Sales CRM Project Guidance.

June 28, 2023

Our team is starting a project to re-invent the sales processes in our company and to implement a new CRM to support those processes. I'd like you to understand the 5 factors that I've shared with you below, to ask any follow-up questions you have from me about the 5 factors, and then to guide me through the process until we've ended up with a draft set of user stores that are specifically designed for the situation on our project. Factor #1. Our Project: We're running an agile project in which we need to perform role analysis, epic definition, and draft user stories. Our stakeholders prefer the Gherkin Format of user stories, and I'll give you feedback on the level of detail we need on the user stories by asking you to make our user stories "more detailed" or "less detailed". Factor #2. Our Goals: We are a large Canadian insurance provider specializing in the manufacturing of health insurance products primarily in the the individual market. Our customers are insurance distributors that help us sell our products to individuals. We do not sell directly to individuals. Rather, our distributors sell to individuals, and those individuals become our plan members that we support. Our sales team is responsible for finding and enlisting the distributors who can sell our products to individuals, therefore, we consider the distributors to be our customers. The goal the project is to help our sales teams: • Improve Customer Relationship Management • Increase Sales and Revenue • Enhance Marketing Effectiveness • Improve Customer Service and Support • Enable Data-driven Decision Making Factor #3. Our Domain/Subject Matter: Our sales team is 300 strong, and has a sales structure the company considers typical for an organization like ours. I don’t know much about this structure and will need your help to factor company structure, and job roles & duties when we do role analysis. Our project has not yet selected the CRM they wish to implement. I will need you to therefore provide solution agnostic Epics. Once we have our role analysis and epics, we can use the instructions from factor #1 to generate a list of user stories that are meaningful to our specific project. Are you ready to proceed, or do you have any questions for me?

Thank you for providing the detailed information about your project. I understand that you're running an agile project to reinvent your sales processes and implement a new CRM system. You've also mentioned five factors that are important for your project. Let's proceed by discussing each factor in more detail, and I'll ask you any necessary follow-up questions.

Factor #1: Agile Project and User Story Format

Could you please provide more information about the role analysis process? What specific aspects of roles are you looking to analyze?
Regarding the Gherkin Format of user stories, could you clarify what level of detail is expected in the user stories? Are there any specific requirements or preferences you have for the user story format?

Factor #2: Goals

To improve customer relationship management, could you specify any particular challenges or pain points your sales team currently faces in managing relationships with distributors?
When it comes to increasing sales and revenue, do you have any specific targets or metrics you aim to achieve?
Regarding enhancing marketing effectiveness, could you elaborate on the areas where you believe improvements are needed?
In terms of improving customer service and support, what are the key aspects that you want to address? Are there any specific pain points or feedback from customers that you're looking to resolve?
Could you provide more details on how you envision enabling data-driven decision making? What types of data or analytics capabilities do you believe would be beneficial for your sales team?

Factor #3: Domain/Subject Matter

Can you provide some insights into the existing sales structure in your organization? How are the sales teams currently organized, and what are the different roles and responsibilities within the sales team?
Are there any specific challenges or pain points related to the current sales structure that you would like to address through this project?

Please take your time to answer these questions, and we can proceed with generating a draft set of epics and user stories once we have a clear understanding of your requirements and project context.

