Tracking main points of contact on accounts ensures timely updates throughout the relationship and identifies risk when main points of contact are not engaged.
Summary
Once the program is set up, this is the high-level workflow for your teams:
✨Identify main points of contact
This program considers the following fields to consolidate key contacts and provide an easy way to target certain contacts for playbooks and other automations:-
Contact Role: Clear definition of role on the account*-
Contact Status: Indicate when a contact has left the organization-
Referenceable: Willing to provide a reference-
Total Referenceable Contacts: # of referenceable contacts on the account
*Initial tagging of contacts is as simple as navigating to Data Explorer, and selecting the applicable role per contact. For ongoing maintenance, ensure this field is top of mind and updated regularly by including in a note template.
✨Capture customer meeting notes
Add a note template to ensure consistent input and ensure contact role is always up-to-date for any contact added to the note.
✨Add new key contacts
Add new contacts and make note of when you've engaged with the new contact.Setup Summary
Ready to get started? You can customize this program as you see fit. Here is the setup process for an "Contact Management" program:
-
Discovery
Successful programs have buy-in from key stakeholders. Spend time with key group(s) to validate program requirements. -
Define fields
Identify the contact details you want to track. -
Create a note template
Facilitate your team's input of details during the relationship. -
Update account-level layout
Provide visibility into your main points of contact on the account. -
Roll out your new program!
Train your team on expectations.
1. Discovery
Successful programs have buy-in from key stakeholders. Spend time with the key group(s) to validate program requirements. Here are some example questions that will inform your program setup.
| Question | Application |
|---|---|
|
What are the main roles that our customers have when interacting with our team? |
-Contact role picklist |
|
Which of these roles would we consider as our main points of contact that would be decision makers in renewal or expansion discussions? |
-Filtering criteria when building playbook outreach emails |
2. Define fields
Fields within Catalyst allow you to define the contact details you want to track.
Add the following fields on the Contacts object.
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
|
Contact Role |
The contact's role based on their interactions with our teams and responsibilities on the customer team. Expectation: The role is up to date per the last interaction with our team. | Picklist; allow users to select multiple vlaues: -Executive Sponsor or Buyer -Program Owner -Commercials Owner -Technical Stakeholder |
|
Salesforce / Referenceable |
This field is updated to TRUE when the CSM has positive affirmation that the contact is willing to be a reference. Expectation: It's important to pair this field against the account's health to validate outreach. *This field is important to share with cross-functional teams, so ensuring there is a related checkbox field in SFDC to sync is extremely helpful. Once synced, ensure that the default value in SFDC is set to False. |
True/False |
|
Contact Status |
This field is updated when anyone in the company has validated that this contact is no longer with the customer. Expectation: This should be used across all contact filters. *Though this is not a default field in Salesforce, most teams already have a field to track whether contacts have moved on from a customer. |
Picklist; example value: -Left organization |
Add the following fields on the Accounts object.
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
|
Total Referenceable Contacts |
This field should match with the number of active referenceable contacts on this account. Expectation: The CSM ensures this field is aligned whenever updating the referenceable contact field. *Alternatively, if you are syncing the "Referenceable" Contact level field back to Salesforce, you can build a DLRS to automate the aggregation. |
Integer |
Add the following picklist value to the Notes "Categories" field.
| Label / Unique ID | Description |
|---|---|
|
New Key Contact |
A note category for a new key contact added to the account. |
3. Create a note template
Note templates help facilitate your team's input of contact details during the risk cycle.
Create and save the following note template. Having a standard customer meeting note template is the foundation of ensuring your customer facing teams are tracking and keeping the same fields up to date. By including at least one account, contact, and opportunity field, it requires users to add at least one of each to their notes, which is best practice.
| Note Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Customer Meeting |
| Category | N/A |
| Body |
Meeting notes Reminder; you can format and paste into email as a follow-up.
Next meeting's agenda Reminder; these tasks get added to the account meeting layout. (Include new task lines by using the /task shortcut)
Reminder; ensure you have an account, contact, and opportunity record tied to this note. If there is a brand new contact on the line, add that contact and add the category "New Key Contact." |
4. Update account-level layout
Provide visibility into your main points of contact on the account.
Update the following layout with a segment module based on a key contact segment (if you don't already have this module). This view is helpful to see only contacts that have a Contact Role defined so that it's clear who are the main POCs.
You must save the layout before updating fields or resizing modules.
5. Roll out your new program!
When you're ready, you can enable your playbook and roll out the program to the team. Here are some recommendations for initial training.
Set aside training time for CSMs to learn the new process. Be sure to include:
- Goal of the new program and expected benefits
- What actions are required and expectation for completion
- Support resources for the new program
Try this starter template to build your training deck.