Sales activity support system, sales activity support method, and sales activity support program

Abstract

A sales activity support system, method, and program are provided that provide information on new companies and realize new technology to support sales activities. [Solution] A sales activity support system that supports sales activities, the sales activity support device includes a memory unit, a reception unit, a search unit, and a display processing unit, the memory unit stores customer information and known website information related to known websites, the reception unit receives a designation of a person in charge and stores the designation in association with the customer information of the sales target, the search unit obtains website information of candidate customer websites excluding known websites based on search conditions and the known website information, and the display processing unit displays a list of candidate customer websites. The reception unit further receives a designation of a customer website from the candidate list, and stores website information related to the designated website in association with the customer information, storing it as known website information.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a sales activity support system, a sales activity support method, and a sales activity support program. [Background technology]

[0002] Companies accumulate information about their related customers and use the accumulated information to conduct business related to other companies, such as sales and transactions. Well-known systems used in this case include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, which manage information about customers with whom the company does business, and SFA (Sales Force Automation) systems, which manage information in the company's sales department.

[0003] Patent Document 1 describes a system that centrally manages information about customers, including a wide variety of information about customers, such as customer reservation information for seminars booked by sales offices, customer reservations to visit stores, customers' browsing history on company websites, and survey response results, in addition to customer attribute information and negotiation (contact) history with customers. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2017-204179 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In sales activities, before contacting a target customer, information is collected about the company, etc. In that case, information about the company is collected by browsing the company's web page, etc.

[0006] However, the invention described in Patent Document 1 only provides a system for registering and managing information about companies that have already been contacted, and is unable to provide information about companies about which information is to be collected, such as companies that have not yet been contacted.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a new technology for supporting sales activities by providing information on new companies, such as companies with which sales activities will be conducted in the future. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a sales activity support system for supporting sales activities, comprising: The device includes a storage unit, a reception unit, a search unit, and a display processing unit, the storage unit stores customer information and known website information relating to one or more known websites; The reception unit receives designation of a person in charge of sales activities for a target customer, and stores the designated person in association with customer information of the target customer; the search unit searches for candidate websites of the customer excluding known websites based on the search criteria and the known website information, and obtains website information of the candidate websites of the customer; The display processing unit processes and displays a candidate list of customer websites based on the search results; The reception unit receives a designation of a customer's website selected from the candidate list, stores the website information regarding the designated website in association with customer information, and stores information regarding the selected customer's website as known website information.

[0009] With this configuration, it is possible to easily extract candidate websites such as corporate websites of customers that meet the conditions when collecting information in advance of sales activities, thereby shortening the time required to collect information. Furthermore, since information about websites registered as customer websites is registered in customer information and known website information, no operation is required to exclude customer websites from searches, and mistakes or omissions during registration are eliminated.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the search unit periodically searches websites based on the search criteria and periodically obtains search results; When new websites are discovered based on past and new search results, you will be notified.

[0011] With this configuration, when a website that satisfies the conditions is added, the information can be easily obtained without the user having to periodically check websites.

[0012] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sales activity support system further comprises a monitoring unit, The website information includes one or more pieces of web page information related to web pages included in the website; the web page information includes an address for accessing the web page; The receiving unit receives a designation of a web page to be monitored, the monitoring unit periodically acquires content information on the content of the web page from the designated target web page based on the web page information and the designated web page; The contents of the web page are compared based on the previously acquired content information and the newly acquired content information, and if the designated web page has been updated since the previous monitoring, a notification is given.

[0013] With this configuration, when a specified web page is updated, the information can be obtained and used for sales activities.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the reception unit receives registration of sales plan information including a plurality of step information, and stores the information in association with customer information of a target customer of the sales plan, The sales plan information is information regarding a plan for a series of sales activities for a target customer, The step information is information on individual stage activities included in a series of sales activities for a target customer, and includes contact type information on the type of contact method for the customer.

[0015] With this configuration, information regarding each stage of sales activity planning can be easily managed in association with customer information.

[0016] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the reception unit receives contact information regarding each contact with a customer for each contact type carried out based on a sales activity plan, and stores the contact information in association with the step information regarding each stage.

[0017] With this configuration, it is possible to register and manage information appropriate for each of the multiple contact types anticipated in sales activities, and by associating the contact information with sales plan information, it is also possible to manage the implementation status of each stage of the plan.

[0018] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the reception unit receives contact information regarding each contact with a customer, including a contact type that is a type of a method of contacting the customer, and stores the contact information in association with customer information for each contact type; The contact information is registered with different information corresponding to each contact type, The display processing unit performs display processing of a contact history display screen that displays a contact history corresponding to a contact type for each customer based on the contact information.

[0019] With this configuration, it is possible to display information suitable for each of a plurality of contact methods with respect to the history of sales activities, and to easily present information regarding the history of sales activities.

[0020] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the known website information is stored in association with each of the exclusion reasons, The search conditions include a condition regarding a reason for exclusion, The search unit extracts candidate websites of customers based on the search conditions, excluding websites related to a predetermined reason for exclusion.

