I will start this off by admitting that we honestly deal with salespeople first and foremost when it comes to selling CRM software. It’s a given in our world that we will meet many of our prospects by having that discussion on how to manage the pipeline. But, what if I told you that you could change the way your business operates from front to end? From the marketing people to the salespeople all the way to the people in the field.
We are working with a number of oil and gas companies to help them streamline not only their sales processes but we are also working with them to help make the lives of their field workers a lot better. I will demonstrate a couple of examples:
1. Offline Capabilities
We are introducing a number of offline capabilities to our customers using primarily SugarCRM but also customizations that help companies track things such as work orders or inventory items. In Alberta, where the oil and gas industry is by far the biggest economic driver, we run into businesses that have field teams who have zero access to cellular networks when in the field. We introduce offline sync capabilities to manage this and keep everybody “in sync”.
2. Task Management
Who’s doing what? Or better yet, who didn’t do something they committed to? Taking a business system such as SugarCRM and turning it into a full-fledged accountability system is one way to stay on top of things. Not only can you track tasks but you can also build workflow capabilities to create reminders and automate a lot of the work that you do today.
3. Automate, automate automate
Did you forget to call your most important customer within the last 30 days? Do you have a stricter schedule to follow up and see how things are going? Using workflow automation in a CRM system is a way to keep you on top of things without having anything slip through the cracks.
These are a few thoughts on things that I am constantly talking to businesses about.
