A CRM for a spare-parts trader: one client, one card

A trader's client list is built from calls, e-mails, trade shows and a spreadsheet somebody bought. After a year it has the same company four times, a gmail address filed as a company, and nobody sure who talked to the buyer last. A general-purpose CRM does not fix that, because it does not know how a parts trader's clients arrive.

One client, one card

The desk files a person under their company by the domain of their e-mail, so an e-mail from a new colleague lands on the card you already have, with its history. A free-mail address such as gmail.com never files two strangers into one company.

Have we met them?

Before a new company is made, the desk checks the e-mail domain and the phone first, then names spelled alike. Two cards that turn out to be one company are merged, with their people, e-mails and calls. The same person is never two leads, and their main number is the one the agent rings.

Imports you can take back

A client base comes in from Excel or CSV, up to 50,000 rows. You see what the file will do before it does it, a blank cell never erases what is there, and one button undoes the whole import. Nobody becomes a lead by accident: leads are chosen by your team, on the board.

Leads on a board, with rules

Twelve stages from Unprocessed to Won or Lost. Rules run automatically: when a stage is reached, a call goes unanswered or a lead goes quiet for a number of days, the desk creates a task, moves the lead or hands it over. A lead with no phone of its own and no usable e-mail is not a lead at all.

The customers you already won

A separate board keeps existing customers: new, open request, in touch, time to call, going quiet, gone. Each has a rhythm (every 14, 30, 60 or 90 days) and a way to be touched: a task for a person, a reminder e-mail, or a call from the agent. Nobody gets more than five touches a day.

The cheapest customer to win is the one you already have.

What to ask of any CRM you evaluate

1. Does an e-mail from a new person at a known company land on that company's card?
2. Can you undo an import you regret?
3. Does every card show the customer's local time?
4. Does it know which customers are going quiet, without a report?

The clock on every card

Every card shows the customer's local time, from their address or, with no address, from their phone's country code, and every time on screen says whose clock it is. It sounds small until a salesperson in Dubai calls Almaty at eight in the morning Dubai time, or Lagos at lunch. The outbound queue reads the same clock and rings only inside the customer's working day.

The systems: TERRA-401 CRM, TERRA-406 DEDUPE, TERRA-405 IMPORT, TERRA-402 LEADS and TERRA-404 PORTFOLIO.

Questions