Business Model Analysis & Setup

Initial Consultation

When you contract with Snapptraffic for consulting services, we begin with an extensive interview so that we can learn how your company does business. We will be trying to learn about your products and services, how your sales staff works with your clients, how each contact moves through your sales pipeline, what kind of information managers need to be effective, and how sales information is transmitted to the people who deliver your product or service. In a nutshell, we want to figure out how you do business. We will also talk about the other major sections of your company such as marketing, product/service development and delivery, and customer support. Today, every part of a company will find most aspects of their operations supported by functions within Salesforce and we want you to be able to take advantage of that.

Implementation Planning

After that consultation, we will come up with a plan to begin your Salesforce customization. It will include basic concepts such as “determine sales stages” and “identify custom fields requirements”, etc. Together we’ll go over that plan and upon your approval, we will get started with those customizations.

Salesforce Account Setup & Choosing the Right Edition

If you already have a Salesforce account, then you give us access to your account and we determine what has already been done, if anything. If you don’t have an account, we can either set that up for you or talk you through the process online. We prefer to use an existing administrator license rather than requested an additional license for our use. This will save you from the added expense.

Salesforce comes in multiple editions. Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer. We know exactly what each edition can do and can help you determine which edition is right for your organization.

Meeting Online

When it is time for us to meet, we use online meetings so that we can both look at the same computer screen. We use online meetings when we need to work on Salesforce together, review document templates, go over training materials, and to conduct training. Online meetings are particularly useful when it is time to answer the questions that your sales team have and to train them to use Salesforce effectively. I also use conference calls to meet with as many people on your staff as necessary. We can conduct training across an entire organization in one conference call with everyone at their desks watching and learning.

Customizing Salesforce

Once we determine what you need from Salesforce and what information you will need to track, we begin customizing. We can add fields to any portion of the system that is necessary – leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities and even events and tasks. We will then adjust the page layouts to maximize sales rep productivity by putting the most important information right at their fingertips.

Advanced Customizations

Salesforce customizations can go far beyond the creation of fields and adjusting layouts. Now with advanced Workflow, Triggers, APEX, Visualforce, and Force.com we can customize nearly every aspect of your Salesforce system to make it match the way that you do business.

Importing Data

Many users new to salesforce.com will have a database of contacts in some other CRM system such as ACT, Outlook, or Goldmine. Again, using online meetings, we’ll get with you or someone in your company, export your existing contacts and import them into Salesforce.com. We can also help with advanced imports that include opportunities, notes, activity history, and custom databases.

Pipeline Consultation, Definition, and Customization

A very important step that we must be careful to do right is the determination of your pipeline stages. We give the companies we work with some feel for what other companies use and together we determine, articulate, and record exactly what stages a your potential client will go through as they progress from a raw lead to a satisfied client. We also determine the criteria a sales rep must use when advancing a prospect to a new stage. Having clear definitions puts everyone on the same sheet of music. Managing that process is critical – and managing it well begins with defining it well, understanding it well, and training the sales team well.

Creation of Reports

Once the pipeline is defined and customized within Salesforce, we’ll start talking about what reports you as a manager need to receive from it on a regular basis. You’ll find that this is probably the most valuable aspect of your Salesforce purchase. Before long you’ll show up to weekly meetings with real information and a improved ability to make decisions based on the numbers – not speculation. We will create and publish those reports so that you can start gleaning useful information from Salesforce right away.

Dashboards

One of the more exciting capabilities of Salesforce is its dashboard feature. Like the dashboard in your car that tells you about your car’s performance and function, the Salesforce dashboard is a graphical representation of critical aspects of your business’ performance. As powerful as these dashboards are, they are useless if not setup properly. After determining what aspects of company performance will best help you manage your efforts, we will build the dashboard elements and set them up to show at a glance everything you need to know.

Setting up Templates

Salesforce makes good use of email templates and MS Word templates. We can setup email html letterheads so that your sales team can send out professional looking emails fully customized and populated with data from Salesforce records such as customer names and preferences. Salesforce also supports mass email functionality so that a message such as a email newsletter can be sent to all your customers. Plus it has email opt out data to prevent you from sending email to customers that don’t want it.

MS Word templates are also very useful. Many companies will import fax cover letters, welcome letters, or other documents commonly created by the sales team. These documents, like the emails, can be customized to load with data from the records. A sales rep can then print and mail this document without having to add anything manually – a real time saver and productivity enhancer.

Driving Adoption Strategies

The best tool in the world is useless if it doesn’t get used. Unfortunately, many companies find themselves in this situation. After spending thousands of dollars purchasing a CRM system and having it customized, they find that sales reps are perfectly willing to continue using the legal pad. Companies must have a strategy for driving adoption of the system. We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. We’ll help you develop a system that sales reps WANT to adopt. We know the techniques for using reports, dashboards, company meetings, and the use of tactical information that will compel your team members to start using Salesforce for all their business functions.

Training

Once we have a strong system in place, we can begin a series of training events. We’ll plan training events that are informative and interesting to show your team how to get the most out of your Salesforce dollars. Again, we’ll use online meetings to spend time with each rep, or work as a large group, to systematically take everyone through the functions of Salesforce so that they can spend time selling, not tinkering with the system. I’ll also show them how to use the training programs available in Salesforce to learn even more on their own time.

Questions and Answers

Best of all – Snapptraffic consultants become a member of your team. After all of the pieces are in place, not only will we know your Salesforce system inside and out, we will also have a very good feel for your business and selling processes – and with that understanding we’ll be able to help you or any of your employees with any Salesforce issue, whenever it arises. We are happy to receive questions from anyone in your company and we promise to answer them, either by email or on the phone – to your complete satisfaction.

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