How does a CRM work?
Once we know what a CRM is for, in this article I am going to explain how a crm works in general, since in the end each company, depending on the type of its target client, will have a different way of using it, since those companies are not the same. that target companies or those that have final customers.
The first step that I have to take is to define which profiles I am going to have within the company and which departments are going to use it, at least they should be sales, marketing and customer service. In the creation of these profiles I have to determine which sections of the crm they should see and within it what information they can see. Determining what they can see should not be a restriction policy, but a usability one. CRMs are usually very complete and have too many options, which can cause the user to be overwhelmed, so it is important to create a plan To improve the use of the CRM, go step by step, setting the deadlines and objectives in each one of them, for this it is important that the commercial management is aligned and checks the use of it on a daily basis.
The second step that we should carry out is to define the fields of the client, contact, action and opportunity files well. It is very important to see which fields are the ones that these 4 entities have, normally the crms have more fields than necessary and we must adapt them to our needs, I always say that it is better to have 3 fields filled out correctly than 10 poorly, mainly in the customer file the fields that we must fill in correctly are those that define the customer segmentation, such as the origin, type of customer , sector, purchase potential, geography. In what is the part of the actions, we have to define the objectives of the types of commercial actions and the results, for example, in the obetives we must establish the sales process that goes from meeting a client to supporting a client already done. Finally, in the opportunities, we have to define the process that the opportunity must have at the state level, from what can be the reception until the opportunity is discarded or the sale is achieved.
Modified the fields of the different entities, we have to determine the options that we will put in those fields that are selectors, whether individual or multiple, seeing which are the best options for each field.
The third step, once we have segmented the profiles and have adapted the fields and their contents, which must be done in loading the databases, for this we must decide if there is going to be an integration with the information management systems. the company, or we simply load a particular database or Excel that we may have to start working on each of the departments.
The fourth step is to define the procedures for filling in the information, as well as the internal and external workflows. For each user it is necessary to define what he must do in each case.
- When a new client registers, what is the minimum information that I must complete in their client file?
- When I carry out a commercial action, what information must the commercial report?
- The follow-up that must be carried out on the budgets and opportunities generated.
We must also define the workflows where the information is sent to the client or internally. I put examples of workflows
- When a potential customer registers on the web, what communications do we send him, or do we create an action for each commercial to call him and generate an opportunity.
- When we have registered an opportunity and it has been more than x days without a change in status, the logical thing to do is to create an action for the salesperson to follow up on it, or notify the client in case they continue to be interested in it.
The fifth step that we should carry out once the rest is done, is to define the reports that each profile must have and how often it must be generated and passed on so that each of the users has key information.
Reports should normally be included on the new clients generated, on the actions carried out with the clients and their effectiveness, as well as on the opportunities and sales made by each one of them. In this phase, it is important that sales managers monitor the activity of their team and that they do so on the CRM tool itself, so that they can see the whole team, which is a tool used by the entire company.
As I explained at the beginning of the article, each company must then carry out the operations within the crm in relation to its business and its clients, here I have explained the basics to start and the steps that I have to take to function initially, but as I progress, I will Getting more options to CRM, helping me achieve my goals.