[0021] With this configuration, it is possible to extract website candidates excluding only websites designated based on a designated reason for exclusion, such as excluding only customer websites. Effect of the Invention

[0022] The present invention can provide a new technology that provides information about new companies and supports sales activities. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0023] [Figure 1] Block diagram showing the overall system configuration [Diagram 2] System hardware configuration diagram [Diagram 3] Data configuration example [Figure 4] Data configuration example [Diagram 5] Flowchart showing the process [Figure 6] Screen display example [Figure 7] Screen display example DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0024] The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although the drawings show a preferred embodiment, the present invention can be implemented in different forms and is not limited to the embodiment described in this specification. In this embodiment, the configuration and operation of a sales activity support device will be described, but the same effects can be achieved by a method implemented by the device, a computer program, etc. A series of processes according to this embodiment described below is provided as a computer-executable program and can be provided via a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a flexible disk, or even via a communication line.

[0025] In the embodiments described below, the sales activity support system is used by users of the system who are personnel in a company's sales department to manage information about customers, but it may also be used by personnel in other departments of a company to manage information about their own customers.

[0026] A website is a collection of web pages that are made up of multiple web pages that have the same domain. In this embodiment, a corporate site and the web pages that make up the corporate site are investigated and updates are monitored, and the obtained information is used for business activities.

[0027] <System configuration> Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system according to an embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, a sales activity support system 0 includes a sales activity support device 1, a user terminal 2, and a telephone 3, and each component is connected via a network NW.

[0028] 1 is configured by an information processing device such as a server device, and is configured to realize the functional configuration described below. The sales activity support device 1 may be configured by multiple server devices. In addition, a part of the functional configuration included in the sales activity support device 1 may be realized by another information processing device, such as a user terminal 2, configured to be able to communicate with the sales activity support device 1 via a network NW.

[0029] The user terminal 2 is a terminal device such as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet terminal, etc. operated by a user of the system, such as a person in the sales department of a company, and receives various information input by the user, and performs processes such as transmitting the information to the sales activity support device 1 and displaying a screen based on information acquired from the sales activity support device 1. Note that although multiple user terminals 2 are shown in FIG. 1, there may be either one or multiple user terminals. In this embodiment, the user terminal 2 is operated by a user, such as a sales person, who has registered with the system and created an account. The user terminal 2 may also have a function as a telephone 3, which will be described later.

[0030] The telephone 3 is a telephone such as a business phone located in a company to which a user of the system belongs. In this embodiment, the telephone 3 transmits a call history including a telephone number, a reception date and time (or a transmission date and time), voice data (recorded data) of the telephone conversation, the other party's telephone number, and a reception date and time or a transmission date and time for a call from a customer or a call made by a user to an information processing device configured to be able to communicate via a network NW including the sales activity support device 1 and the user terminal 2.

[0031] <Hardware configuration> Fig. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the sales activity support device 1 has a processing unit 101, a storage unit 102, and a communication unit 103, and is used to cause each unit and each process to function. Also, as shown in Fig. 2(b), the user terminal 2 has a processing unit 201, a storage unit 202, a communication unit 203, an input unit 204, and an output unit 205, and is used to cause each unit and each process to function.

[0032] One or more information processing devices such as a general-purpose server or a personal computer can be used as the sales activity support device 1. The sales activity support device 1 has a functional configuration described below, but a part of the functional configuration of the sales activity support device 1 may be disposed in another device configured to be able to communicate with the sales activity support device 1.

[0033] Processing unit 101 and processing unit 201 have a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) capable of executing an instruction set, and execute an OS (Operating System) and programs for using sales activity support device 1, such as a sales activity support program (in the case of sales activity support device 1), a sales activity support device utilization program, or a browser application (in the case of user terminal 2).

[0034] The storage unit 102 and the storage unit 202 have a volatile memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) capable of storing an instruction set, and a non-volatile recording medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) capable of recording an OS, etc. The storage unit 102 of the sales activity support device 1 stores a sales activity support program. The storage unit 202 of the user terminal 2 stores a program for using the sales activity support device 1, such as a sales activity support device usage program and a browser application. In the sales activity support device 1, the storage unit 102 may be composed of a plurality of information processing devices, for example, data used to realize the functional configuration described below is stored in a plurality of information processing devices.

[0035] The communication unit 103 and the communication unit 203 have an interface for connecting to the network NW, and execute communication control with the network NW to communicate with other information processing devices such as the sales activity support device 1 and the user terminal 2.

[0036] The input unit 204 has an operation input device capable of input processing such as a touch panel or a keyboard, an audio input device capable of audio input such as a microphone, etc. The output unit 205 has a display device capable of display processing such as a display, and an audio output device such as a speaker. <Data Structure>

[0037] 3 and 4 show examples of data configurations of data stored in the storage unit 102 of the sales activity support device 1 and used to realize the functional configuration described later.

[0038] FIG. 3 shows an example of customer information stored in the storage unit 102 and website information registered as a customer's website. The customer information is information about a customer and is identified by unique identification information (customer ID). In this embodiment, the customer information includes the customer's corporate name, corporate status, industry, postal code, address, name of the representative (representative name), capital, number of employees, telephone number, and web page investigation status. The customer information may be any information about a customer. In this embodiment, the customer information includes a last update check date related to the date and time when the monitoring unit 14 last monitored updates for each web page. The last update check date is stored in association with the web page information of each web page. In this embodiment, the customer information is stored in association with the user information of the person in charge of the customer by unique identification information such as a user ID.