I’ve responded to each of your questions in-line. Factor #1: Agile Project and User Story Format • Could you please provide more information about the role analysis process? What specific aspects of roles are you looking to analyze? • Hierarchy of roles • Clear delineation of company and customer roles • Interaction of roles with the proposed CRM system • The interaction of roles with one another • Interaction of Customers with the CRM systems • Regarding the Gherkin Format of user stories, could you clarify what level of detail is expected in the user stories? Are there any specific requirements or preferences you have for the user story format? • Please provide the user stories in a Role-Goal-Benefit format and the acceptance criteria in a Given-when-then format. • Please provide the level you see as the best fit, and I’ll prompt you for more "more detailed" or "less detailed" as required. Factor #2: Goals • To improve customer relationship management, could you specify any particular challenges or pain points your sales team currently faces in managing relationships with distributors? • Yes, our sales team doesn’t have a good way of classifying their leads and so they are often left wondering how they should approach a lead on a sales call. • When it comes to increasing sales and revenue, do you have any specific targets or metrics you aim to achieve? • Not yet. • Regarding enhancing marketing effectiveness, could you elaborate on the areas where you believe improvements are needed? • I don’t have much details yet, but please ask again in the future as I intend to ask my our stakeholders. • In terms of improving customer service and support, what are the key aspects that you want to address? Are there any specific pain points or feedback from customers that you're looking to resolve? • I don’t have much details yet, but please ask again in the future as I intend to ask my our stakeholders. • Could you provide more details on how you envision enabling data-driven decision making? What types of data or analytics capabilities do you believe would be beneficial for your sales team? • Our sales director cannot get an end to end view of their sales pipeline easily. They have expressed frustration at this as it prevents them from making the strategic decisions they must make to achieve their goals. Factor #3: Domain/Subject Matter • Can you provide some insights into the existing sales structure in your organization? How are the sales teams currently organized, and what are the different roles and responsibilities within the sales team? • Not yet, I was hoping you’d be able to give me a preliminary understanding of what this might look like based on the sales structure of other Canadian insurance providers. • Are there any specific challenges or pain points related to the current sales structure that you would like to address through this project? • I suspect there are, but I will not know all the details until I perform further discovery. Please take your time to answer these questions, and we can proceed with generating a draft set of epics and user stories once we have a clear understanding of your requirements and project context. Given our responses to your questions can we now proceed to defining the roles, epics and user stories?

Thank you for providing the additional information. Based on the responses, we have a clearer understanding of your requirements and project context. We can now proceed with defining the roles, epics, and user stories for your project. Let's start with role analysis.

Role Analysis: Based on the factors you mentioned, we need to analyze the following aspects of roles:

Hierarchy of roles: Please provide information about the different roles within the sales team and their hierarchical structure. This will help us understand the reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Clear delineation of company and customer roles: It's important to identify the roles specific to your company and those related to the customers, i.e., insurance distributors. Please provide details about the roles involved on both sides and their interactions.
Interaction of roles with the proposed CRM system: How will the different roles within your sales team interact with the CRM system? Understanding this will help us define user stories that cater to the specific needs of each role.
Interaction of roles with one another: Describe the collaboration and dependencies among the various roles within the sales team. This will help us identify any handoffs, communication needs, or coordination required between roles.
Interaction of customers with the CRM system: How will the insurance distributors (customers) interact with the CRM system? Are there any specific actions or information they need to access through the system?

Now, let's move on to defining the epics and user stories. Based on the provided goals, we can start with solution-agnostic epics that align with your project's objectives. Please note that these epics are not specific to any CRM system and focus on the high-level functionalities. Once we have the epics, we can break them down into more detailed user stories using the Role-Goal-Benefit format and acceptance criteria in the Given-When-Then format.

Solution-Agnostic Epics:

Lead Management:
- As a sales representative, I want to efficiently classify leads in the CRM system, enabling better prioritization and effective sales calls.
Sales Pipeline Visibility:
- As a sales director, I want to have an end-to-end view of the sales pipeline in the CRM system, allowing strategic decision-making and goal tracking.
Customer Relationship Management:
- As a sales representative, I want a comprehensive view of customer interactions and communication history in the CRM system, enabling personalized engagement and relationship building.
Marketing Effectiveness:
- As a marketing team member, I want integration between the CRM system and marketing platforms, facilitating targeted campaigns, lead nurturing, and tracking campaign effectiveness.
Customer Support and Service:
- As a customer support agent, I want access to customer data and interaction history in the CRM system, enabling personalized support and issue resolution.

Once we have the epics finalized, we can proceed with breaking them down into more detailed user stories. Please let me know if you would like to provide more specific details for any of the epics or if you have any further questions before we proceed.

Let's proceed.

Great! Let's proceed with breaking down the epics into more detailed user stories. I'll provide a set of user stories for each epic based on the information we have so far. Please review them and let me know if any adjustments or additional details are needed.

