CRM
CRM is everything before a customer is a customer: the companies you might sell to, the people at them, what has been said to whom, and the deals being chased.
Two ladders run through it. An account climbs from suspect to customer; an opportunity climbs from suspect to won. They are connected — winning an opportunity is what usually promotes the account.
What you can do here
- Keep the record of every company you might sell to, and the people at them.
- Log calls and visits, and set tasks against an account.
- Run opportunities through their stages, and see the pipeline by stage or rep.
- Record what equipment an account already has.
- Tag and group accounts for campaigns.
What you will meet
An account is a company. Its status — suspect, qualified, prospect, customer — says how far the relationship has got. An opportunity is a specific deal being chased, with its own stage. A KDM is the key decision maker: the contact who matters. Activities are what happened; tasks are what is meant to happen.
Where to go next
- New to this? Read an account
- Chasing a deal? Work an opportunity through its stages
- Checking a detail? Account statuses and Opportunity stages and probability
- Want to know why? How accounts and opportunities drive each other