Leads Management

[Guest]

I have recently started using BCM. If you have many qualified leads, is it
common practice to create an account for each lead in BCM even though the
lead is not a customer yet? Do you just use categories instead? Thanks.

samir

 

[Guy]

All my leads are accounts with business contacts linked to them. I use the
State field on the account to determine if the customer is active or not and
I use categories to identify what products or services the account uses.

 

[Luther]

I remember reading some BCM doc some time back that recommended using
Accounts for paying customers. Generally, a lead is someone--i.e. a
Business Contact--you are trying to sell something to. Then on a
successful first sale, you would create an Account for the person's
company (and perhaps link it to your accounting system to track the
transactions) and make the lead a child Business Contact of the
Account.

Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on whether your business
only ever deals with people, or always deal with institutions.

 

[Guy]

I thought of that, Luther. The problem is in many cases I am dealing with
more than one person from that company. I found the best way to handle that
is to use Accounts and linked the contacts to them. That way all activities
get consolidated together in one spot. I would not be able to do this
otherwise from what I can see.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Guy,

If BCM's design allowed "many to many" relationship linking (which it does
not currently nor will it likely in the next version either for some reason)
you would NOT be forced to adapt your mold practices around this needless
limitation. Good software design should accomodate a user's real life needs
rather than force the user to accomodate an unnecessary built-in limitation.
In contrast to this nonsense, Microsoft's own full CRM 3.0 (and many other
applications) provide a more natural sales workflow process whereby a Lead
gets either disqualified or the Lead gets qualified and thus becomes an
Opportunity to be entered into the sales process pipeline. The Opportunity
then becomes the parent of all of the various supporting contacts needing to
be linked that will ideally then evolve into a closed opportunity over time.
Once an Opportunity closes, an Account is established and the Account now
becomes the parent that can then give birth to future opportunities if there
is the ability for repeat business in the future with the Account. As a
logical ongoing process, a new business Opportunity for more sales can
develop either from new Leads not related to any currently existing Account
or they can develop from an already established existing Account. By
definition then, a Lead is really just an unqualified potential Opportunity
awaiting further contact for development.

One of my biggest critiques of BCM as a Sales management tool has been over
the crazy design limitations related to the Opportunity Record. The BCM
Opportunity record in the past has allowed for either 1 Business Contact only
or 1 Account only to be linked in the past. This built in limitation rarely
ever reflects the reality that many successful sales processes are the
outcome of "Many" linked people often from different organizations being
involved. I realize that BCM beta v.3 may have an improved Opportunity
functionality coming but if the next version still only allows for a 1 to 1
or 1 to many linking relationship (vs. many to many) it will remain
needlessly crippled in this regard.

There are positive alternatives to this limitation. A flexible and
customizable Opportunity Record is the key to BCM ever becoming a big league
sales tool for real world users.

-THP

I thought of that, Luther. The problem is in many cases I am dealing with
more than one person from that company. I found the best way to handle that
is to use Accounts and linked the contacts to them. That way all activities
get consolidated together in one spot. I would not be able to do this
otherwise from what I can see.

I remember reading some BCM doc some time back that recommended using
Accounts for paying customers. Generally, a lead is someone--i.e. a

[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]

 

[Larry Wilks]

I agree with your main criticism of BCM. Do you know of an add-in that will
allow many-to-many relationships? If not, do you know of a replacement
program for BCM suitable for a very small sales organization that will work
as seamlessly as possible with Outlook 2003?

Please don't suggest ACT or Maximizer.

Guy,

If BCM's design allowed "many to many" relationship linking (which it does
not currently nor will it likely in the next version either for some
reason)
you would NOT be forced to adapt your mold practices around this needless
limitation. Good software design should accomodate a user's real life
needs
rather than force the user to accomodate an unnecessary built-in
limitation.
In contrast to this nonsense, Microsoft's own full CRM 3.0 (and many other
applications) provide a more natural sales workflow process whereby a Lead
gets either disqualified or the Lead gets qualified and thus becomes an
Opportunity to be entered into the sales process pipeline. The
Opportunity
then becomes the parent of all of the various supporting contacts needing
to
be linked that will ideally then evolve into a closed opportunity over
time.
Once an Opportunity closes, an Account is established and the Account now
becomes the parent that can then give birth to future opportunities if
there
is the ability for repeat business in the future with the Account. As a
logical ongoing process, a new business Opportunity for more sales can
develop either from new Leads not related to any currently existing
Account
or they can develop from an already established existing Account. By
definition then, a Lead is really just an unqualified potential
Opportunity
awaiting further contact for development.

