Product Selection Based on Sales Location

The present inventive subject matter is drawn to systems, configurations, and methods that assist salespersons of an organization to conduct in-person sales at a remote location by automatically selecting a subset of products that are available for sales to salespersons at the remote location. In one aspect of the invention, the systems, configurations, and methods detect the location of the in-person sales meeting between the salesperson and a potential customer and automatically display the subset of products that is available for sales based on the location of the sales meeting and a set of rules.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present inventive subject matter is drawn to systems, configurations, and methods that assist salespersons of an organization to conduct in-person sales at a remote location by automatically selecting a subset of products that are available for sales to salespersons at the remote location. In one aspect of the invention, the systems, configurations, and methods detect the location of the in-person sales meeting between the salesperson and a potential customer and automatically display the subset of products that is available for sales based on the location of the sales meeting and a set of rules.

FIG. 1conceptually illustrates an example of a sales management system100according to the present invention. As shown, the sales management system100includes a distal service105, its related distal storage160and distal calendaring system170, and multiple portable devices110,120,130,140, and150.

In some embodiments, the distal service105is provided by one or more server computers. Each of the server computers may include at least one processing unit (e.g., a processor, a processor core, etc.) for executing software applications. In some embodiments, these server computers are dedicated to provide the distal service105for the organization. In other embodiments, the server computers also perform other functionalities for the organization. Together, these distal service server computers provide the portable devices services related to sales activities.

As shown, the distal service105is communicatively coupled with the distal storage160. The distal storage160of some embodiments is non-transitory permanent data storage such as a hard drive, a flash memory, etc. The distal storage160may include one or more databases. The processing unit may query, insert, or alter relevant data stored in the database(s). In some embodiments, the distal storage160stores information associated with a set of products that is available for sales by the organization. The set of products stored in the distal storage160can also be updated from time to time by the organization.

In addition to the set of products, the distal storage160of some embodiments also stores a set of rules related to the availability of the set of products for different salesperson designators and/or different geographical regions. A salesperson designator identifies one or more salespersons that belong to a sales group. Sales groups may be formed on the basis of the geographical locations within which sales meetings are conducted, the product lines to be offered for sales in the sales meetings, the performance of the sales groups' members, the demographic data of the potential customers, or any other factors as deemed appropriate for the organization.

In some embodiments, the sales group may be assigned to a specific geographical location, such that a sales meeting scheduled in that location is automatically assigned to any salesperson who is a member of that sales group as defined by the set of rules, depending on the availability of the member salespersons. For example, a sales group may be formed and designated to conduct sales activities only in the southwest region of the United States, in the province of British Colombia, Canada, or in the Middle East. The rules in this case may designate unique subsets of products to be available for sales in each of the example geographical locations above.

In other embodiments, a sale group may be formed and designated to the sales activities related to insurance policies, or a subset thereof (specialty product lines such as casualty insurance, property insurance, whole life insurance, term life insurance, etc.). Similarly here, the rules may designate only certain policy products to be available for sales depending on the product line to which the sale group belong. For example, the available products should only include property insurance policies if the salesperson belongs to a sales group associated with a property insurance product line.

In yet another type of embodiments, a sales group may be based on the sales volume or performance of its members, such that a sales group may include salespersons that have high performance ratings in relation to their sales activities. In such embodiments, the organization may choose to designate high performing salespersons to one or more sales groups, and direct such sales groups in a manner consistent with its marketing and/or sales strategies. For example, an organization may form one or more sales groups consisting of top performing salespersons to target areas where sales activities has plummeted within the a certain period of time.

In some embodiments, the set of rules can also include rules that define a subset of products that is available for sale in a specific geographical region, such that different subsets of products are available when the sales are conducted in different regions. In these embodiments, the rules define subsets of products available for sales solely based on the physical location in which a given sales meeting is to be held. Thus, the subset of products available for sale may change if a sales meeting, which is scheduled to be held in southern California, is then moved to northern California. In this case, the set of rules may alter the subset of products presented to the potential customer if the meeting is held in the city of San Francisco instead of the city of Los Angeles.

