Understanding the basics of a CRM– and why it’s important.

What is a CRM and why should I use it?

A CRM is a database of business relationships and tools to help create and manage those relationships. It has four main components:

• Companies: businesses, accounts or organizations that you might want to interact with.

  • First Bite calls these targets, and organizes them by category (i.e, commercial, non-commercial, retail)

  • and type (ie, restaurants and bars, school districts, colleges & universities)

• Contacts: the specific people at companies and their contact information.

• Deals: the business targets associated with a specific contact or company. Deals progress along stages of a pipeline.

• Activities: the tasks, meetings, calls, emails, notes, or other actions taken to move deals forward or maintain relationships with contacts and companies. Tracking activities helps ensure follow-ups happen on time, and improves communication and relationship management.

How to use the First Bite CRM

Basic Setup

• Add team members: Team members are automatically added when they create an account. [See how to invite a teammate or create an account]

• Set up your pipeline and customizable sales stages

  • First Bite has default sales stages

Adding Companies

In First Bite, companies are pre-loaded in the Targets table, classified by category and type.

Notes and attachments can be added to companies on the company page.

Note: You can also add a company that isn't in First Bite. This is called an Unmatched Company and can be found in a table of unmatched companies.

Adding and tracking Deals

Deals can be added in bulk by searching for or filtering for a company in the Targets table and then using the action button to create a deal. Deals can also be added, managed and tracked on company pages and on the deals tab.

When creating a Deal, you will have the option to override the First Bite forecasted revenue and volume.

Tip: The Deals section has some unique filters that are useful when reviewing deals as a team.

Adding Contacts - Managing Contacts in First Bite

Contacts can be added to First Bite in three ways:

• Requesting contacts through the contact request process [link]

• Bulk uploading contacts on the contacts page

• Adding contacts manually on a company page or on the contacts page

Tracking Activities

Activities are automatically tracked in the Workspace > Activities page. Activities we currently track include:

• Deal creation

• Deal progression

• Notes

• Contact creation

• Tagging

• Product creation

Using the Dashboard

The dashboard (located in Performance > Dashboard) has a number of features that are helpful to review your pipeline activity, evaluate performance, and determine forecasting.

CRM Best Practices

Tip: Establish a weekly or monthly rhythm for deal review

While First Bite eliminates most of the data entry associated with using a CRM, it’s still important to keep deals up to date. The best way to encourage a team to keep a CRM updated is to have data driven sales performance conversations at the same time every week inside the platform. Ideally, sales teams either keep their deals updated in real time, or align on an accuracy cutoff time, for example, 8am ET every Wednesday.

Tip: Tie goals and bonuses to metrics you can measure in First Bite

Sales teams are more motivated to use the CRM when performance, like leads contacted or deals closed, which directly impacts their compensation.