Capture Ideas
If you are familiar with traditional CRMs, Ideas are a little like leads. But they do a whole lot more. Take a minute to understand how to make Ideas work for you.
How it works
Making a note of your idea can take just a few seconds and all you need to do is enter a short title, if you are really pushed for time. That’s it!
If you can spare a little longer then entering a couple of sentences to add context to the idea title can be worthwhile. And if it’s relevant then associating this idea to an organisation or contact might make sense too (you just pick these from a list so it’s fast…)
revisio360 can help you record a LOT of information, but you only need to record what makes senses and matters to you at that moment. Over time you can always fill in more if it becomes important, but remember this system is designed to be fast to use and to HELP you not be a burden which makes MORE work for you!
OK, let’s go through adding your first idea step by step. (You will need to know your registered login for this)
Step-by-step
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Login.
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From your Practice Management Screen click the Ideas Icon from the main navigation icons on the left hand side.
If you can’t remember what the icons do you can expand the menu any time using the Right Arrow at the bottom of the navigation panel
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If this is the very first object you are creating, then you are now probably looking at an empty table. Let’s change that…
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Click the New Idea button in the upper right corner
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This is the detail screen for Ideas and Introductions. You only need to enter the “Short Description” (which takes seconds), but if you have just a few minutes then there are a few pieces of extra context that might be helpful. First though type in a “Short Description”
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Next click on the Note Icon. This opens an editing window so you can easily type in some additional context and key points about your idea. When you have done that remember to click “Save Changes” in the lower right corner.
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If this idea is specific to an Organisation or Person that you work with, you can use either of the two drop down lists “Organization” or “Primary Contact” - but strictly optional.
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That’s it. For many Ideas and Introductions that is all you might decide to record at this stage. If the idea came from your network then selecting “Source” and “Introduced By” will help you ensure you can later see what is working for you and which relationships to nurture. If that feels worthwhile then go ahead.
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As you start to use revisio360 more to support your work, you will discover other fields that are useful to you.
Handy Tip: If you are curious about where and how to record additional information, check out the Glossary in this documentation.
- We are done with our first Idea, so click on the “Save Idea” button on the upper or lower right corners (it’s in both for you).
You will now be back at the Ideas Summary Table… which is nolongers blank.
Making a Proposal
A Proposal can be written, verbal or a pitch style presentation. What differentiates a Proposal from an Idea is that it always has an estimated revenue value and an estimated date when you hope to reach agreement with the client.
Proposals are a little like opportunities in traditional CRM. But rather than it being all about ‘closing the sale’, with Proposals we focus on co-ordinating people and materials to ensure you put forward the best offer that makes commercial sense for you and your client.
How it works
There are many useful attributes included in the Proposal object to help you shape your thoughts, but we will come back to them later. For now let’s focus on the fastest way to add your first Proposal.
Step-by-step
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Login.
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- From your Practice Management Screen click the Proposal Icon from the main navigation icons on the left hand side.
If you can’t remember what the icons do you can expand the menu any time using the Right Arrow at the bottom of the navigation panel
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As this is your first Proposal, you are now probably looking at an empty table. Let’s change that…
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Click the New Proposal button in the upper right corner
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This is the detail screen for Proposals. You need to enter the three attributes that define a Proposal: First give it a Title (Proposal Title). Secondly put in an Estimated Value (this an be a guess or aspiration). Finally add a provisional Agreement Date, again for now this is almost certainly likely to be wrong but it causes you to consider what might drive that date.
ProTip: Many other functions, for instance Resource Capacity Planning, flow from the Agreement Date. So even if this is a guess initially it is good practice to seek to understand the drivers and refine it in discussion with the client
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If you have a moment extra then feel free to also select the Organisation and Primary Contact.
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Before you finish the Proposal, you have the option of adding a free format note with anything you need to remember. Think of this as a pad of post it notes!
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We are done with the basics of a new Proposal so finally just click on Save Proposal
There are many more fields that might be relevant to you. You can either look through the Glossary or explore some of the other Use Cases for revisio360 to see which workflows resemble your Practice.
Make it happen
Capturing Ideas and Proposals is a great start, but on their own they are static collections of data. To bring then to life and importantly get things done we we need to take Action.
How it works
Activities or Actions in revisio360 can be similar to traditional CRM and simply be a prompt to make phone call or send an email. Or you can use them to describe internal, or personal, tasks like reviewing financials on a Proposal or to read some background documents relating to an Idea. The important point about Actions is that they are time bound.
You can receive a daily or weekly activity plan straight to your inbox. Visit your profile settings and make sure Task Reminders are set on in Notification settings
Step-by-step
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From the Navigation Bar go to Ideas & Introductions.
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Select the idea you want to work with. Simply click on it’s name
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On the right hand side of the screen you will see an empty Tasks Tray. Click on the Add button in the Tasks Tray
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You will now have a Quick Add Window so you can create an Activity associated with your Idea
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Give the Task a Title (keep this short and meaningful).
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Select What kind of Task this is
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And finally make sure you specific when you want to get it done by.
That’s it. If you are in a hurry and you simply want to make sure this is not forgotten and gets done, then that is all you need.
But if you would like, you could refine this further (but completely optional):
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Who do you want to assign this to? The default is you, but you can select anyone in your team that has an account in revisio360
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Priority is what you would expect, and is used to create prioritised lists in your reminders and in prompts throughout the system
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Organization can be any organization defined in the system. The Idea will already have an organization, but this activity might involve a different company (for instance a meeting with a business partner)
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Contact gives you the same degree of flexibility… but for people.
Being able to associate an Activity with different people and companies is very powerful, and this is how we start to build a picture of the network of people, processes and organisations that need to come together to get something done. Treating Tasks as simply make a call (as you might have done in your old CRM) really overlooks an important Platform feature
- Don’t forget to click on Create Task and you are done.
