Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
[7-30 Update to this article: Inside CRM published its comparison guide to Sales Force Automation and did not even include Landslide among the 12 applications it compared. Goes to show how little the software engineers, writers and editors know about selling. Traditional CRM is difficult for salespeople to embrace!]
[2nd 7-30 Update to the update - see the comment below from Chris Bucholtz, Inside CRM, and follow this link to the article he posted later today.]
I love Landslide and I'm proud to say it.
I use Landslide myself.
All of my salespeople at both of my companies use Landslide.
I believe that all of our clients should use it.
What is Landslide? Sorry. Landslide is in the CRM space without actually being a CRM application. Landslide is a hosted web application but with their robust dashboard you would swear you were looking at an application loaded on your computer. Landslide actually helps you sell, train and hold your salespeople accountable.
I said I use Landslide but that's not accurate. I work from within Landslide. When I'm in selling mode everything begins there. When I'm in sales manager mode, Landslide is where I go for an instant, accurate visual picture of the company's pipeline by stage, by team, and by rep. It's also where I look to get a real time forecast and track activities, and results.
Landslide does the CRM stuff that you need but because it has your company's customized sales process built-in, it forces your salespeople to sell the way they've been taught, without skipping steps along the way. They just released their newest version and I love it. A click here and a click there and you're done. And the biggest reason that companies resist installing CRM (most of which suck) is that they know their salespeople will resist using it. No problem. Landslide includes VIP services so that your salespeople don't have to touch their computer if they don't want to. They can just call it in! I know I'm gushing about it but it's simply the most helpful application I've ever used for sales and sales management.
There are several other applications that I use to make my life easy. CatalogChoice.com eliminates all of the unwanted catalogs I get in the mail each day; Hubspot.com hosts this Blog and provides unbelievable support, analytics and SEO; SurveyMonkey.com is great for designing surveys and collecting, analyzing and sharing the results; AudioGenerator.com is ideal for placing quick playing audio testimonials on our web sites; WebEx.com provides a robust platform for webinars, meetings and on line training; SeatGuru.com and FlightAware.com for travel; and LinkedIn.com helps me stay connected with other professionals and their networks.
Why not comment and tell us about some of your can't live without applications...
(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
