Any point on having a contact when you deal with businesses?

[jjbrisbane]

Hi, i have a problem with sugarcrm is i deal with a customer (normally husband and wife) so have created a module that comes up under the account with applicant 1 & 2 details. Is there any point on having a contact when i convert the lead? it just seems to be too many different entities?
thanks
jon

[andopes]

Please, clarify in details your request, I read twice and I could not get the big picture.

Regards

[robertbmirth]

This is a common question when it comes to businesses that deal with customers on a client by client basis, rather than with other businesses. In those cases, its generally a preference thing: the way Sugar is designed its pragmatic to have both an account and contact, but you can get a small boost in efficiency if you lose the pragmatism.

In your case, since your clients are usually two contacts to an account, I'd keep with the sugar paradigm. Is there any specific reason you created the custom module other than that the contact module didn't have all the fields you wanted, and if so, did you know you can extend the contacts module to accommodate extra fields? It would seem best to me to just extend the contacts module if information is missing.

[jjbrisbane]

hi robert, the main reason is ease of use. it is difficult to jump from contact to contact when collecting the same information on 2 people. An example is we ask applicant 1 and 2 annual income, it is easy to input if the fields are side by side rather then have 2 contacts open in 2 separate tabs. Another thing is alll our other software that is written specifically for the mortgage industry seams to have 2 applicants in the account section (loan) so really account to us for our customers is "Loan" Am i going about things the wrong way? or anyone have a better suggestion?
thanks
jon

[robertbmirth]

Mmm... without delving further into your business model, I'd say you're going about it the better way. I personally don't have first hand experience in single contact accounts, but there have been several other people who have gotten the pattern working for them. That being said, you are going to run into a few bumps because you're essentially going to be using sugar in a way it wasn't designed to be used (i.e. if you're also using the leads module and you decide to convert a lead, it will still create a contact for you).

[jjbrisbane]

i think i might be going about things the wrong way here. cause really we have 1 primary contact but there might be 2 applicants so i really dont need accounts. The information for loan should be on the opportunity attached to the cotact cause we could do another loan in the future for the same contact so that would be another opportunity. do you think this is the better way? so accounts will just be other businesses i deal with that are not customers...........

[jjbrisbane]

sorry about all the public ranting!! but i was going to setup this way. Make 1 account for each of my businesses and then when converting the lead it converts to a contact, opportunity and gets associated with the account (business unit) . Is there a maximum number of contacts/leads/opportunity that can be associated with an account?
thanks
jon

[robertbmirth]

For most practical purposes generally no, there isn't a limit, but technically you are limited by how many rows your database can handle.

[al3]

I use SugarCE for my insurance agency (life, health, DI, CI, etc.) where I will often have a husband and wife with different policies (especially individual health.) I used to make each one a Contact but I found that they had more data in common than different so I simply kept all the data on the Lead and later the Account record (if they applied for a policy. In my world someone is a Lead until they actually buy something and are accepted. I then convert to an Account.)

The most important field for me is the Description field as that's were I enter 90% of the info I want. It is important for me to keep sort of a "log" or a "diary" of my conversations or I will forget them (quickly!)

For a one-person account (like below) just using the Lead and later the Account record is fine. I don't think it would be "wrong" to use Contacts for multiple insureds, I just found it cumbersome. For me Sugar is one large diary or client log! I don't need Campaigns or Projects. I've used Opportunities in the past when doing group health for larger entities, but even then it is not really necessary for my small operation.

So my advice is to do "it" the way you find it the most useful. If you like using Leads/Contacts and an Account/Contact, that will work.


Al
www.ancins.com

============
Below is a sample "log" for a Lead and later Account record (Description field):
============

Client looking for a life plan to pay estate taxes as well as health care for his girlfriend. Met him at high school reunion!

male, DOB 5/10/1947
6 feet tall
183 lbs
Non tobacco smoker
Metoprolol, Digoxin and Dronedarone, Simvastatin

Company valued at 3x gross = $4m
Personal assets = $2m
He says "I have no reason to believe it will be worth more or less later on."

Girlfriend Sue, 50, Has Kaiser now via Starbucks


Business is an S corp

He says: "My 3 ten-year employees are currently in line to inherit if I die now, but I want to change that.
Perhaps an employee buy out. Perhaps leaving it to my son. I am unsure now."


Illustrations sent:
Lincoln Financial UL 3-17-2011:
Analysis from Lincoln 3-17-2011:

ILIT analysis from Ohio National 4-12-2011:

=========2011=====
6-21 Got note saying he wants to speak to an estate atty. Sent him to Joan XXX.
Wants to meet at Jack London Sq for dinner. See attached note from him.

6-20 Sent follow-up note asking status
4-14 Got email about cost. Sent reply below.
4-4 Sent link to above analysis by ON.
3-19 See note sent to him about illustrations

[jjbrisbane]

thanks guys, i think i will go with the opportunity holding the relevant data. Cause my leads come from the web so the info i get upfront goes into lead and when i call them it and they sound interested and i get more info i convert them to an opportunity associated against 1 business account and the opportunity holds the extra fields i need.