The understanding of Pipeliner CRM features must go well beyond simple, functional explanations. Just understanding mechanical functionality doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll really grasp the product and all that it means, which is why I’m now writing this series on the concepts behind Pipeliner CRM functionality.
To begin with, there are three distinctly different types of Pipeliner users, who all require different approaches. Let’s first clearly define these different types.
Salespeople and the Regular User
The regular Pipeliner user is usually the salesperson, and sometimes some other specialized users such as accounts receivable. There are several ways the basic user can learn about Pipeliner—from training, from our YouTube videos, and the extensive help functionality available in the program. For a user to learn Pipeliner is a matter of hours instead of the days, weeks or months that other CRM applications require.
A crucial aspect that sets Pipeliner apart from any other CRM is the fact that users love it…and what you love, you use! This love is down to Pipeliner’s totally visual approach—in fact, Pipeliner is the most visual CRM in the world. In that the mind perceives pictures 60,000 times faster than words, this makes for a much faster operation as well. Because users happily and fully interact with Pipeliner, they enter complete data, and sales management actually gets the information they need from CRM.
Pipeliner has a clear, unified navigation system, also based on our totally visual approach. Our user interface is not only state-of-the-art but elegant, slick, and clean. The navigation system is the frame that holds and unifies the entire picture.
When needed, we support the user through chat, our Pipeliner community, our help support website, and the extensive help embedded in the program. These are all available through the “graduation cap” symbol in the program.
One necessary prerequisite to user training is the complete setup of the application within the user’s company. By setup, we mean full customization and all other things needed for Pipeliner to fully back up that particular organization. Otherwise, users won’t be training on the application, but simply on features without relating them to the user’s company and products.
When setup is correctly done, the user adoption rate is very high—again, unlike many other CRM products, especially the traditional enormous ones.
Advanced User
Also part of the user category is advanced users. These would include sales and other managers who oversee other users, and C-level executives. These generally need to have access to advanced reporting, insights, and statistics.
What sets the advanced users apart from the regular user is that they not only need to view their own data but data from other users as well. Therefore the advanced user will want to learn all about Pipeliner’s advanced filtering and profiling capabilities so that data can be rapidly viewed in the exact way they need to see it, and utilized within advanced reporting.
These advanced features are not complicated, and advanced users will require them.
Specialized roles might only need certain features, and we can target training for particular roles when required.
Administrators
We have two distinctly different types of administrators. The first is the one people would typically think of—the administrator who enables needed features to the product when requested, adds new users, provides user support and enables customized fields and other similar tasks. With traditional CRM applications, even these everyday administrative functions would require weeks or months of learning. It took us many years of programming, but we finally arrived at the point that regular Pipeliner administration can be learned by any computer-literate person within a couple of hours. That means that the “CRM expert” or consultant previously required for CRM administration is no longer needed.
Beyond that, this first type of administration is not a full-time job—it normally requires a few hours per month. This saves the company a whole extra salary for the “expert.”
The other type of administrator is what we will call the architect administrator. This role operates on more of a conceptual level of the organization’s business processes and should be someone who, right from the beginning, is assisting the company with streamlining processes. They continually find ways to create and streamline those processes within Pipeliner. As an example, the creation of a rollup field, and the different factors that would contribute to it. These functions would not only be created for sales—they could very well be anywhere else in the company.
This function could be likened to someone in a factory who creates new functions within the factory so that it functions more efficiently. They analyze the line and find ways to improve it and make it more effective.
Note that I’m not talking about programming—programming knowledge is not required for Pipeliner. We provide all the needed tools for an administrator. Our back-end administration, while consisting of a complete toolset, is simple to learn and operate.
As with the first type of administration, the architect administrator would also not necessarily be a full-time job. In fact, the two different types of administrators could even be one person, but they’re generally not.
In this series of articles, I’ll be going into the concepts behind these different types of administration, as well as units, roles, and other essential aspects from a conceptual approach. Stay with us!
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