[0039] Furthermore, the storage unit 102 stores user information on users who use the system to carry out sales activities. The user information is information on users who register an account and use the system for sales activities, and includes unique identification information (user ID) for identifying the user, and contact information such as the user's email address and telephone number. The user information is associated with customer information and sales plan information related to a series of sales activity plans by the unique ID for identifying the user.

[0040] Furthermore, the storage unit 102 may store information about the customer's person in charge, such as the person's name, email address, and mobile phone number, in association with the customer information.

[0041] In this specification, website information relating to a website that is registered as a customer's website, such as being identified as a customer's corporate site, is referred to as customer website information, and website information relating to a known website that includes customer website information is referred to as known website information. The customer website information and known website information are data having the same structure as the website information described below.

[0042] The website information is information about a website obtained via a network, such as a customer's corporate website. The website information includes domain information about a domain specific to the website and web page information about each web page included in the website. A website such as a corporate site is made up of multiple web pages. The domain information is information about a domain specific to the website, which in this embodiment is a character string of a company's unique domain that is used on every page in the customer's company's website (corporate site), and in this embodiment is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

[0043] The web page information is information about each web page that constitutes a site, and includes an address for identifying and accessing the web page. The address is information that specifies the location of the web page and enables access to the web page, and is a URL in this embodiment, but may be any information that indicates the location of the web page and enables access to the web page.

[0044] In this embodiment, the website information includes information about multiple web pages contained in the company's website, such as a company profile page and an organizational chart page, but may also include information about other web pages, such as web pages introducing services.

[0045] The storage unit 102 also stores content information on the content of specific web pages included in the customer's website, which is periodically acquired by the monitoring unit 14, in association with web page information on each web page. The content information is information on the content of the web page acquired from the web page, and in this embodiment, is a code for constructing the web page described in a language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). The content information may be any information on the content of a specific web page included in the customer's website, and may be, for example, text or images such as a company description displayed on the customer's web page. The content information is also periodically acquired and stored in the storage unit 102 in association with information on the date and time of acquisition (update check date and time). In this embodiment, content information is acquired on multiple web pages that constitute the customer's web page, such as a company overview page and an organization chart page, and is stored in association with web page information on the web pages. The content information is also stored in association with an update check date and time on the date and time of acquisition of the content information.

[0046] Furthermore, the storage unit 102 stores known website information related to known websites. The known website information includes, with respect to a known website, address and domain information for identifying the website.

[0047] 4(a) shows an example of sales plan information registered in advance for sales activities. The sales plan information is information about a plan for a series of sales activities (projects), and includes one or more pieces of step information about the plan for each step included in the series of sales activities.

[0048] A sales plan is a plan for a series of sales activities. Sales plan information is information on a series of plans for sales activities (sales plan), and includes step information on each stage of the series of sales activities. In this embodiment, the sales plan information is stored in association with customer information of the customers who are the targets of sales in the plan. The sales plan information is stored in the storage unit 102 in association with customer information of one or more sales targets using identification information such as a customer ID. Each step information may also be stored in association with the customer information of the sales targets.

[0049] Although not shown in FIG. 4(a), the sales plan information includes step information on a plan for each step of the sales activity. The step information is information on the plan for each stage, and includes a contact type, a period for the step (the number of waiting days in this embodiment), and a status on the implementation state of the step. The step information may also include a start date and an end date of the sales activity for each step, which are specified based on the plan start date and the period for the step included in the sales plan information. The step information is stored in association with contact information on contact with customers made by implementing the plan. In this embodiment, the step information is stored in association with the contact information and the sales plan information by unique identification information (such as a step ID). In this embodiment, the step information includes a waiting time, but may include any information on the period until the next step, such as information on the time expected to be required for one stage (implementation period). The step information may also include information on the person in charge of each step, such as implementing the plan for that step.

[0050] 4(b) to (e) show examples of contact information stored in the storage unit for each contact method. The contact information is information related to contact with a customer, including the date and time of the contact and the person who handled the contact, and is stored in the storage unit 102 for each type of contact method (contact type). Regardless of the contact type, the contact information is stored in the storage unit 102 in association with customer information using unique identification information (customer ID) for identifying the customer, etc.

[0051] In this embodiment, the types of contact methods are telephone, visit, mailing of a letter or document such as a document, and sending of a document by facsimile (Fax). Regardless of the contact type, the contact information may be stored in association with a memo or the like entered by the user. In this embodiment, the contact information is managed by unique identification information (contact ID) for each contact type.

[0052] Contact information regarding contacts with customers made by implementing a plan for a series of sales activities (sales plan) is stored in association with step information corresponding to the plan, but contact information regarding contacts with customers not included in the plan does not need to be stored in association with step information. In addition, the contact information may be associated with user information of the person who handled the contact (e.g., the person who handled the call from the customer) using identification information such as a user ID. In addition, although not shown in FIG. 4, the contact information includes information regarding the direction of the contact, that is, whether the contact was made by the person in charge or the customer.

