Switching From ACT! to SugarCRM

[natcon67]

Hello,
I need some help understanding the best method for using SugarCRM.
I am moving all of our sales staff into Sugar for many obvoius resons but i am having trouble understanding the difference between Leads, Accounts, and Contacts.
From what I can see, i can only attach an opportunity to an account, is that right?
What makes the most sense to me is using the Leads section for our leads and attaching Opportunities to them.
Is there is anyone out there who migrated from Act! to SugarCRM and can give me good advice for how to use it the best way?

Thank you for any help you can give.

Nate

[phatpixel]

Here's what I advise to our clients about SugarCRM and how to store data:

Leads
These are completely cold contacts -- people and companies you have never contacted. Once you have initiated contact and they have requested more information, or expressed some level of interest, convert them to a contact/account.

Contacts
These are the individuals that link to accounts (they don't have to be linked, but to get the most out of SugarCRM, I recommend it). In a B2C situation, you can make an account with the same name as the contact, for example.

Accounts
This is much like a central point that you can cross-link all information back to. Warm leads, customers, suppliers, etc should all have accounts that let you review your history of intereaction with them.

Naturally, everyone's situation will be different, and my suggestions may not perfectly meet your needs, but it should give a good starting point to better understand how data is held in SugarCRM.

[mrmilk]

Here's what I advise to our clients about SugarCRM and how to store data:

Leads
These are completely cold contacts -- people and companies you have never contacted. Once you have initiated contact and they have requested more information, or expressed some level of interest, convert them to a contact/account.

Contacts
These are the individuals that link to accounts (they don't have to be linked, but to get the most out of SugarCRM, I recommend it). In a B2C situation, you can make an account with the same name as the contact, for example.

Accounts
This is much like a central point that you can cross-link all information back to. Warm leads, customers, suppliers, etc should all have accounts that let you review your history of intereaction with them.

Naturally, everyone's situation will be different, and my suggestions may not perfectly meet your needs, but it should give a good starting point to better understand how data is held in SugarCRM.

I have worked for Symantec and been involved with ACT since version 1.1. So, 11 years working with CRM and Marketing Consulting now, with SalesLogix, MS and ACT!, as a Certified Consultant. Your question arises from the fact ACT! was just a contact manager with not so many options to manage the customer cycle.

Besides Accounts, Contacts and Leads, Sugar has also another entity called Prospect (just click on Campaigns and you'll see). So, it may really be hard for users to understand it. I guess phatpixel has said it all. I will just tell what I tell my customers:

1) A prospect is someone who you do not know and who does not know you. Typically, a cold mailing list bought from someone will have lots of people that you don't even know if the address is correct. Just meant to trigger a campaign or a mass marketing action.
2) People respond to campaigns and also find you through a web site, magazines, events and get to you by word of mouth. This guy is a little ahead in the step of becoming a customer. If he/she contacted you, he/she knows you, or what you have to offer. But you don't know him/her. You need to check if there is really potencial for business.
3) After some more talks, visits, emails you may see this guy is not only interested, but also has the perfect profile to get your product. So he knows you, you know him. There is an opportunity that need to be worked on. You then have a contact + opportunity + account (b2b). In B2C you do not need to create an account at all. You can even disable the account module.

the guy doesnt know you, you don't know him = Prospect
the guy knows you, you don't know him = Lead
the guy knows you and you know him = Contact

Those 3 levels are too much for most companies. Using the Prospect module makes more sense if you're in B2C with dozens of campaigns for thousands and thousands of people. Usually Leads and Contacts are enough.

Just a last note. Take a look at my modules, they were all developed with the intention to cover all ACT functionalities. Of course, Sugar has many new things for a ACT user, but some of the good things in ACT were not present in Sugar. Now, they all are.

[natcon67]

phatpixel, Thank you so much for the breakdown. This is exactly what i am looking for and a good model for our company to stick with.

mrmilk, Thank you also for informing me about Prospects. I had no idea that was in there. I have looked through all of your modules and they seem to be great add ons to Sugar. Actually, the only reason we didnt move to a Sugar earlier was because they didnt do document merging like ACT! does and the only reason we are moving now was because i saw your "Document Merge" Module. I have installed the module and am now trying to get it to work. I may have questions about that later on!

Now that I understand the intentionality of the secitions in Sugar, I am still a little confused if I should import our ACT! contaccts into the Contacts or Accounts or Leads section of Sugar.

(by the way, the ACT! database that i am talking about is STRICTLY for potential customers of ours, they are NOT contacts who have purchased from us. We keep our franchises (contacts who have converted) in a different database. )

Here are my Pro's and Con's:
Leads Section
If I import them into the Leads Section, I have the ability to "convert" the lead when the lead purchases a franchsie.
The Con is I dont have the ability to attach an Opportunity to them. I need the ability to attach an opportunity to the lead because I need to track them through the sales process.

Contacts Section
Currently, SugarCRM "Converts" Leads into Contacts (if i click on "Convert" on a Lead, it puts the Lead into a Contact), which makes me think that Contacts are supposed to be for People who have purchased. This is still confusing because I would want to attach an Opportunity to a Lead so that when the Lead Makes it completely through the Sales Process (Opportunity) I can then convert them; but I can only attach an opportunity to a contact.
So, due to the Opportuinty, I think it would probably be best to


I guess what I could do is tell you how our company currently uses ACT! and maybe you could reccomend how to import the contacts.
We have 2 ACT! databases we use; One for our potential franchises (potential customers), and the other DB for our current Franchises (purchases customers).
In our potential customer database we have about 10K contacts who have opportunities attached to them and the contacts are somewhere in the sales process. Once a potential franchise purchases a franchsie, we move them into the other DB and keep records of the support we have given them through notes / histories.


I really appreciate all of the help you have given me so far.

thanks again,

Nate

[phatpixel]

Nate,

It sounds like you've taken the first step in having a better understanding of SugarCRM, but are still struggling with some of the nuances between Sugar and ACT! (Don't worry it took me a little while too!)

The first thing you need to get your head around is that an "Account" shouldn't necessarily infer that that person/company has actually purchased something from you (in your case, a franchise). Actually, I think that the term "Account" is somewhat misleading. Think of it as a "Folio" or a "Folder" holding all the relevant information about a potential or existing customer. Once they have actually purchased from you, it's a simple matter of setting the "Type" field to "Customer" (or you might even want to make one called "Franchisee") so you can easily find them using an advanced search.

Remember, you're not converting a Lead to a Contact because they have purchased, it's because they have shown interest and you now want to start logging your interaction with them in more detail.

There should be no need to have two separate databases, as logical flagging of records will achieve the same result and it keeps all your data in once place (no logging in-and-out to look for different information).

Hope that helps!