Company Background

Superior Edge is a company with new ideas and new approaches to the challenge of improving the effectiveness of sales channels. Superior Edge has been built by a management team with over two decades of success building prior companies and processes to support the success of sales channels.

In 1983, Jerry Johnson, founder of Superior Edge, started a software company that grew to be an international leader in interactive selling systems; in fact, this company is widely credited with the invention of interactive selling.

Johnson began developing PC-based applications which enabled his company, Clear With Computers, Inc. ("CWC") to be a visionary in the integration of computer-based sales tools to assist in the selling process. These solutions were unique in the market in that they were targeted at and applied to large dealer and distribution networks. The use of independent sales channels has steadily grown over the last 50 years, to the point that today, it is estimated that approximately 65% of corporate sales are achieved through the use of independent channel sales partners.

CWC tools and products were portable and easy to use. The products dealt directly with helping the salesperson interact with the customer. This resulted in the corporate client gaining increased mind share and increased sales from the channel. As a result of helping the salesperson sell, CWC had virtually 100% acceptance by the salespeople in the channel. So, while large companies were spending millions of dollars on the installation and operation of the server-based MRP, ERP, and later CRM software systems, Jerry Johnson's prior company, CWC, was quietly developing new and more advanced PC-based tools which the salesperson could use to prepare for customer meetings and use while meeting with the customer. This focus on the salesperson was recognized by the sales management of large companies as being a welcome and valuable capability to grow revenue, especially with the indirect channel.

Jerry Johnson and his team built a rapidly growing business with customers such as General Motors, Freightliner, Mercedes Benz, Chrysler, Navistar, Volvo, Blue Cross Blue Shield, 3M, Hitachi Heavy Industries, Compaq Computer (now part of Hewlett Packard), IBM, John Deere, and many others.

Superior Edge, Inc. was formed to create a "sales execution system" focused on the field sales organization, particularly independent sales channels. This second generation of products is designed and developed for the Internet-based selling environment of "on-demand" applications. The company's products and customer-specific solutions converge elements of market research, customer profiling, data mining, sales portals, , e-learning, training, product configuration, sales proposal, customer segmentation and interactive selling. Additionally, sophisticated analytics are integrated to measure factors such as customer segmentation, process conformance, lead generation, sales call effectiveness and customer feedback.