[0053] FIG. 4(b) shows an example of contact information whose contact type is telephone. The contact information whose contact type is telephone includes the telephone number of the customer who made the contact and the date and time of receipt. Although not shown in FIG. 4(b), in this embodiment, the contact information when the contact type is telephone includes recorded data of the telephone conversation. In this embodiment, the reception unit 11 receives a call history sent from the telephone 3, which includes the telephone number of the other party and the date and time of receipt (transmission), and registers it as contact information whose contact type is telephone. Also, in this embodiment, when the reception unit 11 receives a call history from the telephone 3, which includes the telephone number of the other party, the reception unit 11 identifies the customer from the registered customer information based on the received telephone number, and associates the contact information with the customer information by the customer ID of the customer, and stores the contact information and customer information in the storage unit 102.

[0054] 4(c) shows an example of contact information whose contact type is a visit. The contact information whose contact type is a visit includes a visit date. In this embodiment, the contact information whose contact type is a visit is input by the user at the user terminal 2, and is accepted and stored by the accepting unit 11.

[0055] FIG. 4(d) shows an example of contact information whose contact type is mailing. The contact information whose contact type is mailing includes the shipping date when the document was mailed. Although not shown in FIG. 4(d), the contact information whose contact type is mailing includes image data of the document that was mailed to the customer. In this embodiment, the contact information whose contact type is mailing is input by the user at the user terminal 2, and is accepted and stored by the reception unit 11.

[0056] FIG. 4(e) shows an example of contact information whose contact type is FAX. The contact information whose contact type is FAX includes the date of sending the FAX. Although not shown in FIG. 4(e), the contact information whose contact type is FAX includes image data of documents and the like sent by FAX to the customer. The contact information whose contact type is FAX may be either or both of information acquired from the telephone 3 and information input by the user to the user terminal 2 and accepted by the reception unit 11. <Functional configuration>

[0057] As shown in FIG. 1, the sales activity support device 1 includes a reception unit 11 that receives various information, a display processing unit 12 that performs display processing, a search unit 13 that performs searches based on search conditions, and a monitoring unit 14 that monitors web pages.

[0058] The reception unit 11 receives various information such as customer information, search conditions, designation of a person in charge, and selection of a customer's web page, input by a user at the user terminal 2. The reception unit 11 receives designation of a person in charge of sales activities for a customer who is the target of sales activities, and stores the user information of the person in charge in association with the customer information.

[0059] Furthermore, when the reception unit 11 receives a selection of a website (or web page) from the candidates shown in the candidate list, it associates website information about the website (or web page) with the customer information and registers it as customer website information.

[0060] The display processing unit 12 performs screen display processing based on various necessary information such as customer information and website information.

[0061] The display processing unit 12 performs display processing of a customer information display screen that displays information about a customer based on the designation of the customer and the customer information. The display processing unit 12 may also display processing of either a list of customers in charge or a list of cases in charge that display a list of customers in charge and cases in charge for each user based on the customer information and business plan information (case information) linked to the user information.

[0062] The search unit 13 searches for websites (or web pages) based on the search conditions. In this embodiment, the search unit 13 searches using a search condition that the search condition includes a predetermined keyword such as a corporate name or address or a similar wording. In this embodiment, when a customer for whom a website (or web page) is to be searched is specified, the search unit 13 refers to the customer information of the specified customer and searches for websites on the web using the corporate name and address included in the customer information as search conditions. In this embodiment, the search unit 13 searches using the customer information included in the customer information and / or a search keyword input in the user terminal 2 as search conditions, and extracts websites (or web pages) that satisfy the conditions. The search unit 13 may generate search conditions based on keywords, etc. input by the user in relation to the user terminal 2, and extract websites (or web pages) that satisfy the conditions as candidates.

[0063] Furthermore, the search unit 13 extracts candidate customer websites by excluding known websites (or web pages) registered in the known website information from websites (or web pages) that satisfy the search conditions, based on the known website information related to the known websites. In this way, the search unit 13 extracts websites (or web pages) that satisfy the search conditions and are not registered in the known website information as candidate customer websites (or web pages).

[0064] The known website information is website information related to known websites including customer websites, and in this embodiment includes customer website information related to websites (corporate websites, etc.) registered as customer websites. Also, in this embodiment, the known website information includes website information (website information) related to websites that provide information about companies, such as job recruitment sites, but are registered as not corporate sites that provide information about companies.

[0065] In addition, website information on known websites is stored in association with each exclusion reason. The exclusion reason is information on the reason for excluding the website (or web page) from the candidates, such as the website being registered as a customer website or the website being registered as not being a corporate website. The search unit 13 can perform a search to extract candidate customer websites (web pages) by excluding websites for each exclusion reason, such as excluding only websites registered as customer websites, based on the user's designation and the exclusion reason. In this embodiment, the reception unit 11 receives website information including a URL or domain (a character string of a URL specific to the site) regarding a website that is found not to be a corporate website (corporate website), such as a job site that explains a company, and stores the information in the storage unit 102 as known website information on the known website.

