Uncover opportunities to improve the ranking of customers in an internal CRM system used by the Sales team.
PROJECT SCOPE
Clients: Executive leadership; Sales team utilizing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system
Timeframe: 3 weeks
Role: UX Researcher
Methods: Subject-Matter-Expert Interview, Rapid Ethnography, Survey
Tools: Microsoft Forms, UserTesting, Zoom
Project Overview
BACKGROUND
The company utilizes an in-house CRM system to identify potential/current customers to visit. Each customer is given "Sales Ranking" on a scale of one to three, with one being the highest priority to visit and three being the lowest priority.
The algorithm used to determine these rankings was developed nine years ago, and executive leadership has recognized the need to update and refresh this system.
OBJECTIVES
How are Sales Representatives using the CRM system when setting up their weekly visits?
What customers are Sales Representatives calling/visiting? Why?
What specific customer information is used to identify "good" customers, and how can the "Sales Rank" system better reflect that?
Methodology
Subject-Matter-Expert Interviews
Rapid/Focused Ethnography
Survey
Subject-Matter-Expert Interviews
Before beginning tailored research, it was important to first understand the current usage and calculation of Sales Rank. To do so, a Discovery Workshop was held with representatives from various Sales and Operations roles.
A Discovery Workshop was chosen due to it's guided yet informal nature, allowing for honest feedback.
Similar to traditional stakeholder interviews, a conversation guide was completed with the goal to better understand the current problems associated with the Sales Rank system.
SUBJECT-MATTER-EXPERT INTERVIEW KEY FINDINGS
When deciding who to visit, Sales Representatives prioritize different information than that used to calculate "Sales Rank."
On top of not understanding the Sales Rank calculation, sales trainers and reps vocalized they often prioritized potential spend and web activity when deciding who to visit, which are two activities not used to calculate Sales Rank.
Sales representatives may not visit "good" customers due to a low Sales Rank.
Sales reps view smaller customers with high potential as being worth their time to visit; however, these customers are often a lower Sales Rank.
If a rep visits too many lower Sales Rank customers, they won't meet their criteria of 75% Sales Rank 1 customers.
Focused Ethnography
METHODOLOGY
Participants: Nine sales reps were randomly selected who were based locally.
Focused Ethnography: Method was chosen due to quick turnaround time and organic nature of results. Participants were observed when choosing customers to visit for the week, focusing on the following parts of the scheduling process:
CRM System Tools (Steps taken on the system, filters used, and searches)
Decision-Making Process (Qualifying customer criteria & prioritization)
Challenges & Solutions (Obstacles & workarounds)
Emotional & Social Factors (Motivation, stressors, & satisfaction points)
Three teammates assisted with the observation and note collection process to decrease the time required for the research process. All assistants were given a note guide to follow, ensuring a uniform focus.
ANALYSIS PROCESS
I collected notes from the side-by-sides and utilized a rainbow spreadsheet to identify patterns and themes.
Findings were organized by the above highlighted criteria.
FOCUSED ETHNOGRAPHY KEY FINDINGS
When prioritizing who to visit, sales representatives rely on spend, contact activity, and criteria of previously successful visits.
SAMPLE SUPPORT
What criteria are sales reps using to identify “good” customers to visit?
Potential vs. actual: A good first indication if the visit will result in sales; Easy to scan customers for highest potential; Even though potential vs. actual was noted by some reps as occasionally being inaccurate, reps explain that it provides them an opportunity to dig into why that is.
Sales: Both YTD and R12 can inform the spending potential of customers; Reps used the chart of previous years spend and the date of last visit to identify impact of their visit.
The greatest opportunities for improvement involve increasing the accuracy of data and better integrating reports into Sales.Uline.
SAMPLE SUPPORT
Moderate Issue – Accuracy of data in the CRM system.
Potential vs. actual was noted as being inaccurate for some customers. For example: If potential was set for the Ship-To, as opposed to the Bill-To, if previous sales rep who visited estimated potential differently, or if displaying incorrectly due to a one-off occurrence (such as a large one-time warehouse purchase).
Company size may be underreported. If company size is underestimated, sales reps report missing out on valuable customer visits.
Survey
METHODOLOGY
Participants: Sales representatives were randomly selected to participate in the survey, with responses proportional to tenure at the company. Invites were sent until the base of 30 responses were collected.
Survey: Method was chosen due to quick turnaround time and quantitative results. Participants were asked questions about how they used the CRM system during the following steps of their scheduling process:
Searching (How they are utilizing the CRM system to narrow down results)
Finding Customers (What criteria is being looked at to identify "good" customers to visit)
ANALYSIS PROCESS
I collaborated with the Data Analytics team to refine results for quantitative visualization.
Freeform questions were synthesized using a rainbow spreadsheet to identify common patterns/themes.
SURVEY KEY FINDINGS
Data related to customer spend, new activity and potential spend are the most useful when determining who to visit.
Project Key Findings
How sales representatives define a "good" customer is different than the criteria used to determine a customer's Sales Rank.
Both during the focused ethnography and during the survey, sales reps were using criteria to determine who to visit that did not align with the Sales Rank calculation. Some examples include potential spend and account activity, which were perceived as very useful when determining whether a customer would be worthy of a visit.
Project Recommendations
Consider altering the Sales Rank calculation to incorporate the criteria prioritized by sales representatives.
While both the Focused Ethnography and the Survey indicated that sales reps are utilizing different criteria to identify "good" customers, further exploration by our Operations and Sales teams should be done to uncover the implication of this change.
For example, how will this shift the number of Sales Rank 1s in each area?
The most notably used criteria included potential spend and account activity.
Increase training on the purpose of Sales Rank.
Despite that many reps knew where to find Sales Rank, they often did not understand why a customer may be denoted in the highest ranking.
Without clearly understanding why the business prioritizes specific customers, sales reps may not believe that they are visiting the ones with the highest potential.