One of my biggest critiques of BCM as a Sales management tool has been
over
the crazy design limitations related to the Opportunity Record. The BCM
Opportunity record in the past has allowed for either 1 Business Contact
only
or 1 Account only to be linked in the past. This built in limitation
rarely
ever reflects the reality that many successful sales processes are the
outcome of "Many" linked people often from different organizations being
involved. I realize that BCM beta v.3 may have an improved Opportunity
functionality coming but if the next version still only allows for a 1 to
1
or 1 to many linking relationship (vs. many to many) it will remain
needlessly crippled in this regard.

There are positive alternatives to this limitation. A flexible and
customizable Opportunity Record is the key to BCM ever becoming a big
league
sales tool for real world users.

-THP

I thought of that, Luther. The problem is in many cases I am dealing with
more than one person from that company. I found the best way to handle
that
is to use Accounts and linked the contacts to them. That way all
activities
get consolidated together in one spot. I would not be able to do this
otherwise from what I can see.

I remember reading some BCM doc some time back that recommended using
Accounts for paying customers. Generally, a lead is someone--i.e. a

[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]

samir

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Larry,

I can recommend 3 very good alternatives that are all Outlook Centric. Click
on the links below to check them out. Even on their worst day they will
spare you from the headaches and hassles of BCM. I have moved on to using
the MXContact app and have been very pleased. The developer has a very
educational 83 slide powerpoint presentation on their website that does a
good job of explaining their approach to CRM.

www.mxcontact.com
www.teamscope.com
www.avidian.com

Best wishes,

-THP

I agree with your main criticism of BCM. Do you know of an add-in that will
allow many-to-many relationships? If not, do you know of a replacement
program for BCM suitable for a very small sales organization that will work
as seamlessly as possible with Outlook 2003?

Please don't suggest ACT or Maximizer.

Guy,

[quoted text clipped - 62 lines]

 

[Larry Wilks]

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

I can recommend 3 very good alternatives that are all Outlook Centric.
Click
on the links below to check them out. Even on their worst day they will
spare you from the headaches and hassles of BCM. I have moved on to using
the MXContact app and have been very pleased. The developer has a very
educational 83 slide powerpoint presentation on their website that does a
good job of explaining their approach to CRM.

www.mxcontact.com
www.teamscope.com
www.avidian.com

Best wishes,

-THP

I agree with your main criticism of BCM. Do you know of an add-in that
will
allow many-to-many relationships? If not, do you know of a replacement
program for BCM suitable for a very small sales organization that will
work
as seamlessly as possible with Outlook 2003?

Please don't suggest ACT or Maximizer.

Guy,

[quoted text clipped - 62 lines]

samir

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

I have long maintained that BCM's slow development as a seemingly ignored
step child is due to Microsoft's focused emphasis on their full CRM 3.0 app.
This apparent neglect with BCM being allowed to linger with only marginal,
incremental upgrade improvements reinforces my hunch that this may be the
direct intention of MS as an inducement for more users to move up to their
more involved and expensive CRM offering. This oversight of the smaller user
segment is too bad because the MXContact application by Exchangewise proves
that a more robust CRM tool can be adaptible to a wide range of scope and
scale among potential users and not just limited to Enterprise level use.

-THP

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Larry,

I am curious about your test and impressions of MX Contact.

-THP

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

 

[Guest]

Any feedback on the test of MX Contact?

Larry,

I am curious about your test and impressions of MX Contact.

-THP

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

samir

 

[connie]

I see that this thread died, with no feedback on MX Contact. I am
evaluating it right now! I have been using BCM and realize that it has
limitations, but so far I am not liking MX Contact. There are just too
many steps to do simple functions and I don't have time to learn all of
this. I can't imagine how I could ever train anyone else to use it.
(BTW, I have been a software trainer, so I am not a novice!) There are
so many folders and I think it would get confusing. I can't spend
hours learning how to use something that doesn't seem intuative at all.

