Competitve Scenario

COMPETITVE SCENARIO

Looking at the competitive scenario in the sales automation industry, we woiuld strongly recommend the introduction of Trojan horse as a product. The Sales Automation market is still in its nascent stage where companies and their decision makers are not fully convinced by complex solutions provided by CSAS but at the same time the CMS solution falls short of expectations. There is a market need for a hybrid solution which would take forward services provided by CMS products by adding premium feature like opportunity management and sales forecasting. We would advise SaleSoft to launch Trojan Horse as a hybrid solution targeting the sweet spot between CMS and a full-fledged CSAS solution.

Even though PROCEED had an favourable initial response, the company did not witness revenue generation due to a high selling cycle as well as slow R&D performance. To keep the company afloat and to attract further investments, a product with a shorter and simpler gestation sales period is essential. TH with a three month time-to-market period would affect the company cash flows positively.

PRODUCT POSITIONING

TH would not be made on a separate platform but moving forward the sales module of PROCEED along with the developed Sales Forecasting and other enhanced features would be branded as PROCEED - Trojan Horse. Proceed Trojan Horse would be sold as an independent module and other CSAS modules, like Marketing and Services, would be optional add-ons. SaleSoft Inc. should continue marketing both PROCEED as well as PROCEED-TH.

SALES STRATEGY

The sales force should be organized market industry-wise rather than region-wise to leverage industry specific processes. Industries in focus would be Computer and Office Equipment, Commercial Banking, Electronics and Electrical Equipment where the ratio of Sales Reps to Total number of employees is higher ensuring higher target audience for Sales Modules. These industries are computer literate as well.

In the long run, CSAS market segment would experience faster growth as sales automation industry and its customers would mature. Upselling PROCEED to existing PROCEED-TH customers would be easier as

1. Customers would be able to remain in the same platform and this consistency would ensure faster implementation

2. This being an integrated and modular solution, would be more attractive to the customer than integrating various proprietary software

CSAS is a high-value high-margin fragmented market and in the long run, PROCEED would strengthen the bottom line whereas PROCEED-TH would strengthen our top line.