New to CRM. Questions on a real case scenario.

[Ifaistos]

Hello everyone

I am very new to the CRM concept and Sugar CRM. My questions might sound noobish, only because they are
I am looking for someone who can orient me on my fist steps in the world of CRM. More specifically I need to understand the proper procedure that I need to follow in order to be better able to document, track and depict my real life scenario.

I have a small company and we have different specialty items. Let's name them PrA, PrB, PrC and so on. We have a number of employees who contact people who will become interested in certain product(s).

It is very possible that Employee 001 (E001) will contact Customer 001 (C001). However C001 will be interested in a product that our E002 is an expert. So E001 wants to create a new contact with all the details of C001 and assign the task to E002 of contacting C001.

After E002 contacts C001 for product 005 (P005) let's say, and they create a "relationship", C001 says I want to check out P012, and want to know more about it. However E003 is an expert on P012 and now E002 want to assign the task of contacting C001 to E003 who is an expert on P012.

This happens every day, and it is very common in my line of business. What I would like to know is the way I should think and implement this scenario on SugarCRM. What I would like is to be able to see all the contacts and calls and actions that have been taken for C001 concerning P005. I am not interested in knowing and categorizing according to company since we do not address companies, but individuals.

What I would like to know is the exact calls that have been made to C001, and what he said at each call. What I would also like to know is the customers that have been contacted concerning P005, P003 and so on. How can I assign 1 customer to more than one product and more than one employee?

After I input the customers details what should I link him to? Should each product be a seperate project or case? Can I use a different approach to Accounts? The way it is in the test data of CRM, it is not functional to me.

I don't know if I am making any sense, and if anyone understood what I am trying to implement.
Any help towards the correct direction is more than welcome.

Thank you all in advance.

ps. If you need to ask me any clarifying questions please do so.

[andopes]

Hi, Ifaistos

Lets make sure I understood your needs:

Customers = SugarCRM Accounts or Contacts
Employee = SugarCRM Users
Products: SugarCRM Opportunities or a custom module
A customer can be contacted by several employees regarding several products.
An employee is expert on a specific Product, a specific product is assigned to an expert employee.

Did I understand properly?
If yes, then it is pretty possible to do, using some customized subpanels under Customers.
Accessing the DetailView of a customer you can see all Products prospected to this customer or all Products this Customer were interested on.
Also you can view all the employee which talked to this customer and related to which Product (parent type of activity)

I believe I can help you detailing better this scenario and I can help you implementing this.
Contact me whatever you want.

Best regards

[Ifaistos]

Hello Andopes

Thank you for your prompt answer! And thank you for your willingness to help me
Now concerning my question.

Yes you did understand it very well!!

The way I understood it is as follows:

Customers = Contacts (not Accounts since as far as I understood accounts refer mainly to companies. We don't contact companies but individuals in 99% of the situations).
Employee = SugarCRM User. (btw... How do I delete the test data employees of SugarCRM. Couldn't find a way)
Now the difficult part is the products. I Never thought of Opportunities as the products. We do not assign a retail value to the product or service that we offer and since Opportunities require an account field that would be difficult. Unless of course and I have only one account that everyone goes under. That account would be my company.

Let me try to give you a real example. One of the products we have is a water purificator. E001 contacts C001 about the purificator. He says that he is interested. So E001 assigns the task to E002.
So my question would be : What is the order in which E001 should do that?
First enter the C001 details in Customers module.
Then he goes under activities and clicks on Schedule a call. (right?)
He assigns it to E002. In the related fiels what do I put in there? Maybe a case?
Let's say that I want to track the purificators as Purificators 2008, Purificators 2009 and so on. How would I do that?

After that E002. Makes the call and the phone is busy. Then the C001 is absent but he will return in an hour. Then he talks to him and schedule a meeting with him. Then he says that he will think about it. And then E002 assigns a task to himself to send him a brochure and schedule a call to "nudge" the C001. Then the C001 desides to buy and E002 schedules a time for installation to E004. And now comes one more tricky part. The purification system needs replacement of its filter in one year. So E002 needs to setup a reminder after 11 months to contact C001, although the purification system will notify him as well.