The set of rules may also include a variety of rules that depend on different other factors as may be defined by the organization. As such, one who is skilled in the art would appreciate that more than one rule can apply to determine the subset of products that are available for sales in a particular instance. Therefore, in some embodiments the subset of products can be dependent upon multiple factors, including a combination of the geographical location of the sales meeting, the identity of the salesperson or sales group, etc.

Additionally, the set of rules may also be updated by the organization from time to time. For example, the organization may modify the set of rules for no specific reason, or to transition from forming sales groups by geographical locations and reform its sales groups based on the sales volume of the member salespersons to address business difficulties. In these situations, the organization may have experienced difficulties closing sales related to certain insurance policies within a certain product line or geographical location. Upon further assessment, the organization may rethink its strategy by dismantling its sales groups that are designated simply to different geographical locations, and replacing them with other new sales groups that are based on the performance of their members. Thereby, the organization may group top performing salespersons, as mentioned, to target the suffering product line(s) or geographical locations. Therefore, the distal service105may provide the ability for the organization to modify the set of rules stored in its related distal storage160for any reason.

Also shown inFIG. 1, the distal service105is communicatively coupled with a distal calendaring system170. In some embodiments, the distal service105may use the calendaring system170to store and manage scheduling information. The scheduling information may be associated with the different in-person sales meetings of salespersons with potential customers. The scheduling information may include information such as time and location of different in-person sales meetings. The scheduling information may also include profile information of the salespersons and of the potential customers. The scheduling information may be updated by the organization or by the salespersons from time to time, as further discussed in detail below.

Referring toFIG. 1, each of the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150is associated with a salesperson115,125,135,145, and155. Preferably, the salespersons carry their corresponding portable devices when they conduct sales related activities at remote locations. The distal service105is also communicatively coupled with the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150for facilitating sales of the subset of products through in-person sales meetings. The distal service105is connected through wireless connections (e.g., a cellular network, a wireless Internet connection, etc.) to each of the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150. Preferably the wireless connections between the distal service105and the multiple portable devices has sufficient range such that the portable devices can maintain connectivity with the distal service when the salespersons are conducting sales activity across towns, cities, or even countries.

It is also noted that the connection between the distal service105and the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150need not be continuously active during a sales presentation, or even at all, for a sales transaction to occur. The design of the sales management system100allows a salesperson to conduct a sales transaction using any one of the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150even when the portable device is disconnected from the distal service105. In some embodiments, the portable devices110,120,130,140, and150are configured to store information related to a sales transaction in its related data storage when disconnected from the distal service105, and while the sales transaction is taking place. The portable devices110,120,130,140, and150of some embodiments are also configured to synchronize the products and sales information with the distal service105whenever the connection with the distal service105is restored.

FIG. 2conceptually illustrates an example portable device210(which should be interpreted in this application as corresponding to any or each of devices110,120,130,140, and150). As shown, the portable device210includes a remote sales manager220, a location determination module260, a remote storage250, a user input module230, a user output module240, a sales order processing module265, an interface270, and a remote calendaring system280. In some embodiments, the remote sales manager220, the location determination module260, the user input module230, the user output module240, the sales order processing module265, the remote calendaring system280, and the interface270are software modules that can be executed by the portable device210to perform different functions. Specifically, the remote sales manager220of the portable device210manages the remaining modules to perform different sales related functionalities. The remote sales manager220of some embodiments also allows the salesperson290to modify his/her schedule through the user input module230. As mentioned, each portable device is associated with a salesperson in a preferred embodiment. In this example, the portable device210is used by salesperson290.

