Peter Cooke looks at how technology is
changing the way sales consultants keep tabs on their leads – and
the possible implications for companies.
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Do you remember when a sales
consultant’s sign of virility was the size of his Cardex? It was
meant to contain all of his leads; his sales conquests,
expectations and the details he could use when talking to
prospects.
It had details of finance plans, whether the
customer had bought outright or financed the deal – and much other
material too. Admittedly, much of the writing was in sales
consultants’ hieroglyphics and meant little to any other reader,
but at least it physically existed and you could see it in the
business.
Contrast that with today. The smart sales
consultant has access to a networked computer system or a laptop on
the desk with immaculately – or laboriously – entered details,
beautifully laid out for all to see. Not a single writer’s spider
in sight.
With signs of the market picking up, or at least
not falling as fast as it has been, even if it is artificially
boosted by the scrappage scheme, we may be entering the ‘job change
season’ among sales consultants with some of the older ones calling
it a day, and an aspiring group of optimists looking for greener
grass on the other side. One recent survey suggested a third of the
working population would seek another job when the recession
eases.
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By GlobalDataEnter the memory stick. Mata Hari would not have
needed to ply her pleasurable trade if she could have found a
friendly portal to hold her memory stick.
What security does your organisation offer with
regards to customer data and sales databases?
Tools of chaos
Memory sticks are the preferred tools of
industrial espionage. Improperly used, they could be claimed to be
Public Enemy No. 1 in the wrong hands – and that may well include
the unscrupulous sales, finance or service consultant.
From the dealer or finance institution viewpoint,
the loss of a memory stick could have a number of embarrassing
outcomes; just think of the government’s record over the last few
months. Some potentially worrying scenarios:
• Immediate – and covert: loss of client databases
with all of the information which that might represent. That could
lead to loss of far more than sales and finance deals.
• Issues associated with data protection: a concern
we tend to ignore – but remember some of the high-profile losses of
employee and client personal information over the last few months.
Could your organisation be hit in the same way? The Data Registrar
has considerable powers when necessary – and uses them.
• Consider also the issues of adverse publicity if
the story emerged through the press or radio that a memory stick
with personal finance details had been lost or stolen.
What is the organisation’s contingency plan should
a database go missing? Will all members on that database be
contacted to warn them their personal information may have been
compromised? Have a plan in place – it could cost you if you
don’t.
Protection of data
What steps might the dealer, the finance
provider, take to protect personal and other commercial sensitive
information? While the assumed problem may be the individual sales
consultant’s customer list, in many organisations the sales or
service team may have access to the entire database and lax
security may quickly render any protection useless.
One draconian solution may be to ban any form of
mobile memory capacity – quite simply ban memory sticks within the
dealership. This may be inconvenient for the most efficient
operation of the dealership. What about having an encrypted system
which can only accept equivalent encrypted memory sticks, with
those sticks strictly monitored and, in theory, only able to work
in an encrypted system?
A more radical system may be to close any ports for
downloading – not practical in many cases, but nevertheless an
issue to be considered.
Are there ‘sleeper addresses’ that can be inserted
in dealer databases so at least the business may be aware of the
improper use of the database? I’m no specialist in the area of data
protection, but it is an issue which should be high in terms of
management visibility and awareness.
Prospect and customer data may have been judged as
less important at the bottom of the trade cycle; perhaps that might
be considered the time when quality customer data is at its most
beneficial.
However, as novel approaches to the market through
scrappage and associated finance deals come to the fore, so
detailed personal customer data is ever more important.
Client information can be like gold dust; it is
your lifeblood and you let it escape at your peril.
Could a latter-day Mata Hari get her hands on your
memory stick?
The author is KPMG Professor of
Automotive Management, University of Buckingham
