Shouldn’t salespeople be restricted from recording new accounts in CRM? How to connect fire (meaning effective sales) and water (by keeping data in org clean)? Using two simple automations in Salesforce we will show you how to combine these two elements!
Does your salesman have the right to add new accounts to CRM? – No, because the account needs to be verified, and the salespeople do not have time for it, and besides, when they could do it, they added the same customer three times. Accounts are added by marketing/databases/sales support, and sales only work on the customer base assigned to them. They add new customers as leads …
Sounds familiar? Sure. The point is that the practice of using a lead to register an identified (or already interested in purchase) new client, is widespread among organizations around the world. The problem is that it is not necessarily in line with good practices in managing the organization’s data, and worse, it disturbs the lead management process itself. Acting in this way, we gain a greater order in the area of customer accounts, but we generate chaos in the area of leads.
What is a Lead?
“Leads are people who are interested in your product and service. Converting leads to loyal customers will provide success within a business. By managing your leads in a systematic and structured way, you can increase both the numbers of leads you generate and how many leads you convert.”(Salesforce)
The lead management process itself is not based solely on the care of the correctness, completeness of the data and making sure that the client’s data has not already been registered in our CRM. When managing a lead, we need a potential customer to encourage our services, target marketing messages that are clearly aimed at, engage in marketing campaigns and transfer to the sales department only “hot” customers. Verification of the customer who is already nurtured or comes from his own salesperson’s portfolio is not enough.
But we need to verify customer data!
Sure. In the case when the client is a company, data verification is extremely important, even in terms of invoicing. However, from the recording of an opportunity in the system, until the invoice is issued to the customer, usually enough time passes for the sales support department to verify the customer. At the same time, the sales can work on the customer’s inquiry.
If the salesperson will not be able to register the customer and the opportunity to sell immediately, then it may happen that while waiting for verification and creation of the account, the trader will carry out the entire sales process outside CRM and will register the chance of winning immediately. Despite all the actions taken, the chance will not be visible in any forecasts, and sales managers will keep their own sales image in xls files sent by e-mail.
If the salesperson will not be able to register the customer and the opportunity to sell immediately, then it may happen that while waiting for verification and creation of the account, the whole sales process will be carried out outside CRM and sales will register the business opportunity at the moment it is actually closed/won. Despite all the actions taken, the opportunity will not be visible in any forecasts, and sales managers will keep their own sales image in xls files sent by e-mail.
How to solve it? First, flag all accounts that have not been verified. We create a picklist containing values “for verification”, “verified”. We block the possibility of closing the deal (won/lost) and automatically mark the customers’ opp’ties to be verified as “awaiting verification”. Thanks to this, the database department quietly implements the verification queue, and the trader can work with the client on an ongoing basis.
But sales add the same customer over and over again!
Well, it happens. To prevent duplication of accounts in the system, you should use the duplicate management tool. If the salesperson adds a customer account that already exists in the system, he should receive information that the customer is probably already existing. The potential duplicate Salesforce recognizes based on fields, name, address or tax identification number.
Depending on the rules existing in the company, a suspicious account may be created (but we will reject it during verification). It seems, however, that a better practice will be to prevent the creation of a new account in the system.
What are leads for?
Lead management should not be a domain of salespeople at all. In theory, lead processing should be subject to marketing (remember that call center departments are under marketing!), and only those contacts that are ready to start the sales process should be transferred to sales dept. Equipped with knowledge about the product, scored, and above all with the pre-identified needs.
In Salesforce lead management process is supported by standard marketing applications, as well as complex marketing automation tools, such as Pardot or Marketing Cloud. We will look into the capabilities and features of marketing automation tools in next articles our blog.
Leave a comment