1. General description
2. Accumulated information
2.1 Contacts
2.2 Customer file
3. Processes in the sales department
3.1 Daily processes
3.2 Periodic processes
3.3 Documenting of the sales process
1. General description
The Contact Manager is used in the Sales Department, in combination
with the Receivables module and Task Manager.
The Contact Manager is used to manage contacts with customers and suppliers.
In the system, all contacts (events) are recorded and dates of future
contacts are set.
Contacts are associated with customers and marketing campaigns.
2. Accumulated information
2.1 Contacts
Contact, Business Contact
Contact of the company with its customers or suppliers, e.g. an offer,
visit, presentation, telephone conversation, correspondence, e-mail.
Contacts are registered in the contact database.
The information is recorded in the following manner:
o--- User: AA Anna Adams -------------------------------------------o
| |
| Customer 100001 Expagres S.A. |
| Person: Office: Janina Kruk |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| Previous - Next SM Sales meeeting |
| Date.... . . Time : : Date.. 20xx.04.30 Time: 08:00 |
| Goal.... - Goal.... PS Make an offer |
| Result - |
--------------o---------------- --------------o---------------
| |
| |
Information on the previous Information on a future
contact (inc. the result) (planned) contact
Future contacts will appear
in the schedule
Table of contacts
The table contains symbols and types of contacts.
e.g. EM E-mail, TL Telephone, SM Sales meeting
Next to the table of contacts is the table of goals, e.g. >Collect a
signed order< and a table of results, e.g. >we have negotiated a
discount<.
It is recommended to define the final content of the tables before you
start using the system. This requires determining and naming
the processes which occur in the company: specify what we do and why,
what to expect, who does what and when etc.
delegating a contact
Transferring a contact (as a to-do item) to a different user.
E.g. Delegate to: DD Damien Doe
Contact on: 20xx.04.30 Time: 08:00 - 09:00
history of contacts
A list of a user's contacts with customers.
future contact
A planned contact with a customer's contact person. One user can have only
one future contact with each contact person, but other users can also plan
a contact with the same person.
previous contact
The last contact with a given customer.
contact made
We can plan a future contact only if the last contact was finalized.
archived contacts
Contacts which have been moved to the yearly archive set. The program will
move contacts to the archive during the closing of a year.
contact result
This field is filled in after a contact has been made.
schedule
Summary of planned contacts in a chronological order.
E.g.
o-- Planned contacts: AA Anna Adams -------------------------------o
| -- Date -- Days - Time - ---------- Contact --------- From|
| 20xx.05.07 Mon 8 08:00 08:01 00 Change terms of service JS|
| 20xx.05.10 Thu 11 08:00 08:01 00 Vehicle check-up |
| 20xx.06.29 Fri 61 08:00 08:01 00 Hire Greg Kowal |
| 20xx.06.29 Fri 61 09:00 09:01 00 Ed Kowalski's birthday ER|
| 20xx.10.01 Mon 155 08:00 08:01 E1 Other information |
| 20xx.12.31 Mon 246 08:00 08:01 E1 Send a discount offer JS|
------o------ -o- -----o----- -------------o--------------- o--
| | | |
Date of planned | Type and description |
contact | of a planned contact |
| |
| Contact delegated
in .. days by this user
NOTE: Name of person and name of customer are displayed on the bottom
of the screen, e.g.
Person: Office: Janina Kruk
Customer: 100001 Expagres S.A.
marketing campaign
The scope of marketing activities (contacts) which constitute an integral
whole, e.g. a search for customers in the zachodnio-pomorskie province.
The campaign records contain the following information:
* campaign number
* beginning and ending date
* campaign addresses, i.e. a choice term (filter) from the file,
e.g. companies in the zachodnio-pomorskie province = [ZA] with more
than 100 employees
* action scenario
* sent documents, promo materials etc.
* estimated campaign costs
* other attributes which facilitate analyzing the campaign process
and results
The campaign number is specified at the time of contact registration.
