One of the fundamental challenges in sales and marketing departments is getting up-to-date and reference information to an often geographically distributed group of people. Web publishing applications for sales and marketing departments reflect the fact that having just the right information at the right moment can make a sale happen, and lacking that information can mean losing the deal to your competitor. Web applications can be developed to give immediate access to the following types of information:
Web transaction applications, coupled with industry standard databases,
can help marketing departments maintain and access a database of key
customers and references. Sales people can use transaction applications
to place orders, check order status, and complete the paperwork
surrounding a sale.
One Netscape customer in the pharmaceutical industry has an unusual
transaction application, which enables its sales representatives to
respond more quickly to customer questions. For example, during a sales
visit, a doctor may ask the representative for a letter from the
company explaining the risks of using one of its products during
pregnancy. Rather than spending hours trying to reach the appropriate
person at headquarters to get the letter sent, the representative can
call up a Netscape form, enter the doctor's name and address and the
information request, and submit that form to headquarters immediately.
In community types of applications, sales and marketing teams share expertise that help them be more successful in specific sales situations. Newsgroups can focus on: