Bucket Wonders has a nationwide distribution network for their souvenirs, which range from personalized keychains and magnets to engraved wood frames. Sales managers oversee sales reps, who contract with Bucket Wonders and other suppliers to service souvenir shops around the country. Bucket Wonders was gaining new accounts, but they were losing existing accounts due to lack of service. Nate, the owner, came to Start Studio wanting a CRM to help managers follow up with their reps, so accounts didn’t fall through the cracks. I reviewed the app requirements, as requested, and listed, in a spreadsheet, what I thought would be included in the UI. However, I wasn’t convinced that the app, as described, would address the issues Bucket Wonders faced. I suggested the following.

I believe the app, as described in my “CRM component list” covers everything Nate asked for. However, I don’t think it will meet his goals for the product. This doc includes my rationales and recommendations.

Problems

My assumption is that you're facing the following two problems:

1. Sales reps, sales managers, and even general admins are not aware of all of the follow-up that needs to happen, or when it needs to happen.

2. These people probably know they should be doing this follow-up; but they're busy, and it seems like it would take a lot of effort, so it goes by the wayside. 

The app as described in the aforementioned spreadsheet (I’m calling this the “initial app”) provides all of the data each of these user types needs to take the action to accomplish your goals, thus meeting the threshold requirements for Problem 1. 

But the data is provided in such a way that it will take a lot of effort to review and interpret it all, in order for the users to determine what actions they need to take. Having the initial app may reduce that effort from what it currently is without an app, but it’s still a lot of information to sort through, and seems like a lot of work. In that regard, it doesn’t address Problem 2, and I’m afraid people just won’t use it.

You could require people to use it, because it’s part of their job, and fire them if they don’t. But that’s also a lot of work for you.

Recommendations

In order to better address Problem 1, and address Problem 2, I recommend the following:

For General Admins:

• The initial app provides a lot of data for admins to sort through to determine what’s going on, what’s most pertinent to them, and to be able to see if their sales managers are following up with reps as needed.

• We should help general admins by: 

  • Providing a dashboard, so they can see a big-picture overview, including:

• Not lapsed vs. lapsed accounts

  • They should be able to drill down to see a list of lapsed accounts, including the sales rep and sales manager assigned to them

  • We could even group this per sales manager or per rep

• Up-to-date rep reviews vs. overdue rep reviews

  • They should be able to drill down to see a list of overdue rep reviews, and the sales manager assigned to them

  • We could even group this per manager

• Orders per month

  • Number of approved orders

  • Ideally this would include quantity of product ordered

  • Ideally, this would show total dollar amount in approved orders

  • Ideally, this would have a separate line showing average approved orders, product quantity, and total dollar amount for each month, providing context for how we’re doing this year vs. previous years. 

• The general admin should be able to quickly assess how things are going (ideally in relation to past years), and how this app is affecting the bottom line. They should also be able to drill down into problem areas to get details, and then follow up with sales managers as needed.

For Sales Managers:

• The initial app puts a large burden on sales managers to follow up with their reps and make sure accounts are being serviced in a timely manner. This also means that most of the app’s success depends on sales managers taking the time to do this. While some follow-up will always fall on the sales manager, a lot of it could be done through the app, freeing up the sales managers’ time, and making them more likely to get their work done.

  • The initial app also requires the sales manager to track and follow up on all follow-up action items for their reps, because reps don’t have access to their action items. 

  • The initial app requires sales managers to export and email a report to reps, so that reps have access to data pertinent to them.  

• We should help sales managers by: 

  • Highlighting which reviews are overdue, so those take precedence. (The initial app does this by listing rep reviews by most recent review date, with oldest first, but it requires the sales manager to interpret the data to figure that out.)

  • Highlighting which reviews should take place soon.

  • Reminding them, via a weekly email, which of their rep reviews are overdue, and which are coming up this week (so that hopefully these happen before the review hits overdue status).

  • Highlighting which reps have lapsed accounts (and displays), and the number for each. (These may require an additional call, even if they’re not up for review soon.)

  • Highlighting which reps have overdue follow-up items, so they can follow up with them.

  • Giving sales reps access to their data within the app, so the sales manager doesn’t have to follow up on all of their action items, and can see when action items are done. And so the sales rep doesn’t have to remember to export a pdf and email it to the rep.

  • Reinforcing desired outcomes with recognition for:

    • Low number of rep reviews overdue

    • Low number of lapsed accounts for their reps

    • Low number of overdue action items for their reps

    • Low total number of incomplete action items for their reps

    • High number of orders submitted by their reps

    • High dollar amount in orders submitted

    • There are several metrics we could use for encouragement and recognition.

    • These could be displayed on a dashboard, in notifications (email or in-app), or both. We could even show that their reps are in the top X% or something — competition motivates people.

• Sales Managers should have their data prioritized by actions they need to take, so they don’t have to spend time interpreting data if they don’t want to. They can get to their action items, and move on with other things they need to do. They should be recognized for good performance. We should also reduce their workload by giving sales reps access to their data within the app.   

For Sales Reps:

• The initial app exposes nothing to sales reps, except a pdf report, on which they can’t take direct action. The report contains a lot of data, and therefore requires a lot of time to digest and interpret, lessening the likelihood that it will be used, especially by a contractor who feels they can make more money doing other things. The report is also easy to lose among all of their other emails, so unless they take the initiative to download it and store it somewhere for reference, they’re not likely to look at it more than once.

• Because sales reps cannot access their list of follow-up action items, sales managers end up being primarily responsible for remembering and following up on sales reps’ action items.

• We should help reps by:

  • Giving them access to their data in the app. 

  • Highlighting which accounts are lapsed, and need immediate action

  • Highlighting which accounts will soon lapse (in 7 days or so), so hopefully they don’t lapse.

  • Reminding them, via a weekly email, which accounts have lapsed, and which will lapse in the coming week.

  • Allowing them to drill down into specific accounts and see:

    • displays

    • display products

    • non-display products

    • links to the forms needed to reorder each of those products for this specific store

  • Giving them access to their action items in the app

    • Highlighting which action items are overdue

    • Highlighting which action items are due soon (in the next 7 days or so)

    • Reminding them, via a weekly email, about overdue action items, and action items due this week.

  • Reinforcing desired outcomes with recognition for:

    • Low number of lapsed accounts

    • Low number of overdue action items

    • Low number of incomplete action items

    • High number of orders submitted

    • High dollar amount in orders submitted.

    • There are several metrics we could use to provide encouragement and recognition within the app.

    • These could be displayed on a dashboard, in notifications (email or in-app), or both. We could show that they’re performing in the top X% of sales reps. 

• Sales Reps should have access to their data and be responsible for following up on lapsed accounts, keeping accounts from lapsing, submitting orders, and completing their action items.

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