[0066] In this embodiment, the search unit 13 extracts candidate customer websites (or web pages) excluding known websites by excluding web pages having URLs that include, in whole or in part, a specific URL or domains (characteristic character strings) of websites registered as known websites. Also, in this embodiment, the search unit 13 performs a process of excluding known websites by using customer website information, which is website information stored in association with customer information, as known website information.

[0067] When searching the customer's website, the search unit 13 may extract candidates for identifying the customer's website itself by extracting a unique domain, etc., or may extract candidates for specific pages (such as a company profile page) included in the customer's website. When extracting candidates for specific web pages included in the customer's website, the search unit 13 may set search conditions and extract candidates based on the purpose of the web page from which candidates are to be extracted, such as performing a search using the inclusion of the phrase "company profile" as a search condition when the search target is a company profile.

[0068] The search unit 13 stores the input search conditions and / or search results as a search history in the storage unit 102. In this embodiment, the search unit 13 periodically performs searches based on the stored past search conditions and stores the acquired search results. The search unit 13 notifies the user when it finds a new website (or web page) since the previous search based on the past search results and the newly acquired search results.

[0069] When a web page to be monitored (e.g., a company profile page, etc.) is selected from the web pages included in the customer's website in which the customer website information is registered in the user terminal 2, the monitoring unit 14 accesses the web page to be monitored based on the web page information on the designated web page, acquires content information on the content of the web page, and stores the content information in the storage unit 102 in association with the web page information on the web page to be monitored. When the monitoring unit 14 newly acquires content information from the web page to be monitored, the monitoring unit 14 compares the content of the web page based on the previously acquired content information and the newly acquired content information, and if there has been an update since the last time update monitoring was performed, notifies the user of the update (update notification). In this embodiment, the update notification of the customer's web page is displayed by the display processing unit 12 and displayed on the user terminal 2. The monitoring unit 14 acquires text, code, etc. as content information on the content of the web page designated as the monitoring target using a technology generally called web scraping, and stores the content information in the storage unit 102.

[0070] Regarding the update monitoring process, when the reception unit 11 receives from the user terminal 2 a designation of a customer whose website is to be monitored, the reception unit 11 may transfer the designation of the designated customer's website or any web page within the site as a monitoring target to the monitoring unit 14 based on the website information associated with the customer information of the customer. At that time, the monitoring unit 14 monitors updates to the customer's website designated as a monitoring target or to web pages included in the site.

[0071] <Regarding customer website registration process> When conducting sales activities, salespeople collect information on customers from web pages and use it for sales activities. Below, we will explain the process of registering a customer's web page from candidates of web pages included in the customer's website using Figure 5(a).

[0072] The search unit 13 extracts web pages that satisfy the search conditions, and further extracts candidate web pages of the customer based on the known website information, excluding known websites and web pages such as websites registered as websites of other customers (S101). In this embodiment, the search unit 13 acquires web page information of the candidate web pages extracted by the search, and stores it in the storage unit 102 (S102). The search conditions may be conditions such as keywords input by the user in the user terminal 2 and / or conditions based on the customer information of the target customer (corporate name and address in this embodiment). The display processing unit 12 performs a display process of a candidate list as shown in the diagram shown in FIG. 6(a) based on the search results (S103). When the user who has checked the candidate list selects a specific web page from the multiple candidates included in the list as a web page included in the customer's website in the user terminal 2, the website information including the web page information of the web page is stored in association with the customer information (S104). Based on the customer's web page designation, the reception unit 11 stores website information relating to that website as known website information (S105).

[0073] 6(a) shows an example of a screen display of a candidate list showing candidate web pages of a customer. The customer information display screen W1 comprises a customer information display section W11 and a candidate list display section W12. The customer information display section W11 is a display section that displays customer information, and is also used as an input screen display for inputting customer information. The candidate list display section W12 is a screen display section that displays a list of candidate web pages of a specified customer, which are displayed based on the search results by the search section 13.

[0074] In the example shown in FIG. 6(a), the candidate list display unit W12 displays the headline of each candidate webpage and the URL of the webpage for each candidate customer's website, but a part or all of the webpage may be displayed. In this embodiment, when a company-shaped icon displayed in the upper left corner of each candidate webpage displayed in the candidate list display unit W12 is pressed, the reception unit 11 receives the designation of the webpage as the customer's webpage, and stores website information including the webpage information of the designated webpage as customer website information in association with the customer information of the target customer. When the title of a webpage on the candidate list is pressed, the user selects the webpage, and the display processing unit 12 displays the selected webpage based on the user's selection.

[0075] <Regarding monitoring of customer web page updates> The following describes the process of monitoring updates to a specific web page included in a customer's website. The update monitoring process, which will be described later, may also be performed on multiple web pages included in a customer's website.

[0076] When a user sets a setting to monitor updates to a specific webpage of a customer's website, the monitoring unit 14 periodically acquires content information of the designated webpage based on webpage information including the address, and performs a comparison. In this embodiment, the monitoring unit 14 monitors updates to the customer's webpage designated by the user to be monitored for updates, but may monitor updates to all customer's webpages registered in the system. The monitoring unit 14 accesses the webpage to be monitored based on the webpage information of the webpage to be monitored, and periodically acquires content information related to the content. In this embodiment, the monitoring unit 14 periodically acquires a code written in a language such as HTML that constitutes the webpage to be monitored for updates, and stores the code in the storage unit 102 in association with the acquired date and time (update check date and time). In this embodiment, the monitoring unit 14 acquires content information of the webpage to be monitored once a day at a specified time, and performs an update monitoring process to check whether the page has been updated. The monitoring unit 14 may also perform a similar process to monitor updates to one or more pages of the customer's website based on the customer's designation.