Another issue here is that I don't know the proper procedure for E002 to follow, in order to record each call. When he clicks on the phone call task that E001 has setup he can see the details of the call. What should he do in order to set that up? Create a new note every time he makes a call? Edit the call and edit the description each time ? There is also the option of close and create new. What should they do?

How would I be able to see all these details. I want to be able to see all the calls in details and everything that was scheduled for that Customer. I would also like to see all that had happened under the heading Purificators 2008.

After a month C001 makes an inbound call and says I am also interested in the Air purificator and E002 assigns the task to E005 and the procedure is getting repeated. I guess the most difficult part would be to set up properly the products and services that we offer. And another think that I need help with is the procedure. I mean what would be the order in which they will setup the cases, tasks, telephone call and so on... Customers>Schedule calls.. etc...

What do you think? What does eveyone think?

Thank you Andopes for your help... Thank you everyone for your help.
Please remember that I am very new to CRM and not yet familiar with all its features. But I am a fast learner ;-)

[andopes]

Hi, Ifaistos

I'll write some comments and suggestion of workflow for your business.
I believe I can post it at the end of day (10 pm GMT)

Cheers

[Ifaistos]

Thank you very much in advance :-)

[andopes]

Hi, Ifaistos

How do I delete the test data employees of SugarCRM. Couldn't find a way

It is not easy to do, neither fast.
If you had not customize the Sugar, then you can reinstall without demo data.

Unless of course and I have only one account that everyone goes under. That account would be my company.

It is possible to remove the obligation of relate an account to a new opportunity. It has been done before, not hard to do.
In your case an opportunity can be related to a custom module (Product) as a relate field. So when you prospect a product to a customer, you do that through an opportunity, in way you can view the closed won and closed lost into Dashboard.
You also can view the opportunities by products, rater than sales stage. The opportunity can also be related to a customer, so when prospecting some product you can know which prospect and for which customer and status of the current opportunity.

What is the order in which E001 should do that?

In my opinion the order is the following:
1. E001 enter the C001 details in Customers module;
2. E001 create a new opportunity (O001) relating it to C001 and P001. Note the Opportunity can become an instance of a Product been prospected.
3. E001 direct a call (related to O001) to C001 (this call is assigned to E001, first contact);
4. If C001 get interested then E001 schedule another call to E002 (expert on P001) and assign the O001 to E002;
5. E002 guide the workflow as you well defined.

The purification system needs replacement of its filter in one year. So E002 needs to setup a reminder after 11 months to contact C001, although the purification system will notify him as well

The product module could have a field specifying when the product needs replacement. So on saving a closed won opportunity the Sugar can calculate automatically the replacement date and insert it into a custom field under opportunity.
Some ScheduledJob can create a new meeting/Task to some assigned user to perform the replacement.
This way, the Opportunity can be an alive entity in your system.

Another issue here is that I don't know the proper procedure for E002 to follow, in order to record each call. When he clicks on the phone call task that E001 has setup he can see the details of the call. What should he do in order to set that up? Create a new note every time he makes a call? Edit the call and edit the description each time ? There is also the option of close and create new. What should they do?

The Call description is a good place to store the important discussed items.

How would I be able to see all these details. I want to be able to see all the calls in details and everything that was scheduled for that Customer. I would also like to see all that had happened under the heading Purificators 2008.

Once Opportunity can be an instance of a product you can look for all communications to some customer related to a specific product.

After a month C001 makes an inbound call and says I am also interested in the Air purificator and E002 assigns the task to E005 and the procedure is getting repeated. I guess the most difficult part would be to set up properly the products and services that we offer. And another think that I need help with is the procedure. I mean what would be the order in which they will setup the cases, tasks, telephone call and so on... Customers>Schedule calls.. etc.

Then E002 create a new Opportunity (O002) assigned to E005 and assign another call to him for contacting E001

Well.
This is the scope that could work properly and easy to do.
If you need some help for implementing it feel free to contact me.

Cheers.

[Ifaistos]

Hello Andre

It is obvious to me that you are very knowledgable on SugarCRM.
Much more than I am...

Do you mind if I contact you on your e-mail to setup a "virtual" appointment whenever you can to resolve some issues with my "procedure" flow?

Thank you very much

[andopes]

Hi, Ifaistos

Sure! Contact me.

Cheers