This makes it possible to track contacts made within the campaign.
2.2 Customer file
The customer file accumulates information on prospects, accounts and
partners.
It is important to pay attention to the following fields in the customer
file:
Main data
---------
* Name, tax ID number, address.
For clients and partners whom we will be issuing an invoice, the fields
should be filled in in accordance with the company's registration
documents, as the information will be visible on sales invoices.
* WWW
A customer's company website. Fill in if available. A website can be
a valuable source of information on the company. It can help us to
establish at an early stage whether we have a chance to win the client.
It provides information on the company size, business line and
practices, and position on the market.
* Email (in the main record)
This is a general company e-mail, e.g. office@acompany.com
The field should not be filled in if the e-mail communication is made
with designated Contact Persons.
* Customer group. In Tres, we use the following symbols in this field:
00 Consumer list
KL Customer
P1 Partner candidate
PA Sales partner
PT Authorized partner
Sales data
----------
* Stage in a sales process
Sales Cycle
The content of this field has to correspond to the activities which are
currently performed.
The stage can be changed in Contact Manager > Stage of the sales process
or directly in the Customer Master entry.
* Contract value, odds for closing of a sale (%), description of
customer's potential etc.
These fields are filled in as we obtain new information about
the customer.
They will be useful in estimating whether we should focus our efforts
on this particular customer.
Contact persons
---------------
* Name and surname, position, department, decision-making capacity,
e-mail, Y/N
This section contains data of Contact Persons with whom we plan to
communicate by e-mail.
NOTE: A Contact Person's e-mail address is their unique identifier. It
must be used consistently throughout the program (in all masters/files).
Based on this e-mail, the software will be able to associate a message
with the right files and records.
NOTE: If a company uses the same e-mail address as a customer and
a supplier, we could encourage them to change it,
e.g. purchases@acompany.eu, sales@acompany.eu
Additional company description
------------------------------
Here we include additional customer information that is complementary
to the Sales Data section. In case of an Account (acquired client) this
field can help us determine whether we could ask this client to provide us
reference (testimonials).
This section should not be used for operational data and tasks associated
with current contacts.
3. Processes in the sales department
3.1 Daily processes
-------------------
* Supplying customer base information to the file.
New entries can be added on an on-going basis from on-line resources,
outsourced consumer lists etc.
Clients who signed up on our website are added as well.
This data needs to be verified as people often sign up with fictional
data.
Before adding a new client it is necessary to check to make sure that
they have not been added earlier.
Q. How to check if a client is already in our database ?
A. See: Customer base management > Entry
* Processing contacts according to a schedule in Contact Manager.
A schedule is a list of contacts which have not been finalized yet.
The subsequent contacts need to be made in accordance with subsequent
stages of the sales process. See: Stages in a sales process.
3.2 Periodic processes
----------------------
The following actions can be performed periodically:
* Trade campaigns, e.g. a search for partners in northern Poland.
* Analysis of efficiency of our efforts, including marketing strategy,
trade activities, marketing materials, organization, IT solutions etc.
3.3 Documenting the sales process
---------------------------------
* Contacts with clients
* Information on clients in Customer Master entries and Contact Person
records
* Sent offers
* Registered orders
* Issued invoices
Customer history
The software accumulates information which forms a customer's history,
i.e. facts and events associated with a given customer:
* History of sales orders
* History of invoices and bills of sale
* History of debit and credit notes
* History of changes in the account file (Receivables)
* History of contacts / events. e.g. sent quotations, phone calls, attended
sales meetings
* History of marketing campaigns
* History of outgoing and incoming e-mail, contents and attachments
* Turnover value, i.e. issued invoices and received payments
* Turnover dynamics
* Margin made on sales and its percentage in sales
* History (log) of changes of a Customer Master entry. Who changed what
and when.
* Significant dates in the customer entry: date of entry, last change, date
of first sale, date of sales attempts (from Contact Manager).
* Projects and tasks associated with a customer.