[0077] The monitoring unit 14 compares the content information previously acquired from the web page to be monitored with the newly acquired content information, determines whether the web page has been updated since the last time of monitoring, and issues a notification if the content of the web page to be monitored differs between the last time and the current time, that is, if the web page to be monitored has been updated. In this embodiment, the display processing unit 12 displays a notification screen that displays the content of the notification on the user terminal 2 based on the notification from the monitoring unit 14. When it is selected to update the content on the user terminal 2 via this notification screen, a difference display screen such as that shown in FIG. 6(b) is displayed.

[0078] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the display processing unit 12 displays a difference display screen that enables comparison of the updated part before and after the update based on previously acquired content information and newly acquired content information, but it may also display a difference display screen that highlights the updated points based on the updated content information.

[0079] FIG. 6(b) shows an example of a difference display screen displayed on the user terminal 2 of a user who has received a notification of an update from the monitoring unit 14. The difference display screen W2 shown in FIG. 6(b) is a screen displayed when a user who has received a notification from the monitoring unit 14 selects to check the update contents. When the reception unit 11 receives a request to check the update contents from the user terminal 2 of the user, the display processing unit 12 performs display processing of the difference display screen W2 as shown in FIG. 6(b), which displays the web page to be monitored before and after the update in a comparative manner. In this embodiment, the difference display screen W2 is a screen for distinguishing and comparing the web page to be monitored before and after the update by simultaneously displaying the website contents (text in this embodiment) before and after the update in characters colored in different colors based on the content information related to the content of the web page previously acquired and the newly acquired content information. In this embodiment, the difference display screen W2 extracts a part that has been changed by the update and displays the web page before and after the update in a comparative manner.

[0080] <Regarding the registration of business plans and contact information> In sales activities, it is necessary to approach a customer multiple times in stages, rather than completing the contact in one go, such as first contacting the customer to promote the company's services and then contacting the customer again after a certain amount of time has passed. In this case, it is necessary to approach the customer in different ways depending on the characteristics of the customer, such as whether the company contacts the customer or whether the customer has made an inquiry, and the customer's business content and scale. Below, using FIG. 5(b), we will explain the processing of the sales activity support device 1, which registers sales plan information suitable for each customer and manages the sales plan information and contact history to deal with such situations.

[0081] The reception unit 11 receives the designation of a user who will be in charge of the case (or customer) as a person in charge (S111). In this embodiment, the reception unit 11 receives the designation of a person in charge of a customer who is a sales target and a person in charge of a series of sales activities (case). In addition to the designation of a person in charge of a series of sales activities, the reception unit 11 may also receive the designation of a customer who is the target of the sales activities, and indirectly associate the customer information with the user information of the person in charge by the sales plan information. The reception unit 11 receives sales plan information including step information input by a user at the user terminal 2, and stores the information in the storage unit 102 in association with the user information of the designated person in charge (S112). In this embodiment, when the reception unit 11 receives the designation of a person in charge, it stores the information in the storage unit 102 in association with the sales plan information regarding the case (series of sales activities) or the customer information of the customer who is a sales target.

[0082] As sales activities with customers are carried out by the staff, the reception unit 11 receives contact information related to the history of contacts made with customers and stores it in the storage unit 102. In this embodiment, the reception unit 11 receives contact history (contact information) such as the mailing history of letters or the like, contact history, or the history of phone calls made on the telephone 3, which are inputted in the user terminal 2, and stores it in the storage unit 102. When contact is made with a customer as a result of the implementation of a sales plan, the reception unit 11 receives the contact information, associates it with step information related to the implemented plan, and stores it in the storage unit 102. In addition, when the reception unit 11 receives a screen display request, such as a request to display customer information, from the user terminal 2, the display processing unit 12 performs display processing of the screen based on necessary information from the customer information, sales plan information, and contact information.

[0083] Fig. 7(a) shows an example of a sales plan registration screen displayed when registering a sales plan. The sales plan registration screen W3 shown in Fig. 7(a) is a screen for accepting registration of sales plan information related to a series of sales activities and step information for each step of each sales activity in the sales plan.

[0084] The sales plan registration screen W3 is a screen for accepting input of sales plan information including step information. In this embodiment, the sales plan registration screen W3 accepts input of the start date and end date of the plan and the person in charge as information related to the plan of a series of sales activities included in the sales plan information.

