CRM System Procedures To Support Commercial Account Management
CRM System Procedures To Support Commercial Account Management
Creation Date: January 2008
Author:Janette Pallas
Department of origin: Commercial Partnerships
Approval Authority:
Date of Approval:
Effective Date:
1.PURPOSE AND SCOPE
1.1.The purpose of these procedures is to ensure that the Commercial Account Management process is supported effectively by the professional and effective use of the CRM system at DMU.
1.2.The procedures shall apply to all liaising with commercial business contacts and all users of the CRM system at DMU, including those in temporary or part-time employment.
1.3.There are legal responsibilities regarding the usage of personal data and corporate telephone numbers. Ensure that you read the Procedures for Professional, Ethical and legal use of CRM data. Location of procedures
2.GENERAL PRINCIPLES
2.1.Account Manager and Deputy. For all commercial accounts, an account manager will be identified - initially the person opening the account, or agreed at a formal handover of responsibilities. Each Account Manager must identify a nominated deputy who has authority to make decisions regarding the handling of communications with an account. For sections 2.3 onwards in this document, the term account manager will also refer to their nominated deputy. The Account Manager will be the Owner of an account in the crm system.
2.2.Pricing/margin. For issues regarding the pricing/margin on a project or issuing a proposal, if the account manager is not available, any decisions should be delegated upwards to the Dean or Director of Enterprise and Commercial Partnerships.
2.3.Permission. Before any proactive communication is made to an account or account contacts, permission must be obtained from the account manager or their deputy.
2.4.Existing accounts. Where an enquiry is received from a contact where it is identified that there is an existing account, the person in receipt of the enquiry must notify the account manager for a decision as to who is to proceed with progressing the enquiry.
2.5.Timeliness. In order to be effective, the crm system is to be updated with recorded actions within a maximum of 3 working days of taking place. Ideally, the recording of actions will take place immediately afterwards to enable the system to store real-time activity of commercial communications.
2.6Users. Users will only be given access to the CRM system after having attended the official basic training session from ISAS. User permissions will be requested via the ISAS Help Desk at the same time as the training is booked. Access will be given following confirmation of satisfactory attendance at the training.
If a member of staff moves department within DMU then a request must be made to the ISAS Help Desk to have the permissions amended for the new role. Failure to do so may result in the staff member having access to an incorrect set of data.
Upon a member of staff leaving DMU, a request should be made to the ISAS Help Desk to have the CRM account disabled. This may also require the re-assignment of Leads, Contacts and Accounts to other members of staff.
2.6.Activity Subject Lines. As with good practice for emails, these should contain a brief meaningful description of the activity that took place. E.g. meeting to discuss xyz or phone call re project progress.
2.7.Events. All planned events and campaigns must be notified to the Commercial Marketing Manager and Corporate Sales Director for central coordination.
2.8.Visit reports. Where a meetingor substantive phone calls take place between a member of DMU staff and a commercial contact, the meeting should be recorded, and a detailed visit report filed against the account, contact or opportunity. The visit report template is stored at AAAAA.Visit reports should be stored at BBBBBBB as account name, visit report, yyyymmdd to enable easy identification and retrieval.
2.9.Legal. Users should understand the requirements of the Data Protection act and Freedom of Information acts. The crm system should not be used to store insensitive, incorrect or malicious information. The data should not be used illegally, and should ensure that data is only used after correctly checking against the requirements of the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (and other similar requirements)
2.10.Notes. The notes facility of the CRM system should only be used for general miscellaneous notes which do not fit elsewhere in the content sections of recorded fields or activities.
2.11.Deletion/deactivation. In situations such as where a contact moves company, a company ceases trading or someone dies, then records should be Deactivated and not deleted to ensure that we can maintain the history. Leads should also be deactivated when known to be no longer viable.
Procedures to clear off incorrect/malicious/dated records required.
2.12.Email templates.If sending emails from within the crm system, use the default crm system template. However, if the email is regarding a contractual issue for a DMEL account, the DMEL email template should be used.
