An evaluation of marketing issues in sales force automation

Sales force automation refers to the automation of sales activities within an organization. Depending on the context, SFA may refer to the concept, the tools or the system. Because the literature refers to the importance of customer value creation and competitive advantage in considering SFA, the results of an audit of the advantages and disadvantages identified in the same literature were classified and tabled according to their transactional, informational or strategic nature. It was found that the SFA literature has paid very little attention to customer-centric analysis or even to competitive analysis. The emphasis is on benefiting businesses by improving processes based on the informational gains afforded by SFA implementation. It is argued that more customer-centric strategic thought needs to be developed for an appropriate assessment of sales force automation and its impact on business outcomes.