[0085] Furthermore, the sales plan registration screen W3 accepts input of step information included in the sales plan information. The step information is information about a plan for each stage in a series of sales activities included in the sales plan information. In this embodiment, the step information includes a method of contacting a customer in that stage and a start date related to the time when the sales activities in that stage will be started. The sales plan information is information about a series of sales activities, and includes one or more pieces of step information for each stage. The sales plan information also includes relationship information about the relationship between steps, such as the order of step information for each step included in the sales plan and dependency relationships. The step information may also include information (relationship information) about the relationship between steps, such as the order of progress of steps and dependency relationships between steps, such as the steps before and after, or starting the next step when this step is completed. In the sales plan registration screen W3 shown in FIG. 7(a), step information is registered from the top, and relationship information about the order of progress of each step is registered so that the step information registered in the input display section displayed at the top is implemented first and the step information registered in the input display section displayed at the bottom is implemented later.

[0086] The reception unit 11 receives contact history related to contact with a customer, such as a history of phone calls with the customer, a history of letters sent, and a history of visits, and stores the history in the storage unit 102. In this embodiment, the display processing unit 12 performs display processing of a contact information input screen having a screen display that allows input of contact information suitable for each contact type when inputting contact information. The content of the contact information received by the reception unit 11 differs for each contact type, as shown in Figs. 4(a) to (e), and for example, when the contact type is a telephone call, it is a telephone number and a received date and time.

[0087] In addition, in this embodiment, when registering a sales plan, a template can be selected from among the plan templates, and the sales plan registered in the plan template can be registered as sales plan information either as is or with the content modified based on the user's input. The plan template is a template of sales plan information registered in advance, and includes information (step information) regarding the relationship between steps, such as the order of steps, and information regarding the contact type for each step and the period required for each step, regarding the sales plan. In this embodiment, a plurality of plan templates are stored in the storage unit 102. By registering the plan template, a plan for a series of sales activities that is often performed, such as calling a customer who has made an inquiry first, calling again one week later, and then sending materials, is registered, and sales plan information can be easily registered according to the template once registered. In this embodiment, the reception unit 11 receives the selection of the plan template, registers the sales plan by referring to the specified plan template, and further receives information regarding the plan start date, person in charge, etc. that are not registered in the plan template, and information regarding changes to the template (changes in the contact type for each step and the period required for each step (number of waiting days, etc.)), and stores them as sales plan information.

[0088] FIG. 7(b) shows an example of a contact history display screen which is a list of registered contact histories. The contact history display screen W4 is a screen which displays a list of contact histories with a specific customer, regardless of the contact type, based on the contact information for each contact type shown in FIG. 4(b) to (e). The contact history display screen W4 displays the date and time of the contact, the contact type, the person who handled the contact, the plan name set as a sales plan, and IN / OUT regarding the contact direction, i.e., whether the contact is from the person in charge or the customer. The contact history display screen W4 shown in FIG. 7(b) is a screen which displays a list of contact histories with a specific customer, but it may be a screen which displays a list of contact histories of a specific user, or a screen which displays a list of contact histories for each contact type based on the contact information for each contact type. In this embodiment, the contact history display screen W4 is a list of contact histories with a specific customer, and is displayed on the same screen as the customer information display section W11 as shown in FIG. 6(a), so that the customer information and contact history can be confirmed at a glance.

[0089] Furthermore, the display processing unit 12 performs display processing of a sales plan display screen that displays information about the sales plan for which the user is in charge, based on the registered sales plan information. The sales plan display screen is a screen that displays sales plans, and displays customer information about the customers who are the targets of sales for each plan and step information about each step included in the sales plan. In this embodiment, the sales plan display screen displays information used to implement sales plans with different contents for each contact type, such as displaying the corporate name and telephone number of the target of sales if the contact type is telephone, displaying the fax number if the contact type is fax, and displaying the customer's postal code and address if the contact type is mail. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the sales plan display screen is used as a screen that accepts the history of contacts made to customers based on sales activities.

[0090] <Other embodiments> Furthermore, the display processing unit 12 performs display processing of a contact history display screen that displays the contact history based on the acquired contact information.

[0091] In this embodiment, the sales activity support device 1 further includes a conversion unit that converts voice data into text data based on the voice data of the call acquired from the telephone 3. In this embodiment, the voice data regarding the call with the customer made on the telephone 3 is stored in the storage unit 102, but may be stored in the storage unit 202 of the user terminal 2. In this embodiment, the voice data of the call converted by the conversion unit is a history of the call with the customer, and is stored as contact information in association with customer information, but may also be stored as a memo regarding the user's sales activity in association with user information.

[0092] The sales activity support device 1 further includes a transmission unit, and performs a process of transmitting a memo on the user's sales activity, registered as a voice memo, to a user terminal 2 of the user's superior or the like as a daily report. At that time, the user information includes group information on a group such as a department or division to which the user belongs. In addition, the group information is stored in association with position information on the position in the group, and the transmission unit transmits a daily report on the user's sales activity, acquired as a voice memo, to the user terminal 2 of another user, such as a superior, who belongs to the same group, based on the group information and the position information. The storage unit 102 may also store organizational information on the structure of the organization, and further store information on groups such as departments or divisions in the organization and information on users who belong to each group, and perform a process on transmitting the daily report by referring to the organizational information. In addition, in this embodiment, the transmission unit transmits text data acquired by converting the voice data to the user terminal 2 of another user, such as a superior, via email.