I wanted to avoid ACT; I used it before successfully, but I thought
software that used the Outlook interface would be better. So far I
don't think so. If there is some great advantage to this, please tell
me what it is. I am not seeing it. Thanks.

Connie

Any feedback on the test of MX Contact?

Larry,

I am curious about your test and impressions of MX Contact.

-THP

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

samir

 

[connie]

I see that this thread died, with no feedback on MX Contact. I am
evaluating it right now! I have been using BCM and realize that it has
limitations, but so far I am not liking MX Contact. There are just too
many steps to do simple functions and I don't have time to learn all of
this. I can't imagine how I could ever train anyone else to use it.
(BTW, I have been a software trainer, so I am not a novice!) There are
so many folders and I think it would get confusing. I can't spend
hours learning how to use something that doesn't seem intuative at all.

I wanted to avoid ACT; I used it before successfully, but I thought
software that used the Outlook interface would be better. So far I
don't think so. If there is some great advantage to this, please tell
me what it is. I am not seeing it. Thanks.

Connie

Any feedback on the test of MX Contact?

Larry,

I am curious about your test and impressions of MX Contact.

-THP

Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

samir

 

[Guest]

Connie,

This is disappointing to hear. I was hoping it would be a good program. I
have the download, but have not tired it yet.

The new ACT 2007 version is supposed to be better designed for Outlook
integration, but I don't know.

I see that this thread died, with no feedback on MX Contact. I am
evaluating it right now! I have been using BCM and realize that it has
limitations, but so far I am not liking MX Contact. There are just too
many steps to do simple functions and I don't have time to learn all of
this. I can't imagine how I could ever train anyone else to use it.
(BTW, I have been a software trainer, so I am not a novice!) There are
so many folders and I think it would get confusing. I can't spend
hours learning how to use something that doesn't seem intuative at all.

I wanted to avoid ACT; I used it before successfully, but I thought
software that used the Outlook interface would be better. So far I
don't think so. If there is some great advantage to this, please tell
me what it is. I am not seeing it. Thanks.

Connie

Any feedback on the test of MX Contact?

Larry,

I am curious about your test and impressions of MX Contact.

-THP



Larry Wilks wrote:
Thanks. I am downloading MXContact in a few minutes and will test over the
weekend. BCM could be made useful if MS would just complete it!

Larry,

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

samir

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Connie,

For greater simplicity have you tried experimenting with the Avidian Prophet
Sales Opportunity Add-in? This is a SQL based db that requires the least
amount of interference or deviation from the skill set of using native
Outlook alone. There is no separate contact db created and it is very
intuitive to learn. Prophet is easy to load and unload as necessary. Check
it out at www.avidian.com.

Best wishes,

-THP

Connie,

This is disappointing to hear. I was hoping it would be a good program. I
have the download, but have not tired it yet.

The new ACT 2007 version is supposed to be better designed for Outlook
integration, but I don't know.

I see that this thread died, with no feedback on MX Contact. I am
evaluating it right now! I have been using BCM and realize that it has

[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov]

I see that this thread died, with no feedback on MX Contact. I am
evaluating it right now! I have been using BCM and realize that it has
limitations, but so far I am not liking MX Contact. There are just too
many steps to do simple functions and I don't have time to learn all of
this. I can't imagine how I could ever train anyone else to use it.
(BTW, I have been a software trainer, so I am not a novice!) There are
so many folders and I think it would get confusing. I can't spend
hours learning how to use something that doesn't seem intuative at all.

I wanted to avoid ACT; I used it before successfully, but I thought
software that used the Outlook interface would be better. So far I
don't think so. If there is some great advantage to this, please tell
me what it is. I am not seeing it. Thanks.

Hi Connie,

I've been away from the group for a little bit. Have you tried BCM 2007 yet?
It feels like an entirely new product.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
See the tips and tricks section on my website for video tutorials on BCM
Send a smile to Microsoft (Office 2007 Beta feedback tool)!
http://tinyurl.com/m4omy