Essential fields to be used in CRM systems
This a continuation in our series looking at CRM software. See our previous article on CRM and marketing strategy.
To allocate the most likely leads they need the following fields. One for “Line of Business”. The other is probability “cold, warm, hot”. The idea of having two different fields is you can pivot between the two and report on different matrix. How many “Italian restaurants” are “hot leads” which means immediate action apply techniques appropriate to trust market. To just have one field which combined them as “Italian restaurant hot”, would not only have resulted in too many descriptors (hot Italian restaurants, warm Italian restaurants, cold Italian restaurants, hot Thai rest…..and on) but would limit the amount of analysis that could be done. Things get more convoluted as they lead moves up the priority scale from cold to warm, or warm to hot (they may change from an Italian restaurant to Chinese cuisine which makes it more confusing). Separating information into different subject fields allows for ease of administration and greater analysis of different metrics. Field “Line of Business” Chinese, and “Priority”, hot)
Tracking the source of the lead.
The source is also important then they can compare the effectiveness of different exhibitions, as compared to the website as compared with trade shows. This gives you invaluable insights to learn which segments are the most worth while, what marketing efforts are the most rewarding or which events to re-attend in the future. Without this information it’s very difficult to learn from experience and determine trends in the future.
Other contacts would still be tracked but only as possibilities so send reminders you exist. Newsletters are a good way of keeping in touch just in case their situation changes and they need your services straight away.