In some embodiments, the portable device210includes at least one processing unit (e.g., a processor, a processor core, etc.), an input unit (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a touch-sensitive screen, etc.) for receiving inputs from the salesperson290or other users, an output unit (e.g., a display, monitor, portable printer, etc.) for displaying the subset of products available for sale or other information to the salesperson290, and a communication unit (e.g., a wireless transceiver, such as a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transceiver, etc.) that is coupled to the interface270, and is configured to communicate with the distal service105. The location determination module260of some embodiments is coupled with a location tracking device (e.g. a GPS system) that is installed within or in proximity of the portable device210. The portable device210may also include software components/modules that are stored in memory (e.g., random access memory, hard-drive, flash memory, etc.) and are executed by the processing unit to perform different sales-related functionalities.

FIG. 3outlines a preferred embodiment of a process300to conduct an in-person sales meeting between the salesperson290and a potential customer at a remote location. The process300will now be described by reference toFIG. 2. In step305, the salesperson290carries the portable device210to a sales meeting location. In some embodiments, the salesperson290may provide identification information (log-on or credentials of the salesperson, etc.) to the remote sales manager220at the initiation of the portable device210, or upon request by the remote sales manager220. Thereby, the salesperson290may be associated with the corresponding portable device210prior to conducting the in-person sales meeting. The salesperson290may provide the authentication information via the user input module230. The remote sales manager220may verify the authentication information with the profile information of the salesperson290that may be stored in the remote storage250. Alternatively in some embodiments, the remote sales manager220may verify the authentication information with the profile information of the salesperson290that is stored in the distal storage160by communicating with the distal service105.

Upon arrival at the remote meeting location successfully logging onto the portable device210(or a remote sales service being executed by the portable device), the portable device210of some embodiments detects the physical meeting location as shown in step310. In other embodiments, the remote sales manager220, of the portable device210, uses the location determination module260to detect the remote meeting location. As mentioned, the location determination module260may employ a location tracking device to determine the current physical location of the portable device210. Once the physical location of the portable device210is detected, the remote sales manager220may store and associate the detected location as the meeting location. In some embodiments, the remote sales manager220may store the meeting location in the remote storage250, and may also associate the meeting location with the logged-in salesperson290and with the potential customer, by storing this information in a temporary memory location.

In the next step of the process300as illustrated in step315, the portable device210, and preferably upon the salesperson's290request, displays a subset of products available for sales to the potential customer. In some embodiments, the potential customer can be a new customer, an existing customer who has purchased products from the organization in the past, or who has pending purchase orders. In step320, the salesperson290discusses at least one of the subset of products with the potential customer for sales purposes. Next in step325, the salesperson290takes an order from the potential customer in relation to at least one of the subset of products.

FIG. 4illustrates a preferred embodiment of the steps necessary for the portable device210to display the subset of products available for sales as in step315. Preferably after the portable device210detects the physical meeting location in step310, the portable device210establishes a connection with the distal service105in step405. As mentioned, the connection established with the distal service105may be a wireless connection. In some embodiments, the sales manager220coordinates with the interface270to establish the connection to the distal service105.

In step410the portable device210determines whether the product list and product selection rules stored in its related remote storage250is up-to-date in comparison to what is stored in the distal storage160. In some embodiments, the remote sales manager220may make this determination by communicating with the distal device105through the interface270and requesting verifying information that identifies the version of the relevant data (the product list, product selection rules, etc.) stored in the distal storage160. Examples or such verifying information may be the last modified date of the relevant data or another mechanism to determine whether the relevant data in the remote storage250is identical to the corresponding relevant data in the distal storage160. If an update is available, the updated information associated with the set of products available for sale by the organization and the set of rules governing the availability of the set of products, and other relevant data, may be retrieved from the distal service105and stored locally at the remote storage250, as shown in step415. In some embodiments, the remote sales manager220may instruct the interface270to retrieve the updated information about the set of products and the set of rules from the distal service105.

