CRM Command

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the vice president of sales for a vertical SaaS energy company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CRM Command?

We needed an initial Salesforce implementation, which included a mixture of custom solution components.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted our Salesforce implementation to have appropriate behaviors and tracking mechanisms and to fit our existing sales process. We also wanted it to support simple user interactions and to help with organizational transparency and reporting.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed six different Salesforce implementation companies before choosing CRM Command. Their sales process knowledge impressed us, and we thought they were the best vendor to implement the sort of solution we were looking for.

Describe the project in detail.

They did iterative project scoping and later conducted user interviews and training. We’ve since relied on them for ongoing maintenance and additional projects.

What was the team composition?

We worked primarily with Frank (Senior Salesforce Consultant, CRM Command).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We now use Salesforce to create our quarterly sales reports. Our team has access to all account details and communication, which helps us sell and service accounts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had a good working relationship and communicated easily whenever we needed to.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They always kept us informed of the reasoning behind any changes and the associated timeline.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we’d like to work with them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We’re a commercial real estate lending platform. I’m the VP of operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CRM Command?

We needed help in setting up our Salesforce software and process.

What were your goals for this project?

To have a Salesforce interface and process that lined up with our overall sales process. We wanted the interface to be simple enough for our salespeople to use, yet informative enough to generate quality reports.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were a referral from our CEO, who had himself received recommendations from CRM’s previous clients.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They implemented the Salesforce software for us, made edits as needed once we started using it, set up reports for us, and trained employees on how to use it.

First, they reviewed our sales process to see how Salesforce could be optimized to fit it. After that, they walked me through how it works, and we brainstormed together the best way to make it work.

Their advice around what needed to change in order to set up the software helped us decide what was significant, and what was not.

What was the team composition?

Frank (Senior Salesforce Consultant, CRM Command) was the only team member that worked on our account.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Salesforce has enabled us to be very organized in how we approach, sell to, and manage clients through our deal flow. It’s significantly helped our company's management team to review our activity and measure the success of the sales team.

CRM was very helpful in setting this up for us in a practical manner and training our employees to use it effectively.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very flexible, with our deadline planned early on. This was for the setup of the core system, and then any edits were to be made as needed.

Frank was the direct point of contact, as well as the person making changes to the system. That made the process easy, as our contact was someone who knew about the process throughout and could make helpful contributions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re very practical. Frank was very straightforward about which changes were worth it from a financial perspective and didn’t get carried away doing things we didn’t need.

They supported the idea of a simple system that helps our salespeople, rather than an overly complicated one that could be prohibitive. Their insights around how to set up the system for both salespeople and management were very helpful.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Scheduling with Frank was not always the easiest. I know that he’s busy and he made himself available as best as he could, but I think we could have been more efficient with time. That’s due to my busy schedule too. We could have had meetings to comprehensively go over changes, for example.

There were also some things in the system that had to be revised, and those could have been better communicated. However, overall, I’m very happy with how it all worked out, as well as with the cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president of CC Lynch & Associates, Inc., a sales and service company that specializes in water monitoring technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CRM Command?

We hired CRM Command to act as our Salesforce administrator and consultant.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to improve our CRM to gain valuable information about our customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We previously worked with their founder for several years. He understood our business well, which convinced us that he's a more effective and efficient choice than other vendors.

Describe the project in detail.

CRM Command handles all our administrative functions for using Salesforce. Their team integrates Salesforce to line up with certain workflows and processes to our improve our database structure, visibility, performance matrix, and visibility. In addition, they act as our business consultant and provide optimal strategies for implementations.

What was the team composition?

We work primarily with their founder.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They present several key performance indicators (KPI), dashboards, and reports that effectively showcases how they're optimizing our processes.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They communicate using email and occasional phone calls. They were prompt and thoughtful during conference calls, which made scheduling easy.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

CRM Command is professional, reasonable, and consultative. We can always put our trust in them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a steward of Zysense, a water analytical instruments business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CRM Command?

We were looking for a partner to help us with data migration for our CRM platform. We had a transition services agreement with the company we were pulling data from that we had to adhere to.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already put together a series of maps with another offshore company. The Frank (Owner, CRM Command) first looked at all the fields we had, which was about 20 by 20. We needed to figure out how much of the data we wanted to pull to our new Pivotal CRM platform. We cut our data amount down by probably 30%, but it still took some time to finalize our data map. Because of our transition services agreement, we had to give the company we were pulling the data from a couple of days notice and could only periodically pull data. We started getting a clear idea of which data was corrupted and which data we could use. Then, Frank inputted the data into the Salesforce platform and gave advice on which data is usable.

Currently, he's working as our intermediary with Salesforce and providing additional guidance when necessary. He's also providing sales expertise. Frank's brilliant in making sure our products have an appropriate picture, product number, and purchase order for our contract manufacturer premium.

What is the team composition?

We work only with Frank, but he leverages many resources from his experience and business networks. He can easily access some folks at Salesforce and some experts from his previous company.

How did you come to work with CRM Command?

I knew the owner of CRM Command from a previous company we both worked for. We contacted him for CRM services after we found out he started his own business. He thoroughly understood the data and the platform we wanted to use.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $50,000–$75,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in January 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

CRM Command creates enormous value for us. Frank understands the Pivotal platform extremely well. Our infrastructure now has data on customers 20 years old. Our CRM system is clean and improving our acquisition process. The beauty is that Frank's not only a Pivotal expert, he's a salesman. He's an excellent sales leader and helping our sales team find solutions to global distribution. He's working directly with our field services to create quotes and appropriately put invoices together.

How did CRM Command perform from a project management standpoint?

Frank is responsive and communicates clearly. He's always available and updates us whenever an issue pops up. He conducts weekly calls to Salesforce to see how our platform is doing. He's logical, easy to get along with, and quick to find answers to our questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I migrated a lot of CRM platforms over the last 20 years. However, I never made the decisions on cost or the team we were going to use. CRM Command is experienced and professional. We have a wonderful relationship with Frank and trust in his skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Finding a way to leverage himself with customer-facing people. He's incredible and great at what he does, but this would be useful to his company.

Any advice for potential customers?

He's attentive and will listen to you. Give him an idea of what you want, and he'll help you understand what needs to be done. He'll help you map things logically.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a director of marketing for DecisionQuest. We are a jury research trial consulting company that works with law firms as they approach trial, helping them create effective trial strategies and improve their presentation techniques.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CRM Command?

We had an old and disorganized Salesforce Database that I inherited upon another employee’s departure. I immediately reached out to CRM to work with me for improving it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they analyzed our Salesforce database and functionality to assess whether it was set up properly. We then made the necessary programmatic and structural changes and then began an effective training program for our staff.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with Frank (CRM Command, Founder and President).

How did you come to work with CRM Command?

They were recommended to me by a consultant that I’m working with.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April of 2017. Based upon their great work, we have kept them on as a monthly retainer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They did such a good job restructuring and reorganizing that we’ve kept our relationship ongoing. We have a much firmer grasp on our pipeline than we did previously and our employees are happy with the new Salesforce.

How did CRM Command perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed excellently, were readily available, and communicated effectively, mostly via email, screen-sharing, and google documents.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There has never been a problem they couldn’t solve and often do a better job than I thought they could.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key for these kinds of projects.