- PROCEDURE
3.1.On making contact or prior to adding a new lead or contact, first search for an existing account or contact. Search on All active contacts, or Active Accounts. If it is an active account or contact, the Account Manager/record owner or their deputy should be approached by phone, email or crm activity to request permissions to:
3.1.1. share the account
3.1.2.contact the person
3.1.3.agree ownership of new opportunity.
3.2.If the Account Manager (or their deputy) is not available, then a decision regarding ownership should be referred to the Corporate Sales director.
3.3.Proactive Marketing and the creation of Leads
3.3.1.All initial contact details should be stored as aleadon the crm system (including contacts made at a network event, supplied by exhibition databases, or from bought in databases)
3.3.2.If already held as a database in electronic form, the data can be loaded into the template database XXXXX and forwarded to YYY for uploading, clarifying whether existing data should be overwritten or created as a duplicate or rejected and reported.
Process to be confirmed with ISAS
3.3.3.Coordination of purchase of new data for proactive marketing should be by the Commercial Marketing Manager and Corporate Sales Director
Process to be confirmed
3.3.4.The creation of new marketing campaigns and events is to be coordinated with the Commercial Marketing Manager and Corporate Sales Director.
3.4.Creation of Contacts
3.4.1.When a two way contact is established (i.e. this could be a response to an advert, mailshot or agreement to future contact at an event) then the lead should be converted to a contact or created as acontact, ensuring data protection guidelines are followed and marketing preferences are set on the crm system.
3.4.2.As many items of information as available should be added to the record, with a minimum of name, address, postcode, telephone number, email address (if any).
3.5.Creation of Opportunities
3.5.1.Whensubstantive discussions take place sufficient to warrant a potential sales opportunity, then an opportunity should be created against a contact.
3.6.Creation of Accounts (Company or organisation)
3.7.When a project proposal or quote is submitted, or a course booking is received, an account should be created from the contact details. If the contact is an individual (or sole trader) booking a course, they should still be created as an account.
3.8.With Faculty or Departmental agreement, you will assign yourself as the originator or your BDM to be theAccount Manager.
3.9.As much information as available for the organisation should be added, with a minimum of company name, company address, primary contact, relationship type, category. Account number should only be used for the QLX account number when set up. If the account is a sub-account (i.e. an independent company within a larger group), the parent account should be detailed. Industry information should be added using the Standard Industry Classification codes held.
3.10.Contact preferences must be stored, being mindful of permissions required and the legal issues around storage and usage of data.
3.11.When creating a contact, at the Account Managers discretion, an account can be created at the same time. This might be the case if there are multiple contacts within the account or if this has good potential to become a Key Account or to offer a substantial project.
3.12.Enquiries on an existing account
If a reactive enquiry is received from a contact of an existing account, new activity can be added to record the communication and contact, and an activity forwarded to the account manager for information.
If it is an active account or contact, the Account Manager/record owner or their deputy should be approached by phone, email or crm activity to request permissions to:
3.12.1. share the account
3.12.2.contact the person
3.12.3.agree ownership of new opportunity.
If the Account Manager (or their deputy) is not available, then a decision regarding ownership should be referred to the Corporate Sales director.
- Data Entry Conventions
The following standards should be used at data entry:
4.1.1.Using full company names as printed on their company literature e.g. Rolls Royce plc or Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd
4.1.2.If abbreviations are used in company names, then do not enter spaces or full stops between the abbreviation e.g. LCB Depot
4.1.3.Full Address details should be entered properly capitalised. The Post Town should appear in the town/city field.
4.1.4.Post codes should be entered in capitals
4.1.5.Any non-UK country should be entered.
- Further field definitions
Through usage and further development other fields will be used to support system reporting. As standards are introduced new users will be notified.
5.1.1.Probability ratings should be used on opportunities to support sales reporting.
5.1.2.Lost sale reasons should be recorded
5.1.3.Territories – not to be used at this time
5.1.4.Product definitions will be used by some faculties and not others. Generic product definitions will be made available.
- Disciplinary Action
Unprofessional or Malicious actions. Where a staff member or user of the crm system uses commercial data in an unprofessional or malicious manner, they are liable for disciplinary action