Instead of or in addition to the physical location of the sales meeting, the determination of the subset of products may depend on many other factors, as mentioned. In such embodiments, the remote sales manager220may retrieve relevant information (e.g., the salesperson's identity or designator, locations of other salespersons, sales volume of salespersons, etc.) from the remote storage250, or from the distal service105and its distal storage160, before determining the subset of products. In some embodiments, the exact nature and scope of the other relevant data to be retrieved by the remote sales manager220will be dynamically determined based on the updated set of rules of selecting the subset of products. For example, if the updated set of rules dictate the selection of the subset of products based on the sales group membership of the salesperson, then the relevant data to be retrieved must include the salesperson's290sales group membership information.

In step420, the portable device210, or its remote sales manager220in the preferred embodiment, determines a subset of products from the updated product list using the updated product selection rules and the detected meeting location. In some embodiments, after determining the subset of products available for sales, the remote sales manager220of the portable device210may instruct the user output module240to present the subset of products to the salesperson290or others, as shown in step425. In some embodiments, the user output module240may be coupled to a screen, a printer, a speaker, a combination of any of the mentioned output devices, or another output device. In other embodiments, the portable device210may have the ability connect to external output devices, such as computer monitors or portable printers. The remote sales manager220may give the salesperson290or another user the option to display the subset of products through any of the available output devices. The salesperson290will make input a selection of one or more output devices to present the information (for example, the salesperson may select to print the subset of products). The remote sales manager220will then instruct the user output module240to present the subset of products using the selected output device(s) (a printer in this example).

As illustrated inFIG. 3, after the salesperson290had a chance to discuss at least one of the subset of products with the potential customer, the potential customer may choose to purchase one or more products of the subset. The salesperson290may then proceed to take the customer's order as indicated in step325. In some embodiment, and in addition to presenting product information, the remote sales manager220may also allow the salesperson290to make a purchase order through the user input module230and the user output module240.FIG. 5illustrates the process of taking the customer's purchase order in some embodiments. In step505, the salesperson290may initiate a new sales order request using the portable device210. In some embodiments, the salesperson290may use the user input module230to initiate the new sales order, and to input order information, as shown in step510.

In some embodiments, a pending purchase order that is associated with a specific potential customer may already exist. The salesperson290may request the portable device210to retrieve the information of this pending purchase order prior to discussing at least one of the subset of products with the potential customer for sales purposes, in step320above. As such, upon the potential customer selecting one or more products of the subset of products for purchase, the salesperson290may request the portable device210, or the remote sales manager220, to add the selection to the pending purchase order. Also in some embodiments, the salesperson290may have the option to save the purchase order information for future processing or to complete and upload/send the order information to the distal device105. If the salesperson290decides to the save the purchase order information, the portable device210may save the information locally at the remote storage250. In other embodiments, the portable device210may save the information of the pending purchase order at the distal service105via the interface270.

In step515, a determination is made regarding whether the purchase order also requires one or more signatures, from the potential customer and/or others. If the one or more signatures are required to complete the purchase order, the portable device210may provide an interface (via the user input module230and the user output module240for example) to prompt for and receive the signature(s), as illustrated in steps520and525. In some embodiments, the potential customer can provide a handwritten signature through a touch sensitive screen. In other embodiments, the portable device210may also include a microphone for receiving a verbal signature. In some of these embodiments, the portable device210is configured to receive at least one handwritten signature and/or at least one verbal signature for the purchase order. In other embodiments, the remote sales manager220manages the signature collection process, including communicating with available user input and user output modules.

To complete the purchase order, the portable devices210of some embodiments sends/uploads information related to the purchase order and the signature(s) to the distal service105via the interface270, as shown in step535. However, in the event that the connection between the distal service105and the portable device210cannot be established, the portable device210stores the information related to the purchase order and the signature(s) in the remote storage250, and sends them to the distal service105when the connection is restored. Also, in some embodiments, the remote sales manager220will undertake the responsibilities illustrated here in step535.

