ASI Launches ASI SmartSales™ Powered by Oracle exclusively for the ad specialty industry

TREVOSE, PA – December 9, 2011 – The Advertising Specialty Institute today launched ASI SmartSales, a customized solution for maximizing sales and revenue opportunities, powered by Oracle exclusively for the promotional products industry.

Using ASI SmartSales, distributors will have a complete contact and lead management system that will help them close more business and provide accurate forecasting. Every individual salesperson in an organization will be able to easily send out personalized e-mail campaigns with tracking and analytics.

ASI SmartSales represents a multimillion-dollar investment by ASI. The business platform will leverage Oracle‘s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform consisting of a hybrid implementation of cloud and locally hosted software and databases.

Features in ASI SmartSales include:

• Client intelligence. Stay on top of every client interaction and never miss an important piece of information or “to do” item. Quickly search embedded e-mails, notes and data within contacts to find contacts, companies or e-mails.
• Powerful reporting. See closed sales, pipeline statistics and forecasted revenue, and create your own reports to meet the needs of your growing business.
• Major marketing. Send marketing blasts to either your entire database or predefined customer lists with the click of a button (up to 5,000 e-mails per month).
• ROI analysis. Track e-mail blasts with reporting that includes open rates, click-through rates and more.
• At your fingertips. Easily attach quotes, proposals, artwork and ESP presentations in a customer’s profile so they’re easily accessible in future conversations.
• Social networking feeds. Embedded within customers’ profiles so you can quickly access their most important updates.
• Easy integration. Integrate with Outlook and QuickBooks to better manage your contacts, calendars and orders.

“Our goal as an organization is to make our members more successful, and that translates to helping them close more sales at higher profits,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “ASI SmartSales will make that happen with sophisticated marketing tools, advanced lead scoring, pipeline analysis and comprehensive reporting at both a salesperson and company level.”

“Organizing customer contact information is key to a profitable distributorship,” said user Lisa Marks, president of On Your Marks. “SmartSales is helping me organize my marketing and my time for the first time in many years. The fact that it’s cloud-based means our entire team has access day or night. I’ve looked for a perfect solution to help me manage all our communication for a long time, and this is the best. I’m so grateful to ASI for teaming up with Oracle to provide this very powerful, cost-effective tool.”

Distributors who are interested in ASI SmartSales should e-mail [email protected] or click here (Password: Own The Customer) or call their ASI account executive at 800-546-1350.

SmartSales includes access to all of ASI’s powerful business solutions, including ESP for comprehensive product sourcing from 3,400 suppliers; ASI ProfitMaker, which provides ERP and financial management capabilities; ASI LogoMall; your own company websites; exclusive ASI research; and the latest professional development resources available for BASI/MASI certification.

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) is the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the promotional products industry, with a network of over 27,000 distributors and suppliers throughout North America. ASI leads the industry in technology solutions, providing cloud-based e-commerce, enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and customer relationship management software (CRM). ESP Web is the industry’s leading tool for sourcing hundreds of thousands of products. A family-owned business since 1962, ASI also provides online research, marketing, advertising opportunities, trade shows, education, award-winning magazines, newsletters, custom websites and catalogs to help members sell, market and promote their brands. Visit ASI at www.asicentral.com and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the CEO’s blog.