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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:The Digital way of working
Moderator:QUARK::LIONELON
Created:Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5321
Total number of notes:139771

3897.0. "How to find a sales rep?" by NETRIX::"warren@hpc.pko.dec.com" (Richard Warren) Tue May 23 1995 15:12

As part of my engineering responsibilities, I would like to solicit input
from "interesting" customers.  My current problem however, is that
knowing that potential customer base does not currently give me the means
by which I can communicate with them...   To compound the problem, even
if I have the name of a sales person in the region, that person may no
longer be there; or may not be responsible for the account I'm interested
in.

What I'm looking for, is a way to send mail to "cern.sales@gvo.dec.com" 
or something similar.  Using MX records would do this, if there was a
little bit of discipline in administering the regional network lists; but
so many of our sales people are on All-In-One (somebody@mts.dec.com)

Does anyone have a tool that currently exists that would allow me to
send to that "virtual" sales rep???  Does it make sense to anyone else
that this functionality exist???  And while it's too late for me "this time"
what about next time?  Who would be responsible for implementing this?

Thanks for your replys,
Richard
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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3897.1Not simple, but possibleVFOVAX::BRAMBLETTTue May 23 1995 16:3112
    
    What you are asking for is not simple in this company, but possible
    with effort.  There is a VTX CALOOK which you can put the customer name
    in.  This will get you to the Sales Manager, who should know the
    Account Manager's name.  This process can be short or can take up
    to 1 week depending on who is in the office.  A decision was made
    at the high levels of Digital some time ago to not disclose Sales
    Reps direct names, so unfortunately, it takes longer than a lookup.
    
    I understand your problem, since I deal with it on a regular basis.
    
    Linda
3897.2ThanksNETRIX::"warren@hpc.pko.dec.com"Richard WarrenTue May 23 1995 17:4317
Thank you Linda for you response.  I didn't know about vtx calook
so this helps somewhat.  Following your lead, I gave it try with
the list of potential clients I know about.  The results are less
than astounding!  Universities seem to be excluded from the list,
and commercial customers seem to ha ve so many entries that it seems
a waste of my time to search each and every one!  Lastly, international
sites also seem to be missing.  Oh well... 

I suppose that if it IS a corporate decision to hide our sales reps,
then the suggestion I posted in my base note would be an appropriate
solution.  I would only be able to find out who was reading the
mail if that person were to reply directly to me... otherwise I'd
only reference "Sales.Kimberly_Clark@GBO.mts.dec.com"

Thanks again for the suggestion and explanation!
Richard
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
3897.3Non US Account RepsSTAR::CWARDTue May 23 1995 20:188
    I'm attempting to find several account reps myself.  After looking
    through VTX CALOOK without much success, I was told to contact Vincenzo
    Damiani's secretary.  She told me to call Isabelle Keskin, DTN 821-4039
    who is Durk Hayman's admin person and she could supply me with ABU
    names.  She was unsure of his SBU counterpart.  Due to time differences
    I haven't made contact as yet but it's worth a try...good luck!
    
    Cathy
3897.4<<HEY, Who's in charge ???>>MKOTS3::DQUINNTue May 23 1995 21:3144
    First and Foremost, you must identify the type of opportunity. 
    
    If it is an MCS opportunity, and the customer has contracts - contact
    MCS, Base and New business reps. - Contract Administrators help here.
    
    If the customer has not been affiliated with Digital (aka bought in the 
    last three years) you will need to identify the NEW Business Rep. for
    the SBU (forgive me - for Servers, Workstations, and Network Software)
    This person will sell face-to-face and introduce a business partner. 
    
    If the customer has been affiliated with Digital (again in the last
    three years (Servers, Workstations and Network software) and IS an 
    SBU account contact 1-800-344-4825, press 3#, 2#, then the extension
    or 7# and the extension of the tele-account manager.  The CAlook
    accounts and divisions will usually have the same names. However, if 
    the deal is reasonably complex and will require some face to face work
    contact the MDS (Market Development Specialist) for the territory. The 
    sales made this way will go through a business partner who may not be 
    identified. The sales are typically indirect.  
    
    If the account is one of the 1K or so ABU accounts, the CAlook tool
    will be of some use, but you will have to do some chasing. The sales
    here are face to face and direct.  
    
    If the sale is a PC sale - contact 1-800-PCBYDEC (PC Compleat June 1)
    or the nearest reseller channel.  Indirect sales through resellers only 
    please. 
    
    If the sale is a consulting sale contact the SI program office or the 
    nearest Digital consulting group.  Check VTX AtoZ.
    
    If the sale is a NETWORK sale contact the Network Business Unit.
    
        
    In short, to do business with us today, you must understand the
    structure of the company, so that you can quickly structure a query to
    get to the first of a few phone calls to get an answer. And, try to 
    keep an active eye on Digital today and VTX Livewire for the next
    business unit agreements as we "turn the curve".  
    
    
    
     
    
3897.5Data & DisciplineBBRDGE::LOVELLWed May 24 1995 11:4831
	What the basemoter is asking for is all too easy,
	far too rational, immediately useful, encourages 
	cross-BU consistency and is available today.

	And the main reason that this will never be 
	implemented is that the only people who can make
	this work are the sales teams themselves.  Technical
	discussion of MX records, ALL-IN-1, VTX CALOOK, etc., 
	etc. are pure exercises in self delusion.  The key
	is the data.  

