Where to find guidance on how CRM works?

[jaxlovelock]

My husband and I have been running our business for 2 years - it's doing well and things need putting in place so that we can manage it all effectively. We've no experience of how CRM works and have a client base of around 2000. Less than 1% have been or are paying customers, the rest use our free services. I need to increase the number of paying customers!

I have installed SugarCRM Version 5.0.0d (Build 3235) to help me with this but find that nothing at Sugar University / Help Guides / etc takes me through the process of taking a person/organisation on a mailing list through to a person/organisation who pays for a particular service. I can't find a glossary to explain all the terms and how they fit into the CRM process. Help info provided on the Sugar site just tells me what's available or how to fix problems etc.

I'd like something that does something like: This is Jo Bloggs, he's signed up to your mailing list, that means he's a lead (does it? I have no idea), so we therefore need to create an account for him (do we? I'm so making this up). Once we've created the account we then ... blah blah blah ... Jo Bloggs is now a paying customer, thanks to your effective use of Sugar CRM!

Step by step for dummies.

Basically, my Sugar CRM experience is dead in the water until I understand/learn how to use it effectively.

Can anyone point me to a place where I can find this out and so use Sugar effectively to start making some money????

Ain't this the trouble with rookie entrepreneurs!

[eNick]

Hi, you may find this link a good introduction to what CRM is and how to use it in your organisation.

http://dl.sugarforge.org/training/tr...ing_manual.pdf

[susiewilliams]

You know I never miss a chance to promote our podcasts...

You can find basic info on what CRM is, along with lots of other small (2-3 minute) podcasts on a variety of CRM and Sugar topics, by going to the Sugar Podcast page. There are transcripts of each podcast too if you'd rather read than listen.

We're also posted on iTunes; just search for "SugarCRM" in the iTunes store to see the list and to subscribe for free to the weekly podcasts.

On a broader scale, book stores like Amazon.com have scores of books on the topic of CRM. I tend to like Paul Greenberg's books (but I'm biased...he came and spoke at our SugarCon conference earlier this year). And, there is even a SugarCRM for Dummies book rumored to be coming out later this year! You might try picking up a basic CRM book to introduce yourself to the concepts.

Hope this helps!

[jaxlovelock]

Thank you to both of these suggestions - will use the manuel to get started as it's just what I was looking for, and will then use the podcast transcripts to move on!

I'm back to being excited about getting this going again!

Cheers
Jax.