In some embodiments, the distal service105manages the salespersons' schedules.FIG. 6illustrates a preferred embodiment of the typical communication protocol between the distal service105and the portable device210associated with the salesperson290in that regards. In step605, the distal service105determines the salesperson's location shortly before a scheduled in-person sales meeting.

As mentioned, the distal device105may be able to communicate with the portable device210associated with a certain salesperson290after the salesperson290successfully identifies with the portable device210. In some embodiments, the distal service105communicates with the corresponding portable device210via the interface270to request the current physical location of the portable device210. The remote sales manager220may instruct the location determination module260to detect the physical location of the portable device210, as discussed above, and may communicate this information back to the distal service105.

The distal service105may determine whether the salesperson's location is out-of-range of the scheduled meeting location, as in step610. If the salesperson location is within range of the in-person sales meeting, the distal service105may send a meeting alert to the salesperson290. In some embodiments, the distal service105sends the alert to the corresponding portable device210via the interface270.

If the salesperson's location is out-of-range from the in-person meeting location, the distal service105assigns a different salesperson to the subject in-person sales meeting, as shown in step620. For example, if the salesperson290has a scheduled meeting in southern California, but the current physical location of the portable device210indicated that North East region of the United States. In some embodiments, the salesperson290may belong to a sales team or group assigned to a geographical area that includes the meeting location. Therefore, the distal service105may select among the members of the sales team or group to find a new salesperson to be assigned. In some embodiments, the distal service105may verify the current location and schedule of the new salesperson, to determine that salesperson's availability to conduct the in-person sales meeting (for example, if the new salesperson's location is within a certain range from the meeting location, if the schedule of the new salesperson is open, etc.). Therefore, in this example, the distal service105will search for a new salesperson of the same sales group who is currently located within the southern California area and who has an open schedule. The distal service105may determine the location and schedule of the new salesperson by retrieving the corresponding information from the associated portable device and from the distal calendaring system170. The distal service105may select among members of other sales teams or groups, if none of the other members of the salesperson's290group are available for any reason. The distal service105may conduct its search by exhausting sales groups that are assigned to the geographical area desired, before expanding the search to sales groups that belong to other geographical areas.

In some embodiments, the distal service105may determine a new time for the in-person meeting, as in step625. The distal device105may use the schedule and current location of the new salesperson to determine the new time of the in-person sales meeting. The distal device105may utilize its distal storage160and distal calendaring system170to make such a determination. For example, the distal service105may determine the address where the new salesperson is and may then estimate the arrival time of the new salesperson from the determined address to the originally scheduled meeting location. On the basis of this calculation, the distal service105may be able to determine a new meeting time for the in-person sales meeting between the new salesperson and the potential customer.

The distal service105may then proceed to notify the new salesperson of the in-person meeting information (for example, new meeting time, location, any other relevant information, etc.), as in step630. Also in some embodiments, as shown in step635, the distal service105may use the contact information of the potential customer to send a notification to the potential customer containing the information of the new meeting. In some embodiments, the distal service105may have access to the profile or other contact information of the potential customer, which may be stored in the distal storage160.

As mention above, the connectivity between the distal service105and the portable device may not be active at all time. As such, it is inevitable that the distal service105may be out of sync with any given portable device in regards to the data stored in the corresponding storage or calendaring system components. Thus in some embodiments, the remote sales manager220may instruct the interface270to establish a connection with the distal service105from time to time (e.g., at a predetermined interval) for data synchronization purposes. If the connection is established, the remote sales manager220synchronizes the information stored in the remote storage250with the distal service105. Such synchronization process may include any updated information associated with any of the purchase orders, the products, the rules, or the calendaring items to be uploaded/sent to the distal service105. In some embodiments, the portable device210can indicate to the salesperson that the information stored therein is out of date when the portable device has not been able to establish a connection for synchronizing the data for a predetermined period of time (e.g., one day, a few hours, etc.). In addition, the portable device210can also be configured to not display the subset of products and prevent the salesperson from making any sales order request (e.g., display an error message, etc.) in this situation.