Epic 1: Lead Management User Stories:

As a sales representative, I want to be able to create new leads in the CRM system, capturing relevant contact and company information.
As a sales representative, I want to assign leads to specific territories or sales representatives in the CRM system for effective lead distribution.
As a sales representative, I want to be able to track and update the status of leads in the CRM system, such as "contacted," "qualified," or "closed," to prioritize my sales efforts.
As a sales representative, I want to view a lead's interaction history and any previous communication in the CRM system to have context before engaging with the lead.
As a sales manager, I want to generate reports and analytics on lead conversion rates and performance in the CRM system to monitor team progress and identify areas for improvement.

Epic 2: Sales Pipeline Visibility User Stories:

As a sales director, I want to view an overview of the sales pipeline, including stages, opportunities, and expected revenue, in the CRM system.
As a sales representative, I want to update the status and progress of opportunities in the CRM system, reflecting the current stage of the sales process.
As a sales manager, I want to track the performance of individual sales representatives and the team as a whole using real-time dashboards and reports in the CRM system.
As a sales director, I want to receive automated notifications or alerts in the CRM system when opportunities reach specific milestones or require attention.
As a sales representative, I want to easily access relevant customer and opportunity information within the CRM system during sales calls or meetings for effective communication.

Epic 3: Customer Relationship Management User Stories:

As a sales representative, I want to view comprehensive customer profiles in the CRM system, including contact details, interaction history, and preferences.
As a sales representative, I want to log customer interactions, such as calls, emails, or meetings, in the CRM system to maintain a complete record of communication.
As a sales representative, I want to schedule and manage follow-up tasks or activities related to specific customers within the CRM system.
As a sales manager, I want to track the overall engagement and satisfaction levels of customers through feedback or survey features integrated into the CRM system.
As a sales representative, I want to receive reminders or notifications in the CRM system for important customer events or milestones, such as birthdays or contract renewals.

Epic 4: Marketing Effectiveness User Stories:

As a marketing team member, I want to integrate the CRM system with marketing platforms, such as email marketing or marketing automation tools, to streamline lead nurturing and campaign management.
As a marketing team member, I want to track and analyze campaign performance metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, within the CRM system.
As a sales representative, I want to access marketing campaign information and materials in the CRM system, enabling me to provide consistent and up-to-date information to leads.
As a marketing team member, I want to segment leads and customers within the CRM system based on specific criteria, allowing targeted and personalized marketing efforts.
As a marketing manager, I want to generate reports on the effectiveness and ROI of marketing campaigns using data from the CRM system, supporting data-driven decision-making.

Epic 5: Customer Support and Service User Stories:

As a customer support agent, I want to access customer profiles and interaction history in the CRM system to provide personalized and efficient support.
As a customer support agent, I want to log and track customer inquiries or issues in the CRM system, ensuring timely resolution and proper follow-up.
As a customer support manager, I want to generate reports and analytics on customer support metrics, such as response times or issue resolution rates, using data from the CRM system.
As a sales representative, I want visibility into customer support activities and the status of open support tickets in the CRM system to provide comprehensive customer service.
As a customer support agent, I want to escalate critical or complex issues within the CRM system to the appropriate teams or individuals for prompt resolution.

Please review these user stories and let me know if they align with your project's goals and if any modifications or additional user stories are required.

This is excellent. Thank you. Now, can you please elaborate on user story 3 under epic 2 using the format we defined earlier?

Certainly! Let's elaborate on User Story 3 under Epic 2: Sales Pipeline Visibility using the defined format.

User Story 3: As a sales manager, I want to track the performance of individual sales representatives and the team as a whole using real-time dashboards and reports in the CRM system.

Role: Sales Manager Goal: Track performance of sales representatives and team Benefit: Real-time visibility and insights for effective performance management and decision-making

Acceptance Criteria: Given that I am a sales manager logged into the CRM system, When I access the dashboard or reporting section, Then I should be able to view real-time metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for individual sales representatives and the overall team. And I should be able to customize the metrics and timeframes displayed on the dashboard according to my preferences. And I should be able to drill down into specific time periods, territories, or sales reps to get more detailed performance data. And I should be able to compare performance metrics across different periods or sales reps for performance analysis. And I should be able to export the performance data or generate reports for further analysis or sharing with stakeholders. And the dashboard and reports should update in real-time, reflecting the latest data entered into the CRM system.

Please review the elaboration of User Story 3 and let me know if it accurately represents your requirements and if any adjustments or additions are needed.

Continue this conversation

|Terms of use|Privacy policy