Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale - Part 1

By: John Deighton & Das Narayandas

CRM is Vital

From this case, we can see how Siebel understands the importance of understanding the customer and what they are looking for. The success of the company is due to the fact that they know how to approach the buyer and sell the product in the way that best suits them. From this article, I can understand the importance of customer relationship management.

Good customer relationship management benefits both, the company and the customer, since it works like a cycle. If the customers are exultant with your products and services, they will use your company more, which means that they are buying more from you. By doing so, they are increasing profit for the company and the employees are generally happier and more satisfied. This satisfaction increases the productivity of the employees and stimulates them to work harder to satisfy the customer’s needs.

Also, they talk about important steps to make a sale. Carman believes that he had to do three steps in order to make the sale:

1. Prove to them that we have a superior product.
2. Convince them that we would collaborate with them to make the system work.
3. Meet the right set of executives at Quick & Riley to convert the opportunity into a sale. 

They need to approach the customer in the best way in order to complete the sale, but how?

Key Issues and Solutions?

• How should Carman respond to the invitation to tell the Quick and Reilly executives what he thought of Oracle?
• Corresponding to Siebel’s Core Values, Carman should treat customers with deference and professional fashion. He should avoid providing incomplete information and whatever information is demanded from customer should be provided without any reluctance.

• Should Carman ask, “What’s your budget?”
• Carman should not suppress his curiosity and should ask directly about their requirements, as knowing the needs and requirements of customers in better way would help him in explaining the product accordingly, thus increasing the chances of cracking the deal.

VP of Sales Point of View

As the VP of Sales, I am trying to see if my employees are doing a good job at selling our product and attending the customers needs. Today, I am evaluating one of our best sellers: Carman. Is he doing the right thing?

Carman initially focused on building a rapport with Cathy and tried to gain her confidence to share more information. Throughout the conversation, Carman was friendly and showed complete interest in knowing Q&R’s requirements to best satisfy the needs of them.

He did a good job by giving a demo of the product to Cathy. However, he could have been better in explaining a specific product that suits her needs if he knew what they were looking for specifically.

He also tried to gauge the client’s budget by asking the possible number of users in the organization, which was an interesting and excellent approach. Overall, Carman did a fair job with Q&R.