Account Targeting

Account Targeting allows end users to perform advanced queries on accounts and save the results as target lists. This chapter describes how administrators and retail sales representatives use the queries in Account Targeting to create target lists and merge these lists with other target lists. Topics include:

About Account Targeting

You can use Account Targeting only on a mobile user’s local database. It allows end users to perform advanced queries on accounts and save the results. The results of these queries are called target lists. Target lists consist of accounts that meet the query conditions. End users can apply target lists when scheduling routes or viewing objectives. Typically, target lists are for a specific purpose and period of time in support of a corporate promotion, a campaign, or an objective.

Retails sales representatives use the views in the Target Accounts screen to perform advanced queries on the accounts that they need when creating target lists. For example:

Accounts in New Jersey with sales greater than $60,000 over the last half year
Accounts that are located in a specific range of postal codes and that were last audited over five weeks ago
Accounts in California that are out of stock for a product
Accounts that are visited weekly, that have a distribution code of B, and that last placed an order more than three weeks ago

You can apply target lists individually or in combination with other target lists when you schedule routes or design objectives and corporate promotions. For example, you can generate a target list of all California accounts that are out of stock of 20-ounce bottles of Apricot Splash. You can generate another target list of all California accounts that were not visited in the past 30 days. You can intersect the two lists and save the target list of all California accounts that were not visited in the past 30 days and that are out of stock of 20-ounce bottles of Apricot Splash. You can apply this target list to routes that retail sales representatives visit. For information about assigning target lists to routes, see Assigning Target Lists to Routes (End User).

Note: You must execute Account Targeting queries in the same view in which users create the queries, so include the name of the appropriate view in the query name.

You can apply the target list to a route, an objective, or a corporate promotion. For information about applying target lists to:

Routes, see Routes
Objectives, see Objectives
Corporate promotions, see About Trade Promotions

Note: The Account Targeting module is designed for end users, such as retail sales representatives, who have local data access and are not continuously connected to a network.

Scenarios for Account Targeting

System administrators, account managers, retail managers, and sales representatives perform the processes in these example scenarios for creating lists of target accounts. Your company might follow different processes according to its business requirements. Topics include:

Scenario for Creating Target Lists for Sales Representatives, which illustrates how account managers can create target lists that retail sales representatives use.
Scenario for Creating Target Lists, which illustrates how retail sales representatives can create and use their own target lists.

Scenario for Creating Target Lists for Sales Representatives

A brand manager establishes a corporate promotion to run at all grocery stores. The account manager for the corporate headquarters of a large chain of grocery stores supports this corporate promotion. As part of the support for this corporate promotion, the account manager wants sales representatives to target specific accounts.

The account manager begins by determining the key attributes that are necessary for a successful corporate promotion. She determines that the sales force must focus on an optimal set of accounts defined by the intersection of accounts with a store condition of Out of Stock and accounts with an industry type of Grocery and an Order Quantity greater than 100. She creates two predefined queries. She creates the first predefined query to generate a list of accounts with a store condition of Out of Stock and saves this list. She creates a second predefined query to generate a list of accounts with an industry type of Grocery and an Order Quantity greater than 100 and saves this list. She intersects the two lists, and a target list of 41 accounts is returned.

The account manager sends an email message to the system administrator to request that he make public her two predefined queries. The system administrator unlocks the two predefined queries. Unlocking allows all Consumer Goods users to view and execute the queries. The system administrator sends an email message to the account manager to let her know the predefined queries are public and now available to anyone using the Consumer Goods application.

The account manager sends an email message to her retail managers and retail sales representatives directing them to intersect a list of accounts with a store condition of Out of Stock and a list of accounts with an industry type of Grocery and an Order Quantity greater than 100.

A retail sales representative is at home Sunday evening planning for the next work week. He receives the email message and decides to plan his route immediately. In his local database, he executes the two public predefined queries and saves the target list of returned accounts.

The retail sales representative now has three options. He can assign the target list to a route he created, save the target list for a later date, or select a different view to delete the target list. After assigning the target list to a route, he can add and delete accounts from the list. He can also select only the accounts he wants to add to the route. The retail sales representative decides to assign the target list to a route and adds accounts from the list.

Finally, before he logs off his computer for the evening, he deletes all target lists that are more than two weeks old.

Scenario for Creating Target Lists

A retail sales representative is planning his visits for the week. Each day, he visits between 40 and 50 different accounts, often spending only a few minutes at each account. Because he is responsible for such a large number of accounts, he needs to track his visits and the activities he performs during those visits.

He determines that the optimal set of accounts to visit is the union of accounts that did not place an order last week and that were not audited in the last two weeks. He creates two queries. He creates the first query to generate a list of accounts that did not place an order last week and saves this list. He creates a second query to generate a list of accounts that were not audited in the last two weeks and saves this list. He combines the two lists, and a target list of 48 accounts is returned. Because the retail sales representative wants to visit the accounts on the list this week, he assigns the target list to his route for the week.

Process of Account Targeting

This topic lists the tasks that administrators and end users typically perform to manage account targeting. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.

Administrator Procedures

The following list shows tasks that administrators typically perform to manage account targeting:

End-User Procedures

The following list shows tasks that end users typically perform to access and use account targeting:

After creating and saving a target list, retail sales representatives can merge (intersect or combine) it with other target lists. Then, retail sales representatives can assign the results to a route in the view that they use to plan their routes or objectives. After assigning the list of accounts to a route, they can add or delete accounts to optimize their target list.

Making Predefined Queries Public

You must make predefined queries public before end users can view and execute the queries.

Note: Other users must first exit and reenter the application before they can see the new public query.

This task is a step in Process of Account Targeting.

