BCM 2007 Basic Workflow

[maxMaraj]

What is the best way to acomplish the following below?


I have been working with bcm for there months but is still not clear
on the best way to use it. I already got the dummy book by lon. Seems
I need a baby book about BCM.
This is what i have to tract/use BCM for.

I am a general contractor.

I store subs/vendors and clients who have multiple jobs as a business
contact.

I have incomming sales calls.
First i tried to set up the sales call as an opportunity linked to a
dummy contact or account called sales calls. BUT I could not
communicate with the oportunity by e-mail from the new history button.
Also no place to store name.phone/address/email etc.

So now I set up new sales calls as accounts linked to sales
contacts.BUT now I do not have the nifty opprtunities reports and
funnels.

My logic is flawed.
MY take on this is a sales call comming in ( say we get 10 a day)
should be an opportunity.
Of the 10 opprtunity one pans out to a actual sale. at that time it
gets upgraded to an account.(have to retype it as an account).

I then create a project.( tasks templates I have been following in
another post)

now the problem is synchronizing with mobile PC.(seems only contact
info is synced,I tried the latest release but cannot see account
info(phone/email/address)



Other than the above BCM 2007 is Great!!!!! MSFT has helped the small
guy again!


Thanks
Max

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Max:

Here are my recommendations for you:

I would enter every new lead as a Business Contact and get as much info from
them as possible, including mailing address so you can send them direct mail
plus emails. You could also use the address for analyzing where your
business is coming from with a mapping program. This allows you to always
follow up with emails even if you don't get any initial business from them.

Now, entering an opportunity is up for discussion at this stage. It's more
data entry to create an Opportunity right then, linked to the contact, but
as you said, it's nice to see those opportunity funnel reports. Another
strategy is to not enter an Opp until you feel more sure that you're a
contender and have a chance of winning. The problem here is following up
and an Opp gives you that ability.

The only reason I can see for your using Accounts is to be able to use
Microsoft Accounting. Those would be setup when you won a deal and the
business contact could be linked to that account. This is not the most
elegant setup but I think it can work for you with less data entry...

Hope that helps,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[maxMaraj]

Max:

Here are my recommendations for you:

I would enter every new lead as a Business Contact and get as much info from
them as possible, including mailing address so you can send them direct mail
plus emails. You could also use the address for analyzing where your
business is coming from with a mapping program. This allows you to always
follow up with emails even if you don't get any initial business from them.

Now, entering an opportunity is up for discussion at this stage. It's more
data entry to create an Opportunity right then, linked to the contact, but
as you said, it's nice to see those opportunity funnel reports. Another
strategy is to not enter an Opp until you feel more sure that you're a
contender and have a chance of winning. The problem here is following up
and an Opp gives you that ability.

The only reason I can see for your using Accounts is to be able to use
Microsoft Accounting. Those would be setup when you won a deal and the
business contact could be linked to that account. This is not the most
elegant setup but I think it can work for you with less data entry...

Hope that helps,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104www.pinpointtools.com


What is the best way to acomplish the following below?

Thanks for the reply lon. Your book helps also.

Max

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Max,

I would echo Lon suggestions. Initial qualification of a new Lead for
business opportunity is a necessary first step before going through all of
the additional data entry time. I never create an opportunity record until I
have qualified the lead and am confident that it appears worth while to
pursue further. Think of the opportunity record as a "master-task" or
project whose sole objective is to move the opportunity into a successfully
closed sale. Evolving your opportunity into a closing stage may involve
numerous subsequent sub-tasks, meetings, correspondence, etc. which of course
are all linked to the opportunity as they occur. Because your opportunity
record is required to be linked to a business contact, all of these data
items that are linked to the opportunity will of course roll up onto the
linked business contact record as well.

-THP

Max:

[quoted text clipped - 71 lines]
Thanks for the reply lon. Your book helps also.

Max

 

[maxMaraj]

Max,

I would echo Lon suggestions. Initial qualification of a new Lead for
business opportunity is a necessary first step before going through all of
the additional data entry time. I never create an opportunity record until I
have qualified the lead and am confident that it appears worth while to
pursue further. Think of the opportunity record as a "master-task" or
project whose sole objective is to move the opportunity into a successfully
closed sale. Evolving your opportunity into a closing stage may involve
numerous subsequent sub-tasks, meetings, correspondence, etc. which of course
are all linked to the opportunity as they occur. Because your opportunity
record is required to be linked to a business contact, all of these data
items that are linked to the opportunity will of course roll up onto the
linked business contact record as well.

-THP

[quoted text clipped - 71 lines]

Thanks
Max

Thanks for the reply lon. Your book helps also.

Max

Thanks. I was working in reverse.

max