Sales activity management system, server device, recording medium and computer data signal

• US 7,974,870 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2004
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Ikezawa, Toyoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Singh; Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US10/812,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20040215504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,653 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting

Abstract

A server device includes an activity content evaluation unit, an activity pattern analyzing unit, an evaluation report creating unit, and an evaluation report sending unit, and is connected to an activity management information DB, which has activity management information for managing activity content of each salesperson registered. The server device evaluates the activity content of each salesperson based on the activity management information in the activity management information DB, and creates evaluation report information from the evaluation results. The server device analyzes the activity pattern of salespeople that have a number equal to or higher than a predetermined number of agreements reached in sales negotiations, based on the activity management information in the activity management information DB, generates advise information towards each salesperson from the analysis, and sends the evaluation report information, adding the generated advise information thereto, to a terminal device of the salesperson.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented sales activity management system comprising:

a database implemented by the computer that stores activity management information concerning activity content of each salesperson and sales negotiation item information concerning each sales negotiation item that each salesperson is in charge of, wherein a sales negotiation item is an item identifying a sales negotiation which a salesperson conducts with a customer, and the sales negotiation item information includes at least a customer identifier for identifying the customer and information of sales negotiation progress level indicating progress of the sales negotiation;

an activity content evaluation unit implemented by the computer that evaluates the activity content of each salesperson based on at least one of the activity management information and the sales negotiation item information, registered in said database;

an evaluation report document information creating unit implemented by the computer that generates, for each salesperson, an evaluation report document information including evaluation report information concerning the activity content of a salesperson, based on the evaluation results by said activity content evaluation unit;

a customer database implemented by the computer that stores customer information concerning customers;

a customer targeting unit implemented by the computer that extracts sales negotiation item information wherein a sales negotiation progress level of the sales negotiation item is equal to or greater than a predetermined level among a plurality of sales negotiation items that are in progress by a salesperson from the database, targets the customer identified by a customer identifier included in the extracted sales negotiation item information, extracts the customer information of the targeted customer from the customer database, and adds the extracted customer information as priority customer information for the salesperson to said evaluation report information in the evaluation report document information of the salesperson;

an evaluation report document information sending unit implemented by the computer that sends, for each salesperson, the generated evaluation report document information of the salesperson including the customer information added by the customer targeting unit and the evaluation report information, to a terminal device of the salesperson connected to the sales activity management system through a communication network; and

a knowledge database implemented by the computer that stores at least one of knowledge information concerning know-how and knowledge in sales activity and sales support information including at least one data of various promotional material, sales activity record, and delivery achievement concerning apparatuses, for using in sales activity, correlating the at least one data with customer information registered in the customer database, wherein

said customer targeting unit extracts at least one of knowledge information and sales support information relating to the targeted customer from the knowledge database and sends the information to said terminal device, when sending the evaluation report document information to said terminal device and the evaluation report document information creating unit generating advice information for advising the salesperson.

2. The sales activity management system according to claim 1, wherein the activity management information includes one of, or a plurality of data of, number of registered sales negotiations, number of customer calls made, hours of activity, number of agreements reached in sales negotiations, rate of agreements reached in sales negotiations, sales proceeds, and estimate proceeds.

3. The sales activity management system according to claim 1, further comprising an activity pattern analyzing unit that extracts sales management information that has a number or rate equal to or greater than a predetermined number of registered sales negotiations or a predetermined rate of registered sales negotiations from said database, and analyzes the activity pattern of the salesperson, using the extracted sales management information, wherein:

said evaluation report document information creating unit generates advice information towards the activity content of each salesperson based on the analysis by said activity pattern analyzing unit, and adds the generated advice information to the evaluation report information in the evaluation report document information.

4. The sales activity management system according to claim 3, wherein said advice information includes activity instruction information towards each salesperson.

5. The sales activity management system according to claim 3, wherein said activity pattern analyzing unit extracts sales management information wherein a sales proceed or an estimate proceed is greater than a predetermined amount, from said database, and analyzes the activity pattern of the salesperson using the extracted sales management information.

6. The sales activity management system according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation report document information creating unit ranks the activity content of each salesperson, based on the evaluation results by the activity content evaluation unit.

