The Build

Next, it’s time to build! Use the following sections (worth 5 points each) as minimum guidelines by which you should build out your CRM.

 Lead Intake 

Create a Zoho Form that the business could embed on their website. It should ask for a minimum of First/Last Name and Email (like a ‘Contact Us’ form), but can definitely be more complex (like a Financial Health Questionnaire). This should create a Lead record in the CRM, ready to enter some sort of lead qualification process. Additionally, you need to:

• Notify a sales rep that there is a new lead
• Create a task to reach out to that lead within 2 days

  CRM Simplification

Remove any unneeded modules and fields. Nothing “extra” should be visible. Create the following custom views as well, to help the agency Zoho users better navigate the CRM:

• ‘My Uncontacted Leads’
• Big, Open Deals
  • (Deals not yet closed that are greater than $10,000)

  Lead Qualification

Create a blueprint that helps users qualify the Leads. It should start at the ‘Not Contacted’ status, include the ability to follow-up with Leads later, disqualify them, or convert them to a Contact, Account, and Deal. It’s probably best to run the blueprint on the “Lead Status” field. The blueprint (with built-in workflow rules, if you want) should feature the following:

• Every transition has a message
• Ask for the requisite information in order to convert the Lead
  • Account Name
  • Deal Size (could just be an estimate at this point)
  • Lead Source (if not already filled out)
  • Closing Date (could just be an estimate at this point)
  • Some sort of a ‘Deal Type’ field
• Auto-creation of a task at some point
• Automated email sent out at some point
• Some way to track/categorize WHY Leads are lost
• For the Deals module (once leads are converted), enable the Zoho Sign for CRM extension and create a mail merge template that you can send out from the Deals module

 Data Imports 

After you have set up your Lead Qualification Blueprint, follow the steps in this lesson in our first CRM course to import the sample CSV provided to the Leads module. Beyond the directions provided there, make sure to import everyone with a Lead Status of ‘Not Contacted.’

Test out your blueprint by pushing a few records through and converting them to Contacts/Deals/Accounts so that there is data in those modules for the reports in the following task.

Pipeline Reporting

You can keep all of the default Deal Stages if you’d like. We’d like to see the following for reports:

• Use Zoho Analytics to build some pipeline reports, throw them in a dashboard, and add that dashboard to the CRM as a web tab
  • A chart showing the # of Leads in each Lead Status
  • A report showing the ‘Expected Revenue by Stage’
  • A report showing the # of Deals in each stage, broken out by Deal Owner
  • A widget with the count of Deals closing in the next 30 days