Question

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Salesforce Question

Posted by Neil on 5/1/2008 at 12:45 PM ET 400 Points
I work for the StreamSend Email Marketing Service and I want to help our company resolve a very specific problem.

We have two groups who use SalesForce.com:

1. Sales People. They deal with leads and opportunities.

2. Account Managers. These are experts who help people post-sale. They also log things in SalesForce.

The groups coordinate closely. The problem is that the Account Managers log their calls as "leads" and there is concern among the sales staff that things are getting a bit cluttered in there.

There are "leads" and "opportunities," which are really sales concepts. Does anyone have suggestions on how the Account Managers could enter things in a different category? If so, what?

Then the sales people could assign things over to an account manager in their category, and an Account Manager could likewise assign something as a lead or opportunity to a sales person as a lead or opportunity.

For example, if in the course of helping a customer it turns out they may want a value-added service or an upgrade in a couple weeks. It would be a good idea for the Account Manager to create it as an opportunity.

I have a book on SalesForce that I am going to read on the plane today as I have to travel today but if anyone has suggestions on a resolution to this problem, please respond here. I would really appreciate it!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Levon on 5/1/2008 at 12:48 PM Member
    How about using the proper terminology of prospects > leads > Qualified leads > In-the-pipeline > client > preferred client.
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 5/1/2008 at 2:19 PM Member
    The terms I use in my training and coaching are Suspects first.

    Then prospects. You cannot convert a suspect to prospect, or any other category, unless the call has a next action planned. This helps a salesperson push for next action. All calls must have a reason and a next plan. Salesforce is great for this. It helps people identify that only 1 of 3 things happen once someone becomes a prospect-- they close, buy from another or postpone. Nothing else.

    In my coaching I find too many leads evaporate out of the funnel. Salesforce prevents that from happening.

    Rock on
  • Posted by Neil on 5/1/2008 at 2:33 PM Author
    The problem is that sometimes an account manager is the one doing the entering into SalesForce and they enter it as a lead.

    I do not see another category that quite fits as an alternative to suggest to Account Managers.

    I should clarify that Account Managers do not do sales, they are post-sales support. We have a customer support team that uses a completely different system.

    the Account Managers provide "Account Management" to a client after they are closed.

    So:

    1. When a sales person closes something and wants to assign it to an account manager, what is it a lead? No, but what?

    2. Sometimes people sign up online and never end up in salesforce directly so the Account Manager may enter them into SalesForce. Right now they enter the customer as a lead but what would be an alternative "catagory" as opposed to lead that the Account Manager could enter them as?

    That is the challenge.
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 5/1/2008 at 2:42 PM Member
    The reason I say suspect vs prospect is because not everyone that may be entered is a prospect. It is the right term to use in your situation.

    For example-- if your product is office furniture -- certainly everyone outside your window needs a desk and chair. While they are potential users, until they have a requirement, they are only suspects. Once they are qualified and gave a need they are prospects. A sales manager entering them into the system requires the salesperson to contact them and qualify them. It is good to keep them in the system-- I have an account I do 500K with a year and it took me 5 years of "no" to get a face to face.

    Again, don't let them evaporate.

    Some sales systems say eliminate non qualifying co's from the system. I disagree. Sandler sales calls it just having a "milk run". I disagree. A good salesperson knows who will never buy. And knows who can be cultivated into a prospect and buyer.
  • Posted by Neil on 5/1/2008 at 3:14 PM Author
    SalesForce only has a limited number of categories which you can add someone in as.

    Suspect, client, repeat client, champion, are not options in Sales Force.

    What I am looking for is a catagory that *non* sales people (Account Managers) can use. they do follow-ups post-sale to offer help, see how people are doing, etc.

    Our company is fairly new to using SalesForce.com so perhaps I am not making my question very clear.
  • Posted by Neil on 5/2/2008 at 6:49 AM Author
    Again, what I am looking for is a category for someone to keep records that is separate from the category or categories that the sales people use. The reason is because if both sales people and account managers are entering things as leads, things get cluttered.

    Or if a sales person assigns a closed sale to an account manager for post-sale follow-up, it is not a lead or even an opportunity any more. What I was looking for was more a way to keep SalesForce organized: a category specifically for Account Managers that is different yet can coordinate with the sales staff. Account Managers do *not* generally do sales.

    I might have to read a book to figure this out, which I have so I could read it with the specific goal of figuring out this specific thing.
  • Posted on 5/3/2008 at 6:43 AM Accepted
    This is how Salesforce.com wants to work:

    Leads - people who have contacted you in some way
    Opportunity - a chance for real business, usually you set up a demo

    When an opportunity closes, you set it to a status that indicates it is closed, and then the system knows the deal closed, which is great for reporting on wins vs losses, etc. After a deal closes, Salesforce really wants that opportunity to not be used anymore.

    Account Managers should be looking at Accounts that are of type Customer, and probably logging Activities on those accounts. If they uncover an opportunity for new business, they should create a new opportunity and assign it to the salesperson.

    You might try the forums on Salesforce.com for more/better support on this issue.

    And, while Salesforce.com is a powerful tool, it has become complex enough that you really need a consultant to do a lot of work for you on it to make it actually effective. Its expensive, but I think it is worth it to bring in a consultant to figure all this out and set it up right.
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