Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale

Case Analysis: Vaibhav Gupta, IIM Sambalpur

Situational Analysis:
The case highlights the fact that in 1998, Siebel Systems was the market leader in Customer
Relationship Management(CRM) software segment. Their suite of products provided a complete
CRM solution as well as the ability to execute large-scale projects unlike any of their other
competitors. Siebel Systems relied heavily on their core values of 100% customer satisfaction
and will go to any extent to achieve it. This made them very popular among their customers.
Gregg Carmen, a sales executive at Siebel, got an opportunity to sell his lead management
software to a banking and brokerage company, Quick and Reilly. Carmen used his innate sales
ability to convince the Quick and Reilly executives that Siebels software solution is apt for their
business.
During the sales execution, Quick and Reilly was acquired by FleetBoston and the sale was put
on hold. FleetBoston was already a Siebel Customer and was using a call centre management
product, Scopus. FleetBoston staff felt that the excess capacity of Scopus could be utilized by
Quick and Reilly and can save the company $2.1 million. Carmen felt differently and
commented that Scopus is not compatible with Quick and Reillys needs.

Problem Statement:
What approach should Carmen follow in order to secure his deal with Quick and Reilly without
hampering its relationship with FleetBoston and without compromising Siebels core value of
customer satisfaction?

Options
1. Carmen should refer the case to his manager and they should proceed jointly.
2. Carmen should approach Quick and Reilly and FleetBoston separately and try to
convince them otherwise.
3. Let FleetBoston and Quick and Reilly sort it out among themselves and Siebel abide by
their decision.

Recommendations
It is clearly evident from the case facts that Siebel cannot afford to lose FleetBoston as their
client. Apart from losing $30 million in cross-selling in the next couple of years, their reputation
and core values are at stake. Also, talks with Quick and Reilly are at a very advanced stage. Thus

losing the deal at this juncture will result not only in loss in revenue ($2.1 million) but also of a
lot of effort that went into securing the deal.
I recommend that Carmen should involve his manager in the deal and jointly they should hold a
meeting with Quick and Reilly and FleetBoston. They should ensure that the stake holders of
both the companies are present in the meeting.
They should focus on elaborating the value addition and explaining the client that both the
software i.e. Scopus (call centre management system) and the LMS (Lead Management System)
serve independent purposes and one cannot replace the other.
Carmen should emphasize to the committee that Siebel will not deviate from their core values of
100% customer satisfaction. He should even offer the discount of $1 million in order to maintain
good relations with the company.
In terms of earnings, if either of the 2 parties (QnR or FleetBoston) is neglected, it will lead to
significant loss of revenue. But a discount offering may help build long term bond.