The Austrian School has played only a negligible role in its country
of origin but has enjoyed unbroken popularity in the United States since
the 1970s with the work of Friedrich August von Hayek, Israel M.
Kirzner, Murray Rothbard and especially Ludwig von Mises. The Austrians
are central to the philosophy of Pipeliner CRM, because they are the
only economic school of thought that assigns entrepreneurship a pivotal
role in economic development. A businessman’s task is to apply his
resourcefulness to
track down knowledge and opportunities for profits—in
other words, to utilize the advantages that come from information.
Taking a risk while protecting the existing business is at the crux of
every decision a businessman makes. The more successfully he makes each
decision, the more successful his business will be. The more successful
the businessman is in the economy, the more successful the economy will
be.
An Intuitive Product
This paradigm of entrepreneurship has left its imprint and shaped the
Pipeliner CRM principles. This Easy
Sales CRM solution
is an instrument that enables businesses to shape their own risk and
security from a single source, all in keeping with the Austrian School.
Of course, it can also be applied to the salespeople, who today are
nothing other than “
entrepreneurs in the enterprise”.
Pipeline management
allows entrepreneurial actions to be considered not only in retrospect
as is traditional but also in advance gearing them to risk and security.
The positive potential of entrepreneurial action is not only protected
in the process, it is multiplied. Therefore a programmatic product that
is based on the highly relevant findings of 150 years of economic
history and economic theory as developed by the Austrians. The objective
is to provide the best possible support for entrepreneurship.
An entrepreneur’s task is to create knowledge and seek out
opportunities for profits—in other words, to utilize the advantages that
come from information. Taking a risk while protecting existing business
is at the crux of every decision a businessman makes. As
Jesus Huerto de Soto describes this principle of the Austrian School Economics best in his introduction
Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity:
“By its very nature and definition, entrepreneurship is
always competitive. This means that once an actor discovers a certain
profit opportunity and acts to take advantage of it, the opportunity
tends to disappear, and no other actor can then perceive and seize it.
Likewise, if an actor only partially discovers an opportunity for
profit, or, having discovered it completely, takes only partial
advantage of it, then a portion of that opportunity will remain latent
for other actors to discover and grasp. Therefore, the social process is
markedly competitive, in the sense that different actors compete with
each other, consciously and unconsciously, to be the first to perceive
and embrace profit opportunities.”
This application provides well-founded support precisely for this balancing act.
In day-to-day business, it builds its benchmarks for the salespeople
as “entrepreneurs in the enterprise”—with the specific requirements and
challenges they face in shaping customer relationships in an optimum and
successful fashion. But the software also opens up to salespeople and
businesses completely new perspectives for better managing the future of
the enterprise plus the IT-supported retrospective analysis of the
enterprise through a “real-time view.” The competitive situation of the
company improves as a result and it has an easier time obtaining
liquidity. Investors appreciate being able to use a company’s
systematic, well-founded analysis of its future as a basis for their own
decision-making.
Shortcomings of Classic CRM Tools
Classic sales and distribution structures and instruments are
fundamentally based on a centralistic, top-down approach. Salespeople
face the challenge of attaining goals imposed from above. There is just
one motto and one measure. The figures have to be on the mark. When
conventional CRM tools are phased in, pressure mounts on the salespeople
of being controlled from above. In addition, they face the challenge of
carrying out extensive reporting tasks and other activities that are
definitely not among their core skills. As
John Golden, CEO from Huthwaite writes in
Winning the Battle for Sales:
“When Salespople are asked to use CRM Systems, they
generally drop their shoulders, roll their eyes, and in their mind kiss
their valuable selling time goodbye. For them, it´s anything but
automation. For a big part of that day, the perceive themselves turning
into a data-enty clerk inputting their deals into a seemingly redundant
system only to turn around and discuss those same deals later in the
week with their managers.”
Salespeople are not bookkeepers—and have no interest in becoming
bookkeepers. They are individuals who think and act as entrepreneurs,
who take personal responsibility in freely shaping economic events.
Conventional CRM tools are classic top-down instruments serving as
control and monitoring instruments or intensifying previous control and
monitoring mechanisms. They turn salespeople into data collectors and
data managers. Systems of this kind generally benefit organizational
entities within the company, not the individual members on the sales
team. Little thought has been given to the benefit for sales up until
now—and to the fact that people only enjoy and are good at doing what
benefits them.
Avoiding a Reduction in Potential Sales
Finally, this situation underscores the lack of appreciation shown to
sales and its employees. In reality, the quality of the sales
organization stems from the team
actively preparing and building customer relationships based on information,
not from coping with burgeoning administrative responsibilities.
Selling means knowledgeably interacting, not merely engaging in
unlimited data collection. It is no wonder that these types of tools
tend to reduce the potential of good salespeople rather than unleash it.
It is also an expression of a humanization of IT makes people and
their needs the focal point of attention after simplifying complex
interrelationships. This objective and this approach have given rise to a
completely new type of CRM instrument. The solution is an expression at
companies that democratizes entrepreneurial thinking and action.
Program with Principles
Pipeliner revolutionizes the sales process
in the interest of employees and businesses. The solution empowers
individuals to act in a personally responsible manner based on their own
individual ideas and goals. Thanks to flexibility and
self-determination, users are given genuine latitude to shape their own
course instead of simply following rules.
This approach has positive
effects in every respect. Employees become genuine “entrepreneurs
within the enterprise”, Sales managers become “coaches”.
Pipeliner is an expression of serving people, not structures. It lays
the kind of lasting groundwork for the knowledge management at
businesses that is so decisive for growth.
When setting out to write or optimize a strategic account plan (the
playbook for managing strategic customers / key accounts) to some, a
reasonable first step may be searching the web for a strategic account
plan template or for examples of actual account plans used by
organizations in your industry or other reputable B2B sales
organizations. Microsoft Office Templates is one top-ranked resource in
Google results
for ‘strategic account plan’ where a standard ‘strategic account
business plan template’ is provided. At the time of this post it has
been downloaded over 200,000 times! 