7. The sales activity management system according to claim 1, which receives information concerning results of sales activity carried out based on said evaluation report document information, from said terminal device, and registers at least one of the activity management information and the sales negotiation item information, which are based on the received information, to said activity management information database.

8. The sales activity management system according to claim 1, wherein said evaluation report document information further includes data of comments input by a manager of said each salesperson.

9. A computer-implemented server device comprising:

an activity content evaluation unit implemented by the computer that evaluates activity content of each salesperson based on at least one of activity management information and sales negotiation item information, registered in a database that stores the activity management information concerning the activity content of each salesperson and the sales negotiation item information concerning each sales negotiation item that each salesperson is in charge of, wherein a sales negotiation item is an item identifying a sales negotiation which a salesperson conducts with a customer, and the sales negotiation item information includes at least a customer identifier for identifying the customer and information of sales negotiation progress level indicating progress of the sales negotiation;

an evaluation report document information creating unit implemented by the computer that generates, for each salesperson, an evaluation report document information including evaluation report information concerning the activity content of a salesperson, based on the evaluation results by said activity content evaluation unit;

a customer targeting unit implemented by the computer that extracts sales negotiation item information wherein a sales negotiation progress level of the sales negotiation item is equal to or greater than a predetermined level among a plurality of sales negotiation items that are in progress by a salesperson from the database, targets the customer identified by a customer identifier included in the extracted sales negotiation item information, extracts customer information of the targeted customer from a customer database that stores customer information concerning customers, and adds the extracted customer information as priority customer information for the salesperson to said evaluation report information in the evaluation report document information of the salesperson;

an evaluation report document information sending unit implemented by the computer that sends, for each salesperson, the generated evaluation report document information of the salesperson including the customer information added by the customer targeting unit and the evaluation report information, to a terminal device of the salesperson connected to the server device through a communication network; and

a knowledge database implemented by the computer that stores at least one of knowledge information concerning know-how and knowledge in sales activity and sales support information including at least one data of various promotional material, sales activity record, and delivery achievement concerning apparatuses, for using in sales activity, correlating the at least one data with customer information registered in the customer database, wherein

said customer targeting unit extracts at least one of knowledge information and sales support information relating to the targeted customer from the knowledge database and sends the information to said terminal device, when sending the evaluation report document information to said terminal device and the evaluation report document information creating unit generating advice information for advising the salesperson.

10. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium which stores a program controlling a computer to function as:

an activity content evaluation unit that evaluates activity content of each salesperson based on at least one of activity management information and sales negotiation item information, registered in a database that stores the activity management information concerning the activity content of each salesperson and the sales negotiation item information concerning each sales negotiation item that each salesperson is in charge of, wherein a sales negotiation item is an item identifying a sales negotiation which a salesperson conducts with a customer, and the sales negotiation item information includes at least a customer identifier for identifying the customer and information of sales negotiation progress level indicating progress of the sales negotiation;

an evaluation report document information creating unit that generates, for each salesperson, an evaluation report document information including evaluation report information concerning the activity content of a salesperson, based on the evaluation results by said activity content evaluation unit;

a customer targeting unit that extracts sales negotiation item information wherein a sales negotiation progress level of the sales negotiation item is equal to or greater than a predetermined level among a plurality of sales negotiation items that are in progress by a salesperson from the database, targets the customer identified by a customer identifier included in the extracted sales negotiation item information, extracts customer information of the targeted customer from a customer database that stores customer information concerning customers, and adds the extracted customer information of the targeted customer as priority customer information for the salesperson to said evaluation report information in the evaluation report document information of the salesperson;

an evaluation report document information sending unit that sends, for each salesperson, the generated evaluation report document information of the salesperson including the customer information added by the customer targeting unit and the evaluation report information, to a terminal device of a salesperson connected to the computer through a communication network; and

a knowledge database implemented by the computer that stores at least one of knowledge information concerning know-how and knowledge in sales activity and sales support information including at least one data of various promotional material, sales activity record, and delivery achievement concerning apparatuses, for using in sales activity, correlating the at least one data with customer information registered in the customer database, wherein

said customer targeting unit extracts at least one of knowledge information and sales support information relating to the targeted customer from the knowledge database and sends the information to said terminal device, when sending the evaluation report document information to said terminal device and the evaluation report document information creating unit generating advice information for advising the salesperson.