SugarCRM for Retail use?

[JWO112]

Hello All,
I'm currently in the process of a SugarCRM implementation, which would normally be relatively easy... the problem however, is that the company is retail. It's a .com with no physical locations, a small sales force (10-20 reps) a relatively high average transaction (both $ amount and volume), some B2B sales and a 2-3 month sales cycle; so a CRM is definitely a worthwhile investment.
If anyone has any experience setting up a retail oriented CRM, any advice would be greatly appreciated. My major obstacle at this point is setting up the interation between leads/contacts/accounts as well as between opportunities/quotes. All of the leads are generated from inbound calls and online registrations. I'm thinking of handling all online registrations as leads and setting up workflow processes to weed through them by quality and distribute to the reps(?). Phone leads are easier as the rep can gauge interest and initiate the sales cycle. Both phone and web sales will automatically generate an account with a closed opportunity through workflow processes. I'm trying not to make the system any more complicated then necessary as the majority of users have little PC knowledge and very little formal business training. One issue I'm having is the conversion from a lead to an account; some will have an account name (B2B) and some won't (individuals). Perhaps just generate an account name from the individuals First + Last? Account #'s are automatically generated upon any registration so maybe use that as the primary (required) account field with Account Name as a secondary (optional) field? Will Sugar allow this (I haven't tried yet)?
It's nearly impossible to find any useful information on setting up a Retail CRM suite, so a million thanks in advance for any suggestions/tips/best practices.

-Justin

[Angel]

In general, one of the things you should keep in mind is that SugarCRM is best used in environments where B2B is the primary business model. It can handle B2C, but you will encounter limitations.

One of those is the point you make about the possibility of entering individuals that do not have an account. For such cases, your best best is to either create an account with the name of "Individuals" or to utilize your idea of creating an account with a name that matches the individual's name.

While some of the workflow you mentioned can be automated, you should also be aware that the Open Source version does not have a workflow engine. A module that provides that functionality was recently released, but I am unfamiliar with its capabilities/limitations. As for capturing leads off the web, you should be able to do that either through the web-to-lead capture functionality or via the SOAP API.

[JWO112]

Appreciate the response, and I actually found another rather lenghty thread this afternoon regarding this same issue. It seems I'm not the only one running into this problem. However, from what I understand you can't change the primary key from Account Name to something else, such as what I proposed, like Account #. Can you verify or deny this suggestion?
Workflow won't be a problem as I'm not only purchasing PRO but I'll be purchasing an additional module to extend the automation to perform outside follow-up... Sugar will also be part of a two-way integration with the back end of the website so everyone (sales reps and customers) are always on the same page (no pun intended).
Thanks - Justin

[Angel]

I am assuming that when your state "Account#", you are referring to is the ID value of the record. It would be possible to use your own scheme, as long as it always yields a unique value, although, I have a hard time understanding why you would want to do that.

If you are needing to do that in order to link the data to an external system, it would be best if you just store that account # in a separate field.

[JWO112]

We automatically generate an account # (customer #, whatever you would like to call it) for everyone in the system; whether it's a customer or a lead. So I know everyone in the DB has a value here, whereas not everyone has an Account Name (B2C customers obviously don't belong to an accounts as they're individuals). So my thinking here was to make Account # the required field and downgrade Account Name (as we only do maybe 10% B2B) to an optional field.
I have no idea whether or not this is a good idea, it's just all I've come up with so far.
Thanks for your input - Justin

[lansim]

We automatically generate an account # (customer #, whatever you would like to call it) for everyone in the system; ....
I have no idea whether or not this is a good idea, it's just all I've come up with so far.

Just looking for a similar answer (although in a not for profit scenario).
What was your final conclusion/implementation approach?

[bcss]

May I clarify what kind of products and market segment are you handling? Can you briefly describe your customers profile?

Really like to share.

Rgds, Dove

Hello All,
I'm currently in the process of a SugarCRM implementation, which would normally be relatively easy... the problem however, is that the company is retail. It's a .com with no physical locations, a small sales force (10-20 reps) a relatively high average transaction (both $ amount and volume), some B2B sales and a 2-3 month sales cycle; so a CRM is definitely a worthwhile investment.
If anyone has any experience setting up a retail oriented CRM, any advice would be greatly appreciated. My major obstacle at this point is setting up the interation between leads/contacts/accounts as well as between opportunities/quotes. All of the leads are generated from inbound calls and online registrations. I'm thinking of handling all online registrations as leads and setting up workflow processes to weed through them by quality and distribute to the reps(?). Phone leads are easier as the rep can gauge interest and initiate the sales cycle. Both phone and web sales will automatically generate an account with a closed opportunity through workflow processes. I'm trying not to make the system any more complicated then necessary as the majority of users have little PC knowledge and very little formal business training. One issue I'm having is the conversion from a lead to an account; some will have an account name (B2B) and some won't (individuals). Perhaps just generate an account name from the individuals First + Last? Account #'s are automatically generated upon any registration so maybe use that as the primary (required) account field with Account Name as a secondary (optional) field? Will Sugar allow this (I haven't tried yet)?
It's nearly impossible to find any useful information on setting up a Retail CRM suite, so a million thanks in advance for any suggestions/tips/best practices.

-Justin