If you have a small or mid-sized business (5+) sales people, you should be using a sales force automation (SFA) system. It just isn’t enough to use a white board as your sales pipeline report anymore. Tracking sales and improving closing rates requires more power than a whiteboard can provide.

Now that the Web has brought about online services, there are affordable solutions for any size business. Web-based services are a perfect fit for the small or mid-sized business. No software to load, nothing to maintain, and no server computers to manage. You can try out most services for a limited time to see which fits best for you.

• Things to do during your trial:
• Import your own data
• Add your own list items
• Customize the screens/tabs to match your needs
• Add a few users to test the multi-user aspect
• Run some reports and setup a dashboard

I’ve kept the list relatively short. Let’s face it; your time is limited so try to hit the main feature points first. Next I’ll touch on each one and why it’s been listed.

Importing your own data
When evaluating a system, it’s important to work with your own data. Seeing your data in the system will give you the closest feel to using it live in your company. Importing data will also give you an idea of how easy it is to get data into the system. Most systems will have an Import Wizard or tool. If not, you’ll have to weigh that into your decision if you need to import data on a regular basis.

Add your own list items to table-driven lists
This one may sound a little odd, but doing this will help you work with the system in way that fits with your sales process. A perfect example is setting up your “Opportunity Stages”. Setting up the stages that you use will let you view a report in a way that makes sense to you. Another example could be account and/or contact types. Some companies prefer to use things like “Suspect” while others use “Prospect”. It always helps to see it the way you are familiar to.

Customize the screens to match your needs
This one may take you some time, however it will pay-off in your evaluation. The thing to look for here is flexibility. You’ll want to make sure you can redesign the pages and add your own fields. Some systems like Siebel On-Demand, limit you to changing fields around in just different columns. This is a bit limiting so look for ones like Salesforce.com that allow complete customizability. While it may be a little tougher to setup, it will be worth it. The more flexible the system the longer it will grow with you and the more value it will add to your business.

Add a few users to test the multi-user aspect
Adding users will allow you to assign account and opportunities to different users to manage them in a way that is familiar to you. Be sure to spread around the accounts and opportunities so when you look at the reports you’ll have a good idea of how you can work with them.

Run some reports
Things to check for in reporting are the sales report, and the ability to create your own reports. The sales pipeline report will probably be your most-run report. Every morning you’ll come in and run a sales report to see what stage the open opportunities are in and how you can help to move them to the next stage. Flashy graphs aren’t things to look for here. What you want is content, something you can work with. In some system you’ll even see reports that allow you click into the actual line item. This is very handy and can speed you through your morning run-down.

A report writer/builder is also something to look for. All systems will come with some reports. Once you get into the system and have used it for a while, you are going to come up with reports that are not in the system. This is where the report writer comes in. Report writers allow you to create your own custom reports on your data. You’ll want a flexible report writer to work with. Much the same as the custom design of the pages, the more flexible the report writer, the more value you will get out of it. This can also be a double-edged sword. Generally the more flexible a report writer is, the harder it is to use it. Value comes at a cost! Just make sure that if you don’t have the knowledge or time to create your own reports that there is an affordable fee to have them custom written for you. Many vendors rely on consultants to help out but consultants can be costly. Generally if the vendor themselves will write the report for you, the more affordable it will be.

Conclusion
Picking an SFA service can be overwhelming. Stick to the short list and you’ll get through it quickly and find the best system to meet your needs.

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