To make a predefined query public

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Predefined Queries view.
In the Predefined Queries list, click Query.
In the Object field drop-down list, select Account Targeting.
In the Predefined Queries list, click Go.
A list of all predefined queries containing Account Target is returned.
In the Predefined Queries list, select the record containing the predefined query that you want to make public.

Note: Make sure that the name of the query includes the view in which the user created the query so that other users can execute the query in the same view. The view name in which the user created the query appears in the Query field, and you can edit the name of the query in the Name field.
In the Predefined Queries list, change the letter in the Private field to N.
The predefined query is now public, and all users with access to the Account Targeting views can execute the query.

Deleting Saved Predefined Queries

You can delete saved queries that you no longer need after a corporate promotion or sales event ends. This deletion allows users to view and execute only current predefined queries.

This task is a step in Process of Account Targeting.

To delete a saved query

Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Predefined Queries view.
In the Predefined Queries list, click Query.
In the Object drop-down list, select Account Targeting.
In the Predefined Queries list, click Go.
A list of all predefined queries containing Account Targeting is returned.
In the Predefined Queries list, click Delete.
The selected predefined query is deleted, and users can no longer view or execute it.

Creating Target Lists (End User)

The views in the Target Accounts screen allow end users to select profile information about which to query, such as visit frequency, last visit date, and order date. The results that they save consist of a set of accounts.

If end users query only an account profile attribute, they can use the Account Information view. This view returns all accounts that meet the query conditions, whether or not the accounts contain demographic or assessment information. Using a different view to query account profile information returns accounts that meet the query conditions and the condition for the view. For example, querying from the Orders view returns only those accounts that contain orders and meet the query conditions. For information about performing queries, see Siebel Fundamentals.

Note: Account Targeting uses your local database. The end user’s target lists are not synchronized with the Siebel Server. Therefore, if end users receive a new database extract, they must re-create their target lists. However, if an end user is a remote user, the normal process of synchronizing a local database with the Siebel Server does not affect the end user’s target lists.

End users who want to perform queries on fields across multiple forms in a single targeting view need to use the refine query feature. For example, an end user who wants to perform a query for all California accounts with a distribution code of A must enter the query criteria (all California accounts) in the Account Attribute Selection form and then refine the query in the Demographics and Assessment form to include only those accounts with a distribution code of A.

This task is a step in Process of Account Targeting.

To refine a query

Navigate to the Target Accounts screen, then the Account Targeting List view.
From the visibility filter, select one of the following values:
- Account Information. Select this value to perform a query for demographics and assessments.
- Orders. Select this value to perform a query for orders.
- Store conditions. Select this value to perform a query for store conditions.
In the Account Attribute Selection form, click Menu, and select New Query.
Enter the criteria in the fields for which you want to perform a query.
In the next form, click Menu, and select Refine Query.
Enter the criteria in the fields for which you want to perform a query, click Menu, and select Run Query.
In the Target Accounts list, accounts that satisfy both sets of query criteria appear.
To save the target list, see Saving Target Lists (End User).

Use the following procedure to create a target list based on demographics and assessments.

Note: The more fields in which an end user enters query criteria, the longer the time to execute the query. Also, if an end user enters a query condition that is too general (such as all accounts with a Weekly ACV greater than 1), saving the query later can take a long time because of the number of records meeting the query criteria.

To create a target list based on demographics and assessments

Navigate to the Target Accounts screen, then the Account Targeting List view.
From the visibility filter, select Account Information.
In the Demographics and Assessment form, click Menu, and select New Query or select a predefined query from the Queries drop-down list.
Specify the query criteria or refine a predefined query, if necessary.
In the Demographics and Assessment list, click Menu, and select Run Query.
The results of the query are returned.
To save the target list, see Saving Target Lists (End User).

Use the following procedure to create a target list based on orders.

To create a target list based on orders

Navigate to the Target Accounts screen, then the Account Targeting List view.
From the visibility filter, select Orders.
In the Order form, click Menu, and select New Query, or select a predefined query from the Favorites drop-down list.
Specify the query criteria or refine a predefined query, if necessary.
In the Order form, click Menu, and select Run Query.
The results of the query are returned.
To save the target list, see Saving Target Lists (End User).

Use the following procedure to create a target list based on store conditions.

Note: When an end user queries a product and a store condition, only the last audit date of the product is queried for the specified condition. When an end user queries only a store condition, all products with the store condition are returned.

Navigate to the Target Accounts screen, then the Account Targeting List view.
From the visibility filter, select Store Conditions.
In the Store Conditions form, click Menu, and select New Query or select a predefined query from the Queries drop-down list.
Specify the query criteria or refine a predefined query, if necessary.
In the Store Conditions form click Menu, and select Run Query.
The results of the query are returned.
To save the target list, see Saving Target Lists (End User).

Saving Target Lists (End User)

When an end user finishes creating and refining a target list, the user can save and apply the list to a route. For information about applying a target list to a route, see Assigning Target Lists to Routes (End User). You can also apply a target list to an objective or a corporate promotion. For information about applying a target list to an objective, see Objectives and for information about applying a target list to a corporate promotion, see About Trade Promotions.

Before performing the following procedure, you must create a target list.

Note: The saved target list includes only those records that match the query criteria when the query was created. It is recommended that you re-create your target lists periodically because other users might modify data or add new accounts after you create the target lists.

This task is a step in Process of Account Targeting.

To save a target list

Click the Save Target List button (located on the toolbar).

Note: Do not use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+S, the Edit, Query, and then Save command (from the menu bar), or the Save Query As dialog box to save the query unless you want to make a complex query public or unless the query is run frequently. For more information about making a query public, see Making Predefined Queries Public.
In the Save to List dialog box, enter a unique name for the target list in the blank List Name field.

Note: If you enter a name that is in use, an error message advises you to save the list with a unique name.
Click Save.
The target list is saved.