Manage companies, individuals, and business relationships holistically, from target customers to active customer accounts.
In direct selling, customer management is more comprehensive than simply maintaining company, personal, address, and contact information. The customer organization, decision-makers, sales history, contracts, prices, credit terms, and open transactions must all be considered within the same business relationship.
When a target customer is qualified, they can be matched with an existing customer or a new customer account can be created. During this conversion process, activities, notes, contacts, and opportunity information on the lead should not be lost.
It should be clear who creates, approves, and modifies which customer data. When the sales team updates relationship information, tax, credit, or legal matters should be managed through authorized corporate processes.
Manage the customer not as a record to which a sales opportunity is tied, but as a holistic business relationship encompassing the organization, people, circumstances, and long-term value.