[0093] Furthermore, the sales activity support device 1 may include a notification unit that transmits a call reception notification to the user terminal 2 when a call is received by the telephone 3. The user terminal 2 may be configured to be able to communicate with the telephone 3, and therefore may be able to operate the telephone 3, such as issuing a recording instruction or making a call. The user terminal 2 may be configured to be able to display information on the telephone 3, such as a notification of an incoming call on the telephone 3. The display processing unit 12 may identify the customer on the other side of the call based on the telephone number of the received call, and display the customer information of the other side of the call based on the customer information of the identified customer. In addition, at this time, the display processing unit 12 may display a screen that displays the contact history with the customer based on the contact information including the contact information whose contact type is telephone, with respect to the contact history linked to the customer information. [Explanation of symbols]

[0094] 0 Sales activity support system 1 Sales activity support device 2. User terminal 3 telephone NW Network 11 Reception 12 Display processing section 13 Search section 14 Monitoring Department

Claims

1. A sales activity support system for supporting sales activities, The device includes a storage unit, a reception unit, a search unit, and a display processing unit, the storage unit stores customer information and known website information relating to one or more known websites; The reception unit receives a designation of a person in charge of sales activities for a target customer, and stores user information of the designated person in the storage unit in association with customer information of the target customer; the search unit searches for candidate websites of the customer on the Internet, excluding known websites, based on the search criteria and the known website information, and obtains website information of the candidate websites of the customer; The display processing unit displays a candidate list of websites of the customer on the user terminal based on the search result, the reception unit receives a designation of a website of the customer selected from the candidate list, stores the website information of the designated website in the storage unit in association with the customer information, and stores the website information of the selected customer website in the storage unit as the known website information. Sales activity support system.

2. the search unit periodically searches websites on the Internet based on the search criteria and periodically obtains search results; When a new website is discovered based on past and newly acquired search results, a notification is sent to the user's device.

2. The sales activity support system according to claim 1.

3. The sales activity support system further comprises a monitoring unit, The website information includes one or more pieces of web page information related to web pages included in the website; the web page information includes an address for accessing the web page; The receiving unit receives a designation of a web page to be monitored, the monitoring unit periodically acquires content information on the content of the web page from the web page to be monitored based on the web page information and the designation of the web page to be monitored; The content of the web page is compared based on the previously acquired content information and the newly acquired content information, and if the designated web page has been updated since the last monitoring, a notification is sent to the user terminal.

2. The sales activity support system according to claim 1.

4. the reception unit receives registration of sales plan information including a plurality of step information, and stores the sales plan information in the storage unit in association with customer information of the target customer of the sales; The sales plan information is information regarding a plan for a series of sales activities for a target customer, The step information is information on an individual stage of activities included in a series of sales activities for a target customer, and includes contact type information on a type of contact method for the customer.

2. The sales activity support system according to claim 1.

5. the reception unit receives contact information on each contact with a customer for each contact type that is carried out based on a sales activity plan, and stores the contact information in the storage unit in association with the step information on each stage; 5. The sales activity support system according to claim 4.

6. the reception unit receives contact information regarding each contact with a customer, including a contact type that is a type of a method of contacting the customer, and stores the contact information in the storage unit in association with the customer information for each contact type; The contact information is registered with different information corresponding to each contact type, the display processing unit causes a contact history display screen, which displays a contact history corresponding to a contact type for each customer, on the user terminal based on the contact information; 2. The sales activity support system according to claim 1.

7. the known website information is stored in the storage unit in association with each of the exclusion reasons; The search conditions include a condition regarding a reason for exclusion, the search unit extracts candidate websites of the customer from websites on the Internet based on the search conditions, excluding websites related to a predetermined exclusion reason; 2. The sales activity support system according to claim 1.

8. A computer-implemented sales activity support method for supporting sales activities, comprising: The method includes a receiving step, a searching step, and a display processing step, The computer stores customer information and known website information relating to one or more known websites in a storage unit; The receiving step receives a designation of a person in charge of sales activities for a target customer, and stores user information of the designated person in the storage unit in association with customer information of the target customer; The searching step includes searching for candidate websites of the customer on the Internet, excluding known websites, based on the search criteria and the known website information, and acquiring website information of the candidate websites of the customer; The display processing step displays a candidate list of websites of the customer on a user terminal based on the search results; The receiving step further includes receiving a designation of a website of the customer selected from the candidate list, storing the website information of the designated website in the storage unit in association with the customer information, and storing the website information of the selected customer website in the storage unit as the known website information. How to support sales activities.

9. A sales activity support program for supporting sales activities, A computer is caused to function as a reception unit, a search unit, and a display processing unit; a storage unit of the computer storing customer information and known website information relating to one or more known websites; The reception unit receives a designation of a person in charge of sales activities for a target customer, and stores user information of the designated person in the storage unit in association with customer information of the target customer; the search unit searches for candidate websites of the customer on the Internet, excluding known websites, based on the search criteria and the known website information, and obtains website information of the candidate websites of the customer; The display processing unit displays a candidate list of websites of the customer on the user terminal based on the search result, the reception unit further receives a designation of a website of the customer selected from the candidate list, stores the website information of the designated website in the storage unit in association with the customer information, and stores the website information of the selected customer website in the storage unit as the known website information. Sales activity support program.

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