so I wanted to provide you some additional information on Entellium’s CRM and why I think you should consider us. Entellium specifically built our solution for sales people by sales people to ensure they have the right tools to manage more sales opportunities and customer service incidents in a shorter period of time.

Entellium CRM key benefits:

* Save time – Quickly respond to new leads, schedule calls, make appointments and forecast results.
* Maximize productivity – Automate many humdrum tasks, such as creating reports, writing proposals or producing email campaigns.
* Increase capacity – Manage more sales opportunities than ever before.
* Build strong relationships – You can know your customers’ business inside and out
* Close more deals – You can consistently follow your proven best practices.

Powered by Entellium’s unparalleled workflow engine, eSalesForce and eCustomer Center are easily customized to your best practices – consequently, the sales and customer service cycle is shortened, volumes increase, and each user produces like a top performer. Entellium is the first hosted CRM solution to proactively automate time-consuming activities, so you can focus on completing the activities that make you successful. Therefore improving your workflow.

If you have any questions or would like more information how we can empower your sales and customer service effectiveness, please give me a call.

Not a bad canned follow-up email except for a few grammatical errors. He listed Entellium’s key benefits and value proposition. Now, if I could only get a product demo without having to work through a sales rep. Update: you now can get a free demo!

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