Gartner’s CRM Magic Quadrant & Sales Effectiveness

Finally, finally, finally – someone in CRM-land is thinking about the salesperson, and not just about management.  There appears to be an emerging recognition by the CRM (particularly the SFA) market that CRM should not be just about data collection, where sales people are just data entry clerks for management reporting purposes. I’m encouraged by the awareness of this in the recent Magic Quadrant for CRM from Gartner.

According to that report, additional functionality to help the salesperson is important. (Hurray!)  According to Gartner …

…  critical to meeting the needs of a maturing market … opportunity management; sales effectiveness capabilities, such as guided selling, sales coaching, sales configuration, quote management and content management; sales performance management, including incentive compensation, quota management and territory management  … (Disclosure: The items in bold are supported by The TAS Group’s Dealmaker product for each of the vendors in the Leader’s Quadrant.)

This awareness is long overdue, though the list is still incomplete.  What about Account Management and Accurate Sales Forecasts?  (I’ve written before in a post about the appalling state of sales forecasting and the impact on the economy.)

Still even though this is imperfect, I’m really pleased to see that progress is being made, and of course I’m delighted that Dealmaker is a significant sales effectiveness component for each of the leaders.