	We have a corporate wide directory in existence 
	(have had it for years!) that is perfectly capable 
	of feeding employee locators, role/responsibility
	databases and logical mail routing as requested.
	All of those tools are in place!  They may be old but
	so what?  There is nothing stopping a customer or
	fellow Deccie sending mail to ;

		sales.cern@xxx.mts.dec.com	

	Problem as always is the data.  You may be able to 
	convince the CERN sales team to identify themselves
	to the MTS directory maintainer and may even convince
	them to keep a duty roster on watching their mail.
	But how are you going to get that same discipline
	to apply across multiple sales teams split by BU, split
	by geography, spit by product &/or service type???

	Sounds like a good question to put to the Sales CIO.
3897.6Try Readers ChoiceODIXIE::ROBINSONWed May 24 1995 16:193
    you might want to try to write a letter and get it distributed through 
    Readers Choice.  This is the method all the marketing groups use to get
    to us sales types.  Maureen
3897.7vtx profileGRANPA::JCONNORSWed May 24 1995 17:0418
    And once it is in Readers Choice it is up to the individual
    field person to add access to your data to their profile (vtx profile).
    
    We receive notices weekly of new corporate data which is available
    for our use ... An intro memo will introduce us to whatever this
    data may be .. newsletter, product info, etc. ... it is then up
    to each individual rep or support person to add this to their
    profile ... from that point on we will receive automatic updates
    to the data ..
    
    You may want to track down who the individual is that has the
    master distribution list for Readers Choice ... they know who
    all the field people are ... I'm assuming that eventually, if not
    already, this data will also be made available to all of our
    VAR's, distributors, resellers, etc. ... at least it should
    be ..
    
    Good luck
3897.8hpc, eh? what about high performance marketing!BBPBV1::WALLACEWhatever it takes, BobWed May 24 1995 17:2031
    Do Engineering talk to Marketing in Digital? If this is a market
    segment which is strategic to Digital, do we not still have marketing
    types whose job it is to know their market, and their customers (past,
    present, and future), and who could put you directly in touch with
    actual and potential customers? With the increasing focus on sales
    through partners, many more of the people buying our products won't
    have a direct Digital salesrep anyway. (If your market isn't strategic,
    er well... good luck!)
    
    I like the idea a lot, HP say they do it and it does their engineers a
    world of good. 
    
    More specifically: Are high energy physics people really your market,
    or was that just a random example ? hpc.pko.dec.com? The nice hpc folks
    in Galway used to talk to hpc customers in Europe, their Web page at
    http://tc-www.ilo.dec.com looks as though they still do!
    
    As regards CERN, ELF shows CW Hobbs as still at CERN - I still see his
    name in Notes occasionally. If your market _is_ hpc, it may be of
    interest to you that Parsys have just announced an alpha-based system
    to follow on their existing transputer-based parallel stuff. (21066,
    even!)
    
    I don't like the idea of using Readers Choice as a mechanism for
    broadcasting what to most people would be junkmail. It's beginning to
    be used that way in the UK and it's getting irritating when it happens.
    
    regards
    john
    retired physicist
    digital embedded+realtime tech support
3897.9ClarificationNETRIX::&quot;warren@hpc.pko.dec.com&quot;Richard WarrenWed May 24 1995 19:0923
The rational for my base note was to see if any tools exist for
"data mining" with respect to our finding customers through
our sales AND marketing people.  I guess the short answer is:
NO.  A number of people have found partial
solutions and in truth, I'm beginning to see how difficult we make
things for our remaining marketing folks.  They're spread extremely
thin and don't have the basic tools.  In my "real" hpc example (
I know about CERN because I worked there for a number of years) our
existing product manager does not have a way to gather concise, uptodate
info on who HAS our product.  Evidently, "Sales" does not feed information
back into the system for future reference and customer profiling.

I too, don't like the idea of Reader's choice mailings, but obviously
it IS a solution when people have the time and desire to participate.

At this point, I'd like to thank everyone who has replied both via
this conference and via mail.  It's extremely heartening to find that
people in Digital still care to help out a fellow employee.

-Richard


[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
3897.10VTX CALOOK for US onlyMARKMI::MillerNever run a changing systemFri Jun 02 1995 07:047
RE: 2

VTX CALOOK only covers US accounts.  This is not stated anywhere in the 
application itself.  I only discovered it by trying several European Global 
covered accounts.


3897.11No Asia eitherJUMP4::JOYPerception is realityFri Jun 02 1995 16:385
    re: .-1 I discovered the same thing when looking for some Asia account.
    The Hong Kong Shanghai Bank is listed, but only the NYC office!
    
    Debbie
    
3897.12America's SBU Sales Rep contactMKOTS3::LEVESQUE_MThu Nov 09 1995 14:0521
    The America's Telecoverage Inside Sales Group is part of a U. S territory 
    based sales team which includes Inside Sales Reps, Outside field reps,
    and local Digital Business Partners.  This group primarily sells
    workstations, servers,storage,and,software for SBU customers.(We do not
    support ABU accounts)  We have contacts for PC sales and networking 
    opportunities.  You can find the Inside rep by looking in CALOOK.  Many 
    New Business accounts are not found in CALOOK in that case please send a 
    message or call to Julie Obrien at MKOTS3::OBRIEN_J or DTN 264-0585. One 
    of our Inside reps will contact the customer promptly. 
         
    Please include the following information:
    
    Customer name:
    Company:
    Address:
    City, State:
    Phone:
    
    Sales Opportunity: