Raymond Verhelst & Associates
Global Business Development & Marketing Consultancy
Editorial:
Building Your Company's Customer Relationships
As companies ramp up their products and brand, if done right they generate tremendous interest at the prospective customer level and often because of the startup role of wearing multiple hats, fail to get everything recorded about these potential buyers.
While there are critical startup steps that every company must take right from the beginning such as establishing an accounting system, completing the corporate register including a detailed operating agreement and before too long, the development of an employee handbook. That last one may seem less of a priority but the moment you start adding personnel to your organization, if the rules for selecting the first employee change for the second, you may have issues. It is best to have at least an initial set of rules and policies in place that are referred to when dealing with human resource issues.
The next step is establishing a Customer Relationship Management process. Whether this is in manual form or you choose to implement a software system, it is important that you set the procedures as to what information you want and where you want it placed. What custom fields do you want to add that pertain specifically to your business and what will be the steps taken from initial customer search to the conversation of a lead to a qualified opportunity.
Remember that inconsistency of data entry is equal to "Garbage in; Garbage out" and you will need to be able to present reports on feedback, target markets, closing challenges and other important data that will benefit your investors.
At the same time, your growing sales team will need a collaborative tool that allows everyone to manage their contacts and still allow support staff to fill-in when needed. Whether in the office or on the road, being able to track latest developments on an opportunity or a project is critical.
Because this is so important, we have found a great guide published by one of the leading CRM organizations that you can use to fully understand the value of Customer Relationship Management as well as the common steps of implementation. Whether you choose to use this exact tool or you find an alternative that suites your needs (and budget) better, it's still a great read.
