Order customers based on the moment we need to contact them

[Frieswijk]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a way to order/segment potential customers based on the moment we need to contact them. For example: we want to contact some customers when we are about to develop a new product, while we want to contact other customers when the new product in production and yet another group we want to contact when the new product is already implemented in the solution of previous mentioned customers.

However, these moments are not fixed in time, it is therefore not possible to segment these customers based on a date-property and add a task to contact them when the selected date has passed. An other option I could think of is a custom dropdown-property and use list to segment the customers, but then I run into the problem that this property needs to stay up-to-date and I don't know how to automate this (it will not be consistently done if it needs to be manually updated after new contact with a customer).

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to tackle this problem?

Thanks in advance!

[Brenner]

Hello, @Frieswijk ,

@ScottPennwood replied perfectly! 

In some cases, I like to use Custom Objects either. 

In this case, you can use one register for each stage of your customer's moment, with all the information that you need. 

You can use this example to inspire your operations, if they make sense. 

And in this link, you can understand how you can create a custom object.

Hope I helped you! 

Cheers friend. 

[ScottPennwood · Accepted solution]

Hey @Frieswijk,

I'd approach this in the simplest way - a multiple-select field called "Comms Type" with options of:

- About To Develop New Product
- New Product in Production

- New Product Implemented

Then you can build active lists based on this enrollment.

And either use workflows to update these fields, or it sounds more practical for you to do this manually (as you've not defined what the criteria is for these people to be recieving aforementioned comms!) Perhaps create a conditional card on the Contact object that shows up with these options, and enforces users to specify one once the Contact reaches the Customer lifecycle stage?

(Sorry @PamCotton I started writing this yesterday almost straight away and forgot to hit publish!)

[Frieswijk]

Hey @ScottPennwood,

Thanks for your input! I will make a new property and use list to segment the companies.

However, I'm still struggle with the best way to update the property based on new activity. I discussed with our team, but it is not possible specify the criteria to move a company from one group to another as it based on to many factors. Is it possible to create a task for the company owner to update/check this property when a new activity occurs?

Thanks!

[ScottPennwood]

Hi @Frieswijk,

Short answer - yes it's possible to set a task when an activity occurs using workflows. You can either specify the trigger type as Event (and get specific, like Call Ended, Meeting Outcome Changed etc) or go a bit more all-encompassing and use Filter Criteria --> Contact Property --> Last Activity Date --> Is Known.

Long answer - This could end up being quite tedious for the teams. Consider how many activities happen each day, it could end up being hundreds of new tasks per day to update something that potentially doesn't even need updating. When faced with manually going through hundreds of additional tasks or sitting down and putting their heads together to come up with a set of defined criteria, sales teams often find a way to put together a list. For example:

• About To Develop New Product
  • All subscribers + leads on the database
    • Lifecycle Stage = Lead/Subscribers
• New Product in Production
  • All contacts who are part of in-progress deals
    • Excluding contacts who are part of contract negotiation stage
  • All contacts who are part of closed-lost deals, with "Reason For Loss" = Feature Not Available
  • Contacts who work for companies with 500+ employees
    • OR companies with $10m+ rev
    • OR companies who have more than 2 products from us already 
• New Product Implemented
  • The world is your oyster

There will be a set of criteria the teams are working to, even if it's in their head. Ask them to tell you why they have set each of the contactsto recieve the "New Product in Production" and look for patterns. It will save them a lot of time in the long run, and hopefully they will see the benefit to spending the short amount of time early on to get this set up properly.

Also because sometimes the answer is "It's just a vibe" you can also leave the option available to manually update this property 🙂

[Frieswijk]

Thanks! This really helps. I will discuss your input with the team!

[PamCotton]

Hey @Frieswijk, thank you for posting in our Community!

I would suggest you create a “Contact Stage” property (e.g., “Pre-Development,” “In Production,” “Post-Implementation”) and set up workflows to automatically update it based on milestones or customer activity.

To our top experts, @TomM2 and @Brenner any recommendations for @Frieswijk matter?

Thank you,

Pam