We’re proud to announce today the launch of Sales Cycle Manager On Demand 2.0. Version 2.0 is an exciting milestone for us here at SalesWays! We’ve been working hard building many new features in response to your feedback.

Sales Cycle Manager On Demand is now faster and more user-friendly than ever.

In version 2.0, you can configure the Products setup in a number of ways depending on your needs. There are several options that allow you to make entering product information for sales opportunities as simple or as detailed as needed.

There’s also a new custom IBO field that can be used to add any kind of information to each sales opportunity, for example an internal reference number or commission-tracking code.

New data export formats give you greater flexibility in how you pull and use data, and a new analytics section for administrators adds a new dimension of reporting for your organization.

Below is a list of all major feature updates in Sales Cycle Manager version 2.0.

New features and enhancements

User Features

• Improved speed and performance
• Improved flow – column sorting and page settings are preserved as you navigate through the application. When you come back to the planner view from another screen it remembers which priority tab you were looking at previously.
• Search by country is now available in the IBO list in version 2.0.

Administrator Features

Export Options

• New Export Formats – You can now export to CSV, XLS or HTML formats. These options are helpful to accommodate a wider range of spreadsheet programs.

Users

• Ignore IP Whitelist – Enable a user to have access to Sales Cycle Manager from anywhere, regardless of your IP Whitelist settings.

• Export User List – This is handy is you want to export your list of users for use in an external emailing tool, for example.

Roles

• Assign Roles – If a user is removed from an assigned role where they own any open IBOs, a toolbox will open that prompts you to re-assign the open IBOs to another user and role. This ensures that all open IBOs are being looked after even when there changes in your organization.

IBO Form

• Default Expert Mode – Enable this option to automatically open the Expert Mode in the Sales Cycle Dashboard for new IBOs.

• Advanced IBO Role Filter – If enabled, a user who has multiple roles can choose which role(s) an IBO should belong under. This can be set to ‘required’ to force each IBO to belong under at least one of the user’s roles.

• Attachments – Option to disable attachments for IBOs and Interactions

• Custom Field - Add an extra field to the opportunity form. This is a text field and can be used to store information about an IBO such as a reference number.

Product Setup

• Hide Product Groups, Hide Product Number, Hide Qty & Unit Price – Options to simplify adding products to IBOs if desired.

• Custom Product Information Fields – Administrators can add custom fields for Products. The custom fields can be text input fields or selection boxes. Administrators can define the name of the custom field and its options that are available to users in the IBO form Product Information section.

Analytics

• Login Activity – Administrators can view a log of users and their login activity. Can be exported.

• IBO Activity – Administrators can view a log of IBO activity including user, IBO number, time-stamp and actions (save or delete). Can be exported.

Throughout the coming weeks and months, we will be releasing Sneak Peeks of Keith Thompson’s upcoming book, OPM: Opportunity Portfolio Management, through the SalesWays blog. Here, you’ll get snapshots of the OPM method, and have a chance to see what makes OPM stand out.

There are four types of salespeople, and in our many collective years as sales professionals, we have, more than likely, met all of them.

Type 1: There won’t be many salespeople who have been working for any lengthy period of time, that still happen to be here. Type 1 salespeople don’t like dealing with people, and they will also be very weak at basic selling skills.

Type 2: This salesperson relies on friendship with the customer to win sales, but shies away from competitive selling. They will have a loyal circle of customers who will repeatedly buy, but they can get trounced by salespeople who have better selling skills.

Type 3: Type 3 salespeople are aggressive, hard-working, and excellent sales tacticians, which puts them in a good position to win most sales they come across. But once a sale is made, they often fail to follow up with the customer to ensure that the customer is happy with what they have paid for. As the customer relationship declines, repeat sales become unlikely. This salesperson is the very definition of a “one hit wonder” in the sales business.

Type 4: This is the place to be. Type 4 salespeople are comfortable with building the customer relationship where necessary, but also have the ability to win the sale by sound and proven sales practice. What’s more, they can switch between either of the styles as the dynamic of the sale changes.

It goes without saying that every salesperson should strive to be Type 4. Which type are you? And if you aren’t yet a Type 4, what can you do to get there?