Salesnet and Miller Heiman Announce a Partnership

On Tuesday Salesnet and Miller Heiman will announce a partnership aimed at embedding the sales training company's methodology into Salesnet's process-driven software. The Salesnet editions will leverage Miller Heiman's proprietary Sales Access Manager tool to integrate preconfigured account views, reports, processes, and interactive workflow components to manage and covert sales into new business. Each Miller Heiman training program includes one-page planning sheets designed to capture methodology and integrate it into CRM systems. Users of the Salesnet Strategic Selling Miller Heiman Edition will now have access to sheets that will be linked to the back end and be able to push and pull data to and from databases. Sales people will be able to access Miller Heiman's methodology with data, such as contact information, sales reports, and account information. Sales and action plans are automatically written back to the database and added as part of a salesperson to-do list and entered into the company system, so management can follow the sales team's actions. "We gather data in the generic selling process. We'll populate those materials, and they're reflected online through the infrastructure, so all the methodology that Miller Heiman teaches the sales person now becomes part of the sales process directly," says Dave Golan, vice president of sales and alliances for Salesnet. Clients of Salesnet and Miller Heiman can expect to get a taste of each company's separate approaches to the sales process. Salesnet hopes its clients continue to take advantage of the company's technology, while transferring Miller Heiman's expertise in methodology to reinforce sales practices. Miller Heiman hopes clients are attracted to Salesnet's work flow processes and SFA capabilities. "Miller Heiman's view is that the sales process and sales methodology are different," says Justin Guidi, development manager for Miller Heiman. "The sales process, and the steps and stages you go through, are one thing. That's the what you do. Miller Heiman and the methodology is the how you do it. For our clients and [Salesnet's], this partnership offers the best of both." The new Salesnet Strategic Selling Miller Heiman Edition is expected to become available within the next 60 days, with follow-on editions for conceptual selling and large account-management processing through second and third-quarter 2005. Related articles: Salesforce.com Previews Summer '05 The End of Independence