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Do I need a CRM System if I have PrintVis?- Touchpoints between Business Central and PrintVis

Right Reading: Do I need a CRM System if I have PrintVis?

Yes and no. It depends.

It depends primarily on the business size, the sales force and how much available time a company has, to maintain a CRM system. CRM requires regular updating, including maintenance of contacts and interactions, to be an effective tool for a sales force.

Microsoft Dynamics Sales is a super cool CRM system that integrates perfectly into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. PrintVis works with the less advanced BC opportunities and the facilities inside Business Central.

An important thing to consider is whether your company has the employee “bandwidth” to maintain the information for which the CRM sales module provides shelf space. Do you have the manpower - and is this a worthwhile effort - when we weigh the value of informational insight it gives us?

Factors to Consider:

  • The Size of your Company and Sales Staff It’s a good idea to evaluate the breadth of your sales (and marketing) team to determine how ready you are for a CRM system, and whether you need one at all.
  • Is the Owner also the Salesperson? This is often the case for a small or mid-sized business. If so, he may act as his own CRM system. Should the company be large enough to have a dedicated sales staff, better and more coordinated organization should be added to the sales to avoid loss of information.
  • Do You have Sales Offices in Locations other than the Production Facilities? If so, the case is strong for a CRM system with more rigorous follow-up.

  • Do you have Dedicated Staff on the Road? They may show some resistance to regularly updating a CRM system from the field – but the sales manager’s strategy and overview depends on it.

    • Nature of the salespeople Some sales people just cannot be reined in by anything. We must consider whether a larger investment in a CRM system can ever be beneficial - if the system won’t be used properly.

    • Also, will they have the appropriate hardware (tablets, etc.) to make it easy to use?

    • Nature of Products and Quantities There are many obvious differences between selling ships or farm equipment and selling print. Therefore, let’s consider the benefits of expanding sales to the cost of maintaining systems.
    • Do we have few returning customers (once we catch them)?
    • Or, do we have a lot of come-and-go customers where each individual job is infrequent -or frequent but small?
    • We should ask what steps we can take to best market to our customer segments. Also, how much time per prospect should we budget when we consider what the benefit is?
    • Should we run a broad campaign of seasonal offers or a targeted long-haul with a tailored follow-up?

There are probably many more things to consider.

For many companies, CRM is a necessity from a managerial point of view. But for many more, CRM is a daunting issue they would prefer to sideline for as long as possible.

The good news is you can work with PrintVis and the Business Central database and get pretty far with some basic setup and out-of-the-box functionality.

Let’s look at how you can do this.

CRM-type Work in PrintVis:

First and foremost, PrintVis is a great estimating tool. Here’s a scenario where we use standard PrintVis functionality to make a small, simple and manageable CRM aimed at simpler implementations - where the focus should be more on the sales part than on Mailchimp campaigns and automated pings.

We handle estimations (and the entire order lifecycle) within what we call Cases.

The Case contains a description of the job to be produced, with the technical specifications and either rough or very detailed pricing.

In PrintVis we handle creating quotes for contacts (you can also generate quotes without any contacts, but that will not make it very “CRM-ish”). We have a list of contacts (prospective customers) and we can use the Contact Card to add more detailed information.

When we create a new quote for a contact, we can then ascribe value to what this “opportunity” (in CRM terminology) would be. We’ll approach a Case quote for a potential customer as an opportunity. Perhaps we have even created some special Status Codes, so we can sort out where in the decision funnel this opportunity sits at any given moment.

Using an ordinary Case list, we can filter into the quotes/opportunities we have in the system, per funnel stage, per salesperson. Since we made the estimate while describing the product we hope to sell, we also have a rough idea of not only the turnover value, but also of the profitability.

Our sales team recently ran two campaigns, one of which was aimed at large format print for food and beverages companies and the other a Spring campaign for realtors with some package solutions for smaller businesses. From this, the respondents were noted and followed up.

As a Salesperson, I could then do very basic stuff like creating each of ‘my’ contacts with an opportunity Case Card and give it a sales value only; but I could also utilize the Quick Quote setup to help me point out some rough parameters and get closer to this value using PrintVis estimation template functions.

I will now have a Case List – and can see all my opportunity Cases in a single list.

I will use the Deadline field on each case to plan when to work on this next, and I’ll rework this date every time I have a touchpoint with the prospect.

I can keep emails and notes in the Folders for each opportunity case.

When something progresses with an opportunity, I can move it to the next Status Code in the funnel stage (however I’ve chosen to group these stages).

I can keep notes in the internal description or store them as a document in the Case folders. I can use many of the different standard PrintVis reports if I want to get an overview of values or other detailed information about the Cases I am working.

My boss can also see these overviews – as could my fellow sales consultants.

My boss wants me to record the time I use chasing each customer so that she can calculate Cost of Acquisition. That is not my favorite task as a salesperson, so she’s agreed that I don’t have to start/stop my time recordings, but I can enter “guesstimated” hours each time I update the Status Code. We do this not to influence my paycheck or to make sure that I am working my full hours, but rather to make sure that the gain has been worth the effort once the sale comes through.

When the customer is hooked and accepts my quote, they may want a few revisions or ask for pricing on additional quantities. If I started with a very rough price, now is the time to send this over to an experienced estimator (or I can continue myself if its not too complicated). I do this by simply changing the Status Code.

I will remain the salesperson on this case, but the coordinator or estimator will now be in charge.

When they come back with a refined price, I will generate a quote and send it via email.

Then I will change the status to QUOTE SENT and have them on my list to chase for the order.

For this I will also use the Deadline field.

Most of the time the order comes through, I change the status again to ORDER, and stop thinking about it. But if the customer declines the quote, I will change the status to QUOTE DECLINED and enter the rejection code which has been set up in the system.

This way we can over time see which reasons we get for rejections. For example, if price is the reason given by many, we can look at the Product Groups and consider whether we’re too expensive in certain areas. We then discuss this with management, and either adjust pricing or choose to walk away from such jobs. We don’t want to spend time chasing orders which we can’t produce at a competitive price.

Later, when the jobs I do get are in production, I can get an overview of their projected and actual profitability and also know that the system is automatically keeping an eye on the commissions I am entitled to. I can generate these reports myself, so I can check that all is as it should be.

Conclusion

This was just one example scenario where some of the options in PrintVis were chosen. I hope to demonstrate that CRM-type tasks need not only be accomplished with expensive and sometimes overwhelming CRM software, but can often be handled in a low-key way in the system you’re already using to manage all the other aspects of the orders. You can even use the same reports at a very early stage - and it will give you precise information about your efforts and results.

PrintVis is available either as perpetual or subscription and can be hosted in the cloud or your own server. Our solution is sold and implemented exclusively through our network of highly skilled partners in Europe, North America, The Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Want to learn more? Get in touch and book a demo today.

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