No. 1 in the That’s Easy Series.

Part One

Now that was a great meeting! The demo went flawlessly, they loved the new product, and they want to add some options and move ahead quickly. Speaking of quickly, the Uber driver is here and I must get to the airport for that flight. So much to do! Update my sales team that’s scattered across offices and time zones, and today some are even on the road. Add a Contact. Pull in a new Technical Sales member to the team. Get a new quote prepared and sent. Schedule everyone for a follow-up meeting with the client.

In addition to great products, my company is known for great customer service, so this has to be done now, and done right. So, I pick up my smartphone and launch ASPEC CRM. I’ve got seven things to do before I get to the airport. Piece of cake, even if the airport was just around the corner.

Getting to the ASPEC record

“OK Google open ASPEC.com”

This opens ASPEC to the Home page on my Android phone. Clicking on the three bars in the upper left opens the navigation bar. I always select ‘All IBOs’ to get to the IBO (Identified Business Opportunity). The IBO form gives me the flexibility to do everything I need to quickly and easily right from that one form, saving time and navigation decisions.

All IBOs View

When I click on the ‘All IBOs’ option, I get a sortable and filterable list of all my IBOs. I’ve got 57 open ones at the moment and the quickest way to get the right one is to search on a specific term. If I know the IBO number, this is easiest. I usually don’t, so I search on my Contact’s last name.

I use Contact instead of Account as I’m not likely to have multiple open IBOs with one Contact, where I might have more than one with any single Account. As I type anything in the search field, ASPEC grabs any IBO that has that term, whether it’s someone’s name or address or whatever.

Once the search has pulled up the filtered list, I click on my IBO. In this case, there was only one with my search term, making the selection simple.

Add a Product to the IBO

The customer indicated they want to add an option to our quote, so I need to update it so the quote can be sent while I am traveling.

We demonstrated our Effluent Monitor and they liked it and wanted to add an optional system to it.

At the IBO form I just click ‘Edit’ and then the green ‘+’ icon in the Product frame. My ‘Add Product’ dialog pops up and I have my product groups, products, prices, and descriptions right there.

Select the Product, specify the quantity, and the IBO is updated instantly. Now I have both products there and the support team back in the office can revise and send the quote.

I save my revisions every time I do something like this to make sure I don’t lose anything.

Add a Contact to the IBO

The customer added a new Contact to their procurement team who should be attached to my opportunity record for everyone’s information. Still at the IBO form, I click ‘Edit’, start typing the Contact name in the ‘Add Contact’ field that opens. Select from the list that populates based on what I’m typing and his record is now attached for everyone to see and use.

Click ‘Save’ and I’m done.

The phone is ringing, so I’ve got to take a break and answer it. No problem, though, the Uber driver has only travelled about a mile in the two minutes since I started. Plenty of time to finish before getting to the airport, so I’ll be right back.