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 opportunities, 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 opportunities 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 creating 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 Opportunities table, classified by category and type.
Notes and attachments can be added to companies on the company page.
Note: On the off chance that you want to add a company not in First Bite, use the create a company button. Unmatched companies can be found in a table of unmatched companies. [Appendix: Unmatched Companies]
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Adding and tracking Deals
Deals can be added in bulk by searching for or filtering for a company in the Opportunities 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 tab has some unique filters that are useful when reviewing deals as a team….
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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
Tip: when adding a contact…
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Tracking Activities
Activities are automatically tracked in the activities tab. Activities we currently track include:
Deal creation, deal progression, notes, contact creation, tagging and product creation.
Using the Dashboard
The dashboard has a number of features that are helpful from
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.
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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, directly impacts their compensation.